34,436; in 1900, 29,834, a decrease of 4602 or 13.3% within the decade. To account for this it is said that the blood of the race has become poisoned by the introduction of foreign diseases. The women are much less numerous than the men; and the married ones have few children at the most; two out of three have none. Moreover, the mothers appear to have little maternal instinct and neglect their offspring. It is, however, thought by some that these causes are now diminishing in force, and that the “fittest” of the race may survive. The part-Hawaiians, the offspring of intermarriage between Hawaiian women and men of other races, increased from 3420 in 1878 to 6186 in 1890 and 7835 in 1900.
The pressing demand for labour created by the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 with the United States led to great changes in the population of the Hawaiian Islands. It became the policy of the government to assist immigrants from different countries. In 1877 arrangements were made for the importation of Immigration. Portuguese families from the Azores and Madeira, and during the next ten years about 7000 of these people were brought to the islands; in 1906–1907 there was a second immigration from the Azores and Madeira of 1325 people. In 1900 the total number of Portuguese in the islands, including those born there, was not far from 16,000, about 2400 of whom were employed in sugar plantations. They have shown themselves to be industrious, thrifty and law-abiding. In 1907 2201 Spanish immigrants from the sugar district about Malaga arrived in Hawaii, and about the same number of Portuguese immigrated in the same year. The Board of Immigration, using funds contributed by planters, was very active in its efforts to encourage the immigration of suitable labourers, but the general immigration law of 1907 prohibited the securing of such immigration through contributions from corporations. Persistent efforts have also been made to introduce Polynesian islanders, as being of a cognate race with the Hawaiians, but the results have been wholly unsatisfactory. About 2000, mainly from the Gilbert Islands, were brought in at the expense of the government between 1878 and 1884; but they did not give satisfaction either as labourers or as citizens, and most of them have been returned to their homes. There never existed any treaty or labour convention between Hawaii and China. In early days a limited number of Chinese settled in the islands, intermarried with the natives and by their industry and economy generally prospered. About 750 of them were naturalized under the monarchy. The first importation of Chinese labourers was in 1852. In 1878 the number of Chinese had risen to 5916. During the next few years there was such a steady influx of Chinese free immigrants that in the spring of 1881 the Hawaiian government sent a despatch to the governor of Hong Kong to stop this invasion. Again, in April 1883, it was suddenly renewed, and within twenty days five steamers arrived from Hong Kong bringing 2253 Chinese passengers, followed the next month by 1100 more, with the news that several thousand more were ready to embark. Accordingly, the Hawaiian government sent another despatch to the governor of Hong Kong, refusing to permit any further immigration of male Chinese from that port. Various regulations restricting Chinese immigration were enacted from time to time, until in 1886 the landing of any Chinese passenger without a passport was prohibited. The number of Chinese in the islands had then risen to 21,000. The consent of the Japanese government to the immigration of its subjects to Hawaii was obtained with difficulty in 1884, and in 1886 a labour convention was ratified. Subsequently the increase of the Japanese element in the population was rapid. It rose from 116 in 1884 to 12,360 in 1890 and 24,400 in 1896. Most of these were recruited from the lowest classes in Japan. Unlike the Chinese, they show no inclination to intermarry with the Hawaiians. The effect of making Hawaii a Territory of the United States was to put an end to all assisted immigration, of whatever race, and to exclude all Chinese labourers. No Chinese labourer is allowed to enter any other Territory of the Union from Hawaii; and the act of Congress of the 26th of February 1885, “to prohibit the importation and migration of foreigners and aliens under contract or agreement to perform labour in the United States, its Territories and the District of Columbia,” and the amending and supplementary acts, are extended to it. But in the treaty of 1894 between the United States and Japan there is nothing to limit the free immigration of Japanese; and several companies have been formed to promote it. The system of contract labour, which was abolished by the act of Congress in 1900, and under which labourers had been restrained from leaving their work before the end of the contract term, concerned few labourers except the Japanese. Various methods of co-operation or profit-sharing are in successful operation on some plantations.
