It’s Item #337 in today’s estate auction by McClain’s Ultimate Attic.
The description is brief: “1954 passenger list, Matson photo, ephemera & tongs.”
You might easily dismiss it as a bit of vintage tourism memorabilia.
But when I took a closer look, the passenger list turns out to be from a United Airlines flight out of Honolulu Airport on May 8, 1954.
It’s a literal Who’s Who of Hawaii politics during that critical year. In the elections held that fall, the Democratic Party would take control of the legislature, sweeping away more than half a century of Republican control.
The group included the governor, the Chief Justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court, the Speaker of the House, along with 25 other state representatives, eight senators, several community and business leaders, and a number of veterans who would later become household names, including Dan Inouye and Spark Matsunaga.
Obviously this was something special. So I referred back to the newspapers of the day, and immediately learned about the trip.
This was a select statehood delegation heading for Washington to plead the case for Hawaii statehood. They were scheduled to meet with the Secretary of the Interior and the chairman of the House Committee on Interior Affairs, then break up to meet with as many House members as possible. Ten members of the delegation, led by Delegate to Congress Joseph R. Farrington, were expected to plead their case directly with President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
They weren’t successful, and statehood wouldn’t be achieved for another 5 years. But not, apparently, for lack of trying.
Here’s a link to the full list of the delegation members as reported by the Honolulu Advertiser.
If you’re interested in bidding on this bit of island political history, I would guess this item will come up between 1 and 2 p.m.
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I am interested in the names of women on the list. Hoping another reader here will know more.
May of ’54 wasn’t 15 years before statehood.
What can I say? It was early, I was rushed, and that’s what they keyboard came up with!! That’s why copy editors are important, and why we miss them!
Flora Hayes and Mary Robinson were prominent women in politics of the day.
Prominent women on the list would include: Bina Mossman, Flora Kaai Hayes, and Mary K. Robinson. Those Hawaiian women were intensely involved with the politics of the Territory of Hawaii.
I find it fascinating that Webley Edwards was in the group (assuming he was part of the group) because I think he was the most nationally and probably internationally known figure in the whole list of passengers stemming from his “HAWAII CALLS” radio show that was broadcast worldwide…..”from the beach at Waikiki” and in the background the sounds of waves breaking on the beach. So many people I have met around the world came to know about Hawaii via his radio program. He was probably a very important person to have in the group seeking statehood for Hawaii since he was known by so many Americans who had heard his program.
True. But Edwards was also an elected member of the legislature from 1952-1968, serving in both the House and Senate.
In May of 1954 Dan Inouye would have been a very junior assistant city prosecutor who drew the Saturday morning district court docket of overnight arrests for public drunkenness, etc. at Aala Park. But before the year was over he would be elected to the Territorial House and selected as incoming majority leader by his compatriots. Spark Matsunaga also would have have been in the Prosecutor’s office at that time.