The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1893-06-06

experiment has always proved fail
ure, either from the fact that it was
impossible for laborers of the Scan
dinavian class to do field work in
this tropical climate, or by the rea-
son OF expense attendant on labor
from Portugal and similar countries.
Realizing these conditions, the
planters have been compelled, in
order to compete successfully with
other sugar raising countries, to
enter into negotiations for class of
labor competent to fill the require
ments of plantation work, and at a
rate Of wages that would admit of a
profit to the planters. With this
end in view the Hawaiian Legisla-
ture, realizing the precarious condi-
tion of our plantations, was in
duced to amend certain portions
of the laws restricting Chinese
immigration, and to allow under
certain conditions the admission of
limited number of Chinese labor
ers. AS this, however, was entirely
inadequate to meet the demand of
the plantations, a convention was
entered into with Japan, by which
labor from that country was secured
in sufficient quantity to meet i'm
mediate demands, and to-day about
seventy-fve percent of the labor
now employed on the plantations
are of this nationality, all of whom
came originally on three-years
contract.
The Importance of the contract
system to our plantations must be
apparent to anyone at all acquainted
with the present condition of the
sugar industry of the Islands, for
not only does it secure to the plan
tation the payment back of the
heavy advances which are made in
order to transport the laborer from
his native country, but it also pro-
tects him against Strikes" which
might occur at any time under a
free labor system, and which, from
the peculiar nature of the sugar
business, might prove ruinous to
that industry on the Islands. In
this connection, would also say,
that not only is the contract pro-
lection to the plantations, but it
was also one of the conditions un-
der which the Japanese Government
consented to its subjects coming to
the Islands, as the contract insured
to the laborer regular employment
and the faithful carrying out of it's
conditions on the part of the en-
ployer. The majority of planters
would no doubt prefer free labor if
there was sufficient on the Islands to
guarantee him against "strikes" and
labor combinations, but isolated as
the Islands are from the mainland,
combined action on the part of
the Japanese, say for instance about
harvest time, would result in great
loss to the plantation, and until the
supply of labor is fully up to the de-
mand, it would appear as though
the contract system were the only
one on which the planter could rely
for safety.
Under these conditions it will be
seen that while fully appreciate
the great benefits to be realized by
these Islands from closer relations
with the United States, and that
Annexation would be a consumma-
ton greatly to be desired, l cannot
but feel that any political change
which would annul our present Ia
Dor system would simply cripple
our sugar plantations, and the
United States, instead of acquiring a
prosperous and wealthy group of
Islands, would be taking under their
protection country whose chief in
dustry might be bankrupted by the
change.