An interesting sociological problem is raised by the presence of the large Asiatic element in the population. The Japanese and Koreans, and in less measure the Chinese, act as domestic servants, work under white contractors on irrigating ditches and reservoirs, do most of the plantation labour and compete successfully with whites and native islanders in all save skilled urban occupations, such as printing and the manufacture, of machinery. The “Yellow Peril” is considered less dangerous in Hawaii than formerly, although it was used as a political cry in the campaign for American annexation. No success met the apparently well-meaning efforts of the Central Japanese League which was organized in November and December 1903 to promote the observance of law and order by the Japanese in the islands, who assumed a too independent attitude and felt themselves free from governmental control whether Japanese or American; indeed, after the League had been in operation for a year or more, it almost seemed that it contributed to industrial disorders among the Japanese. At about the same time Japanese immigration to Hawaii fell off upon the opening of new fields for colonization by the Russo-Japanese War, and Korean immigration was promoted by employers on the islands. From the first of January 1903 to the 30th of June 1905 Japanese immigrants numbered 18,027; Koreans 7388 (four Koreans to every ten Japanese); but in the last twelve months of this same period there were 4733 Koreans to 5941 Japanese (eight Koreans to every ten Japanese). Another fact which is possibly contributing to the solution of the problem is that the Japanese are leaving the islands in large numbers as compared with the Koreans. The Japanese leaving Hawaii between the 14th of June 1900 and the 31st of December 1905 numbered 42,313, or 4284 more than the number of Japanese immigrants arriving during the same period. The corresponding figures for Koreans during the same period are as follows: number leaving between the 14th of June 1900 and the 31st of December 1905, 721, or 6673 less than the Korean immigrants for the same period. The acceleration of the departure of the Japanese is shown by the fact that in the eighteen months (July 1904 to January 1906) occurred 19,114 of the 42,313 departures in the sixty-six months from July 1900 to January 1906.[1] After 1906, owing to restrictions by the Japanese government, immigration to Hawaii greatly decreased. At the same time the number of departures was decreasing rapidly. The change in the character of the immigration of Japanese is shown by the fact that in the fiscal year 1906–1907 the ratio of female immigrants to males was as 1 to 8, in the fiscal year 1907–1908 it was as 1 to 2, and in the latter year, of 4593 births in the Territory, 2445 were Japanese.
Administration.—The Hawaiian Islands are governed under an Act of Congress, signed by the president on the 30th of April 1900, which first organized them as a Territory of the United States. The legislature, which meets biennially at Honolulu, consists of a Senate of 15 members holding office for four years, and a House of Representatives of 30 members holding office for two years. In order to vote for Representatives or Senators, the elector must be a male citizen of the United States who has attained the age of twenty-one years, has lived in the Territory not less than one year preceding, and is able to speak, read and write the English or Hawaiian language. No person is allowed to vote by reason of being in or attached to the army or navy. The executive power is vested in a governor, appointed by the president and holding office for four years. He must not be less than thirty-five years of age and must be a citizen of the Territory. The secretary of the Territory is appointed in like manner for a term of the same length. The governor appoints, by and with the consent of the Senate of the Territory, an attorney-general, treasurer, commissioner of public lands, commissioner of agriculture and forestry, superintendent of public works, superintendent of public instruction, commissioners of public instruction, auditor and deputy-auditor, surveyor, high sheriff, members of the board of health, board of prison inspectors, board of registration, inspectors of election, &c. All such officers are appointed for four years except the commissioners of public instruction and the members of the said
- ↑ Large numbers of Japanese immigrants have used the Hawaiian Islands merely as a means of gaining admission at the mainland ports of the United States. For, as the Japanese government would issue only a limited number of passports to the mainland but would quite readily grant passports to Honolulu, the latter were accepted, and after a short stay on some one of the islands the immigrants would depart on a “coastwise” voyage to some mainland port. The increasing numbers arriving by this means, however, provoked serious hostility in the Pacific coast states, especially in San Francisco, and to remedy the difficulty Congress inserted a clause in the general immigration act of the 20th of February 1907 which provides that whenever the president is satisfied that passports issued by any foreign government to any other country than the United States, or to any of its insular possessions, or to the Canal Zone, “are being used for the purpose of enabling the holders to come to the continental territory of the United States to the detriment of labour conditions therein,” he may refuse to admit them. This provision has been successful in reducing the number of Japanese coming to the mainland from Hawaii.
