The
Rev. Charles Fletcher Dole (1845-1927) served for
more than forty years as pastor of the First Unitarian
Church in Jamaica Plain. His work for peace and free
speech influenced Nobel Peace Prize winner Emily Balch.
His son, James Drummond Dole (1877-1958), studied
agriculture at Harvard’s Bussey Institute (now
the Arnold Arboretum). He traveled to the Sandwich
Islands in 1901, where he is credited with establishing
the Hawaiian pineapple industry.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
I
From
the records of the 25th anniversary class book of
the Harvard College Class of 1899, published in
1924.James Drummond Dole
Born: Jamaica Plain,
Sept. 27, 1877. Parents: Charles Fletcher
Dole, Frances Drummond. Schoo:l Roxbury Latin School, Roxbury. In College: 1895-99. A.B., 1899. Married: Belle Dickey, Boston, Nov. 22, 1908.
Children: Richard Alexander, Oct. 28, 1907;
James Drummond, Jr., Feb. 6, 1910; Elisabeth, Apr.
25, 1911; Charles Herbert, Oct. 30, 1914; Barbara,
Oct. 10, 1916. Occupation: President and Manager Hawaiian
Pineapple Co.
Following
my inclination toward an agricultural pursuit and
the lure of Hawaii, then recently annexed to the
United States, I landed in Honolulu on November
16, 1899; and within two weeks found the town quarantined
for six months by an outbreak of bubonic plague.
During that winter I saw the fire department, with
the timely aid of a stiff trade-wind, burn down
all of Chinatown (the intention having been to disinfect
in this thorough manner only one or two blocks).
In July, I bought a government homestead of sixty-four
acres, twenty-three miles from Honolulu, and on
August 1, 1900, I took up my residence thereon as
a farmer—unquestionably of the "dirt"
variety. After some experimentation, I concluded
that the land was better adapted to pineapples than
to peas, pigs or potatoes, and accordingly concentrated
on that fruit.
The
Dole plantation in Hawaii
Pineapple
growing created the necessity for a market, and
in order to enlarge the market to the entire United
States (and other countries) and to extend the marketing
season throughout the entire year, a cannery seemed
necessary. This meant that money had to be raised
and a company started, and this necessitated more
land, which had to be leased. I started my first
pineapple plants in the spring of 1901, our company
was incorporated in December of that year, and in
the summer of 1903 we put up our first season's
pack of 1893 cases. In 1923 we packed 2,038,671
cases, or 43,497,828 cans. The period between has
been one of repetitive cycles of more land, more
pineapples, more cannery. Our plantings in 1923,
if extended in a straight line, would have made
a double row from New York to San Francisco.
The
game has been a very interesting one, taking in
practically all the fascinating and troublesome
agricultural operations, various transportation
questions, and constantly changing manufacturing,
marketing and financial problems. I have been particularly
interested in trying to organize our business in
such a way that every employee, so far as possible,
may feel that his interest is that of the company,
and vice versa. I don't claim to have reached this
point, but the recipe seems obvious; the Golden
Rule, at least in the Confucian form, and preferably
in the Christian version, backed up by the quotation
from Micah, "What doth the Lord require of
thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk
humbly before thy God."
In answering the question as to my hobbies and recreations,
I may say that I am the worst golf player in the
Hawaiian Islands, but will try to match fish stories
against any member of the Class.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
II
Photo
courtesy of the Harvard University Archives
From
the records of the 50th anniversary class book
published in 1949.
"In
looking back over fifty years," he writes
for this Report, "most if not all of
my 'satisfactions' of life are the result
of teamwork and not mine alone. I name a few:"
Jim
at his Honolulu office in the late 1920s
A
happy home life and five fine children; eleven
grandchildren. In business, perhaps my greatest
satisfaction was in the esprit de corps
and teamwork of the Hawaiian Pineapple Company
organization that was built up during my leadership.
With few exceptions this existed from bottom
to top; so far as possible every man an individual,
treated as such and paid as such and paid
as many different rates of pay as could be
justified; my office door open to any employee;
a non-contributing pension system inaugurated
in 1920; a profit-sharing system that rewarded
those and only those who could affect the
profits and who could realize in advance and
throughout the year the importance to themselves
of the company's success. For others, different
incentives. In the late twenties, one of the
leading labor leaders of the United States,
who had inspected our cannery several times,
said to me: 'If every enterprise were run
like this, there wouldn't be any room for
us.'
