Hawaii (170 page)

The coup which Nyuk Tsin had engineered had one unexpected result. The Fort, after it had an opportunity to study exactly what Hong Kong Kee had accomplished by his revolutionary manipulations, concluded, in the words of Hoxworth Hale: "We could use a man like that on some of our boards," and everyone agreed that the man had a master intellect.

After one of the meetings of Whipple Oil Imports, Incorporated, Hoxworth asked his fellow board member, jokingly, "Hong Kong, now that the Gregory's deal is over, and nobody got too badly hurt, are you happy that you sneaked the outfit into Hawaii?"

"What do you mean?" Hong Kong asked.

"Well," Hoxworth pointed out amiably, for he was growing to like the clever Chinese whose business judgments usually proved sound, "Gregory's has been here for nearly five years. They've taken enormous sums out of the Territory, but what have they done for Hawaii?"

"Like what?" Hong Kong asked.

"Like museums, schools, libraries, medical foundations."

Hong Kong thought a while and said in apparent seriousness, "Every year the manager of Gregory's has his picture in the paper handing the community drive a check for three hundred dollars." Hale looked at his new friend in astonishment, and saw that Hong Kong was laughing. "They don't do very much for Hawaii," the Chinese admitted.

"And as the years go by, Hong Kong, you'll see that they do even less. You have a lot of Kees in Hawaii, Hong Kong. How many?"

"We figure that the old grandmother has over two hundred great-great-grandchildren, but not all of them are in Hawaii."

"Have you ever thought that each one of them will be cheated just a little bit if there are no new museums or orchestras? Put it the other way, doesn't everyone of your family who grows up here go to college on the mainland a little bit stronger because of what the old families did for the islands?"

"You're right!" Hong Kong agreed hastily. "And nobody expects Gregory's to copy you. But it looks to me, Hoxworth, as if we're entering a new age. We don't have to have handouts from above any longer. We pay good wages. We tax. We get the economy moving real fast. Everybody is better off. Even you."

"Have you ever heard of an art museum financed by taxation? Do you think the smart young Japanese who are coming up so fast will put aside one penny for a good university or an orchestra? Will a dozen Gregorys ever make a decent society?"

"Hoxworth, you're going to be surprised," Hong Kong assured him. "When we get a functioning democracy here, our boys are going to vote for museums, universities, medical clinics. And they'll tax their own people like hell to pay for them. Hawaii will be the paradise people used to talk about."

"I can't believe it," Hoxworth argued. "The good society is always the reflection of a few men who had the courage to do the right thing. It is never voted into being. It is never accomplished if it's left to the Gregory's of the world." But when they parted he said something that would have been totally unthinkable two years earlier: "By the way, Hong Kong, if you spot any smart young Japanese who are as intelligent as you are, let me know." "What do you have in mind?" Hong Kong asked. "You're doing so well on our boards we thought it might be a good idea . . ."

"It would be," Hong Kong said quickly. "If you pick up young Shigeo Sakagawa, you'll be getting a winner."

"Isn't he running for senator ... on the Democratic ticket?" "Yes."

"How could I take such a man onto our boards?" Hoxworth asked. "You won't find any good young Japanese running on the Republican ticket," Hong Kong said flatly.

"What are you, Hong Kong?" Hale asked. "When I was poor, I was a Democrat. Now that I have responsibilities, I'm a Republican. But I make my campaign contributions

THE GOLDEN MEN 857

only to smart young men like Shigeo .. . and they always seem to be Democrats."

"Let's talk about this again, after the election," Hoxworth said, and for the first time he started listening to Shigeo Sakagawa's campaign speeches. But as the campaign grew hotter, he heard Shig saying one night: "All over the world nations have had to fight for land reform. In England they accomplished it by the vote, and things went well. In France they had to have a bloody revolution, and all went badly. I have worked in Japan for General MacArthur, giving great landed estates to the peasants, and all the time I worked there I said to myself, 'I ought to be home in Hawaii, doing the same thing.' Because I knew what you know. Hawaii is generations behind the times. Our land is held by a few big families, and they lease it out to us in niggardly amounts as they see fit . . ."

"The youg fool's a communist," Hale snorted as he turned off the radio, and there was no more talk about inviting Shigeo Sakagawa to join The Fort.

