Speech #730059562

By all the traditions of our country we should permit Hawaii the same thing. When you read the Declaration of Independence. you will find that Thomas Jefferson said that one of the reasons why they were at variance with King George III was because he was forcing his agents and officers upon the people of this country. Now. we are going to pick up somebody on the mainland and send him down there among the Asiatics of Hawaii. Filipinos. and Japanese. and say. "This man represents experience. he represents vision. he represents judgment." He has no knowledge whatsoever of all these racial antipathies and these cross currents that are constantly at work. and yet he is supposed. in a meritorious way. to administer the laws of this island. There is one other element. and that is this: I say to the members of the committee this afternoon that when this change is madeand the steam roller will workit will be exploited upon the streets of Tokyo and Yokohama. and the newspapers of Japan will be asking the question. "Why. after 33 years. does the Congress of the United States alter the Organic Act of Hawaii and send a Governor from the mainland? " The orientals will ponder on the reason for it and seek to reconcile it with the efforts being carried on in Europe at the present time to effect certain nonaggression pacts and to lay the foundation of peace and all that sort of thing.