The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1870-01-15
THE PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
JANUARY 10.

of her sugar plantations, contains much of inter-
est to Hawaiians, the more SO because of the
present discussion on our labor system. Under
the system of slavery, the sugar planters of ia
mdica reached a point in the export of sugars
which has never since been attained. The decline
of her prosperity has been ascribed to the eman-
cipatiOn of the slaves, but able writers and
statisticians have proved that the decline COM
menced some thirty years before emancipation
was talked of, and have also proved that the cul-
%tivation of sugar was more profitable ruth free
Ia5or than under the forced labor system. Natu-
rally jamaica is a garden-spot. y writer upon
Jamaica says:
this wretched hulk (Kingston) is the capital
of an island the most fertile in the world it is
blessed with a china. most glorious it lies rotting
in the shadow of mountains that can be cultivated
from summit to base, with every product OF temper
ate and tropical regions it is mistress of a harbor
where a thousand line-of-battle ships can safely ride
at anchor"
With all the natural advantages of the most ia
vored localities, Jamaica for thirty years and until
lately has been a scene of ruin and desOlation.
Deserted sugar estates are upon every hand and a
successful planter is the exception, not the rule.
To disprOve the planters assertion that emanci-
patton was the cause of decay, let us quote the
opinion of a writer who certainly has said all
that could be said in favor of the coolie system of
the British Colonies
"I hope to be able to show to others as plainly as
the conviction has come home to myself, that disaster
and misfortune have followed not emancipation
but the failure to observe those great principles OF
| liberty and justice upon which the foundations OF
emancipation were soidly laid. The very highest
influence has been exerted, and is still exerted, TO
support the old pllntOcratic dynasty and its feudal-
isms-things that were meant to die, and ought to
have died, as soon as the props OF slavery, protection,
and other mOnOpOlies were removed. Every one
admits that the sugar interest is a most Important
interest, whose expansion should be facilitated by all
legitimate means but only evil has grown out OF the
attempt to foster it by 4 system of quasi slavery, and
at the expense of other interests upon which the
prosperity Of a country must largely depend"
At the time the writer penned these lines the
eoolie system was but an experiment in Jamaica,
the importation Of East Indians in numbers
having but lust commenced. Since the time when
slavery existed the energies of the planters seem
to have been expended in dcvising some system of
labor which could not be styled slavery, and yet
which bore q resemblance to it, as the writer
properly says Il system Of quasi-slavery. The
Jamaica planter claimed, as our planters and
their champions do, that free or g responsible
as we have it, labor could not be depended upon;
that to cultivate sugar p~rofitably a forced labor
system was the first essential
"The planters cling unwittingly to the shreds of
the system of coercion in which they were once
taught TO believe. They do not yet recognize the
overwhelming advantages of perfectly free labor, for
they have checked its development by imposing upon
it some Of the heaviest burdens Of feudalism and Of
serfdOm.'
East Indian coolies, under the British immigra-
ton act, had been carried to other islands and
had proved to be the best of labor, but it was
under conditions quite different and more reputa-
Bile to the planter. While clinging with a blind
infatuation to a forced system of labor, and be-
coming day by day, and month after month, more
embarrassed, they would not give free labor,
which they styled : the worst system of labor in
the world, - a trial, but waited in the So modest
expectation that the Government of England
would wrong the people of England to relieve
Them. They expected Il restoration of protective
duties on sugar, and the imposition of a heavy
tax on the British nation, in order that they, who
gave nothing in return, might live in sumptuous
and easy luxury" In these islands we are fos-
tering a labor system which is repugnant to the
better instincts Of men who believe that all men
are born equally free and independent a system
that would not survive n week if transplanted
upon the soil of the United States, and yet we are
waiting and hoping for q treaty with the people
of the United States which must operate to
strengthen the position assumed by this Govern
ment and the planting interest. Have we a right
to expect the ratification of the treaty? Would
it not be better for us to reconstruct our labor
system, and bring it into a form and shape that
would challenge the scrutiny of a Sumner or a
Mill?
Another parallel may be drawn between the
West Indies and these islands in the treatment of
|bOOo xybo orpoca fba fnraad or oOaroiva Svsta,n
An association was formed to improve the social
and moral condition of the labOrers, and the first
point made was that there was a 8 want of conf
dence between the employer aud the employed
which was evident because the planter believed
that his iabOrer was only available when under Il
system that compelled HIM to give his labor when
needed. The planters Immediately called a meet
ing and denounced the society . for attempting to
arouse unjust suspicion in the minds of the ignOr-
ant touching their rights - claimed that the de-
sire for a more liberal tenure was { a political
movement, and that it was an endeavor to jeOp-
ardize the successful system of plantation manage
ment as now adopted The KuOkOa and this pa
per have been denounced for the same reasons,
and so have the speakers at the recent meetings
one planter having gone so far as to threaten viO-
lence if a writer for one of the papers came upon
his domain while other speakers have been made
to understand that their material interests would
suffer if they did not bride their tongues The
young men who opposed the system of labor, and
who may, because of the confidence placed in them
by the natives, be nominated as representatives
to the Assembly, have been tainted with the re-
mark that they sought political preferment, that
they were on |" a very good Eobby-horse, perhaps,
To ride into the legislature on" The spirit thus
shown cannot result in good. The San Francisco
of the Government organ says:
"It is the opinion of those here. who have taken an
interest in the discussions which have filled your
newspapers lately, that such free ventilation Of the
subject of labor is the ~harbinger of a bet
ter and more successful future for your most impor-