The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1879-04-12
Equf hzation of the Sexes.

Ma. EpTroH-Permit me through your columns TO say
few words in regard to an impression Of certain difh-
culties in the way Of our immigration Of colored laborers
from the Southern States
There is . plan on foot and now in operation to emf
crate = large body Of freedmen into new. unsettled North
western Territory; and let me call your attention 10 a
dispatch in the San Francisco weekly Chronicle Of 9th
February last. in support of my statement-"A Washing
ton correspondent says: -Four or i've hundred negroes
from South Carolina are here, and will start for Idsho in
three weeks 10 locate on lands and work on the railroad
from Boise" Senator Bruce and other Congressman aid
ing the emigration.
This would appear to be 8 movement hostile to the in
terests of employers in the Southern States; but during
my recent visit TO that country I heard this emigration
scheme discussed. and I noticed that planters and other
employers Of labor were taking very complainant views
Of the movement. Whilst they expressed regrets at any
loss Of labor. they were content to be relieved of n dis
turbing political element to some extent; and at the same
time they felt confident OF replacing emigrant freedmen
with European immigrants. Walhalla, a beautiful town.
and 3 hourishing German colony in Oconee County, South
Carolina, is an illustration Of how the South hopes TO
compensate for any loss of colored people. We can get
of colored laborers uUifh their families. what few may be
required TO meet any present needs of labor in this coun-
try, and I don't commend any more-say one thousand
or thereGbouts, without awakening the slightest unpleas-
ant feeling among the Southern white people.
Now in regard to the alleged shiftlessness or incompe-
tency as laborers of the freedmen of the late slave States,
1 would ask you who has produced the last great cotton
crop Of over i've million bales. 1t will hardly do TO
credit the scions Of the old planting white aristocracy
with a production surprising the best days of slavery.
No, not quite,-you must admit that the colored man of
the cotton States. though shiftless sometimes like his
white brother, is at this day and as q free man a better
laborer than he ever was as a slave, and is so recognized
by the great majority of employers, Notwithstanding
complaints in newspapers, originating chiefly in political
acerbities.
We can get a supply of colored laborers from South
Carolina, or even Louisiana without any risk of unfavor-
ably affecting our reciprocity treaty. And we can also
get coolie immigrants from India which I regard as of
mo- re Importance in respect to population, if we try; and
in pursuing this matter, we have less to fear from sup
posed British hindrances or American disfavor, than we
have from our own jealOusies and want Of cordial CO.
operation.
But Mr.. Editor, ! do not venture into print at this
time, either in your journal or in the columns OF your
~neighbor, for the sake of discussing Negro, Hindoo, or
any other immigration, except as in connection with the
great question of the equalization Of the sexes. 1 am
slightly interested in the labor question, and only take
part in its discussion so far as it is connected with the
welfare of the country. But 1 write now and would raise
my voice on any and every suitable occasion, to fix the
attention Of the King and people of the Hawaiian Islands
upon the injurious disproportion of the sexes in our pop
ulation.
In our chief industrial centres, where population is
grouped, there are two and in some places three adult
males to one adult female, and we are still introducing
more single men into the country. l denounced this evil
most earnestly in 1874. and so have you from time to
time,-Andn now you must not withhold your voice or stay
your hand.
This disproportion is the evil that cries aloud for agi-
many thousands of sailors were occasionally let loose
upon these shores. Now the evil is in n worse and more
other strangers here who have no female helpmeets with
them. Those who only care for crops, and nothing about
say, What matter, after we win our ventures, If the
deluge comes? They mock at the hope of a Hawaiian
People and deride the possibility of maintaining an en-
during independent Polynesian State.