of the first Lord of the British Admiralty. Cook was received by the Hawaiians as a god, and was supposed by them to be the reincarnation of their god Lono. With questionable taste Cook accepted the homage of the simple natives, together with its material advantages. Unfortunately, however, during the heat of a quarrel with the natives about the theft of a small boat, the divine qualities of Captain Cook were doubted by some of the savages, who heard him cry out for help, and they thereupon assaulted and killed him. His death was later deeply regretted, even by those who slew him, and they still continued to venerate his memory by preparing his body after the manner customary with kings and chiefs. At this time England was at war with the United States, and the British Admiralty for some time made no public mention of Cook's discovery. A few years later, the news having been spread abroad, trading vessels began to visit the islands, first to obtain supplies, and eventually to engage in important commercial transactions. Presently, owing to the vast development of the American whale fisheries, the islands became the rendezvous of all the whaling ships of the Pacific, so that at the height of this industry it was a matter of common occurrence for hundreds of whalers to make annual visits to the islands. The Hawaiians made good sailors, and before long it happened that they found their way on whaling ships to the seaports of Massachusetts. Here some of them attracted the attention of Christian organizations, and in 1819 the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions sent out to the islands the first of several bands of missionaries. The descendants of these New England missionaries are now in their fifth generation, and form some of the most important and worthy factors in the commonwealth of what we now know as the Territory of Hawaii. The original missionary society formally withdrew from this field of activity about the year 1865, but their good influence has continued to this day. American knowledge of the Hawaiians is purely traditional and rests upon the numerous songs, chants, or melés, as they are called. These melés told of the ancestry and achievements of the most important individuals, the chiefs and chieftainesses. Each child of a chief had his melé, which was chanted upon all important occasions during his lifetime and finally at his funeral. Through such traditional records it appears that the Hawaiians began successive migrations to their present abode from certain islands in the south seas, probably the Samoan and Society Islands, and that the first of these migrations may have taken place as long ago as 500 B. C. In tracing back Hawaiian history, Judge Abraham Fornander was able to account for more than seventy generations of these people, whose records, merging with those of other branches of the Polynesian peoples, appears to him to indicate that they had moved progressively from the high plains of India, in a southeasterly direction to the Malay Peninsula, subsequently migrating to the Island of Java and finally taking up their abode in the various islands of Polynesia. In Fornander's opinion, the Polynesians are related to the white people, having a common origin with them in the Aryan stock. This is, however, generally doubted by modern anthropologists and ethnologists, who are now engaged in an extensive investigation of the origin of the Hawaiian race, and who have decided that there were at least two definite types, Indonesian and Polynesian. The Polynesians, says Dr. Sutherland, may be an offshoot from the primitive Mongolian stem close to where the Caucasian stock arose. Whatever may have been their true origin, the fact remains that the Hawaiians were savages of a rather high grade of development, with well established customs and arts, indicating much progress in the path of civilization; and still they were living in a cultural period which may be designated as a stone age, for they possessed no weapons or implements of metal. It is peculiarly interesting that these people should have remained so long isolated from the rest of the world, so that when Cook came upon them at a comparatively recent date he enjoyed a picture of a barbaric race, not indeed in its earliest form, but nevertheless unchanged by contact with modern civilization. Their implements were fashioned from wood, stone, shells and bones. They possessed, indeed, one or two small pieces of iron of unknown and accidental origin, (possibly from wreckage cast upon their shores), but knew nothing of its origin. Yet they prized these fragments highly, for they appreciated some of the uses to which iron might be put and eagerly sought more of it when opportunity to obtain it was afforded them in the subsequent visits of trading ships. The islands were singularly lacking in animal life, for aside from birds and fishes, there were no important animals save dogs, hogs, chickens and mice. Rank and authority were duly respected in the persons of kings, chiefs and women leaders. They had a certain form of government, closely resembling that of feudalism, for the ownership of land were vested in the king, who alloted holdings to his people, as he chose, and they in turn owed him military