While the rest of the world writhes and struggles, Hawaii forges ahead, using its best brains to further the means of international peace; and the Pan-Pacific Union grows apace. It is incorporated as an international body of trustees, the consuls in Honolulu from all Pacific lands are on its board of management, and the heads of all Pacific governments, from President Harding to the king of Siam, are among its officers and active workers. Among its branches may be named those in Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines; and the zeal of its members is steadily creating new branches. Its first official housing was in the University Club, in the room where Jack London first spoke to its nucleus. And in this room, on Balboa Day, 1917, Finn Haakon Frolich’s bust of Jack London, modeled from life in 1915, was unveiled; while at Waikiki, beneath the date palm that marks the site of our brown tent-cottage, a Jack London Memorial drinking-fountain is talked of. Although Alexander Hume Ford was the discoverer of this new Pacific, and founder of the movement whose name now rings from shore to shore around the Western Ocean, humbly he insists that without his friend’s help and moral support it would have been a longer, stronger pull to bring about the present situation. Which is:
That Honolulu, Oahu, Territory of Hawaii, at the very crossroads of the Pacific, has become what might be called the racial experiment station of the Western Hemisphere. In place of the weekly pan-race luncheons established years ago by Mr. Ford and Mr. Thurston, to further co-operation to the common weal of all countries represented, and that of the adoptive one Hawaii, now monthly dinners are attended by leaders of the Chinese, Japanese, and American races, twelve picked men from each, comprising editors, consuls, and other officials of the Territory. The discussions are understood not to be for publication, and therefore are of a freedom and frankness, to quote Lorrin A. Thurston, never before experienced. One triumphant consequence of this policy of uninterrupted conference was a settling, by the Japanese themselves, of the delicate and long-troublesome question of the Japanese language-schools in Hawaii. After one of these Pan-Pacific Union meetings, they drew up a bill which was introduced into the legislature and has become a law.
Another burning topic touched upon has been the treatment of citizens of Oriental parentage born under the Stars and Stripes, who are Americans. Wise adjustment of the relations among the many peoples whose territory margins the Pacific is a task for statesmen, nay, for seers. The attitude of the Union is that recognition of reciprocal rights and duties toward one’s alien neighbor, and a general desire on the part of the rank and file of different nationalities to live in harmony, will accomplish wonders. The Pan-Pacific Union and the Y. M. C. A. of Hawaii are fostering a movement to make the passport of an American worth one hundred per cent of its face value regardless of the slant of a man’s eyes or the color of his skin; to devise methods, by amendments of laws, regulations or instructions, as may be found expedient, and to make sure of enactment, of securing to American citizens of Oriental descent the same rights and privileges enjoyed by other citizens, and protect them, when traveling, from unreasonable technical delays and annoyances from officials, such as have been suffered by known characters, of proven loyalty and good business and social standing; to become familiar with our laws and those of other countries, for the purpose of enabling naturalized citizens of the United States, and those of American birth but foreign ancestry, to free themselves from the claims of the governments to whom they or their fathers owed allegiance, and establish their status as American citizens; to devise means to prevent the language press from aggravating racial antipathy, but rather to promote harmony and Americanization of aliens and citizens of alien descent; to organize evening schools for adults, for education in English, in Americanization, and general knowledge; to seek the remedying of living conditions in tenement houses, and improving of the surroundings of the rising generation in their individual homes; to create children’s playgrounds.
Aside from the humanitarian aspect of these intentions, to quote from a report of the Committee of Nine, of which Mr. Thurston is chairman, “public policy demands that we bind these citizens to us and encourage their loyalty and co-operation in the solution of the many puzzling problems that face us, for which task they are peculiarly fitted. They are not subjects for ‘Americanization,’ They are already American by birth, by law, by inclination, by sentiment, by residence, by service, by participation in the burdens and responsibilities incident to American citizenship.... Our fellow citizens of Oriental descent proved during the late war to be as loyal and patriotic in all respects as those of other race origin in service in the army, participation in Red Cross and other services and contributions. We then freely accepted their services and contributions and voluntarily recognized their loyalty to the government and their value to the community. To discriminate now against them in any manner, upon the sole ground of their race or their ancestors, is ungrateful, contrary to basic American principles of justice and fair play; humiliating alike to the subjects of the discrimination and to other American citizens who feel that American honor is thereby being impugned.”
But the Union branches out from this direct drive to promote a mutually beneficial inter-racial amity. There is, for instance, the Pan-Pacific Scientific Council, an outgrowth of the first conference in Honolulu in August, 1920. This was called by the Union, and made possible by Mr. A. H. Ford, who secured a territorial appropriation of $10,000, then a Congressional appropriation from Washington of $9,000, and, next, appropriations from Australia, New Zealand, and China. The Pan-Pacific conference headquarters, through the courtesy of Governor C. J. McCarthy, are the throne room and senate chamber of the Executive building, the Iolani Palace of the monarchy. Two or three times a year, Pan-Pacific conferences of some sort are held there.
These conferences, the resolute dream of Mr. Ford, have been materialized by the aid of Director Herbert E. Gregory, of the Bishop Museum, who, with a few co-workers, organized the Conference body, and sent out over a hundred invitations to prominent scientists and research institutions, for delegates to consider the desirability, and ways and means, for exploration of the Pacific area on lines of Anthropology, Biology, Botany, Entomology, Geography, Meteorology, Seismology and Volcanology, and allied subjects. Some of the main purposes of the Scientific Research Council are: To organize, create and conduct an institute of learning that will gather and disseminate information of a scientific character; acting for and co-operating with the Pan-Pacific Union in conducting its scientific conferences. To correspond with scientific bodies throughout the world, but more particularly with those interested in the solution of the scientific problems connected with the Pacific region. To co-operate at all times with the Union in obtaining from the legislature, and commercial bodies, as well as from individuals, appropriations and funds necessary for carrying on the scientific research approved by the Union.
The call to the first conference was responded to in person by ninety-six delegates, scientists all, hailing from the United States, British Columbia, Australia’s various provinces, China, Japan, England, Philippines, Samoa, New Zealand, Tahiti, and other remote quarters. Such scientific Conferences are to be followed by others. It is considered that the next gathering should be on a far broader basis than the first, which was but preliminary to the series the Pan-Pacific Union pledged itself to call. Each class of scientific men now desires a section under its direction—the agriculturists, the medical brothers, the entomologists, and so through the roster.
That the activities of the Pan-Pacific Union have not been hid under a bushel by her publicity agents, is seen by the fact that the state department, represented by Dr. P. P. Claxton, U. S. Commissioner of Education, awakening to the importance of Hawaii as the central information outpost at the crossroads of the Pacific, has co-operated with the Secretary of the Interior, Thomas Barton Payne, in preparing the program for a great Pan-Pacific Educators’ Congress at Honolulu in August, 1921, and issuing a summons thereto to more than a score of countries encircling the globe. The scope of interests for the attention of such a Pan-Pacific educational Congress are best indicated by certain tentative questions suggested by the state department, such as:
What are the outstanding educational problems of each country?
What should be the ideals of education in each country?