Growth and Prosperity

Radio and interisland ships brought people closer together. Many new steamships brought visitors back and forth to Hawai‘i. After five years of construction, Aloha Tower, a symbol of welcome, was built at Honolulu Harbor in 1926. Tourist travel reached an all-time high for this period of the 1920s. By now, the trans-Pacific telephone brought Hawai‘i closer to the mainland. Then air travel began with the Pan American Clipper in 1935, so passengers did not have to make a four- or five-day ship crossing to get to Hawai‘i. What is now Hawaiian Airlines began in 1929 as Inter-Island Airways.

As the Territory, Hawai‘i was growing and prospering, but it still was not given equal treatment compared to the rest of the United States except when it came to paying taxes. The Territory received no federal aid for health, no vocational education, and no child welfare funds, as did those who lived in the mainland United States. Over and over again, people were sent to Washington, D.C., to present the needs and rights of the Territory, but nothing came of it. Then, the Hawaiian legislature of 1923 passed a Bill of Rights. This document told the history of annexation and set forth the reasons why the Territory should be treated as a state. Governor Wallace Farrington took the bill to Washington, D.C., and, as a result, got the attention of leaders there.