Breeders Claim Nine States Ban Australian Rabbit       [print]

Are imported Australian wild rabbits a threat to both the health of people of the Territory and to the growing rabbit-breeding industry?

Or are they merely a cheap food, desirable on the local market?

Robert Gain, president of the newly-formed Hawaiian Rabbit Breeders Association, feels they are a threat and he has presented his views to the Territorial Department of Health and to federal agencies. Nine states have already banned wild rabbits, Gain told the RECORD, and only recently he said, the port of New York stopped a shipment of 500,000 pounds.

Fever Danger?

"On the Mainland," Gain said, "they call those wild rabbits swill." Gain further points out that while wild rabbits are often subject to tularemia, or "rabbit fever," the disease is unknown among domestic rabbits. Tularemia is communicable to humans with results that arc often deadly.

It is partly because of the bad reputation of wild rabbits, Gain says, that local breeders oppose their sale here.

"They injure the reputation or other rabbit meat," Gain says, "because they don't make any distinction on the packages as to whether the meat is wild or domestic rabbit."

One Shipment Banned Although there is no inspection of the importation of rabbit meat as such, Inspector Y. S. Lee of the department of health said between 5,000 and 6,000 pounds of the Australian rabbits were barred from the Honolulu port in March of 1950. His office, which took the action. Mr. Lee said, called the meat "unfit for human consumption."

"They had evidently been skinned and butchered in the forest where they were shot," said Lee, "and their condition was such that we couldn't pass them."

A later shipment was cleared, however, Mr. Lee said, because it was in better condition, and it is that shipment which has appeared in local markets.

The price differential between the Australian importations and local domestic rabbits is, perhaps, what worries the breeders, here most. Australian rabbits retail here at a little more than 40 cents a pound, while local breeders feel they cannot take less than 60 cents and they have received, at times, almost 80.

Importer Stuck

Even at 40 cents, importer Ned Smith, who brought in the successful shipment, is still stuck with from 20 to 30 cases he still has on hand.

"No more will be shipped in," he says. "I'll have a hell of a time getting rid of these."

Presently, Mr. Smith said, he is trying to export the remaining rabbits to the West Coast.

"I guess people here just don't like foreign rabbits," he said sadly.

Breeders Organize

As for the Hawaiian Rabbit Breeders Association it will attempt a number of other projects intended to improve breeding methods and conditions here. Its officers include, beside President Gain, Michael Bell, vice president, Henry B. Kukona, secretary, and W. A. S. Branco, treasurer. Its membership numbers 36 now, only a few weeks after its first meeting.

Regulations for rabbit breeders at present are few, the RECORD learned, and mostly aimed at protecting the breeder's neighbors rather than the breeder or those who eat the rabbits. Ail breeders must have permits and the rabbit hutches must be off the ground and well wired to prevent the rabbits from escaping. Beyond that, there is little or no government supervision.

About 1,000 breeders have permits in the Territory the bureau of agriculture and forestry figures show, and most of these are on the outside islands.

Dr. Ernest H. Willers, territorial veterinarian, confirmed Gain's contention that tularemia is known only among wild rabbits, and he said that domestic rabbits are raised under conditions that prevent it. The disease has never occurred in the Territory to his knowledge.

By Eddie Ujimori

Maui—"I was so happy to learn that my son was alive through his letter that I could not sleep well for a few nights," Mrs. Umeru Kawamoto explained as she held Pfc. Larry Kawamoto's letter written to her from a prisoner of war camp somewhere in Korea or China.

Asked if she were sure the letter had been written by her son, the mother smiled and said: "My husband and I compared the handwriting in the letter with his other writings and we are positive it is from our son."

"Missing In Action" The parents, Mr. and Mrs. Teruo Kawamoto, had been informed by the War Department that their son Larry was missing in action on Nov. 27, 1950. Subsequently, a radio broadcast from Peking gave Pfc. Kawamoto's name in a list of prisoners of war.

This list was published in the China Monthly Review, an American-owned publication in Shanghai. The weekly National Guardian reprinted the list and the RECORD, seeing Kawamoto's name, carried a story on his status, as reported, and thus informed his parents. The War Department also informed Kawamoto's parents about that time that "propaganda" sources have mentioned their son is a prisoner of war.

Helped By American Magazine

The Kawamotos wrote to son Larry through the China Monthly Review, and on August 1, Larry's answer arrived through the "Chinese People's Committee for World Peace and Against American Aggression."

Editor John W. Powell of the Review wrote the Kawamotos June 27 that "There has recently been set up in Peking a voluntary committee to handle mail both to and from the prisoners of war. We suggest that you write to your son in care of this committee, which is called Committee To Defend World Peace, Peking, China."

Sgt. Chris Faria of the vice squad was back on duty only a half-day after a Mainland vacation of several months when, according to Chinatown sources, he resumed his feud with Reginald Mun, who has already filed suit against him for the alleged theft of keys last March.

About 1:15 p. m. Monday, according to Mun and Ha Oong, an employe of his, Sgt. Faria and other members of the vice squad entered a flat owned by Mun at 137 N. Pauahi St. and demanded entry into a part of the flat that was locked up.

"I told him boss no stay," said 74-year-old Ha Oong. "He went to the door and opened it and went in."

Ha Oong was of the opinion that Paria used either a key or a knife to open the door. Officer Sam Liu of the vice squad, later confirmed at the police station that Faria had used a knife.

After a tour of Mun's premises which revealed nothing that brought further action, Faria and his detachment left and Ha Oong went to find his boss.

When Mun heard what had happened, he approached Faria, who was shooting pool in the hall below, and asked the reason for the search. The officer gave him no answer except: "Tell it to the judge," Mun says, so he took his complaint to police headquarters.

"It is illegal entry and trespassing of course," said Mun, "but I would rather not make a charge. I would rather make a complaint to the police and see if they do anything first."

With his lawyer and Ha Oong, Mun visited Chief Dan Liu Tuesday to make complaint in detail.

Bars Faria

"I told the chief," Mun said, "that I could be contacted easily and that I will open my premises 365 days in the year to any officer who asks me, except Chris Faria. I will not allow Faria on my premises. I said this is 1951, not 1943 or '44."

When Chief Liu chided him gently for alleged gambling in the past, Mun says he answered: "Chief, you gamble sometimes." The chief straightened up at that and Mun explained: "You gamble every time you fly to the Mainland. You gamble your life."

Mun's suit against Faria, emanating from an incident last March when Mun and another witness allege Faria took a ring of keys from his door, is due to be heard in court August 27. Faria denies that he took the keys.

Knife or Key?

Monday's affair took on added significance to Mun after he had visited Chief Liu when, he says, he returned to his flat and tried to open the door with a knife.

"You just can't open it with a knife," says Mun. "I wonder if he didn't have a key, after all."

He did not, as reported by the Advertiser Wednesday, August 1, suffer contusions and a concussion when "he hit the pavement in his haste to escape" from police, says David Rudolph Hale, 19, presently in the C-C jail charged with automobile theft.