I derive satisfaction from seeing the dream
of my prospectus of 1901 come true, ‘Expand
the market for Hawaiian Pineapple to every
grocery store in the United States,' from
the enjoyment by millions of a wholesome and
palatable food, from my part in the too-long
delayed development that made it possible
for the public, who didn't eat all the pineapple
production of the 1930-33 depression years,
to drink the surplus and put the industry
by 1934 on a balanced basis; a little, from
sundry agricultural and manufacturing developments
in which I played a minor part; from seeing
the need for a quick and efficient way to
get pineapple juice out of a can and having
the American Can Company develop, within six
months of my request, the answer in the form
of what is now known as the beer can opener
(two years before canned beer hit the market).
Charley,
Jim, Betty, Dick, Barbara, Belle,
and Jimmy circa 1918
In
August, 1948, I discontinued connection with
the Hawaiian Pineapple Company as director
and chairman. My influence had been almost
wholly ineffective since some months before
I was forced to resign as manager. It is too
soon to know whether my activities of the
past ten years will live after me or be interred
with my bones.
I am still working on new things and as from
early years, trying to use scientific approaches.
Four beet sugar factories are now using our
exchangers for taking impurities out of sugar
juices before instead of by and after crystallization,
a pet objective of mine. One of our companies
has developed a new apple juice which carries
the natural flavor of the apple, 'Liquid Apple'
juice.
I am devoting much of my time to certain food
and food equipment developments which seem
to merit attention. I am distressed at the
parlous state of the world, at the imminence,
at least in India and China, of the possible
proof that Malthus was no idle dreamer, and
at the apparent lack of human capacity to
organize mankind for the safe and humane guidance
of atomic energy.
I should like to stick around this human turmoil
a while longer and have a finger in the game.”
JIM DOLE'S LEGACY
Jim
showing Shirley Temple around the
plantation visitor's center in 1935.
Jim died in May 1958 after a series of
strokes and a heart attack. He is buried
in Makawao, on the slopes of Haleakala
facing Maui Pineapple company's pineapple
fields, at the grave site of Belle's family.
Next to Jim is his wife, Belle, who died
in November 1972.
The
Dole company's current logo, with
a selection of its predecessors
Written
on Belle's gravestone are the words, "She
was Sunshine Joy and Life to All of Us."
On Jim's gravestone is inscribed,"He
was a Man, Take Him All in All. I Shall
Not Look Upon His Like Again."
He
is no longer with us, but he left behind
a legacy.
He left behind a reputation for honor,
integrity and high moral caliber in his
business dealings and his life as a whole.
What he did for his workers was way ahead
of his time.
He left behind the pineapple industry
that he had pioneered, and which came
to be the second largest industry in the
islands, producing in 1930 ninety percent
of all the canned pineapple produced in
the world. The pineapple industry is no
longer as important to Hawaii as it was,
because other places are canning pineapples
successfully and more cheaply, but the
cannery he built is one of only two still
canning pineapple in Hawaii today. The
other one is Maui Pineapple Co., a wholly-owned
subsidiary of Maui Land & Pineapple
Company, Inc.
He left behind at least two of the companies
he had started in California which continue
today, James D. Dole Corp. and Chemical
Process Company. He also left behind the
Pennask Lake Club, which continues.
He left his name, which had become so
identified with quality that is being
used more than it ever was when he ran
Hapco. Next to "Kraft," "Dole"
is the best known brand name today.
His name is now used with products which
have nothing to do with pineapples, such
as bananas, fresh vegetables, raisins,
dates, almonds, pistachios, etc. and with
fresh kiwis, lemons and oranges in Japan.
And his name is still associated with
pineapples, not only with Dole Hawaii,
which packs 225,000 tons, but with Dole
Thailand, which packs 200,000 tons of
fruit per year and Dole Philippines, which
packs 380,000 tons.
Jim's heritage also continues on in his
descendants.
“Dole,
James Drummond” American National
Biography (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1999).
The Story of James Dole by Richard
Dole and Elizabeth Dole Porteus (Aiea, Hawai'i:
Island Hertiage Publishing, 1990).
UNITARIAN
NOTE
The
First Unitarian Church of Honolulu
Unitarians
in Hawai’i first came together in a lay
led fellowship in 1952. The fellowship grew
into a congregation that became a church with
a minister in 1957. Some of the founders continue
their active participation in the First Unitarian
Church of Honolulu today. In 1962, the Church
purchased and modified a spacious residence
in Nu’uanu Valley, an ideal location
for an island-wide congregation. It houses
our Sunday morning services, adult and children’s
religious education, offices and meeting rooms.
Space is also made available to other religious
groups and community organizations for meeting
and special events.
