The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1883-01-13
THE PACIFIC
Commercial Aobertlser .


SEVERAL cases in which employers have
taken proceedings against laborers bound to
them by contracts in the usual form have
lately come up, on appeal, to the Supreme
Court for decision. In each case the funda-
mental matter appears to have been the at
tempt of the laborer to evade the fulfillment
of his part of the contract because some
change had occurred in the ownership of
the plantation on which he was working.
The provisions of the contract in use here
forbid the assignment of a mans labor to
any third party at the will of his employer.
There is more of sentiment than of common
sense in this arrangement, but it is never
less founded on sound policy, because sem
timent is stronger than common sense
all the world over, and it is the
more so the more the individuals con-
cerned are ignorant and uncultured. The
sentiment in his case is, that if a man
should be allowed to contract to serve on a
given plantation, no matter who be the
master there, he will become a mere "slave
of the soil" or serf, to be bought, sold or
leased with the soil itself. This is really
nonsense, and a mans contract to furnish
from day to day so much of the commodity
labor might without any injustice or posi-
BILE injury to him be made as a~ssignable as
4 u COAllAaCk " AHA'J SARRE
the sentiment against this not only pre-
walls amongst laborers here and elsewhere,
but it has strong hold of the minds of the
majority of people in all civilized countries.
There has been so long, so hard, and in a
certain notable instance so bloody a strug-
gle to put down slavery and serfdom in
| Christendom, that the minds of men are pos
sessed with a wholesome horror of anything
that in the remOtest degree can be con-
strued to resemble these evils. Hence labor
contracts, wherever they are in use in Chris
tian countries, contain provisions similar to
those we have adopted here, and even if we
wished to depart from the custom it would
be enforced upon us as a necessary prelimin-
ary to obtaining the laborers we require.
1t is manifest that i'm one direction this
restriction on the assignability of a labor
contract tells against the industrial progress
of the country. There is a growing dispo-
sition on the part of residents in the neigh
boring Republic to invest in Hawaiian
plantation stocks. No doubt many of our
plantations would become more prosperous
and more productive if they were in the
hands of companies possessing ample capital
than they now are in the hands of indi-
viduaIs who are obliged to put themselves
under heavy liabilities for the purpose of
carrying them on. But the latter will find
a difficulty in disposing of their estates to
companies in the provisions of the contracts
under which their laborers serve them. An
impression seems to prevail that the recent
decisions of the Supreme Court are calcu-
lated to put a stop to such sales, even in the
case where the original proprietor retains a
large interest in the plantation himself.
Those who nave arrived at such a conclu-
sion cannot have paid much attention to
the details of these cases. None of them
go so far, or nearly so far. In the suits in
stituted on behalf of the Koloa Sugar Com
pany it appeared that the interest retained
by the seller was one in name only, and
not in reality, and the Court held that this
was not sufficient-very properly we think.
The more recent case brought on behalf
of the Heeia Plantation was decided On
a technical point-an omission on the part
of the Company to comply with the laws of
this Kingdom in the matter of registration.
We should deem it a misfortune for the
country if it should be decided that a plan
tation owner could not take moneyed part
ners into his enterprise without thereby dis
solving the contract relations between him
self and laborers to whom or on whose be-
half he has paid heavy advances. As we
have said, the recent decisions do not touch
this important question. 1t is not our place
to offer an opinion on a purely legal ques-
ton, and in view of the uneasiness which
has undoubtedly been engendered in the
public mind on the subject, We should very
much like to see this point come up for
definite settlement by a decision of the
full Court. If our neighbors in California
feel disposed to invest their money in plan
tations on these Islands in preference to
mining stocks which yield assessments
instead of dividends, it is we'll that we
should throw every encouragement in their
way, and have all doubtful points that may
n,aka tbam hesitate cleared away.