Instead, says Hale, "I didn't try to get out of the car at all. One of the policemen pulled me out and hit me with a blackjack. I went out and I didn't know anything more till I woke up in Queen's Hospital." The officer must also have kicked him in the ribs, Hale believes, because of a sore spot in that area.

Witnesses to the arrest of the youth after a reported 60-mile automobile phase were worried about the boy's condition after they saw him beaten at the time of his arrest and they were incensed when they read the Advertiser's report the next day to the effect that his injuries were received from a fall to the pavement.

Hospital X-Rayed Head

Also alarmed, apparently, were medical authorities at Queen's for they X-rayed his head.

"They didn't let me see the X-ray picture," says the boy's mother, who lives at Cottage 39, Lanakila Housing, "but they told me I owed $35 for treatment he got in the hospital. I just told them I didn't have the money." Although the arrest was made by Officers Henry Konn and A. Aiona, Hale could not identify by name the one who struck him. Both he and witnesses to the arrest felt they could identify the officer by sight, however.

The arrest came, according to police, after Hale had been apprehended on a charge of parole violation, escaped, and was again allegedly spotted in a stolen car by Officer Konn, who gave chase. Officer Aiona was supposed to have joined the chase later and the second arrest and the beating came when the fugitive's car stalled at 19th and Waialae.

The young man's claim that he did not attempt to resist arrest seems borne out, observers say, by the police report to the newspapers and to Queen's Hospital that he was injured in a fall.

"If he'd really resisted," said one, "the police would have said so and maintained they used the force necessary to subdue him. It's an old gag for them to say he fell down and hurt himself."

By Staff Writer

As weeks pass by and Paul K Keppeler continues in the post of C-C controller operating in a de facto fashion without being re-appointed, City Hall talk indicates more and more definitely that he will not be reappointed at all. The latest rumor is that he may even be succeeded by Auditor Leonard Fong, his old opponent in many interdepartmental jousts. It is known that a number of Mr. Fong's friends have been working toward that end, and it is also known that Mayor John Wilson has not dismissed the possibility. ' A number of elements make some Democrats think the appointment would not only be a fortunate one so far as the job is concerned, but also a profitable one for the Democratic party.

• Few, if any capable candidates among the Democrats are available for the office, they point out. Mr. Fong's experience, ability and courage are well known.

• The appointment of Fong would automatically bring to the Democrats the support of a large personal following, much of which would be drawn from the GOP ranks.

• Mayor Wilson has learned from the Glover case that he can work with Fong and that, as individuals, the two have much in common. 0 If the mayor's health continues as good as it is at present, he will most certainly run again, in which case he would welcome Fong's support, as would the entire Democratic ticket.

But if Fong were appointed to the controller's job, who would replace him as auditor? Best prospect at the moment for that vacancy would be neither Richard B. Goeas or Herman Lemke, Democratic candidates in the last election, but perhaps William Jarrett, now in the Territorial tax office, who ran against Fong four years ago.

Anyhow, that's the talk around City Hall.

Joseph J. Iseke's long standing bill of $15.70 from the C-C Division of Refuse Disposal is one of the minor mysteries of City Hall. Mr. Iseke has said repeatedly he won't pay it, though he has been getting quarterly statements since 1948. If the Division of Refuse Disposal and its superintendent, Llewellyn "Sonny" Hart, wants to take the bill into court to try to collect it, Mr. Iseke will be only too pleased. "I am a taxpayer and a property owner," Iseke says, "and I expect to pay my government its due. I want to pay what I should. So why doesn't Sonny Hart take action?"

Was $30 Once

Several years ago, when the bill was young and its amount was in the neighborhood of $30, Mr. Hart did take action to the extent of forwarding it to C-C Auditor Leonard Fong, according to the procedure with unpaid bills.

Together with his tenants, Iseke, who rents out three small dwellings near his own home at 922 Hala Drive, visited Mr. Fong and stated his case. Put briefly, the case was that Iseke felt he was the victim of an outrageous overcharge.

After he had heard it, Fong took the bill and visited Hart's office to return a little later with the amount knocked down to $15.70.

"Now," Iseke told the auditor, "if I can talk to you and get it down to $15, there must be someone I can talk to who will bring it down to nothing. Who do I talk to to get free garbage?" The trouble started a number of years ago when a garbage inspector named Torres visited the Isekes to tell them they would save money by changing the listing of their own cottage and three others they rent to that of a "court." At that time, the charge on each cottage was $1 for garbage collection.

Mrs. Iseke Hesitated

Mrs. Angeline Iseke, who received the call, says, "Torres said ii would cost only fifty cents per house if we signed to have it called a court. I hesitated for a long time."

At length Mrs. Iseke says, she was persuaded by Torres and by her children, who thought it sounded like a saving in money. But garbage collectors who have visited since - say that listing was incorrect, since the houses are on separate lots and do not comprise a "court."

They say the "court" listing is responsible for the $30 and $15.70 bills which must have been based on some estimate of cubic feet of garbage involved.

This observation, however, did not arise until the garbage collection costs began to mount so alarmingly that the tenants began to complain. Finally, when the bill got to $30, Iseke and some of his tenants visited City Hall and the result was the aforementioned transaction, with Auditor Fong acting as intermediary.

When Mrs. Iseke visited Superintendent Hart to protest the "court" classification, she says, "He was kind of nasty."

Also, the Isekes say Hart told them he had never authorized the visit from Torres, or the fifty cents a month information. "Now can you imagine," Iseke asks, "an inspector coming around trying to get a listing changed unless someone had told him to do it?" Further, the Isekes have protested the practice which required them to collect the garbage fee from their tenants.

Let City Collect Own Bills

"Why should I do the collecting for the city?" asks Iseke. "Why shouldn't the tenants pay their own garbage bills just as they pay water and light bills? Why should I have to pay gross income tax on money I collect for the city? I asked Hart that, and he told me I wasn't running the department. I told him the Hart Estate isn't running it, either."

Since then, the Isekes have solved their own garbage problem by ignoring Hart's department and hauling their garbage to a dump near Hauula which Iseke owns and which (see RECORD July 5) Hart has also condemned to the Board of Supervisors.

But they still get the old bill every quarter.

"Three garbage inspectors have come to look over the situation," says Iseke, "and none of them ever came back."

One inspector came in Mr. Iseke's absenee and told his daughters that if the Iseke's were caught putting garbage in their tenants' pails, they would be charged.

"The girls told him to get off the place," says Mr. Iseke. "Of course we don't do anything like that. I wish I had been there when he came."

Leonard Fong remembers the incident of the bill, but he says that it has never been forwarded to his office again—as unpaid bills are supposed to be.

"My books show nothing," says Mr. Fong, adding that so far as he's concerned, the matter is closed.

But the Iseke's expect that in October they'll get another bill for $15.70, which they'll add to the file that's been growing since 1948. They won't pay it and they don't think "Sonny" Hart will take it to court, either.

