countries, for the benefits that would accrue from annexation."

If the Japanese and Chinese were sent from the islands, it is claimed that negroes could advantageously be procured from the Southern States to supply their places.

"The negro might cost a little more," said one of the planters, "but he is capable of doing more work, and the change would, in the long run, be profitable I am sure.'

Dr. C. T. Rodgers, the secretary of the labor bureau, in referring to the contract-labor system, says:

"As a great deal has been sought to be made out of our contract-labor system in the United States, it should be understood that even on sugar-plantations, for which the system was originally devised, and to which it is perhaps better adapted than to any other of our industries, less than one half of all the laborers are under contract, and the number and proportion of those not under contract are on the increase. The natural tendency of things is away from the contract system. The labor statistics presented at the meeting of the Planters' Labor and Supply Company last month showed that the Japanese were the only class of plantation laborers among whom the contract hands were in a majority. In every other class and nationality of plantation laborers the free preponderated over the contract laborers-in some cases largely."

As in all questions there are two sides, and as in all cases persons are partial to their own peculiar views, it becomes the duty of the American people and the

American Congress to examine both sides of the Hawaiian question carefully, impartially, and dispassionately; and if a closer political and commercial union will be profitable to both nations, and can be brought about peacefully, then there should be annexation. If, on the other hand, such a union should be productive of more evil than good to either country, then there should be no such union.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

ALOHA

It

FEBRUARY 1, 1896, the day of my departure from this delightful country, dawned bright and clear. Never did the Southern sky seem more blue, nor were the distant mountain peaks more clearly defined. was a day of joy and sadness. Joy that I was returning to loved ones far away, and sadness that I was separating from new friends, who, tho I had known them but a few months, had endeared themselves to me, and will always have a warm place in my heart.

Busy, bustling, yet lovely in her summer garb, Honolulu is a place one regrets to leave. The umbrageous shades of the palms, algarobas, and bananas invite the tourist to linger longer. The soft music of the ringdove above the subdued hum of the city was more plaintive and melancholy on this morning than it had ever been before. It was like the mournful sobbing of a well-beloved friend.

Again and again I had to unpack and change this and that, to make room for something that had been forgotten. It was high noon before I finally closed