service. Distinctions of rank were so much respected that marriage within the closest bounds of consanguinity was common, as was also the case with such otherwise enlightened people as the ancient Egyptians. In this wise it came about that those of highest rank, throughout the islands, were closely related in blood, notwithstanding the fact that they were rather widely separated by geographical limitations and hostile attitudes. One of their most peculiar customs or mores related to the so-called "tabu," an institution which was respected with the utmost fidelity. Many privileges of rank and sex were guarded by the tabu, thus men could eat certain kinds of food forbidden to women; women were never permitted to eat with men; the person of a man of tabu rank was held sacred, and the penalty of casting one's shadow upon the person of a king was death. Enforcement of the tabu was largely in (Continued on page 36) Shakespeare Memorial LL lovers of Shakespeare will be glad A to be reminded that they still have the opportunity to become Associate or Life Associate Members of the Memorial Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon, a tribute to the immortal bard. We give below Mary Anderson de Navarro's message to her friends in the United States: "Since the appeal went out to the English-speaking world for an Endowment Fund for the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon, England (his birthplace, the place where he lived, wrote, died, and is buried), a pressing invitation has reached me to undertake a tour in America for the purpose of raising funds for this object. "For reasons too many to recount here this is impossible, but my heart and soul are in the movement to make the great Memorial to Shakespeare, in whose works we claim an inexhaustible heritage, free from debt and sufficiently endowed to complete the work for which it was founded. "Thousands of my compatriots have visited the old world town that enshrines his dust, and where his Memorial stands, and countless thousands will make the pilgrimage in days yet to come. "This year is the tercentenary of the publication of the first folio of Shakespeare's works. On November 8, the anniversary of that publication, I want to be able to hand to the Governors of the Memorial a gift from the United States of America that will be worthy of us and a fitting tribute to the immortal Shakespeare. "There are only a few scores of American Associate Members of the Memorial Theatre, but there are thousands of true lovers of the poet who can give a dollar or more annually, and so become Associates, or $25.00 and become Life Associates. There are only four American Governors of the Memorial-I am proud to be one-but there are many lovers of Shakespeare who could give five hundred dollars or more to become Governors, and so help a school of acting to be found throughout the year, and the thousands of American visitors to Stratford-upon-Avon would thus at all times be able to see his plays performed within a stone's throw of his birthplace and tomb. "The American public has never failed me in the past, and surely they will respond when I appeal for so great a cause." An autograph copy of Mary Anderson de Navarro's portrait by Sargent will be sent to donors of $25.00 or more. Immigration--Asset or Liability? A By John Chetwood Ta recent session of the International Association of Public Employment Services, the Secretary of Labor indicated that unemployment had been cut to normal, and that about 5,000,000 men, idle one year ago, have found jobs once more. This situation is certainly reassuring as far as it goes, or rather as long as it lasts. But with ever-recurring strikes or lockouts and unstable political and economic conditions both at home and abroad, should we be in haste to assume the long continuance of returning prosperity, and consequently remove or lower the recently erected barriers to immigration? For such is our custom. We lower them in periods of prosperity and raise them slowly and awkwardly in periods of depression. For the latter always seem to take us by surprise, and the sudden lack of demand for labor is very disconcerting. Unpleasant as it may seem, the American labor problem is connected with the European one. The present revival of industry will not last in full measure after all home needs are met, unless there is more prosperity abroad and a growing demand for our surplus products. And the question remains, how may we effectually aid Europe, economically and industrially, in order also to help ourselves? The present laws restricting immigration have admitted defects, but on the whole have proved a great boon, especially to the 5,000,000 idle workers of but a few months ago. Should we not be very cautious how we open the gates to another swarm on the assumption that there is to be place-abiding place for all? At this lull, the first of the kind we have ever had in the torrent of immigration, it might be well to consider and if possible discard one or two curious and persistent fallacies that have clouded so much of immigration thought and debate. Some people have talked as if immigration was, instead of a privilege, a natural right. Rife for a long time were those hoary maxims of our being a "refuge for the