Chairman John M. Asing of the C-C public works committee, is inclined to sympathize with Mr. and Mrs. William Hollinger, 6157 Makaniolu Place, who have filed suit against the city and county for $18,534, alleging that this amount of damage has been done their home by floods which might have been prevented had the government provided an adequate flood drainage system.

What's more there may be additional damage to the Hollinger and other properties in the area. Asing admits, if the Department of Public Welfare doesn't hurry and process welfare clients to be assigned to public works under a new law. An appropriation of $28,000 arid the assignment of a number of welfare clients to the project have already been approved by the board of supervisors.

"But if the Hollingers can collect on their suit," Mr. Asing asks, "what's to stop everyone who ever suffered flood damage from suing the city and county?"

The present project entails the enlarging of the channel of the stream at Kuliouou but the Hollingers and others believe the C-C engineering department made a mistake by diverting some of the water from the Kuliouou valley to a stream near their home.

Complete System Sought

Numbers of Kuliouou residents have appeared in the past to ask that a complete drainage system be installed by the city and county, but there are differences as to how the costs shall be paid. Those immediately affected are willing to share the cost on the usual one-third, two-thirds basis with the city and county. Others, presently out of the reach of flood waters, are unwilling to share in the expense at all.

George K. Houghtailing of the planning commission, says there is no money and no staff for the project at present in any case, and the matter is in the hands of the board's department of public works, headed by Asing.

The immediate fear of Kuliouou residents is that even the temporary project may be delayed by governmental red tape until November when heavy rains swell the streams and waterfalls nearby and flood waters are again playing havoc with property in the area.

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Moral Bankruptcy: At West Point and Washington

The week William Boyle. Democratic national chairman, said he would not quit his position, following the expose of his tie-up to a $565,000 RFC loan to a St. Louis printing concern, the West Point scandal made bigger news.

Americans who had high regard for West Point, as a select school, tasted something awfully bad in their mouths.

But one of the most interesting developments of the exam-cheating scandal was the acceptance of the practice as not so bad or too serious a matter. The U. S. seemed to hit a new low in moral bankruptcy with colleges quickly making offers to the football players among those implicated for cheating in examinations. Ninety were first named and 29 more were named a few days later.

Congressmen, some of whom had appointed the West Pointers who are alleged to have cheated, protested that expulsion is too severe a punishment. Mothers of some students appealed to the President not to have their sons expelled.

Last year's basketball scandals in several states, when students played for gamblers' stakes, looked like peanuts, and even "not so bad" beside cheating by the future generals of the U. S. Army.

And just before the West Point scandal broke, a general was fired for accepting favors from war industry representatives and using army materials and manpower for the construction of his pleasure boat.

Said Brig. Gen. David J. Crawford: "I did nothing anybody else wouldn't have done, only somebody else caught me at it."

This kind of talk indicated that Crawford thought there was nothing wrong in accepting a "free suite at the Congressional Hotel in Washington from a firm doing business with the Detroit tank center which Crawford headed, and a keel for his boat from a steel company doing business with the government." And this kind of talk also indicated that there were many more like Crawford.

Mink coats, deep freezes, billions in tax amortization—which actually is a big steal—to industry during the past months all showed how badly morals were shot up in the U. S.

President Elpidio Quirino wasn't far off when he said corruption in the Philippines was peanuts compared to what went on in the U. S. But because the U. S. was offended by the remark, Quirino had to fire his secretary who was blamed for the disparaging statement.

Korea: Tungsten, Cheap Labor Are Objectives

Before the outbreak of the Korean war, skirmishing took place across the border week after week, and at that time Harold Lady. U. S. economic adviser to Syngman Rhee, told the Chicago Daily News:

"People overlook one of Korea's greatest assets. It has the cheapest labor force in the world. If I have anything to say about it, it's going to stay that way."

For U. S. financiers and big industrialists Korea has more than the "cheapest labor force in the world." It has rich tungsten deposits and as Drew Pearson reported this week, the reason for General Ridgway's wanting to hang on to the UN line north of the 38th parallel is to occupy and exploit the resources. Already the U. S. has shipped equipment to mine the tungsten.

The area north of the 38th parallel occupied by Gen. Ridgway's forces has untapped tungsten deposits, and Sangdon. about 60 miles below the parallel, is the site of the largest tungsten mine, according to Pearson, in the "free world." Tungsten is necessary, Pearson said, for armor-piercing shells, atomic energy and jet engines.

China is a great supplier of tungsten, but with the U.S.-enforced embargo on China trade, the U. S. and her allies are not getting the strategic material.

Rhee: Koreans Will Do The Killing and Dying

With cease-fire talks broken off, the person most pleased was Syngman Rhee, who as recently as June told Frank King of the Associated Press:

"There can be no settlement by negotiations . . . give us arms, training and air cover from your planes and Koreans will do the killing and dying."

Syngman Rhee was talking like Chiang Kai-shek, whose regime was corrupt and tottering when he begged for arms from the U. S. and got them. To thinking Asians and people of the Middle East, the picture they saw was altogether different from that seen by rulers depending on Western nations to stay in power.

Wrote Ali Hassan in the National Guardian June 27, 1951: "To anyone born anywhere from Casablanca to Dairen," the Korean action of the UN is "another imperialist adventure of the Occident against an Oriental nation, with Oriental people as guinea pigs for the weapons of future wars. Napalm bombs are being dropped on Koreans just as the atom bomb was tried out on the Japanese but not on the main European enemies of World War II —the Germans."

Several millions have died in Korea, the great majority civilians, and more millions are refugees. The extent of U. S. air bombardment was told to the Senate by Gen. O'Donnel, U. S. Air Force commander, who said 123,000 tons of bombs had been dropped by U. S. planes in Korea, compared to 160,000 in one year's bombing of Japan. Said the general: "The whole Korean peninsula is a mess; there is nothing left standing."

Death came not only from war. Many are dying of starvation and the most startling information—not reported in the local dailies—is the merciless killing off of draftees by corruption and graft in the Rhee regime.

The New York Times reported June 13 this year: "More than 50,000 South Korean draftees have died of starvation or disease in training camps since last December, the chairman of an investigating committee said today.

"Suh Min Ho, chairman of the Korean Internal Affairs and Security Committee, also said that several hundred thousand soldiers had deserted, rather than face death in the camps. He said 80 per cent of the 350,000 survivors were physical wrecks, incapable of labor. The committee chairman said his investigation had uncovered mass deaths and indescribable suffering caused by the profiteering of corrupt officers of the Korean National Guard. Suh Min Ho said that more than $2,000,000 of the (U. S.) appropriation made to the Guard for training draftees is missing. Brig. Gen. Kim Yoon Keun and a member of his staff have been imprisoned and will be tried for malfeasance in office.

"The committee had substantiated the details of a 'death march' of 300 miles which the draftees had been forced to make last December. About 300,000 had deserted or died along the way."

