Speech #560043772

T le governor shall nominate and. by and with the advice and consent of the senate of the Territory of Hawaii. appoint the chief justice and justices of thesupreme court. * * All snch officers shall hold * * * except the chief justice and justices of the supreme court. who shall hold office during good behavior. By secticn 43 of the bill recommended. as shown on page 29 of this report of the Hawaiian commission. it was provided that neither house should adjourn without the consent of the other for more than three days. and that if it did so the legislative acts of the other was the law. is if passed by both. "This provision does not seem tc have been included in the bills presented to Congress. The Repablican party refused to pass a law in the Fiftyfifth Congress ex eluding contract labor in the Hawaiian Islands. refused to ingraft it on their reported resolutions in this House. and defeated the amendment in the Senate. We have islands here where people for years have gone "like the galley slave. scourged to his dungeon." Jor not obeying the terms of a civil contract to labor for another. into which they were induced to enter by the cupidity of navigation corporations. and into which many were induced to enter by the false hopes andthe false representations held out for purpose3 of gain by plantation and mill owners. I On July 7.1898. the American flag was raised over the Hawaiian Islands amid the boomihg of cantons and the playing bf bands and while the children sang "The Star Spangled Banner. long may it wave oer the land of the free and the home of the brave." Near that place now menare imprisoned at Oahu forviolations of labor contracts. imprisoned with felons. wear stripes like robbers and thieves. are worked on the roads and in the quarries. and over the prison that entombs them is a flag floating that bears a picture of a bloodhound trailing. and this nearly two years after annexation. You might as well cease to ring the chimes of old liberty bell. for they do not feach your Territorythe Hawaiian Islands. . This stands for the lawthe labor lawof the islands. Where is the flag which should stand for law and order. for the Constitution. for the Declaration. for the law against slavery. for the law against contract labor? These people are slaves in form and in fact. their condition is a disgrace to American manhood afid American statesmanship. -Hearthe- condition that prevailed on July 27. 1891). more than a year after our flag floated over the islands. The Seattle Times has repeatedly denounced this practice. as have other influential papers on the Pacific coast.