nations" and an "asylum of the oppressed." Of late years conditions have changed so radically that the "asylum" theory, always untenable when applied to a nation, became an absurdity. But the idea lingers that heavy immigration is indispensable for material welfare. It is as a great economic factor in industry that immigration makes its most potent appeal, and has often been cited as at least a partial offset to the evils that sometimes follow in its train. Indeed, "What we owe to the immigrant" has formed the text, or underlying thought, of many a speech or article dealing with the great national problem. Well, what do we owe the immigrant since, say, 1830 A.D., when he first became noticeable as a problem? Also, what does he owe us? For it ought to be, though it never seems to be, obvious that we cannot strike a balance in the account till both questions are answered. We have often been told, and we very cheerfully concede, that for five and eighty or ninety years the new arrivals have carried the wood and hauled the water, felled the forest and bridged the stream, striven and thriven in business, science, the professions and public life, in short vastly aided in every way the development of the country. But meanwhile what has the country been doing for him? America, as Emerson said, is but another name for opportunity. In Europe our immigrant may have had ability, but he lacked opportunity; had it not been so we should never have seen him. In thousands of cases he does brilliantly, and in hundreds of thousands most creditably. Whenever this occurs the country benefits of course, but the individual concerned benefits still more. Abroad, conditions greatly hampered his progress; over here he succeeds in acquiring wealth or fame. The country owes him something, no doubt; sometimes it owes him much. But he owes everything to the country. In this much mooted matter there is another viewpoint, that of the supposed enormous economic gain through immigration from its additions to the popula tion. But this notion is largely erroneous, it would seem, though forming the basis, or a large part of the basis, of our entire immigration policy. Linked in fact with the debt theory just mentioned is this addition theory, and even more relied on is the latter to mitigate the force of the objections to past and present conditions. Yet it may be stated with fair exactness that the immigration of the past three-quarters of a century has not been an addition to the total population, but in effect a substitution, owing to the constant and increasing check it has put on the national birth rate. Francis A. Walker, noted census superintendent and trained statistician, pointed that years ago. As he broadly states it, "the opinion that immigration constituted a net reinforcement of our population was natural, and long held sway with absolute unanimity; yet no popular belief was ever more unfounded." out But In the Atlantic Monthly for June, 1896, Walker observes: "Space would not serve for the full statistical demonstration that immigration from 1830 to 1860 simply resulted in a displacement of native by foreign elements; but I believe it would be practical to demonstrate this to the satisfaction of every fairminded man. Let it suffice to state a few matters that are beyond controversy." He then proceeds to show that between 1790 and 1830, while immigration practically amounted to nothing, population increased enormously and "at a rate unparalleled in history." immigration now began to grow rapidly, and "the decline of the rate of increase among Americans began at this very same time, showing itself first and most in the very counties to which foreigners most largely entered. It proceeded in such a way for a long time as to absolutely offset the foreign arrivals, so that in 1860 our population differed by less than ten thousand from that which would have existed according to the previous rates of increase without reinforcement from abroad. This fact, which might be shown by tables and diagrams, constitutes a statistical demonstration such as is rarely attained in regard to the operation of any sociologic or economic force." Walker accounts for this ominous condition by pointing out that "all human history shows that the principle of population is intensively sensitive to social and economic changes. . . The arrival in the United States between 1830 and 1840, and thereafter increasingly, of large numbers of peasantry created for the first time in this country distinct social classes, and produced an alteration of economic relations that could not fail to powerfully affect population. "The appearance of vast numbers of men foreign in birth and often in lan guage, with a much poorer standard of living was exactly such a condition as any student of population would have expected to profoundly affect the growth of the native population." And in August, 1891, issue of the Forum, he remarks in this same connection: "The American shrank from the industrial competition thus thrust upon him. He was unwilling to himself engage in the lowest kind of day labor with these new elements in the population. He was even more unwilling to bring sons and daughters into the world to enter into that competition." "It has been said by