Rhee, a leader of the "free nations," was no better than Chiang. "Koreans will do the killing and dying," he said, but from accounts in the New York Times, not on the battlefronts. Like Chiang's outfit, guns and supplies would be used to line the pockets of corrupt officials.

The Canadian Far Eastern Newsletter, June-July 1951, edited by James Endicott, former missionary to China, called the supporting of the Rhee government "merciless backing of a cruel regime."

The newsletter quoted Bob Klonsky, former editor of the Korea Graphic (official U. S. Army publication): "I personally saw the prison cells built in the basement of Rhee's palatial home. With the full knowledge of American Military Government officials he kept kidnaped trade union leaders in these cells and held them for ransom. to finance his terror organization."

Honolulu's plumbing trade was tied up for more than three months in 1901 by a strike of practically all the journeymen plumbers and many apprentices. The strikers demanded $6 a day instead of the $5 they were getting, but the strike was settled for a rate of $5.50.

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Strange Bedfellows Department: At the last Democratic County Committee meeting, a former longshoreman was in close attendance to Roy Higa, undercover policeman, apparently helping Higa familiarize himself with personnel present. Higa is the same cop who got the assignment of photographing union men and union sympathizers in front of Pier 11 during the longshore strike and whose pictures were "evidence" in the case of the fight at the scab company, Hawaii Stevedores. After Higa paid one incognito visit to the union hall during the strike, longshoremen say, he was informed that his presence was not especially welcome and he did not return.

* *

Dave Benz, OF the Democratic Central Committee, shocked Mrs. Lehua Kempa and other members of the Democratic Women's Division when she tried to sell him a ticket for Saturday night's picnic at Ala Moana Park.

"What women's division?" asked Benz.

The shock came, you see, because Benz has in the past, come to the Women's Division for help. He knows who they are all right, and now they feel they know pretty well who he is.

* *

Who, asks a prominent Democrat, could be paying Willard "Honey" Kalima's expenses to the outer islands on political junkets? Are the trips part of the largesse accruing to the forces with which the young man now allies himself?

"He looked like one of our most promising young Hawaiian politicians," said one who has watched his career closely. "Now I'm afraid he's going to be left out in the cold by the people he's trusting."

* *

When "Slim" Kawahara, former longshoreman and member of the Demo County Committee, tried to approach "Blackie" Nagamine in the Chung-Hoon Pharmacy after Thursday night's meeting and cut up old touches, he got an exceedingly forceful brushoff. Kawahara had come in company with Judge Chuck Mau, Jack Burns, Dr. Ernest Murai—and Jack Kawano. Nagamine, a longshore foreman, formerly Kawano's boss, left no doubt as to what he thought of the anti-union turn taken by the quintet currently.

* *

Ed Herman'sreappearance in the news recalls the talk that he was the ghost-writer, for Ichiro Izuka's anti-ILWU "expose." There is talk, too, that many of Jack Kawano's statements have been "ghosted," not, by Berman or any other lawyer, but by a publicity man, prominent in one of the Democratic factions.

John Akau should be just as happy the last Demo County Committee meeting adjourned quickly. One committeeman had expressed the intention beforehand of challenging his fitness for secretary on the ground that he had never adequately explained how his 4th and 5th District Democrat Clubs managed to spend so much money for beans year before last, so that the dinner showed little profit, if any. The costs of catering and food were listed by Akau as over $1,000 and Rep. Kido was a witness to the fact that Akau's people had got a check of some $500 for beans alone, which provided the piece de resistance. For 19 cents you can get enough beans to feed a small family for two days.

* *

Arhtur K. Trask made what some called "the best speech of his life" at the Demo County Committee meeting. To others, he was merely opening his next campaign for the senate. This time he was batting for "Pete" Petrowski to sit as a member of the committee. During the last campaign, he attacked Petrowski for what he felt was bad taste when "Pete" used colorful terms to describe certain GOP opponents.

* *

Glowing reports to the contrary, the unity tours of Gov. Long, Kauhane, Fasi and others have not been met by Democrats on Maui and Kauai with unanimous enthusiasm. On Kauai, for instance, a prominent Democrat got irritated at Fasi's advice on unifying Democrats.

"If you can't unify your own Democrats on Oahu," he said in substance, "why do you think you can tell us how to unify here?"

* *

Would-be bedfellows of anyone who might help them attain their end, there were those of the Kauhane-Akau faction who spent some time prior to the last county committee meeting courting left-wingers in an effort to win their support in an effort to unseat Chairman Jack Burns. Their idea seemed to be that left-wingers would be angered by Burns' part in the Kawano "confession" enough to act in anger against him. Most left-wingers, however, gave their overtures a cool reception.

Democratic factions at the County Committee meeting August 2 gave little evidence of following the advice Mayor John Wilson had for them and all Democrats which he gave to the RECORD later in the week.

"I have told them before," said the mayor, "we have to settle our differences the American way. Let the majority rule. If you can't control a minority in your party, you don't have a party. You can always control a minority. On the other hand, if you're in the minority, you have to go along with the decision of the majority even if you disagree with it."

But machinations in and out of official meetings reveal that the factions, active Democrats say, are doing either more or less than that. For one committeeman, they have added an activity that may some day become a new word in the vocabulary.

"Out-American" Each Other "You have heard of un-American," said the committeeman, "but they're now trying to out-American each other. Two groups especially, are trying to see which one can sound the most American."

The two groups are headed, Democrats say, by Charles Kauhane and Jack Burns respectively. The Kauhane group includes John Akau, John Souza, Victoria Holt, Bill Kuamoo, Richard Kageyama, Tommy Miles and others. In the Burns group are named Dr. Ernest Murai, Chuck Mau, Mitsuyuki Kido, Dave Benz, Jack Kawano and others.

Quite a fair-sized group of Democrats, many of them very active in getting out the vote at campaign time, have grown so apathetic about the gyrations of the self-purging factions that they announce they intend to sit on the sidelines and let the Burns and Kauhane groups fight themselves out.

In addition to the groups, there are certain "free lance" Democrats reported to have an active interest in both groups without any very binding commitments with either. Arthur Trask and Edward P. Toner are said to be two examples of the free-lancers.

"What they forget," said one formerly active Democrat, "is that all the talk they put out doesn't mean a thing if they don't have the votes. At this point, the word for them is 'blowhards.' "

The Executive Board of Local 136, Hawaii Longshoremen; believes all members of organized labor and of the public should know the full facts about Jack Kawano.

1. Kawano did help organize the Honolulu Longshoremen. So did many others who did as much or more in this task. What became clear some years ago was that Kawano had lost all interest in the Union and was more concerned with making political deals. Most disturbing was the fact that while he did no work, he thought the Union owed him a living.

2. The Union and its officials continued to carry Kawano because of his past service. He has expressed his thanks by a base betrayal of the Union.

3. During the 1949 strike, Kawano declined to be chairman of the strike committee, his logical responsibility as president of the local. Kawano did nothing to help the Union win. Any assignment was ducked. He disappeared for days on end.

