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PRINCE JONAH KUHIO KALANIANAOLE

1871-1922

by

Frances Reed

(Revised edition printed by permission of author.

Originally published by Hawaii County Library,

Hilo, Hawaii in 1962.)

Photograph - Courtesy Archives of Hawaii

Hawaii state Library System

Centralized Processing Center

1974

 

 

     The year 1900 was another great turning point in the political life of the Hawaiian people.  In that year the Organic Act was passed by the Congress of the United States incorporating Hawaii as a territory and restoring to every citizen of the Islands, the right to vote.

     It was difficult for the Hawaiians to comprehend that their right to vote had been restored.  Since it was the first time since 1887 that every citizen had the right to vote regardless of property qualifications.

     The Congress of the United States had righted the wrong done when the revolutionists deposed the Queen and refused Hawaiians the right to vote on the constitution of the Republic of Hawaii and on the burning question of annexation.

     The leaders of the old Royalist Party, Aloha Aina, were alert and well aware of the potentialities of the franchise.  Under the leadership of Robert Wilcox, the Aloha Aina Party was renamed the Home Rule Party and prepared a slate of candidates for the first election held in 1900.

     Prince David Kawananakoa and Prince Kuhio Kalanianaole identified themselves with the Home Rule party when it was first organized in 1898. However, Prince Kuhio did not take an active part in the affairs of the Home Rule Party for he began his travels at the time and did not return to the Islands until late in 1901.

     Prince David Kawananakoa broke away from the Home Rule Party in 1900.  He believed that the Hawaiian people should organize the two party system similar to that of the mainland in order to gain the most from their political freedom.  Prince David organized the Democratic Party of Hawaii and became its standard bearer as delegate to congress.  His Republican opponent was Colonel Samuel Parker and his Home Rule opponent was the revolutionary firebrand, Robert Wilcox.

     Stirred by political oratory, the Hawaiian people turned out to the man to vote in that first election.  The Home Rule Party, better understood by the people, emerged victorious.  Robert Wilcox was sent to Congress and the Party seated a majority of its candidates in the new legislature.

     The new leaven of democracy stirring in Hawaii brought Prince Kuhio back to the islands from his trip around the world.  He immediately assumed the leadership the people looked for from their alii.  Like his brother, Prince Kuhio believed the new Hawaii should follow the political party system of mainland United States.  He became a member of the Republican Party.

     The Prince, who had been a staunch Royalist and a rebel against the Republic of Hawaii, became a loyal and staunch supporter of the United States.  Because he had natural abilities, he became a great democratic leader.  More than that, he was a natural leader of the Hawaiian people through their transition period because as an alii, the people trusted his leadership.

     Jack Atkinson, son of Alatau Atkinson and boyhood companion of Prince Kuhio, became his campaign manager.  It was Mr. Atkinson who told the story of how Prince Kuhio was persuaded to become the party standard bearer.

     Early in 1902, the new Republican Party was holding a convention in Honolulu.  The party leaders realized that the important issue of the convention was to find a man capable of defeating Robert Wilcox as delegate to Congress.  Such a leader could win votes and build up the party.

     A group led by Joseph P. Cooke and Jack Atkinson decided that Prince Kuhio was the man who could perform the magic trick.  The group delegated Mr. Cooke and Mr. Atkinson to find the Prince and sound him out.

     It was late in the evening and the convention delegates were restless. Certain members were asked to keep the convention going by making long speeches upon any subject to kill time.

     Mr. Cooke went to the Pacific Club to wait while Mr. Atkinson went to Waikiki to find the Prince and routing him out of bed, took the Prince to the Pacific Club.  There the two friends talked him into agreeing to accept the nomination.  Word was sent to the floor leaders to recess the convention.

     The next morning.  Prince Kuhio appeared upon the convention floor and was given the opportunity to tell the delegates, "I am a Republican from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet."  With a hearty cheer, the delegates nominated and elected him their standard bearer.

