The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1893-05-20

industry had been bankrupted by
the change"
l asked Mr.. Spreckcls care the
planters generally of your mind on
this matter2" He replied:
ooh, yes-they all see plainly that
Asiatic labor is necessary to sugar
planting here. We do not prefer it,
but we are dependent on it. Some
planters still hope that the United
States would agree to accept us with
a maintenance of our labor system
and laws. You will find if you ask
them that they are for annexation
on that condition, but not without.
They have been told by some one
that the United States SO greatly
need and desire to possess the Isl
ands that they will submit to any
conditions we island planters choose
to impose. | see no evidence of
that"
asked Mr.. Spreckels: "Is sugar
the only possible important crop of
the islands?" He replied:
"Yes, l say that confidently, other
things have been tried. We now
grow good deal of rice, but you
know that this crop is got only in
the fiat region near the sea-shore,
where lands can be flooded; and
even this industry is entirely con-
| Quoted by Chinese and Japanese; no
natives are engaged in it. Coffee has
not hitherto succeeded here on a
large scale; the blight has been the
danger for that, but it is again being
developed, and if we have labor,
that will decide its success, as the
soil and climate are excellent. If
the sugar were destroyed the islands
would relapse into big COW pasture,
which they were before sugar was
begun. But for sugar culture they
are admirably suited, SO long as we
can be sure of labor at a reasonable
price and under such conditions that
the laborers shall not be able to COM
bine to take advantage of our neces-
stiles. For that end Asiatic labor
is necessary to us, and l will venture
to assert to you that we are not
singular in this for cane sugar is not
now profitably cultivated anywhere
in the world, except by colored and
in the main Asiatic labor"
1 said to Mr.. Spreckels: "It is urg-
ed by annexationists here that no
settled or stable government is pos
sible in the islands without annexa-
tion.' He replied
81 can't see why we should not
have stable Independent government
There is no disorder whatever here
now, as you know. If the present
government should disband its
troops there would not be the least
danger to life and property or pub,
the barracks who keep the peace
but the people themselves; and this
though the native people are almost
unanimously opposed to the annexa,
ton prospects of our present rulers
and though the Provisional Govern
ment has so far excluded both ma
tives and Portuguese from it's mem
bership. To answer your question
| am sure that stable, orderly and
economical government is possible
here; and as | am the largest tax,
payer on the islands, and have more
property at stake and pay more
taxes than the whole Provisional
Government, you will admit that
my interests must make me con
servative. | need a stable and eco
nomical government more than any
man on the islands"
| asked: ''Has the government not
been wasteful in the past?" Mr.
Spreckels replied:
"Of course it has. We have haC
here an unexampled period of rapiC
money making for term of years
and economy was not practiced by
any one. Under the treaty and YOU
sugar duties everybody got rapidly
rich here--not onl y the planters, but
merchants and traders and every
body. There was naturally no dis
position to economy, and the govern
ment became extravagant because
everybody was eXtravagant. Now
at last the wheel has turned, and
we must economize on the planta
tions, in our daily lives, and o
course in the government. Sugar
planters who practice rigid economy
will make money this year even; bu
not the great dividends they made
in years past. That boom is over
not only for planters but for tn,
workmen as we'll. Look at Homo
lulu suppose you scarcely recog
niZe it, from twenty years ago whel
you were here. Think of the hun
! dreds, yes, thousands of workmel
, of all kinds who were brought her
:, to build the fine houses which sur
. prise you all over Honolulu. Blu
that is the least of it. Go to th
=, plantations and see what has boel
= done there - fine factories, costl,
+ machinery, miles of houses for th
work people, expensive water works
often luxurious homes. | myself hat
q nine hundred workmen in wood ant
iron employed at one time on m
Maui plantations for over tel
months, to say nothing of the thou
= sands of men employed in making
machinery in San Francisco for al
the islands. Workmen now her
> complain of hard times, but the
+ forget that the sugar mills, th
, laborers and overseer's houses, tn
water works, and also the splendi,
:, homes in Honolulu have now beel
= completed; the work is done and tn
c boom has burst, and we are down o.
strict business basis. That was in
= evitable from the first; and annexa
: ton cannot make a new boom a
some of our people seem to think.