some" (Atlantic article), "that during this time habits of luxury were entering to reduce both the disposition and the ability to increase among our own people. In some small degree, in some restricted localities, this undoubtedly was the case, but prior to 1860 there was no such general growth of luxury in the United States as is competent to account for the effect seen." Since 1860 the growth of luxury has of course been very marked. Still, not one in a hundred of our people can be said to live in luxury, and the failing birth rate is equally conspicuous among the other ninety-nine. A professor at Yale more than ten years ago pointed out that its effects are as noticeable in the middle class as in the class above the former being nearer the competing element-and as Walker says, "the great fact protrudes through all the history of our population that the more rapidly foreigners came into the United States the smaller was the rate of increase, not merely among the native population but throughout the population as a whole, including the foreigners." It does not seem needful to continue these quotations, partly because Walker's figures and reasoning are so clear, and partly because there have been till recent years no serious attempts to confute him, while he has many supporters, among them Sydney G. Fisher, and the census expert, Dana E. Durand, who refers to Walker's views in the report of the U. S. Industrial Welfare Commission for 1902 (vol. xv, page 277), saying, "It is a hasty assumption which holds that immigration during the nineteenth century increased the total population." Of late years the emphasis in treating such matters has shifted somewhat from statistics and sociology to eugenics and biology. In this field we had only a few months ago Prof. Henry Fairchild Osborn's warning words in his address to the International Eugenics Congress. *This most important, but of late rather neglected, subject has recently been taken up by the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco. And its Secretary, Mr. Earle Walcott, in the San Francisco Examiner of September 3, cites facts and figures that serve both to amplify and fortify the statements and conclusions of Walker. "We are slowly awakening," said Osborn, "to the conclusions that education and environment do not fundamentally alter racial values. In the matter of racial virtues my opinion is that from biological principles there is little promise in the melting pot theory. Put three races together, and you are as likely to unite the vices of all three as the virtues." Whether considering our debt to or need of immigration, there may be a seeming local need every now and then in some sections of the south or west. But that need cannot be deemed a pressing one at present. And our great centers of population are likely from time to time to be great reservoirs of labor, which could be drained to any section that might need it. Moreover, before long the increased birth rate, which we have seen must follow stopping or checking immigration, will soon make more labor available, both skilled and unskilled -all in accordance with natural law instead of the laws of excessive and unnatural competition. And now, to sum it all up, in trying to ascertain whether our debt is to or from the immigrant, let us ask: To our rough labor immigrant, either in the late or remote past, are we indebted to any considerable extent? However great our debt to immigration as a whole, or any particular part of it, has not the debt been fully paid as we have gone along? Is not the claim that we owe so much to the immigrant's work based on the assumption that such work would not have been done without him? Is not that claim largely unfounded and one that tends to confuse the whole issue? Is it not more probable that our real advantage has been derived from the best ten or twenty per cent of the immigration, and would it not be better to study how we may best select and admit only such percentage? Is it not rather absurd to talk of the twenty-five or thirty million additions to our population since 1830, when we mean twenty-five or thirty million substitutions? How much longer are we to add to our population on the theory that Europe breeds children more suitable for us than we can breed for ourselves? Is there any question, foreign or domestic, so vital and fundamental or so misunderstood and misstated as this same question of foreign immigration? Levy's Case Levy's case comes up in a New York court, but owing to pressing business he must leave very suddenly for Boston. He leaves word with his lawyer to wire him the result immediately. After the trial the lawyer wires: "Cause of righteousness victorious," whereupon Levy without delay wires back: "Appeal at once." Books and Writers THE BOZEMAN TRAIL HERE is a two-volume book from the Arthur H. Clark Company of Cleveland, Ohio, which has permanent historical value and is also more interesting than any novel that has dealt with the same period and characters. It gives us with truth and simplicity one of the greatest of all chapters in the adventurous western march of the pioneers of Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, California-of all in fact who came by the old Jim Bridger's Fort. There is