4. The only time Kawano showed any interest in the strike was when he tried to work a political deal to settle the strike for 14 cents. If the longshoremen had taken his advice they Would have gone back with 14 cents instead of the 21 cents they won and the second installment of 20 cents they got early this year—41 cents in all.

5. Kawano did not run for reelection after the 1949 strike. If he had run, after his record during the strike, he could never have been elected.

6. Kawano, as well as this entire board, knows that he lies when he says anyone but the membership runs the Union.

7. Although he failed miserably in his post as president, the Union managed to have him reinstated as a longshoreman. He worked only a few weeks, quit without taking a leave, and was dropped by the Union for non-payment of dues.

8. Many attempts were made by members of the Executive Board to rehabilitate him as a good union man. All efforts failed. Kawano was determined to get a new job as stooge and errand boy for a group of politicians and work his way up from there. Ho wanted to use the Union as his stepladder for a new career, and when the Union made it plain that it is not a step-ladder for any man, he quit the Union and turned against the very workers who gave him a place in life.

9. While publicly saying he was still for the Union, he has told members of the Executive Board that he is a National CIO organizer and asked them to help split the longshoremen from the ILWU. This explains why Flynn of CIO arrives in Honolulu at the same time as Kawano's attack.

10. Kawano has gone the way of other traitors. He has tried to sell a union pound of flesh for a political job. We doubt if he'll ever get the payoff. His attempt to harm the ILWU in this crucial period of sugar negotiations, the Lanai strike and the day-to-day status of the longshore contract, will not succeed.

Kawano is gone but the Union will go on forever.

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With Hawaii and Maui fire and police department personnel classified in accord with the new civil service law and with Kauai due to finish the job this week, personnel in the two corresponding departments of Oahu are wondering when the Honolulu civil service commission is going to finish the job. The fact is that Albert Lee. civil service technician who would ordinarily do the job. has been called up for army service and is on a 21-month leave. The fact also is that the C-C finance committee has failed to pass an appropriation of $3,338 with which to pay for the work. Chairman Nick Teves is reported to have killed the measure almost single-handed. Yet Teves has a son-in-law who does the work of an inspector for the fire department while getting the pay of a hoseman. He's one almost certain to have his salary revised upward.

* *

French sailors who bathe at Kuhio Beach have been giving the tourists thrills and chills with the G-string "trunks" they wear. One who has bathed on the Riviera tells us such bathing suits are run-of-the-mill in France and that one-piece suits and full trunks like those worn locally make the wearers look very much overdressed and out of place on French beaches.

* *

The "Black Gang News" is the name of a mimeographed newspaper put out by the rank and file of the Marine Firemen, Oilers, Watertenders and Wipers Union who don't go along with the policies of President V. J. Ma-lone, who is often cheek-by-jowl with SUP's Harry Lundeberg. Their fourth issue exposes the manner in which a 1937 meeting was stacked with WPA workers to pass a resolution to refuse steam to ILWU longshoremen. Harry Bridges dared threats of violence to attend the MFOWW meeting and expose the whole setup to the MFOWW membership. The let-ters-to-the-editor column includes one from a seaman whose brother was screened off a ship by the Coast Guard only to be drafted into the Navy where he is not, apparently, considered a "security risk."

* *

Your best entertainment in Honolulu Labor Day promises to be the party at the Party House, 1870 Kalakaua Ave., by the United Public Workers of America, the Independent Taxi Drivers Union and the Culinary and Service Workers Union. There will be refreshments and dancing to Johnny Almeida's orchestra, and there will be speeches by personages whom the sponsors will announce shortly.

* *

Prostitutes, says a man about-town, are doing more of their own hustling these days and less depending on male representatives—the only obvious reason being that, they prefer to avoid paying the high fees that such service demands.

* *

Wimpy's Bar on Beretania St. has been named more than once as a liquor-vending place which refuses entry to Negroes. It does not, an observer noted last Thursday afternoon, refuse entry to doss, a large collie being observed there in tow of a sailor.

* *

Lee Mortimer, during his stay here, was too sick to spend much time gathering material for anything resembling "Honolulu Confidential." Report from the Mortimer bedside was that he wanted to get to New York. Lack of opportunity is not necessarily a bar to writers of hot-shot sensational books which make the best seller lists for several weeks in a row and are forgotten the following year. During the war one writer who made a high reputation with Collier's, figured a single day time enough to gather material for a book. He could land on an aircraft carrier, interview many of the personnel, get all the handout stuff from the public relations officer, take off again that evening and write a book on the material he had.

We're not suggesting, of course, that Mortimer works that way. Anyone who has read his "Washington Confidential" knows he spent more time than that gathering his material—probably even three or four days.

* *

The Urban Revelopment Agency, emasculated by the '49 session of the legislature, was one of the few projects which got the backing of most factions in the last session and was given the powers needed to make it eligible for federal funds. The RECORD. regular readers will remember, carried on the strongest campaign of any of the Territory's newspapers for that agency which is intended to clear Honolulu's slum housing and provide decent low-cost homes.

But even with the URA, Sen. Ben Dillingham led a move which blocked one of its important powers—that of leasing out land. That power would be especially useful for the URA in cases where building might be held in abeyance for a. number of years. Dillingham trotted out the old wheeze about such leasing being competition to private enterprise and the GOP went along.

* *

$1,350 was the price in olden days, for which a rich Chinese who wished to become a "citizen" quickly could achieve his will, an old-timer says. For that fee, he could buy a birth certificate of some American-born Chinese who had passed away.

"I don't know why," says the old-timer, "but the price never seemed to vary. It was always $1,350."

* *

Tongs of the Mainland, nationwide huis which operate lotteries and other financial operations, have little or no operation here, it is said. Tong wars, commonplace in New York and San Francisco at the turn of the century, are now a thing of the past. The last one occurred 18 years ago, though there was a slight threat among the On Leongs in 1948. The reason—a leader of the On Leongs wished to invest several million dollars in a bus system in Canton and he assessed member groups in other cities. New York and Washington On Leongs refused to kick in their assessments because they doubted the wisdom of investing while the country was undergoing a crisis. Hatchetmen were ordered to go to work on certain elements who spread the news of the dissension, but they refused orders and there the matter stopped.

Colorade Springs, Colo. (FP)—The International Typographical Union (AFL) has sold the Colorado Springs Free Press to Edwin P. Hoyt Jr., son of the publisher of the Denver Post.

The sale was announced by Woodruff Randolph, head of the ITU and president of the Free Press Publishing Co. The Free Press was started three years ago by the ITU following a strike at another Colorado Springs daily paper.

The ITU recently announced plans to publish nine daily tabloid papers in small communities throughout the U. S.

If the rule on political activity approved by the Territorial Conference of Civil Service Commissions last week at Lihue becomes law, Jack Burns, Edward Toner and any number of lesser political lights will be either out of their jobs or out of their political positions.

