382 
dertaking  a campaign,  of  which  there  would  be  little  prospect  of 
success,  it  is  well  to  consider  how  the  law,  as  it  now  stands,  would 
apply  in  Hawaii.  An  analysis  of  this  is  entered  into  in  Mr.  Men- 
denhall's paper.  It  seems,  however,  that  the  clause  against  Mon- 
golian labor  would  not  present  an  insuperable  difficulty  as  a large 
demand  for  citizen  labor  for  Federal  irrigation  construction  would 
no  doubt  meet  with  sufficient  response.  Incidentally  .it  would  be 
interesting  to  know  whether  the  term  “Mongolian”  has  the  same 
legal  meaning  as  it  has  as  an  ethnological  term. 
As  an  alternative  to  Federal  assistance  in  this  matter,  the  writer 
of  the  address  alluded  to,  suggests  the  establishment  of  a Terri- 
torial Reclamation  Bureau,  supported  by  a revolving  fund  created 
by  an  issue  of  bonds  chargeable  against  the  lands  to  be  benefited. 
Such  a project  is  in  operation  in  Porto  Rico  with  considerable 
success,  although  the  conditions  there  are  dissimilar  to  our  own. 
The  creation  of  a local  system  of  reclaiming  arid  lands  has  the 
distinct  merit  of  allowing  its  organization  on  lines  to  harmonize 
with  the  eccentricities  of  our  local  land  laws. 
Foremost  among  the  enemies  of  the  human  race  may  be  enu- 
merated rats,  flies  and  mosquitoes.  Although  many  inimical  in- 
fluences are  continually  at  work  against  mankind,  it  is  question- 
able whether  the  accumulated  devastation  of  famines,  of  wars, 
-or  of  convulsion  of  nature  is  to  be  compared  with  the  detrimental 
effects,  both  direct  and  indirect,  of  the  three  baneful  pests  to 
which  we  have  alluded.  By  their  combined  agencies,  apart  from 
the  destruction  to  food  and  other  stuffs  on  the  part  of  rats,  the 
bacilli  of  bubonic  plague,  yellow  fever,  typhoid,  consumption, 
cholera,  malaria,  anthrax,  tracoma  and  other  dangerous  diseases 
are  propagated  and  disseminated.  The  Hawaiian  Islands  are,  by 
their  isolation,  very  favorably  situated  to  be  able  to  put  into  force 
measures  to  check  and  destroy  these  pests,  for  by  the  exercise  of 
an  efficient  quarantine  they  should  be  practically  unable  to  recrmt 
their  ranks  from  without.  With  regard  to  the  mosquito,  excellent 
work  has,  from  time  to  time,  been  done  locally  for  its  suppression, 
although  a tendency  has  been  too  often  evidenced  to  rest  content 
upon  the  result  of  past  success.  At  present  this  pest  is  again  in 
evidence  thanks  to  a temporary  suspension  of  the  active  campaign 
against  it.  With  regard  to  the  mosquito,  as  with  all  such  pests, 
immunity  can  only  be  purchased  at  the  price  of  incessant  effort. 
There  is  never  a time  when  it  is  possible  to  count  the  victory  per- 
manently won,  or  when  vigilance  can  be  with  safety  relaxed. 
Honolulu  has  in  the  past  organized  attacks  also  upon  the  rat, 
especially  when  public  action  has  been  aroused  by  a sense  of  the 
dangerous  part  this  animal  has  played  in  the  spread  of  bubonic 
plague.  Although  the  rat  is  ever  with  us,  it  is  not  here  the  inten- 
tion to  call  especial  attention  to  it,  but  to  that  other  household 
nuisance,  the  fly,  which  has  been  too  long  accepted  passively  as 
a necessary  evil.  Although  we  have  grown  so  accustomed  to  its 
