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Hawaii - James Michener [578]

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upon the things they had been discussing, and he could not comprehend how any sensible man who loved Hawaii would even consider allowing an outfit like Gregory's entrance to the islands. "Why, damn it all!" he growled. "They're outsiders. They undercut established principles, and if they made a little money, what would they do with it? Siphon it off to New York. Does it ever do Hawaii any good? Not a penny of it." He looked out his window toward the Missionary Public Library, built with family funds, then toward the Missionary Art Museum, which his Grandfather Ezra had endowed with half a million dollars and a Rembrandt. In the distance lay the Missionary Natural History Museum, housing an unmatched collection of Hawaiian artifacts, and beyond it stood the rugged, magnificent memorial to old Abraham Hewlett's love of the Hawaiian people, Hewlett Hall, where Hawaiian boys and girls were given free a first-rate education. More important were the things that could not be seen: the family professorships at the university, the Missionary Foundation for Oceanic Research, the Missionary Fund for Retired Ministers. You could scarcely touch an aspect of Hawaii which had not been improved and nourished by some member of The Fort.

"Suppose we allowed Gregory's to come in and operate as they wished," Hoxworth mused. "Let's look at Honolulu fifty years from now. Is there going to be a Gregory's Museum, or a Gregory's School for Hawaiians? They will steal our money and give us nothing in return except lower prices for a little while. Will their executives raise large families here and put their children to work in the islands? They will not. We will have soulless absentee landlordism of the worse sort. If Gregory's ever do wedge their way into the islands . . . after my death I hope . . . they will bring us nothing . . . nothing."

He walked back and forth in real perplexity and came at last to the nexus of his thinking: "No, I'm wrong. They'll bring two things. They'll bring political unrest, because half of their people will be New Deal Democrats with radical ideas. And they'll bring labor unions." These two potentialities were so abhorrent that he paused to look out over the Honolulu he loved so well. "Why don't the people down there trust us to know what's best for these islands?" he asked in some bewilderment. "You'd think they'd bear in mind all we've done for Hawaii. Why, they ought to rise up as one man and kick outfits like Gregory's or California Fruit right into the ocean. But they never seem to appreciate what's best for them."

His secretary interrupted to say, "That young Japanese is trying to see you again," and Hale shook his head furiously.

"Not me! Negotiating with labor is Hewie's problem," and he ducked out a back door, calling for Hewlett Janders. When the big man appeared, Hale commissioned him: "See if you can handle this young troublemaker once and for all," and he felt some assurance as big Hewie hitched up his belt and went forth to battle.

When Janders entered the board room he found there a confident, crop-haired, smiling young man who extended his right hand across the table and said, "I'm Goro Sakagawa, sir. I remember how good you were to my brothers."

The gesture caught big Hewie Janders off guard, and for a fleeting instant he thought: "This is the brother we didn't take into Punahou. If we had, he'd never have grown up to be a labor leader." Then he dismissed the thought and said sternly, "What is it you wish to see me about, young man?" Pointedly, he did not ask Goro to sit down.

Displaying some of the polish he had acquired while serving with General MacArthur in Japan, Goro ignored the fact that he had to remain standing and said, "They tell me your son Harry was killed on Bougainville."

"He was," Janders replied, and that made it necessary for him to ask, "Wasn't one of your brothers killed in Italy?"

"Two," Goro replied, and somehow each of the negotiators realized that Hewlett Janders of The Fort had been subtly brought down to Goro Sakagawa's level. They were equal, and Goro said, "You asked

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