Hawaii - James Michener [627]
"What was the name again?" Shig asked.
"Noelani Hale is my real name," she explained.
"What Hale is that?" Shig asked.
"Hoxworth Hale is my father."
"Sit down," Shig said weakly. When he had caught control of himself he pointed out, "Are you sure you've heard what I've been saying, Mrs. Hale?"
"It's Mrs. Janders," Noelani said. "Didn't you read about my divorce? It was rather messy."
"I didn't," Shig apologized.
"I understand very well what you're saying, Senator Sakagawa, and your views coincide with my own."
"But have you heard what I said about land reform?" he pressed.
"That's what we're talking about," Noelani said in her precise Bostonian accent.
"You would hurt your father very much if you were active in my campaign," Shigeo warned. "As a matter of fact, you would probably hurt me, too."
"I studied politics at Wellesley," she replied firmly.
"Were you at Wellesley?" he asked.
"While you were at Harvard," she said. "Amy Fukugawa pointed you out one day, at the symphony."
"What's Amy doing?" he asked.
"She married a Chinese boy. Both their parents disowned them, so they're very happy in New York. He's a lawyer."
"Do you understand what I'm saying about land reform, Mrs. Janders? How what I say will affect your father, and his friends?"
"I want to know just one thing," Noelani said. "When you speak of breaking up the big estates . . ."
"I'm not sure I've ever used that phraseology," he corrected. "I say that the big estates must not be allowed to hold out of productive use the land they are not using for constructive agriculture."
Noelani sighed with relief and said, "But under your system would you permit lands that are being used legitimately for sugar and pineapple some kind of preferential treatment?" "Look, Mrs. Janders," Shig cried. "Apparently I haven't made myself clear on this point."
"You haven't," she said, "and that’s why I wanted to help, because I knew you were too smart not to have thought about the fundamental problem of land in Hawaii."
"What problem do you mean?" the expert asked.
She picked up two books and placed them on the desk. "Let's call this book Hawaii," she said, "and this one California. Now our problem is to get all the things we need, like food and building materials and luxuries, from California out here to Hawaii, and also to pay for them after we get them here. Let's call this inkwell our ship. We can fill it up in California every day of the year and haul to Hawaii the things we need. But how are we going to pay for them? And what is the ship going to carry back from Hawaii to California, so that it won't have to go back empty, which would double the freight costs on everything?"
She paused, and Shigeo plopped the inkwell down on the Hawaii book, saying, "I know very well that the ship has got to take back some bulk crop like sugar or pineapple. The sale of agricultural products provides the money on which we live. And the freight that sugar and pineapple pay going to the mainland helps pay the freight of food and lumber coming this way. I know that."
"You certainly haven't explained it to the people," Noelani said critically. "Because the important point is this. You fighting young Japanese have got to reassure Hawaii that legitimate farm lands will be protected for the welfare of everybody. As to the lands that have been hiding along the edges of the legitimate farms, held there for tax-free speculation, I think even, my father knows they must be sold off to the people."
"You spoke of helping," Shig said. "What did you have in mind?"
"I'd like to help you put into words, for the radio and television, just what we've been talking about. It will insure your election."
"But why should Hoxworth Hale's daughter want to help a Japanese get elected?" Shig asked suspiciously.
"Because I love these islands, Senator. My people were here long before yours arrived, so I am naturally concerned about what happens to Hawaii."
"You ought to be a Republican," Shig said.
"For the time being, they're worn out," Noelani replied. "I've been living a long time with worn-out