AFTER the presidential elections in 1952, Congressman Clyde V. Carter of the Thirty-ninth District in Texas appointed himself a committee of one to investigate�for the fourteenth time� Hawaii's fitness for statehood. He reached Honolulu in mid-December bearing with him only three minor prejudices: he hated to the point of nausea anyone who wasn't a white man; he knew from experience that rich men were the saviors of the republic; and he loathed Republicans. Thus he was not completely happy in Hawaii, where rich men were invariably Republicans, and where sixty per cent of the people he met were obviously not Caucasian. In the first five minutes he decided: "This place must never be a state."

He was therefore surprised when the welcoming committee, consisting of Hoxworth Hale, Whipple Janders and Black Jim McLafferty, head of the Democratic Party in the isknds, gave florid but hard-hitting defenses of statehood. He was particularly impressed by what Hoxworth Hale cried over the loud-speaker: "We are an American community here, with American ideals, American standards of public behavior and a truly American system of education. Congressman Carter, we citizens of Hawaii want you to move among us as a brother. Stop anyone you see. Ask any questions you please. We are here to be inspected. We have no secrets." The crowd applauded.

Black Jim McLafferty was also impressive. He said in a flowing brogue, "Today we citizens of God's fairest group of islands welcome a distinguished congressman from the great State of Texas. We know, Congressman Carter, that our terrain, magnificent though it is, would be lost in the confines of your vast kingdom of Texas. I am reminded, sir, of a story I heard while serving with the air corps in England, when a loyal son of Texas, somewhat under the influence of Scotch, that wonderful beverage, shouted in a local pub, 'Why, Texas is so

858

HAWAII

big, you can get on a train at El Paso and travel all day and all night and all the next day and all the next night, and when you wake up the next morning, where are you? You're still in Texasl' And the Englishman replied, 'I know how it is, Jack. We got trains like that in England, too.'"

When the crowd chuckled, the congressman bowed graciously and raised his hand to Black Jim, whereupon the Democrat continued: "But what may surprise you about Hawaii, sir, is that although you have always heard that these islands are rock-ribbed Republican^ which is probably why you voted against statehood at the last two sessions, I want to tell you here and now that the islands are going to be Democratic, and even though my good friend Hoxworth Hale is doing his very damnedest to keep them Republican, I'm doing just the opposite to make them Democratic, so that when you finally admit us to the Union, sir, you will be able to boast to your constituents, 'I'm responsible for bringin' Hawaii into the Union, yassuh. Best Democratic state in America, after Texas.'"

This prospect so intrigued the congressman that he asked if he could meet with McLafferty, so the Irishman, never one to miss the pregnant moment, volunteered: "Ride into town with me, and we can talk." To the dismay of the welcoming committee, who had planned things rather differently, big, comfortable Congressman Carter settled down beside Bkck Jim as the latter steered his 1949 Pontiac�"Never drive a better car than fifty per cent of the people who have to vote for you," his father had decreed, and Black Jim had found it a good rule.

"Do the islands really want statehood?" Carter asked, glad to be in private with a practicing politician.

"Sir, you can believe this one fact. The islands want to be a state." "Why?" Carter asked. "We treat them real well in Congress." "I'm sure that's what George the Third said about the colonies. Tarliament treats them decently. Why do they want self-government?' That's why we fought the Revolution."

This marvelous bit of sophistry was quite lost on Carter, for as a boy he had lived along the Mexican border and the word revolution had no appeal to him whatever; were he able to repeal American history he would have done so, and the Thirteen Colonies would have gained their independence by the efforts of gentlemen in powdered wigs who made polite speeches. "What would you have under statehood that you now don't have?" he asked coldly.

"People usually answer that with some statement about taxation without representation, or the fact that under statehood we'd elect our own governor. But I have only one explanation, sir. If we were a state, we'd either elect or appoint our own judges."

"Don't you do so now?" Carter asked, for like most visitors to the islands, he knew nothing about them.

"Indeed we don't," Black Jim said with feeling. "They're appointed from Washington, and even when we have Democratic presidents, they usually appoint worn-out mainland Republicans."

THE GOLDEN MEN 859

"How does that hurt you?" asked Carter, who had once been a judge himself.

