The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1870-01-08

Preamble and Resolutions of the Hawaiian
Trades Association,
WHh an Essay read By the President at IN
Meeting Of NOrember %, 1869.
Concluded from our last.
The capital saved to the country under protec
ton of our manufactures will soon lead to tue IN
PRODUCTION of many labOr-saving machines.-say
in the course of a few years TO 200 machines.
doing the work of at least ! 900 men, which, al
81 per day, would be about $500 900 a year,
making near $500 900 yearly to be saved in hand
and machine labor.
Oh, yes, says one, the 700 men and the machine
owners would be better off, but how about the
other &c, 900 people in the Kingdom? This
country is small. 1t only requires Il few days Tor
the most remote inhabitants to hear what is
doing in all other parts, and only a few dollars
expense to travel all over the Kingdom. The
people are more like a large family, living under
the care of a parent, than perhaps any other ma
ton. You benefit a part and you benefit the
whole, directly or Indirectly. We can hardly
give employment here to l 900 men and women
without reaching through the whole group.
We are not able to stand against the cheap
labor of the whole world in our infancy unpro-
tected. 1t is sure death TO us as a nation to
leave us in such a position we have thousands
of men, women and children here idle, who should
be doing our work. They can make our clothes,
and boots and shoes, and carriages and furniture,
and nearly everything we need. There are women
now working at the tailor shops in Honolulu
who earn 50 per week, and men who can earn
from SIS to $50 per week wien they can get
work. There are men who earn, at different
trades, from q to "a per day, and there would
be work for hundreds more at the same rates, If
we were protected so as to give us the preference
in the sale of our manufactures.
All of that old rallying cry of importers of
foreign goods and vendors OffOreign manufactures
about protection is sheer humbug. 1t is only a
specious pretence to prejudice the ignorant against
fostering home industry. 1t is not the money
cost of an article that makes it cheap or dear.
Look around the world, and see what nations pay
the highest prices for articles, and see if they are
not the nations where labor is the best rewarded
-whc the workman gets paid for his work and
has the means to buy.
As q country increases in prosperity, wages
ere sure to find a proper level, with or without Il
protective tariff. When the writer settled in this
country twenty-six years ago, the price of un-
skilled labor was l21 cents per day, and pay in
cloth, and now labor is 30 cents per day, and pay
in cash. We cannot suppose that, living as we
do so close to California, and with such cheap
communication, that our prices Of labor will
differ much from the wages In California. AS
we are brought more closely with our neighbors
we must assiInilate with their customs. Our la
borers are now working at unskilled labor for,
say $40 per month. or SIT per year.
a laborer buys clothes for a year, . $50
Food for self and family, 81
iaHes, .
Lays ........... 3
$120
Under protection with skilled labor he can
earn, say $50 per month, or 1920 per year.
He buy clothes at an advance of so per cent. $50
Food at an advance in proportion to wages. 3I2
Taxes. 5
for family, say. 100
Lays 213
$72O
Suppose that 100 men at any of our large kalo
growing districts, under the benefits of increased
wages ON skilled labor under protection, are
obliged to pay 800 each for clotbinga year more
than they are paying now, and they cell their
to the manufacturers at the same rate of
or for the sake of the argument, say at
the one-fourth part of the rate of increase, or
Difference between $40 and $50 IL month";. $50 90
The one quarter Difference is. ............ II so
Under present prices,
Whole income of sales, 1920
rays Ior cIothes'. SoU
saves. %
-$120
Under the one-quarter increased of skilled labor,
Whole income of Sales. 1910
'ays Tor Clothes, $lbU
axes. D
luxuries for flmily 20
saves. So
-$270