The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1892-05-19
Cane Production By the Lease
hold System
sY REV. W. y. OLEsoS.
Read before the Honolulu Social Science
Association, March !, Is92.

The advance made in sugar manu-
facture 10 recent years has been not I
able; in the Hawaiian Islands, il has
been phenomenal. The contrast need
only be mentioned between the prim-
tive sugar mills worked by cattle.
and the splendidly equipped diffusion
plants Of the present day, 10 demon
strate the advance in this our prin-
cipal industry A still more valuable
evidence il the high percentage 81
saccharine matter extracted from
cane by the present mills g.
compared with that extracted By
the mills Of thirty years ago.
Or, for that matter, Of ten years
ago. sugar manufacture has passed
through its int2ntiIe stage on these
Islands, and though IL may not vet
have reached its maturity, il has Ger
tainly attained very lusty man
hood
While we may expect further i'm
pTOvements in milling machinery.
with a still higher percentage
Of sugar extracted from the cane, il l.
not 70 such improvements mainly
that the sugar interests must look for
favorable returns. While our mills
have been brought to high state Of
efficiency, the other branch Of the
sugar industry, viz, the production Of
cane, has not made corresponding adj
yances.
There il vastly better farming on
the plantations to-day than in the era
when whaling captains undertook TO
raise cane on the land as they had
successfully done on the seas. In
telligent farmers have come to the
rescue Of the plantations, and the day
has passed when any man who can
contEcI large numbers Of men will
meet the demands Of profitable cane
growing. Wise methods Of cultiya-
ton, and the use Of fertilizers, and the
scientific study Of soils, have come
with the advent Of genuine tilIers Of
the soil. Hard-headed business men
with figures and expedients and en-
terpTise have come to the rescue of
the plantations with their solution of
perpleXing problems of transpOrta-
ton and Of irrigation.
And yet all eyes are looking to the
plantations, in spite Of all this adj
vance, for still further decrease in the
cost OF production, as well as still fur
ther increase in the yield of cane per
acre. And this fs a justifiable expect
alton, for with all the improvements
that have been made, there certainly
has been comparatively less progress
made In the economical production OF
cane than in the economical manufac-
ture Of sugar.
This has been, in some measure, due
TO the current conviction that the way
to economic in the cost of cane-grow-
ing is TO reduce the wages of laborers.
Such conviction has stood in the way
OF other solutions of the problem. So
long as it Is easy TO cut down wages
to increase profits, profits will not be
increased by adopting any other
method less easy and convenient.
Expenses are too high; cut down
your wagesW is the command of the
agent TO the planter "Can't get men
at present wages; get us cheaper la
bor" is the cry of the planter to the
agent; both planter and agent all the
while forgetting that to lessen wages
lessons production too. Cut down a
mans pay and he, in turn, cuts down
the quality of his labor.
In dealing with labor, one never
gets more than he pays for. A fifteen
cents-per-day man in his natural
fifteen-cents-per-day environment
will furnish fifteen-cents-per-da la
Dor. Put the same man in a fifty
cents-per-day environment and you
must pay him fifty-cents-per-day
wages, or face the double alternative
Of either parting with your laborer or
of receiving from him very inadequate
service. 1t will as rule take four
tifteen-cents-per-day Iaborers to do
the work Of one fifty-cents-per-day Ia.
borer.
The reduction of plantation wages
is certainly not the only solution OF
the problem of cheapening the produc-
ton Of cane. IL may not be altogether
the most desirable solution. There
are certainly grave objections to the
policy of conducting plantations with
low-class labor. Some OF the obiec.
tons need not be mentioned. Others
more to the purpose Of the present pa
per are ID that when wages are low
more laborers will be required to dc
the necessary work in producing a ton
OF cane, and, in the long run, the cost
Of production is quite as likely to be
enhanced as it is to be reduced; ~
that men who labor at low wages will
not produce as many tons per acre.
There is, in the plantation system,
no Identification of the laborer with
the planters interests, and no induce
tAfChb tllCACLOs LhCIC II
loss in the quality of labor, and cOnse.
quently in the results obtained.
The way out is to present stimulus
in the form of compensation cOntin.
gent on the quality and amount Of
labor. The conditions of the labor
market are such that in order to sc.
cure sufficient labor for the season:
of greatest activity on plantations
men have TO be retained through
the less active periods, thus greatly
enhancing the cost of production
While the plantation system exists
there does not seem any escape from
the necessity of keeping Throughout
the year the number of men needed
during the busiest season. This is .
serious obstacle to any adjustment Of
labor that shall at the same time pro.
mote economical production and hene.
fit the laborer. For it is clear that "a
sensibly diminish the cost of produc-
ton, there must be fewer men IN
do the work and to share the com
pensation, without in any wise i'm
pairing the quality of the labor or les
SEEMING the yield per acre.
How can the yield be maintained OF
increased, and fewer men be en-
ployed? It may not be impossible
that by some wise adjustment of the
plantation system, the same work
that is now being done by 500 men,
can hp aS uall done hv dOO pu+ Il