Speech #550133246

But they are industrious economical. and moral. constituting today -the best laboring population of hawaii. The criminal statistics show that the percentage of offenses committed by Portuguese is less than that of any other nationality in Hawaii. As is the case in this country. the second generation. the children of the original immigrants. having all received publicschool education. all speak. read. and write in English are aprogressive. valuable element. making good citizens. mixing with and becomang part of.the general community. As to -the -Chinese. there is no fear:from those now there in case annexation takes place. Neither the Chinese nor Japanese are eligible to citizenship in Hawaii. They are aliens there as in the United States. and annexation will not change that status. They have no control in the Government -now and theywill not after annexation. As to their numbers. if the source of supply is shut off by prohbiting immigration. the number in.Hawaii will diminish. For example. a laxly enforced Chinese exclusion act was enacted in Hawaii in 1886. at which time there were approximately 21.000 inthe country. In 1801. only five years after the enactment. the number of Chinese in *the country had become reduced to less than 15.000. The Japanese also. tea somewhat lessdegreethan the Chinese. will return to their own country. Examples of the return of Japanese to Japan after arrival in Hawaii are shown by the immigration statistics of Hawaii. For instance. 676 men arrived from Japan February . 1885. On March31.1890. practically five yeaxs thereafter. 425 of them had returned to 3apan. I This was the first lot of immigrants. since then the percentage of returns has not been so great. A fair general estimate may be made that within five years after any given lot of Japanese arrive in Hawaii. onethird of them will have returned to Japan. and thereafter not less than 10 to 15 per cent will return each year. Johnsons point 7.-The supporters of annexation say that annexation does not necessarily imply that it is to become a State. "For this very.reason I antagonize it with all the more resolution." No territory should be annexed unless "in due course of events it will become entitled to membership in the Federal Union." (Paiagraph 21.) .