Mary Haʻaheo Atcherley

“Mrs. Mary Atcherly of Honolulu added considerable color to the primary campaign that fall because she sometimes broke into the hula on the stage when inspired by a frisky campaign tune. There was nothing lighthearted about her political platform, however. Mrs. Atcherly stood for, among other things, a fair minimum wage, free distribution of schoolbooks, an increase in pay for teachers, and commitment to an insane asylum or to the leper colony only on the verdict of a jury.”

“I know my people and their needs and believe that I could help them were I elected as delegate. Congress wants to help the Hawaiians, but congress is 6,000 miles away and cannot understand.”

“Our women have always been just as interested in politics as our men. From earliest times they have had equal rights. They were always privileged to reign as queens and the premier was usually a woman. Before ever a white man saw these islands women took part in council meetings, often more actively than the men. They told their men how to conduct affairs and were generally considered the brains of families. Even today the average Hawaiian man votes as the wife tells him to.”