Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 435, 19 April 1892 — Annexation a Cemparison. [ARTICLE]

Annexation a Cemparison.

Tkt vidi golf wkieh th* nmm, and npKiii* lyŪ* Hāwwkn fron the daii%ho Imw pmnd tht noA€|»o2t of kad »»d wtUr ia tb«

country, hae dividei us into iwona-! tions. Practiea)ly t tbis countrf is„ has beeo for the past ten years ai ieast.. annexed to the Planters Labor and Supply C*. An exami» nation of our Statutes will prove that all our legislation for that l>eriod is based on class distinctions and the result is a cooflict of mterests whieh is not promising to the peaee and good order of the eommonweaUh. Let us take two illūstratio&s in order to comimr& the eoeial and political statQft of the working clasM under the stars and stripee, and under the Hsiraiian fla«. Duriog the )ast five years «v«ry vestage uf the law relating to importing contract labor has been repealed in the United States, during the same p«riod in Hawaii, the ehaine binding the contract laborer has been drawn tighter, as witness the Fugitive Slave Act of ltioO, under whieh tbe ?actotus cargo of cooiies were let loose. Thecf again } | look at the conditioh of the poor in this couniry under the action of a Poliee Court judgment or a levyj for rerit. j Here everything even to tools, | ean be swept away bv the Bheriff; not even a bed would be left, for t'ne debtors chiidren to sleep on. How & different!v an unfortunate poor debtor is dealt with in California. His homestead to the vaiue of flve thousand dollars and his household furniture and tools of trade and horses and vehicles use«L in his business, are exempt from forced sale. We need not refer to tbe imbred determinat:on of the few monopolists here to whom tbis country is practically annexed, to fill it up with Chinese or any eheaper eooliee, until there shall not be standing room for a Hawaiian or Eoropean laborer. We would rather see our countrv j exist as an iudeperiient nation, and it eoujd be so elemen- j tary conditions of a well-ofdered state were present; but they are not.