"We're a feudal society here . . ." McLafferty began, but again, he used the wrong word, for the South Texas which Carter represented was also feudal, and as he recalled his happy youth, he rather felt that this was one of the better patterns of life. As McLafferty droned on, the congressman reflected: "By God, under a benevolent feudalism you didn't have Mexicans trying to tell decent men/ . . ."

"So the one vital thing," McLafferty concluded, "is to have judges from the islands. Because in our peculiar society here in Hawaii, the judges decide all the things that really matter."

"What's so wrong about that?" Carter asked.

"Congressman!" Black Jim cried, as he dodged a truck. "Hey, youl Manuelol" he shouted at the Filipino. "You look good next time, maybe, eh?" And the little brown man yelled something back, happily, for that evening he would be able to tell his friends at the sugar plantation: "This afternoon I had a talk with Black Jim McLafferty." All the plantation hands knew him.

"What I was saying," the Irishman continued, "was that as long as judges from the mainland control the great trusts and the land laws, it's easy for the rich local Republicans to control the judges. Weti, not control them, because our judges have been reasonably honest men, legally speaking, but the rich Republicans get next to them, and court decisions usually follow their interests." The more Carter heard about Hawaii, the less need he saw for change. In Texas, too, society was subtly rigged so that rich Democrats stayed

fairly close to judges and legislators and got things their way. "Frankly," Carter thought, "what's wrong with that?"

He was therefore not too pleased with McLafferty�had him tagged as one of those radical northerners who call themselves Democrats�when the biggest blow of the day came. Black Jim had his offices on the ground floor of a building on Hotel Street, at the grubby edge of Chinatown, where Japanese and Filipino workmen were not afraid to visit him, and as he brought his car to the curb, Carter gasped: "Why these people are all slant-eyes."

"Almost half of the people in the islands are," McLafferty said offhandedly. "Some of the best citizens you ever saw. Only trouble I find is that most of the damned Chinese are Republicans. But I'm trying to change that."

"Can they be trusted?" Carter asked in honest fear.

"Maybe you better meet one of them," McLafferty laughed. "And there's no better one to meet than my partner . . ."

But Carter did not hear the words, for he saw to his astonishment that McLafferty, the head of the Democratic Party in Hawaii, had as his partner a Japanese: McLafferty and Sakagawa. And when Black Jim kicked open the door, the congressman saw, from the big poster inside, that this Japanese was running for office: "Sakagawa for Senator." And finally, beneath the poster he saw the

Japanese himself, a crisp, crew-cut young man. with polished manners and quiet deportment. Shigeo Sakagawa stuck out his hand and said, with a slight Boston accent, "Congressman Carter, we are proud indeed to welcome you to Hawaii."

The next moment was an agonizing one, for Shig's hand stayed out; the congressman, who had never before seen a Japanese face-to-face, simply could not take it. His jaw dropped as if he had been hit over the head by a falling oil derrick, and he stared at the fearsome, curious man before him. The expression on Shig's handsome face did not change as he lowered his hand. Belatedly Carter started to accept the greeting, moving his right hand slightly, but by then he saw that Shig had dropped his. Black-browed McLafferty, whom nothing fazed, said brightly, "Young Shig's going to be our first Democratic senator. He's going to win. the unexpired term in the Nineteenth District."

"Good luck," Carter said awkwardly. "We need Democrats." He backed out of the office into the street, where the passing Orientals frightened him as he had rarely been scared in his life. Then, with a sigh of profound relief, he saw the big black automobiles of Hoxworth Hale and Hewlett Janders swing into view on Hotel Street, and he ran up to the cars as if their occupants were his brothers.

"We'll go now," he gasped with relief. Quickly jumping in beside Hale, and feeling himself secure at last in the Cadillac, he waved professionally at McLafferty and called, "Best of luck in the campaign."

When the big black cars had moved away, Bkck Jim started laughing. Slapping his leg, he returned to his office and continued laughing. "Shig," he cried, "hold out your hand!" And as Shig did so, his partner gave a hilarious burlesque of an American congressman, the friend of the people, desperately afraid to touch one of the people. "Shig," he laughed, "there's one vote for statehood we better not count on. But don't you worry about it, son. Do you know why I hauled that fat-ass sonofabitch down here to our offices? Not to give him a pitch about statehood, because what he thinks concerns me not at all. Look at the crowds outside! They're impressed that a United States congressman came down to Hotel Street to see you. Now get out there and walk over to the mailbox, casually, and post something."