Prologue Of History :: essays research papers

Prologue of HistoryUntil statehood, Hawaii was ruled economically by a consortium of corporationskn protest as the " banging fiver" C. Brewer and Co., shekels, ranching, and chemicals,founded in 1826 Theo. H. Davies & Co., sugar, investments, insurance, andtransportation, founded in 1845 Amfac Inc. (originally H. Hackfield Inc.-aGerman firm that changed its name and ownership during the anti-German feelingof WW I to American Factors), sugar, insurance, and consume development, founded in1849 Castle and Cooke Inc., (Dole) pineapple, food packing, and landdevelopment, founded 1851 and Alexander and Baldwin Inc., shipping, sugar, andpineapple, founded in 1895. This economic oligarchy ruled Hawaii with a smoothglove and a steel transfix. With members on all important incorporate boards, theycontrolled all major commerce, including banking, shipping, insurance, hoteldevelopment, agriculture, utilities, and wholesale and retail merchandising.Anyone trying to buck the cl ay was ground to dust, finding it suddenlyimpossible to do business in the islands. The Big Five were made up of theislands oldest and most well-established haole families all includebloodlines from Hawaiis own nobility and alii. They looked among themselvesfor suitable husbands and wives, so breaking in from the exterior even throughmarriage was hardly possible. The only time they were successfully challengedprior to statehood was when Sears, Roebuck and Co. opened a store on Oahu.Closing ranks, the Big Five decreed that their steamships would not carrySearss freight. When Sears threatened to buy its own steamship line, the BigFive relented. In the end, statehood, and more to the point, tourism, broketheir oligarchy. by and by 1960 too much money was at stake for Mainland-basedcorporations to ignore. Eventually the grip of the Big Five was loosened, butthey are still enormously decent and richer than ever, though these days theydont control everything. Now their power is land. W ith only v other majorlandholders, the Big Five control 65 share of all the privately held land inHawaii.Why was the 1946 Strike so important?Before 1946, Hawaiis economy, politics and social structures were completelydominated by a corporate elite known as the Big Five (Alexander & Baldwin,American Factors, Castle & Cooke, C. Brewer, & Theo. Davies). The leaders ofthese federal agent companies exercised absolute control over Hawaiis plantationworkers and the majority of the islands multi-ethnic workforce. The 1946 discoverforever changed the balance of power between workers and the plantations. Nolonger would animate and working conditions be set unilaterally by the plantationowners or their parent corporations. Nor was the lesson lost on the workersoutside the plantation either. As sugar workers were now successful in