hardly anything in the two volumes more delightful than the account of Jim Bridger and Sir George Gore, who hunted in the Rockies in 1854 and later. The latter built a fort, and Bridger spent much time there listening to him read from Shakespeare and other classics. The reader is given this: "Bridger did not seem impressed with Falstaff, declaring it 'wuz too hifalutin' fer him, and that 'that 'ere Fulstuff wuz too fond of lager beer.' To the tales of Baron Munchausen he only shook his head remarking, 'I'll be doggoned ef I kin swallow enything that 'ere baron sez; derned ef I don't believe he's a liar.' He further commented on them by remarking that some of his own adventures among the Blackfeet would read 'Jest as wonderful ef writ down in a book.' When Sir George read Scott's account of Waterloo, old Jim turned the tables by saying: 'Wal, now, Mr. Gore, that thar must hev been considerabul of a skrimmage, doggone my skin if it mustn't. Them 'ere Britishers must have fit better than they did down to New Horleens whar ol' Hickory gin 'em the forkedest sort o' chain lightnin' that perhaps you never did see in all yer born days.'" We hope that readers of Bozeman Trail can also manage to pick up a copy of Frederick Remington's "Pony Tracks," which Harper published in 1903. It has a great many of Remington's best cowboy and western illustrations, and covers much of the same region and same events described in "The Bozeman Trail." Some of its chapers are these: "The Sioux Outbreak in South Dakota," "Policking the Yellowstone," and "Lieutenant Casey's Last Scout." The two authors of the "The Bozeman Trail" are Miss Grace Raymond Habard of Laramie and E. A. Brinstool, the wellknown newspaper man of Los Angeles. It has been a highly successful case of collaboration, but evidently the bulk of the investigations were made by Miss Habard, who is one of the most distinguished educators, librarians and historians of America. She holds a Ph.D. degree, has practiced law, is Professor of Political Economy in the University of Wyoming and the author of five historical studies, one of which, "Sacajawea," is known to every student of the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1807 and is full of literary charm for the general reader. There is a fine swing in the book's dedication to "Scouts, Frontiersmen and Soldiers of the United States Army of the Plains Who Led the Van." The first chapter, which describes the Great Medicine Road of the Whites," carries the reader back to the Old Santa Fe Trail of the Traders of 1822-43. Students can refer to Josiah Gregg's two-volume book on "The Commerce of the Prairies." In this chapter are also glimpses of the Gila Trail, the "Old Spanish Trail" to Los Angeles, "The Oregon Trail," Fremont's route, the protests of Indian tribes against the coming of the whites. All these things are told vividly in thirtytwo pages. But even before reading the brilliant resumé in this first chapter, one should get the calm, reflective point of view of General Charles King, who writes the "Introduction." He tells us of days and deeds that no American should ever forget. Charles H. Shinn. Cohn in the Lunch Room Cohn orders a slice of chocolate cake in a lunch room but sends it back, canceling the order, and orders a piece of apple pie instead. He eats it, gets up and is about to leave when the waiter accosts him: "Say, you haven't paid for that pie yet!" "Vot," replies Cohn indignantly, "didn't I give you the chawclate cake for it?" "But you didn't pay for that either." "And why should I? Did I eat it?" Conrad the Connoisseur For the first time little Conrad goes to a concert with his mother. The soloist is rendering a subdued number and Conrad, pointing to the conductor with the baton, says in a clearly audible voice: "Mother, why is he always threatening her with that stick? "Hush, Conrad," comes the answer. Now the singer has reached a fortissimo passage and again Conrad chirps up: "Then why is she shouting so?" A Word to the Wise A bank director sends his manager to another city to attend a stockholder's meeting for him, asking him to inform him as soon as possible of the result of the meeting, as he has a heavy interest in the company. The next day the manager wires: "Sell out immediately." Upon his return the director greets him with the words: "I congratulate you. I sold my interest without delay and in that way avoided a heavy loss. But how did you ever manage to wire at 12 o'clock when the meeting only began at 12? Surely it must have lasted until 4." "Yes, it wasn't adjourned until 5. But I heard only the first word. The president opened the meeting with the word 'Unfortunately.' That was my cue. I didn't delay any longer. As soon as I heard that I hurried to the telegraph office and wired you." THREE BOOKS OF REAL MERIT The Vest Pocket Book-keeper A simple and concise method of Practical Bookkeeping with instructions for the correct keeping of books of account. How to take off a trial balance sheet and finally close and balance accounts. 160 pages, artistic leatherette. Price $1.00 postpaid. The Real Estate Educator The New Edition contains the Federal Farm Loan System. How to Appraise Property, How to Advertise Real Estate, How TO SELL REAL ESTATE, The Torrens System, Available U. S. Lands for Homesteads, The A B C's of Realty and other useful information. 