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“Oh, now, it couldn't be, Miss Perkins.”
“You don't know how smart those boys are. They are organizers.”
“Well, we're only going to send longshoremen to teach these fellows how to load ships.”
I said, “All right, there's nothing to hinder a good longshoreman from also being an organizer, is there?”
Of course, that's what they sent. They sent their number one organizer over. He and his corps of men with him could teach the natives how to load ships quickly enough, but he also got right out and organized. They were organizing the pineapple field workers before you could say Jack Robinson. Now it's all done, and they have it on their hands.
I'm sure Knox was right. They had to do something. By that time we were at war. There was delay in the loading and unloading of ships because the native workers didn't know how to do it in Hawaii. They could be taught. There is a technique. It was taught, and they learned just fine. The Navy was entirely and completely satisfied. I checked three or four times in the course of the next few years and found that they were just happy. Nothing could be better. Of course, the Navy washed it's hands of the aftermath, when it began to come out that there were some peculiar things going on in Hawaii.
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