Hawaii - James Michener [576]
"So by the trick of doing nothing and waiting, they steal the islands blind . . . but in an honest way."
Hong Kong studied this summary for some time, then cautiously observed: "I suppose so far The Fort has held us back two full generations. If we had paid labor a good wage twenty years ago, I suppose our gross island product would have increased maybe half a billion dollars each year."
"You don't call that stealing?" McLafferty asked.
"Technically you can't, if their intentions are honest. They may be dumb but they're not crooks."
"Then you'll get the land for us?" McLafferty asked.
"I have to consult my hui," Hong Kong countered, taking refuge in that word, for he knew that McLafferty would not understand if he said, "I must talk this over with my hundred-year-old grandmother."
"I needn't warn you," the Bostonian said, "that if any of your hui breathes a word of this . . ."
"My hui has been keeping secrets for almost a century," Hong Kong replied cryptically, and next day he reported: "My hui says that now's the time to strike. I have four Japanese, two Chinese and a Filipino starting to get your land. In six months you'll have it. How do I slip messages to you in Boston?"
McLafferty looked astonished. "Boston?" he repeated. "Didn't I tell you? I'm living here from now on. I'm part of the revolution that's about to hit these islands. Since I got my old man's eyebrows, I suppose that in the elections I’ll be called Black Jim McLafferty. You see, I'm a working Democrat."
WHEN Hoxworth Hale, back in 1946, succeeded in frustrating the attempt of California Fruit to open a string of supermarkets in Hawaii, he reported to The Fort: "Within the past year we have been faced by formidable challenges from the mainland. This was to have been expected after the dislocations of war, and for a while it looked as if the dangerous radical movements we have detected in the population might lead to California Fruit's success, for these outsiders came very close to snapping up several leases, and at one point I was afraid they might succeed in buying out Kamejiro Sakagawa, but we applied certain pressures on the little Japanese and forestalled that. So for the time being, at least, we have turned back a very dangerous enemy. But in a larger sense it seems to me that our real danger is going to come from Gregory's. They have tried twice now to penetrate our market, and only by the most resolute action have we forestalled them. We must remain extremely alert to keep them out of Hawaii, and I shall consider any member of our group derelict to his duty who does not keep us informed of Gregory's next move.
"As for O. C. Clemmons and Shea and Horner, I feel certain we have scared them off, so that unless something unforeseen happens, we need expect no more challenges from them." Hoxworth looked steadily at his colleagues, as if to instill into each the courage to keep Hawaii free of alien influences, and the members left that meeting with added resolution, but in 1947 Hale had to summon his confreres again, and this time he reported: "Something is happening around here that I neither like nor understand. I was alerted some time ago by the clerk at the Lagoon to the fact that a Boston lawyer named James McLafferty was in our city and acting rather suspiciously. For example, he was caught talking a long time with the beachboy Kelly Kanakoa--that's Malama's rather worthless son. We put some people on Kelly and found out that this McLafferty