The rule which was No. 14 passed by the First General Session Under Act 319, prohibits any employe under civil service from holding a position on any county, central or Territorial committee. An employe may be a member of a precinct club, but he may not hold office in that club. He may be elected delegate to a convention, but he may not be an officer of the convention. The rule restricts rank-and-file activity even more, prohibiting the "soliciting or canvassing for votes; issuing, displaying or distributing cards, literature, banners, stickers or buttons or other campaign material; speaking, entertaining (except as a professional) or otherwise taking any part at any rally or other political meeting; acting as watcher or checker for any party or candidate at any polling place; transporting voters to or from the polls as a service to any political party or candidate."

The rule, which must be passed by the Territorial Commission and signed by Governor Long before becoming law, also prohibits any civil service employe from circulating or signing any nomination papers. If he violates any of these provisions, he "shall be conclusively presumed to have abandoned and vacated his position in the public service and the personnel director shall notify the appointing authority and the auditor to that effect."

Personnel directors, incidentally, came out of the conference considerably stronger than when they went in, having been granted dis-

cretionary powers in many cases which before were subject to the attention of commissions and having won many new powers in the forming, giving and grading of examinations and the application of eligibility lists.

The director may, for instance, reject any applicant for what he regards as "infamous or disgraceful conduct," and he may make any inquiry which "in the judgment of the director seems desirable."

An indication of the broad powers placed in the hands of the directors conies in a provision of Rule 4, which states: "Defective applications may be suspended by the director and the applicants notified to amend them, but the director shall not be compelled to give notice or grant such opportunity to amend."

Whether or not Rule 12.4 will be considered contradictory to the stringent rule on political activity remains to be seen. . It states: "No employe shall be discharged at any time for racial, religious or political reasons."

In approving the 15 rules, the conference actually referred them to the Territorial commission which must now hold public hearings and make its own recommendations. Those it approves will be passed on to the governor for signature. Best indications are the Territorial Commission will approve most of the 15, but the governor's attitude on them is unknown.

The conference marked the first occasion in the five such in which all personnel directors and commissioners were present.

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(By Federated Press)

San Francisco (FP)—A comparison of the number of hours worked by longshoremen on the East and West Coasts appeared in the July 20 issue of The Dispatcher, official voice of the International Longshoremen's & Warehousemen's Union.

The story quoted an article in the June 1951 issue of Fortune magazine, which gave these figures on the number of hours worked by members of the International Longshoremen's Association (AFL) in the port of New York in 1950.

No. of Hours Worked                                         No. of Men

2.000 hours and over ............................................1,900

1.300 to 2.000 hours ............................................ 7,950

800 to 1,300 hours ............................................... 5,230

200 to 800 hours .................................................. 6,265

Less than 200 hours ........................................... 15,000

The Dispatcher offered the following table to contrast the situation in New York with that in San Francisco:

No. of Hours Worked                       New York            San Francisco

1,300 hours or more (1,344
in San Francisco) ............................ 27%                      63%

800 to 1,300 hours............................14%                      25%

Less than 800 hours..........................59%                     12%

"In New York, about three-fifths of the men worked less than 800 hours." the paper said. "In San Francisco, only about one-tenth worked less than 800 hours. At the other extreme, threefifihs of the men in San Francisco worked more than 1,344 hours, while in New York only about one-quarter worked that much.

"The difference is due to the operation of the hiring hall. In San Francisco, under the operation of the joint hiring hall, work opportunity is largely equalized and men desiring their share of the work can get it.

"In New York, where hiring is done at the shapeup and where graft, discrimination and favoritism prevail, there is no equalization of work opportunity. (ILA President Joseph P. Ryan's favored boys get the steady jobs, while others work irregularly and put in only a few hours each week."

Laborers in Hawaii of decades ago, unlike today, were led by "outsiders" who were the intelligentsia. Thus, newspaper editors and publishers like Fred Makino, Yasutaro Soga and others, took active leadership during the plantation strikes in the early 1900s. And because they assisted the workers, they were thrown in jail and Soga's newspaper plant was ransacked and made a mess of by employer elements.

* *

Today, we find the Japanese dailies running Big Five ads during strikes, giving prominent play to employer news releases and running editorials written by "outsiders" which the employer propagandists read back over the radio, giving credit of course, to the Japanese dailies. The propagandists evidently believe that this method is more convincing to the smaller businessmen and workers.

* *

Labor leaders have developed from the ranks, here as on the Mainland, and we find plantation workers, warehousemen, longshoremen and seamen sitting across the table from employer representatives. Employers constantly try to isolate the leadership from the laborers. If a union lacks unity and strength, the employers would not hesitate to attempt jailing of the leaders on one excuse or another, just as they locked up Soga and Makino in the old days.

* *

The Lanai workers' Strike Bulletin shows the development through unionism of workers who answer the employer propagandists adequately.

* *

The July 25 Bulletin had an item titled: "Company Thinks Better To Have Union Without Leaders." The article said:

"Ever since the ILWU was organized in the islands, the employers kept on telling the workers to keep away from the Mainland leaders and affiliation.

"Of course they know it would be easier for them to mow us down if we don't have honest and able leaders and support from the Mainland.

"It's still the same idea of picking us off one by one (company by company and unit by unit negotiation).

"When we stand up and fight against these unjustifiable ideas, they tell the workers to get rid of the officers and negotiate for themselves. It's just like a man telling a kid to do something and if he doesn't, he gets a 'licking' for it."

* *

Another item in the same issue is headlined: "Old and New Form of Propaganda Don't Work." The article says:

"All forms of tricks and propaganda are being used against the workers to weaken and destroy them, but it never works. . "Attachment of the employes' bank and credit union accounts wouldn't do it either. The only time the workers will listen how is for the employers to come out in good faith and bargain with facts and reason.

"And unless they change their arrogant attitude toward the workers, even though they threaten to throw away their crop, this group of employers will not accomplish their selfish motives."

* *

When Soga and Makino were being thrown in jail for helping the Japanese immigrant workers, the laborers the—parents of a large number of today's sugar and pineapple workers—were not as vocal as their sons and daughters are today.

* *

Pablo Manlapit, a lawyer by profession, led the Filipino strikers in the 1920s. He was jailed, too, and was released only on condition that he would return to the Philippines and not come back to the Territory.

* *

Today, many of the top officials of the 18,500-member sugar workers union are of Filipino ancestry who have come up from the ranks.

"What is desperately needed is to replace the sugar aristocracy with an American way of life through the development of strong, well-educated union leadership bent upon improving the lives of the workers, but only within the framework of reference which permits them to earn a living at all. Sugar labor must be stabilized, agriculture on plantations made honorable on haole terms, and plantation labor be made a partner in management and government."—Milton C. George. The Development of Hilo, Hawaii, T. H. (1948), page 40.

Minneapolis (FP) — Luther Youngdahl, Minnesota's Republican governor who has been nominated for a federal judgeship by President Truman, has put his $68,000 home up for sale.

