ipient
plutocracy establishing itself under the forms of democracy. The return
movement has begun, and the rescue of democracy is sought, as stated
above, in forms and functions of government still more democratic.

The way plutocracy looks when it has passed the incipient stage may be
seen in Hawaii.[121] It is as though we had annexed those islands in
order to watch in our own back yard the fruit of excessive immigration.
A population of 154,000 furnishes 65,000 Hawaiians, Portuguese, and
other Caucasians. The Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans have 87,000
population and no votes. The American contingent is some 17,000 souls
and 3000 votes. The latter represent four classes or interests: the
capitalist planters owning two-thirds of the property; superintendents,
engineers, and foremen managing the plantation labor; skilled mechanics;
small employers, merchants, and farmers. In order to get plantation
labor and to keep the supply too large and diversified for concerted
wage demands the planters imported contract Chinese in place of
Hawaiians, then Japanese, then Koreans. As each race rises in standards
and independence it leaves the plantations to enter trades,
manufactures, and merchandising. It drives out the wage-earners from the
less skilled occupations, then from the more skilled, then the small
manufacturers, contractors, and merchants. The American middle classes
disappear, partly by emigration to California, partly by abandoning
business and relying on the values of real estate which rise through the
competition of low standards of wages and profits, and partly by
attaching themselves to the best-paid positions offered by the planters.
In proportion as they move up in the scale through the entrance of
immigrants in the lower positions, they transfer their allegiance from
democracy to plutocracy. The planters themselves are caught in a circle.
The rising values of their land absorb the high tariff on sugar and
prevent rising wages if the values are to be kept up. The Japanese, with
contract labor abolished, have shown a disposition to strike for higher
wages. This has led to advances at the expense of profits, and the
resulting "scarcity of labor" compels the planters again to ask for
contract Chinese coolies. Immigration is thus only a makeshift remedy
for the exactions of unions and the undevelopment of resources. More
immigration requires perpetually more and still more, till the resulting
plutocracy seeks to sav