The problem of converting a tropical country inhabited by a primitive people to the uses of modern industry has been solved in diverse ways by the Spanish in Cuba and the Philippines, by the Dutch in Java and East Sumatra, by the English in British Guiana and the Straits Settlements, by the Belgians in the Congo Free State. In each case zeal for money profit, for the financial success of the enterprise in question, has been moderated and held in check by concern for the well-being of the land and people in process of exploitation. Of these two contending impulses, the industrial is likely to dominate the men immediately concerned in the business enterprise, while the humanitarian comes to the front in the home country, where advantage in the profits derived is but indirect and where wrong done to the nation's honor and prestige is keenly felt.

The experience of the Americans who undertook to civilize the Hawaiian Islands is peculiar in that they enjoyed seventy-five years of immunity from outside interference. The measures determined upon for the development of the country were their own. There was no colonial office to over-rule the local policy. Every candid observer, however, must concede that there was nothing arbitrary in the methods of the missionaries, the white men who were in the long run most influential in directing the course of legislation in the Sandwich Islands.