Newsworthy aspect of the sale is that just a year ago, Youngdahl had the state tax department reassess his home. Its tax valuation was cut from $7,695 to $5,101. Youngdahl's 1951 tax will be $384.82 instead of the $572.12 he would have had to pay under the old assessment.

No "Tumble-Down Shack"

Value of Youngdahl's luxurious home on the Minnetonka Gold Coast multiplied quickly after Truman provided him with an out from this state. The governor was sponsored for the post by Democratic Senator Hubert Humphrey in a move observers said was intended to improve Democratic-Farm Labor party election chances in 1952.

Commenting on the Home, which was advertised for sale in the Sunday papers here, the Minneapolis Labor Review said on July 26: "If in campaign times the home of the governor was hoped to be pictured to the electorate as a tumbled-down shack, such was not the case when the governor commenced seeking to cash in his home after President Truman and Sen. Humphrey had held out to him the vision of a spot on the federal bench." The ad described the home in enthusiastic terms. It was headlined: " 'Heatherdale Woods,' Governor Youngdahl's Ineffably Charming and Alluring Minnetonka Home; Exclusive Pheasant Lawn District Near Navarre; 4 Wooded Acres with Ideal South Facing Sandy Beach." Text of the ad said the house has an "all stone rambling exterior with harmonizing shake shingle roof in a setting of virgin trees" and called it "adorable, distinctive and altogether delightful . . ."

"Designed For a Small Family"

"It is an architectural gem, situated on a wooded promontory. Every room enjoys an inspiring, expansive view of lovely Carmens Bay. Quality, originality and real loveliness are reflected in every detail. The finish and decorations are exquisitely done and even the beautiful rich carpets and drapes are included in the purchase price . . .

"The master bedroom with large windows and a superb view of the lake is spacious and has huge closets. The bath is gorgeous with both shower stall and tub. The commodious living and dining rooms have equally impressive views of the water, as do the large breakfast room and cozy paneled library with fireplace."

After describing other rooms, the "abundance of closets" and "attached garages," the ad said the house was "designed for a small family, but can be readily enlarged if more rooms are needed. It can be shown to only qualified prospects for a luxurious upper bracket medium size home. Discriminating buyers will appreciate the value and reasonableness of price, ($68,000)."

The Labor Review and the Minnesota. Union Advocate both pointed out that three of the major anti-union laws in the state were enacted with Youngdahl's approval and called for his rejection as a federal judge.

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[pic]

By Tiny Todd

Large George and I had just come out of a movie house where they were showing a picture about the late Jesse James who used to hold up trains and otherwise carry on in Harry Truman's state. George asked me how I liked it. "It was exciting," I said, "and in spots even humorous, but you know, George, I've read quite a bit about Jesse James and I never got the idea he was such a nice fellow. In fact, I always considered him somewhat callous in the matter of human life. This picture makes him look like a kind of misunderstood Boy Scout."

"That," said George, "is because events of the past are supposed to be seen through rose-colored glasses. They are, that is, when you're dealing with some character or characters you wish the public to like." "Jesse James?" I asked. "For the purpose of selling tickets to the movie," said George, "Jesse James. But the same thing goes in many other instances. For example, it can be considered dangerous to look at the past if the past is unpleasant—especially if the past is not so far away." "How is that, George?" "Well, you take the feature, Looking Backward that the RECORD carries every week," George said. "The pineapple companies' radio man thinks that is very bad. So does IMUA. So does some Congressman or other."

"For the love of Mike, why?" I asked. "In the South, they talk about the Civil War which they lost. In fact, they talk about it so much it makes you tired."

George shook his head and said: "I'll grant you, the behavior of the local bosses is a little strange and they're a little jumpy when you talk about lunas using blacksnake whips on plantation workers. That's because there arc many people around who can remember those days. There are young men who fought in the last war who can remember how their fathers were whipped that way."

"Well," I said, "but what of it? They don't do things like that now."

"No," said George, "but they don't fully recognize the Declaration of Independence, either. There are still swimming pools and special theater seats for the bosses on some plantations, and there are restricted areas here in Honolulu. It's still difficult if not impossible for a non-haole to get into the really high echelons of Big Business. Most important of all, there's still one standard of pay for workers here and a higher one on the Mainland—even though prices here are higher."

I shook my head and said: "I don't quite get it."

"Well, to put it simply." said George, "there's still discrimination here, in spite of the advances that have been made. And whenever there's discrimination, there's someone making money out of it. So whenever the RECORD has a story about it, the Big Boys jump and scream that the paper is stirring up race hatred."

"Is that true?" I asked.

George smiled and asked: "Tell me; when there's a fire, who is responsible, the one who starts the fire or the one who rings the alarm? Which would you say is pro-fire and which anti-fire?"

Frank C. Atherton, chairman of the board of directors, Castle & Cooke, Ltd.. "admitted that he had bought up the publication of a research project of the Institute of Pacific Relations on the cost of living at Ewa Plantation. He said he did this because there was certain information in the report that he did not want to spread to the Mainland."

—Honolulu Advertiser, April 23, 1937

A Puerto Rican laborer whose name was Alvado Ramon, employed at Aiea in December 1903, objected to working all night after having worked all day. His luna, another Puerto Rican, name not given, thereupon "disciplined" Ramon by knocking him down, jumping on him and kicking him. Ramon was bleeding from the nose and ears when brought to the plantation hospital.

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[PAGE 8] [back to the top]

What does the "patriotic," flag-waving Advertiser have to say about the $25,000,000 in juicy-ripe "munitions" rotting on the Hawaiian Pine-owned island of Lanai?

One year ago, the mouthpiece of the Big Five was ranting and raving that Hawaii's war industry—pineapple—was suffering from "slowdowns" and "work stoppages," when actually the employers were turning the screws to further speed up production.

"Pineapples were munitions of war in World War II and had an important part in the feeding and health of the American forces. They are still munitions. So any attempt to hamper their production becomes sabotage," said an editorial in the Advertiser August 2, 1950.

Before the Advertiser called pineapple "munitions," perhaps only people like the late Al Capone referred to pineapples as munitions, but Capone and his crowd used metal pineapples in gangster warfare.

The Advertiser gave a patriotic pitch in the same editorial in trying to get the workers to go along with the Libby company's speedup methods. And this is what it said:

"The Libby workers, obviously, have been misled into their present action by smooth-talking leaders. They will be wise ... to look at their action in blocking pineapple production now as the loyal Americans their neighbors here believe them to be. If they do reconsider their action in this patriotic light, they will go back and get the pineapple crop into cans right now. It is going to be needed in the war their country is waging against Communism."

Today, the Hawaiian Pineapple Co. is letting a $25,000,000 crop rot in the fields on Lanai because it does not want to pay $64,000 increase in annual pay to 700-odd employes. It stubbornly refuses to concede the union shop to its Lanai employes when it has a union shop agreement with workers at its San Jose (Calif.) plant.

