The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1883-02-24
The Hawaiian Slavery SANDER.

personal & we.'' The present it seems to me is
one of them. / have just returned from a visit
to the Hawaiian Islands, and while there / made
a close study of the labor question. Ny word
will stand good, I think, with those who rsmem-
Der my journalistic career. l would not write
or allow q line to be printed in this paper that
in any way favored or screened the wrongful
oppression of any human being, even If my
refusal ruined my business. I have always been
on the side of the weak, as instance, while on
the Bulletin staff in the case Of the master of the
ship Intrepid, who sent a sailor adrift near
Easter Island also in the City and County Hos
Pital and Industrial School cases. Again, when
an owner in the Post, in the ship Sunrise and
other cases, and in the Merchant, In the Mussel
Slough affair. Even for my Island friends. gen.
tiemen whom I esteem very highly, I would not
change my principles. / say that slavery, or
anything approaching it, does not exist on the
Islands any more than it does amongst the coll
ored servants in the Palace Hotel of this city. /
have seen the so-called "slave pen - at Homo
lulu, and say it is more convenient and gives
superior accommodations to those furnished i'm
migrants at the well known Castle Garden in New
York, as I saw that place. in 1862. I walked around
the immigrant barracks at Honolulu with a lady
when it was occupied by South Sea Islanders
about to return to their native Isle. I looked
into their rooms, / saw them eating, wash
ing clothes, cooking, playing games. They were
stout, healthy, happylooking people. They
seemed to have accumulated a good deal of per-
sonal property. Indeed, it was the subject of
QlSCuSSlOu III tu0 IOcal papers tndI Iuey QAQ Oeen
purchasing too literally of Springfield rifles, re-
yolvers and ammunition for the peace of some
of their neighbors. This was mentioned in the
Board of immigration. but there was no proof
that the natives had any bad intent, and if they
had. there was no law in the Islands to prevent
any one purchasing or carrying arms. 1 saw a
few days after a crowd which had just been
landed, and comparing the two, L deliberately
declare that these people are benefited by a
%sojourn in the Hawaiian Islands. They are a
far lower race than the Hawaiian and much
flthier in their habits, and a years service on
. Hawaiian plantation is a wholesome educa-
ton. L have visited some of the plantations,
and seen the houses or camps in which the
Portuguese and Norwegians reside. In some
cases these are built in a row of ten around three
sides of a square. In others, two or three houses
form a block. I found rooms IA by Is and of
good height, well lighted, built of American
wood, American shingles, windows and doors,
and either painted or whitewashed. In some
cases the Portuguese had one or two cows and a
calf, or a pig and chickens. The Norwegians did
not generally make a garden, but they some
times owned one or two horses. Of course,
all do not invest their spare earnings in
this way. Some send them home, others mud
die them away. 1 found Norwegians acting as
assistant engineers, and as assistant sugar boil
ers, and getting an advance of several dollars q
month on their contract pay. Indeed, l learned
that on most plantations good men who worked
cheerfully, and made their employers interest
their own, got an advance of two to six dollars u
month beyond their contract, besides other fav-
ors. Those who are learning to run an engine, O
locomotive, O steam pillow or to boil sugar, will
rise from the rank OF common laborers, and be
in q fair way of earning more in the futuie AS
mechanics in a month, than they could in a year
at home. The women get half-a-dollar] n day
without board. and work on most plantations an
hour less than the men. During the school holi-
days, some whole families go into the field, those
of the children who can work receiving 25 Cents
a day. The baby, rolled in u shawl, is laid on
the ground at the end of a row. an those chill
Iran .ulo ara ton email 10 work urnfch ff II
must be remembered that these people come from
countries in which women are often compelled by
necessity to work in the felus, for fathers and
husbands cannot earn enough to support them.
Some of the women never go into the fields, but
all generally find some honest way of making a
little money. 1 talked with some Norwegianso on
IA plantation in which there had once been some
trouble. A change in the superintendency had
reformed everything. The question, Would
you go back to your old homes and old employ
ments, addressed to four or five, brought the
answer from all but one. "No." One mans
answer was qualified "Not now" The same
question addressed to a young married woman
brought the answer, "I would like to see my
friends, but I would not go back to Norway to stay"
A man standing near, who was on the sick list, said:
Not if l could have my health" TO the ques-
ton, 81 Can o farm-laborer in Norway, with a
wife and two children, save q dollar a month";"
both replied No, it would take all he could
earn to support them" Can you save that
much a month here?" l asked. They laughed,
and said " We can save o great deal more than
that" Many Of these Portuguese and Nor
wegians talk OF coming to California when their
time is out, but experience shows that among the
Iisv who have fulfilled their engagements most
have re-engased on the same or another planta-
ton. l saw the dinner laid out for the men at
one plantation. There were four tables. all fur
nished alike, with boys (hirei) to wait. The
Americans, Portuguese, Norwegians. and The
Islanders sat ut separate tables. The dinner con-
sisted of baked beef, with good gravy, pork and
beans, corned beef and green's, dry hash, meat
pie. white bread, corn bread. coffee. molasses,
sugar, fruit pies, cake, &c. The coffee was better
than that of the average OF cheap restaurants in
this city, and the whole layout was equal TO the
best of our mechanics restaurants, where board
costs four dollars a week. except in the absence
of tablecloths and napkins. | talked freely with
the new Portuguese Consul. He had visited
most of the plantations, and his experience gene
rally corroborated mine. In two or three cases
on Hawaii. he had thought it his duty to address
the Government in regard to the quarters fur
nished, and their location The grounds of
complaint have been. or are. in course
of removal. This gentleman thought that the
failure on the part of q few planters to provide
what he considered proper accommodations for
their people, arose rather from want of means
than any other cause. The Government, he
said, had done everything he could ask, and had
notified one or two planters that if they did not
do better by their people, the contracts would be
cancelled. One planter has voluntarily short
ened the terms of service. The Government Is
considering the propriety of reducing the con-
tracts that were made for five years 10 three.
The testimony Of the Swedish Consul, in regard
to the Norwegians, is much the same or even
stronger. The special agent who was sent from
Europe to investigate the rumors of oppression,
left lately for home by way of Japan, entirely
satisfied. Indeed, a few days before leaving,
two or three of the Norwegian riffsSf, who were,
unfortunately, picked up on the water front just
as the vessel sailed for Honolulu, came with
complaints of such q frivolous and transparently
false a nature. that the Swedish Commissioner
expressed to a member of the Board of Immigra-
ton his regret that neither of them had the
power to punish the rascals in some summary
manner. 1 do not mean to allege that every
planter treats his people as well as those are
treated whom I saw. I know that here in Cali
fornia, there are farmers who feed and house
their laborers badly, and put up little swindles
on them in the matter of payment. Human
nature is much the same the world over, but in
the treatment of laborers in the Hawaiian
Islands, it is restrained by policy. A harsh en-
ployer has every planter against him. / sum up