208 pages, cloth. $2.00 postpaid. The Vest Pocket Lawyer This elegant work just published contains the kind of information most people want. You can know the lawwhat to do what to avoid. It is a daily guide a manual of reference for the business man-the law student-the justice of the peace-the notary public-the farmer-the clergymanthe merchant-the banker-the doctor. 360 pages printed on bible paper. Cloth $1.50. Postpaid. OVERLAND MONTHLY Phelan Building San Francisco California's Poet Laureate By H. N. P. TODAY By INA D. COOLBRITH Tomorrow is too far away. A bed of spice the garden is, The violets and anemones. Why should we wait to gather them? Their bloom and balm are ours today, Tomorrow-who can say? Tomorrow is too far away. Why should we slight the joy complete, The flower open at our feet? For us, today, the robin sings, His curved flight the swallow wings; For us the happy moments stay. Stay yet, nor leave us all too fleet! For life is sweet and youth is sweet, And love-Ah! love is sweet today, Tomorrow-who can say? The lovely, singing lyrics which came month by month over the signature of Ina Donna Coolbrith brought with them smiles and tears. Perhaps because of the poignant beauty of the lines, the tears came more often. There was an undertone of sadnessspringing from whatever cause-which touched the heart. And so they ran, number after number, during those years when Bret Harte attained his fame and brought fame to the Overland, and after. Hers was a name already favorably known in the East and in England, yet because of her love for the young State, she preferred to remain and write here rather than to alienate herself from that region which she held her own. And so, with Bret Harte, with Charles Warren Stoddard, Joaquin Miller, Edward Rowland Sill and others of that galaxy of the late sixties and early seventies, Ina Donna Coolbrith joined in making that period the truly golden era of California literature. She embodies today for the nation the romantic splendor of California's pioneer days in poetry and prose. She is in herself tradition and romance. Yet not tradition alone. One with the past, she is most vitally of the present. Her work grows in strength with the years, and in the form and feeling of her verse she keeps abreast of those progressive tendencies which retain sanity and poetic principle. Coming to us less frequently than before, her poems attain to heights in dignity and power almost unhinted-of in those earlier lyrics. She is known the world over as California's poet laureate. California loves her as its own singer; as the voice of the rounded hills and the sweeping winds. Ina Donna Coolbrith is California. EARLY HISTORY OF THE CITY OF VALLEJO to another. A rivalry sprang up among certain towns in the county. Vallejo against Suisun and Benicia against Fairfield. The capital of the state not only wandered from place to place, but the county seat as well. Benicia was originally the county seat and Vallejo the capital. Then, for some political cause or another, the state officials moved, and Benicia never forgave the affront. In 1853 a county seat convention was held, and through political influence Fairfield received the coveted prize. This was engineered by some of Fairfield's citizens giving land and erecting thereon a small court house. On this occasion Vallejo threw the weight of her influence with Fairfield and helped her secure the plum. In 1870 Vallejo tried to get back the county seat. Frisbie, Vallejo's son-inlaw, worked hard and spent the remnants of his fortune, but he failed in his efforts. Then Fairfield built a court house and this quieted the removal talk for all time. Among other things, Vallejo has the distinction of being the birthplace of the reform ballot in California, and of introducing the Australian ballot system to the state. After the establishment of the navy yard in Vallejo, politics became seething, and favors and patronage were dealt out among the faithful, if they voted right; if not-well, their job was missing, and they would have to look elsewhere for a meal ticket. It is said that election officials even went to the polls armed. In 1849 Sonoma was selected as the site for the headquarters of the United States Army, and Vallejo's home became the rendezvous of the officers stationed there. They were always sure of a royal welcome and an open-hearted hospitality. For several years prior to his death, Vallejo was Treasurer of the State Horticultural Society. He was also a member of the N. S. G. W., being that society's oldest representative. Vallejo's interest in his home town never wavered. He had vast plans for the ornamentation of the public parks, and generously offered the Mayor and Councilmen to share in the expense if they would help him carry through his plans, but the new generation was taking the place of the old; money was their slogan, and they had neither time nor care for the beautifying of parks, so his plans were never carried out. He did much improvement of the city on his own account. He was the first to set out vineyards and fruit trees, and the first to set out grapes for wine making on the (Continued on page 47) |