Borrowing the Advertiser's term, $25,000,000 in "munitions" is rotting in the fields—all because Henry A. White and his lieutenants want to crush the union on Lanai by starving out the workers. It's a big gamble to throw away $25,000,000 for $64,000.

And the whole Territory is thrown for a great loss, estimated by some at $50,000,000.

But do we hear a squeak out of the Advertiser about "munitions" spoiling in the fields, which wouldn't rust like Capone's pineapples but would disappear into the dust in a matter of weeks?

Out of the Same Cloth

A few weeks ago, in Cicero, Ill., a Negro bus driver tried to move into a white neighborhood and thousands of whites burned his furniture, threw bricks and did almost everything under the sun to keep him from settling in the district which was once Al Capone's stronghold.

More recently, in Los Angeles, a Nisei doctor's home was bombed because he tried to move into a restricted area. His real estate agent's home was also bombed.

White supremacy is built on hatred and prejudice. Here in the Territory we have restricted areas also, at Kahala, Diamond Head, Spreckelsville Beach lots on Maui and in many other places. When will these haoles come to accept all people as their equals? What are the Star-Bulletin, Advertiser, the radios and even the Japanese dailies doing about them? Nothing. And they advocate stressing the positive!

Levi Kealoha on Stevedoring, 1937 Style

One of the landmarks in Hawaiian labor history is the NLRB hearing on anti-union activities on the Honolulu waterfront, conducted in April 1937 by Trial Examiner George Pratt.

Among the topics covered was discrimination against the union members of the "Kukuihaele gang," a group of highly skilled stevedores who used to be sent to Kukuihaele and other outer island ports where cargo had to be loaded and unloaded by tackle, without the benefit of wharves. Spokesmen for this gang were Ben Kalto and Levi Kealoha, the latter of whom has been a leader in the ILWU for many years. The Honolulu Advertiser (April 15-16, 1937) thus describes Kealoha's testimony:

"Levi Kealoha, Honolulu stevedore, told Examiner George Pratt yesterday that when he finished one trip with the Kukuihaele gang to island outports his hands were like iron hooks. He couldn't close his fingers as the result of hard work . . .

"Worked With Sharks All Around Them"

" 'We had fifteen men in our gang,' he said. 'During this particular trip we worked almost three days without sleep. My eyes were red, and I couldn't open them to work any more.

" 'They didn't have enough bunks aboard. We made our own bunks from bags and lumber. We slept on deck, without blankets. And while in port, our men worked with sharks all around them.'

"Kealoha spoke excitedly. He gestured, and he finished each statement with his voice rising in emphasis.

"He went on to say that his foreman warned him to turn in his union card before he got back to Honolulu, because if the port captain found out we belonged to the union we would be kicked out.' "Asked what he meant by being kicked out, he said: " 'Fired!'

"Wouldn't Let a Shark Tickle My Feet"

Kaito . . . followed Levi Kealoha and supported that witness with testimony that some members of his crew were compelled to work ill shark-infested waters.

"When Kealoha was on the stand, Winn asked him if he is a Hawaiian. He nodded.

" 'Have you ever heard of a Hawaiian being afraid of sharks?'

" 'Maybe in 1800 they weren't afraid of them, but they are now. I wouldn't even let a shark tickle my feet, that's how scared I am of them.' "

Levi Kealoha "Hands like iron hooks"

By Frank Marshall Davis

Ralph Bunche as Ambassador

According to Doris Fleeson, syndicated columnist whose articles appear in the Star-Bulletin, there is another move under way to have Dr. Ralph Bunche named U. S. ambassador to Russia. Sponsors of the plan believe the noted Palestine mediator should be used in the war against communism and say that his appointment would be a "living refutation to Communist racial propaganda against the United States."

Thus far, Dean Acheson has not agreed. The Secretary of State does not want to seemingly aid aspiring politicians with large Negro voting blocs, nor does he want to set a precedent of naming officials because they represent minorities. And on this point the Star-Bulletin had an editorial on Saturday, August 4, which stated, among other things:

"Practical Side of Present Unrest"

"All peoples everywhere, want equality. That is a practical side of the world's present unrest which too many people like Mr. Acheson, who long ago achieved equality, fail to recognize."

Since Secretary Acheson says he always tries to appoint the best qualified man for the job, regardless of color, the afternoon daily charges the head of the State Department with "disavowing" his own words. He is not considering Dr. Bunche without regard to his Negro ancestry. He is, on the contrary, handicapping him on account of it."

I am glad to see that the Star-Bulletin is back of the proposal to name Dr. Bunche the U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union. I believe that not only I, but virtually all of America's 15,000,000 Negroes would take pride in such an appointment. it would mark a milestone in U. S. history.

Act As a Diplomat But Not As a Tool

But at the same time, most of us would expect Dr. Bunche to act as a diplomat and not as a tool of the white supremacists who would hope to use him to silence criticism of discrimination against America's non-whites instead of eliminating that discrimination.

Frankly, I do not believe that Dr. Bunche would allow himself to be used in such a fashion in the war against Russia. For this same Dr. Bunche is one of the nation's most vocal persons in calling attention to jim crow and denial of equal opportunity. It was not too long ago that he refused a top post in the State Department because he would not live in the segregated atmosphere of our national capital.

Speaking before the 42nd annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People held a few weeks ago in Atlanta, Ga., Dr. Bunche had this to say:

"It is imperative that we go much further than we have gone thus far in applied democracy for all Americans. Pull equality is the answer, and the Negro can never be content with less. We must all keep battering away at the undemocratic barriers of discrimination and segregation."

Appointment Would Not Bring Equality To 15 Million

Nobody knows any better than Dr. Bunche that his appointment as ambassador would not bring full equality to all Americans. He knows that housing restrictions, job discrimination, jim crow in education and denial of civil rights would not automatically end for 15,000,000 Americans. Ho would not dare say to Russia:

"Look at me. I am living proof that there is no such tiling as white supremacy and racism in America."

As a matter of fact, we could appoint a Dr. Bunche as ambassador to every other nation in the world and it still would not eliminate the stigma of the legal lynching of the Martinsville Seven in Virginia, or Willie McGee in Mississippi, or the recent race riots in Cicero, Ill. and near Washington, D. C., and Dallas, Tex.

Yes, people everywhere want equality. But it must be equality for all, not for one or two individuals selected in the hope they can be used for propaganda purposes.

Pass and Enforce Strong Civil Rights Laws

As one Negro woman in California phrased it: "I'm tired of having Ralph Bunche waved like a flag in front of me. I want to live wherever I can afford to pay rent, and I want my husband and son to have the best jobs their abilities will permit. Of course I'm proud of Ralph but until these things happen, he's just one Negro who happened to get ahead. Look back and see how the rest of us live."

"If the politicians want to silence Russian criticism of white supremacy in America, they have the soundest and surest means already in the palms of their hands. Let them pass strong civil rights laws and then throw the full weight of the Federal government back of them to insure their enforcement. Then you won't need to talk of appointing a Negro as ambassador to Russia purely for propaganda reasons.