Honolulu Record, August 19, 1948, vol. 1 no. 2, p. 1

Majority Are Haole On New Draft Board; Community Leaders Aroused At Stainback Appointments

The veterans were indignant, labor unions were strongly in opposition and the average citizen raised his eyebrows as they read the list of the local draft board nominees in the newspapers this week.

Among the names of nominees sent to Washington by Governor Stainback the average citizen, though he looked high and low, discovered almost no "friends and neighbors" who were to constitute the draft board, in accordance with the suggestion of the new draft law.

Haole businessman dominate almost entirety the 13 draft boards of the territory.

Strong objections to the haole and employer weight of the draft board nominees were voiced this week by both AFL and CIO leaders.

Employer's Whos' [sic] Who

"These boards," said one AFL leader, "read like an employers' who's who, especially on the outside islands. Many of these men are not exactly friends or neighbors to the draftees they will select. They all live on the high hills."

"Where are the AJA vets on the boards?" asked one Iolani Palace politico who was not willing to have his name used. He thought the list might have been drawn up in entirety by officials of the Hawaii National Guard. Tentative findings of racial origin of the draft board appointees indicate approximately 88 per cent haole (including some Caucasian-Hawaiians), 6 per cent of Chinese and 5 per cent of Japanese ancestry. Of the 61 men, 54 are haoles, 4 Chinese and 3 Japanese.

Against this were Hawaii's racial population percentage's, estimated in 1946 as 33.4 per cent haole, 32.4 per cent Japanese, 10.5 per cent Filipino and 5.8 per cent Chinese. No persons of Filipino ancestry appear on the boards. Some boards for predominantly non-haole areas are entirely haole. The Wahiawa-Waialua area board, for example, contains: Albert A. Wilson, Elwood R. Craddock, George Kinney and Henry T. Hughes. The Kailua, Hawaii, board is made up of Francis J. Cushingham, George E. Cherry and Garnett B. Watson. The general businessman and Big Five slant of the boards is brought out sharply by the presence of two 1947 executive secretaries of Chamber of Commerce— Robert S. Moir (Hilo) and Franklin E. Skinner (Maui). A Non-Haole The one non-haole on the Lihue, Kauai, board is Harry Tom, manager of the Garden Isle Hotel and an appointee of the governor to the Kauai civil service commission. Mr. Moir is also a civil service commission appointee. Mr. Tom's colleague on the Kauai board is Andrew Gross, personnel manager of Lihue Plantation. Thrums' Annual lists the chief distinction of one kamaaina appointee, Herbert M. Dowsett, as "Commodore, Pearl Harbor Yacht Club."

Past Experience

Jack Kawano, veteran longshoreman and president of longshore local 136, expressed concern to this reporter over the possibility that the boards might conceivably be used unfairly to affect active union workers under 26 years of age. "It was only in 1944," he recalled, "that six longshoremen trying to start the organization of sugar workers on Maui were returned to Honolulu by the provost marshall and informed that their draft status would be changed at once." A local attorney commented that one member of the Lanai board.