     When Prince Kuhio first entered public life as a candidate, he showed natural ability to speak in his own language.  His English was not as good but, as the years rolled by, he became a fluent orator in both English and Hawaiian.

     His greatest assets both with the Hawaiian and the haole voter were a keen wit and ready good humor.  He quickly became "Prince Cupid" to everyone including his official friends in Washington.

     The nickname, "Prince Cupid", had been given him by his French school teacher when he first entered the private boarding school of Alatau Atkinson. Prince Kuhio was then a fat little fellow whose eyes twinkled merrily and upon whose lips there was a perpetual smile.  The French teacher said, "He is so cute, just like the pictures of the little cupids."

     Prince Kuhio was a great political campaigner.  When he rose to address his audiences, he began by greeting them in the soft, mellow, longdrawn out "Aloha, Alo-ha, kama-aina."

     The Prince pulled no punches in his political speeches. Often he was misquoted by his enemies and forced to enter into newspaper battles over the intrepretation of what he had actually said.  He was gifted in the art if inuendo, being able to tell his Hawaiian listeners of their enemies, yet at the same time refraining from open attack.

     It was the duty of Jack Atkinson to follow the Prince on the platform and tell the people of the work the Prince had accomplished in Congress.

     The campaign tours which the prince made throughout the islands were like the royal progresses his forebearers had made from district to district in the days of the monarchy.

     The Prince was the welcome guest at the most important home in each district.  Plantation managers vied for his presence.  The Republican Party in each district raised large sums to entertain the Prince and the "people" during his visit on a campaign.

     A rally was an all-day affair.  A luau would be prepared for the party leaders and all party members and their families.  The Prince and party would arrive in state on horseback for the luau.  The best entertainers in the district came to sing and honor the Price candidate.  After the feasting, the speechmaking began and generally took the entire afternoon.  Candidates were not limited to two or three minute speeches in those days.  The people liked to hear long speeches, but they wanted them spiced with proper oratory.

     District Republican leaders and candidates took advantage of the Prince's presence to advance their own cause.  Any man who heaped fulsome praise upon the work of the Prince was apt to garner the most votes for himself in his own political race.

     In his first campaign against Robert Wilcox, the Home Ruler, Prince Kuhio scored a triumph for "real home rule" by promising the people he would not allow the Kalaupapa Leper Settlement to become a federal institution.  He promised to keep it a territorial institution.  The Prince kept his promise.  Kalaupapa remained a territorial institution and the Prince obtained a federal appropriation to build the experimental hospital for the treatment of leprosy.

     His next achievement in 1905 was to obtain an amendment to the Organic Act which authorized the set up of county governments with elected officials.

     The development of Pearl harbor was an objective he worked for at all times in Washington.  Although use of Pearl Harbor had been conceded to the United States by Kalakaua, nothing had been done to develop its potentialities.  Prince Kuhio broke the deadlock in an appropriation committee which failed to understand the importance of Pearl Harbor by going direct to President Theodore Roosevelt.  The President helped him get the appropriation onto the floor of Congress.  from that time on the Prince obtained millions of dollars for Pearl harbor and for the many army installations on Oahu.

     The Prince was placed on the Military Affairs Committee of the House (without a vote) and became a great friend of the naval and army officers anxious to develop Hawaii as the Pacific outpost.

     It was Prince Kuhio who first organized congressional party visits to the Islands.  Knowing the profound ignorance of mainlanders in Hawaiian affairs, the Prince found the best way to make friends and converts to the Hawaiian cause was to persuade the Congressmen to visit the islands.  He brought out congressional parties in 1907, 1909, 1915, and 1917.

     Other achievements included appropriations of some $5,000,000 for the Federal building at Honolulu and the post office at Hilo; for harbor improvements at Honolulu, Hilo, Kahului, and Nawiliwili.

     One of the big political fights of the Prince's career was over the question of women's suffrage, a fight which came at the end of World War I.  Prince Kuhio believed the people of Hawaii should share in legislation passed for the people on the mainland.  He was successful in obtaining an enabling act by which Hawaii gave its women the right to vote.