The Hawaiian gazette., 1890-02-25
THE LABOR QUESTION,

European powers to hold a confer
ence upon the labor question. This
is regarded by some as q. bona iide
attempt to do something toward sol
wing the labor problem, while others
look upon it as g mere attempt to
oonciliste the socialist vote. 1t Is
probably something of both. The
policy of Germany with regard to
socialism is one of mingled severity
snd kindness. Through the social
istic law, it endesvors TO suppress
socislistic sgitation with q vigor I'M
/ known to the statutes of other coun-
tries, while at the same time 1t en-
beavers 10 conciliste and meet the
socialists half way by semi-socialishc
legislation, an example of which is
furnished by the Compulsory Work
ingmen's Insurance Act, lately
passed. Under this combined pol
icy of repression and Cancellation,
socialism in Germany has assumed
more dangerous proportions every
year, snd the evil has grown with
every effort to stamp it out until
Germany has become the classic
land of socialistic agitation, the CEN
ter from which foreign missions are
sent out As to the labor confer
ence, it is not likely that it will be
fruitful in results Similar confer
ences have more than once been
held, and have terminated as rule
in nothing at sll, or nothing of value.
If the experienced Of the last hun
dred years is good for anything it
goes to show that there is only
one way permanently to i'm
prove the condition of the
lsboring class, and that is by the
adoption of measures which tend to
increase his industry and self-reh
anee. He must be reformed from
below, and any attempt to improve
his condition from above, like the
German legislation, is not likely in
the end to effect any permanent
ameliorstion of his situation. Pro
tecting him from the evil of want in
old age by compulsory assurances,
does nothing for his character. He
might as well be directly provided
for by charity The more provision
there is made for the poor, the more
poor there viii be. The more poor
houses, the more psupers. The
true way to mitigate the sufferings
of the poor from restitution In old
age is to devise some plan the oper-
alton of which will tend to increase
the prudence and foresight of those
who participate in its benefits. This
the German legislation has no tend
ency to do, but on the contrary
rather goes to make individual pru-
dence and foresight superiuous.
a large share of the dissstisfac-
ton of laboring men is due chiefly
to general causes. inherent in and
operating throughout our whole
industrial system. Almost every
one in our decade admits that the
lsboring men have real wrongs, and
that the modern industrial system
does not of itself assign to labor a
reward proportioned to the value Of
its contribution to the product The
rich cannot be very rich unless the
poor are very poor. The lsboring
classes all over the civilized
world are reused to the facts,
and feel in some way that they
are wronged. Honolulu is no
exception to the universal rule,
and our vigorous snti-Chinese agits
ton was undoubtedly partially due
to general causes, to the general
pressure on labor existing through
out the world, and not merely to
Chinese competition Here, as every
where, the evil is rampant. and cry
ing for a remedy, and here. as every
where, it is much easier to discover
and point out the defects in existing
arrangements than to discover and
apply remedy.
OF one thing we may be sure.
The successful remedies viii be the
modest ones Extrsysgant socislis-
tic schemes can only preeipitate the
world into disorder and chaos. The
method which is to be fruitful must
build an experience, must take ad-
vantage of the past. must be in the
/ line of historical DEVELOPMENT. For.