The Hawaiian gazette., 1894-03-23
A CHANCE FOR FARMERS IN HAWAII.
A Full Review OF the Earning Power
OF Agricultural Laborers in Different
Parts of the Quilted states. DO we
Wan, swed.S i'm These Islands.

careful study Of the subject of labor
in the United States. 1t will be
found full of facts which are inter
esting in themselves, and relevant
to th,, questions now under discus
sion 20 Ire Islands:
A few years ago it was my privi-
lege to tour nearly every Western
State of the American Union for the
purpose of studying the labor situa-
ton, in all sections requiring large
number of manual employees. At the
time, prepared an exhaustive report
of nv findings, embodying statistics
and other valuable data, for an asso-
citation then had the honor TO repre-
sent. ! regret that this has long since
passed from my hands, and l am IN
able to locate a copy at the present
moment; but. from memory and later
observation, / can, III few words,
thoroughly explain the condition of
American agricultural labor systems,
correct certain misconceptions OF the
matter into which a few of your read
ers have fallen, and show the degree
of interest we are justified in allotting
the question of American white lab
orers for the cane fields of Hawaii.
In the beginning feel sure you will
pardon me for saying that, in the sew
eral articles appearing in the various
CITY papers during the last few weeks,
/ find more or less error, especially in
tabulated schedules of wages; and,
while these accounts are applicable to
certain conditions and narrow pro-
vfnces, they really afford a very
meagre idea of the general situation
and are not to be depended upon as
basis for calculation.
For instance, within twenty miles
of Topeka, Kansas, the same man, in
a single day, may be offered half
dozen different prices for his services
for the same work; on the outskirts of
Denver, where are those beautiful lit
tie truck farms, it is no unusual occur
renee for a laborer to leave wages of
$40 per month to accept $25 from the
next door neighbOr; in the wheat and
corn-fields of Missouri So 80 per
month with board, for plOughing is
aimed at, though the same man may
command Sl4 within two miles of
where his last month had brought
him only SO; in Minnesota, Iowa,
Nebraska and the Dakotas the same
lack of system prevails; i'll Western
Texas. a new country, with its broad
expanse of wheat, wheat, wheat, we
find more regularity than elsewhere,
the general wages paid farm laborers
throughout the section being $l2 per
month and board; in Idaho, Wash
ington and Oregon there is al imper-
feet system, begln.iug with the wheat
fields of the Palouse country of Idaho
and Washington at S25 and board, and
decreasing toward the west and south.
Each community in California may
be said to have its own rate; aud that
State becomes the hardest of all to
figure upon. All is irregular aud sub
ject to multiplicity OF conditions.
Chinese, Japanese and the overflow of
labOrers from the Eastern States,
their irregular distribution and the
fluctuations of demand and supply,
occasion condition of affairs not to
be met with elsewhere. | have known
laborers to receive S25 per month
with board in one section of Cali
fornia, viii e, in another, at the same
NOThp Sl- OU WAS tbllSlbFIGi SOOI
wages; and as low as Sc is paid
Therefore, should FAY that the aver
age wages paid to farm laborers in
California does not exceed SIS per
month with board. From the
above you will readily per-
ceive the difficulties to be encOun-
tered by man not a close and wide
observer of the matter in his efforts to
reach an intelligent basis for calcula
ton. Even the figures prepared 10y
the United States Labor Commission
are at fault in many particulars; and
are so because they originally come
from the books of one 10 three large
planters in State, who have their
own little systems, but know little
about wages in the adjoining counties.
For example, Mr.. Richardson of
Denver. a lawyer, who owns that
great alfalfa farm west of the city, the
largest probably in the country, and
who knows nothing of farming, sell
dom visits his own plantation, but
leaves it entirely to a manager, did,
understand, furnish the Commission
with a table of wages for the State of
Colorado in 1889. Nothing whatever
against the veracity of Mr. Richard
son; but the point is that wages are
more and far less in his immediate
neighborhood than his statement
would indicate, aud he went far wide
of anything like an average for the
State.
The report from Minnesota will APP
ply to the southern part of the State,
but not to One-half of the agricultural
territory. 1t was formulated in Min
neapolis by a man who, | understand,
is not and never was planter.
The same may be said of Nebraska,
the report covering territory of less
than forty miles around Omaha; white
a table from Yankton, prepared by q
stock man, tells all about the labor
systems of the two DakOtas.
These are the things we have to con-
tend with. The United States have
no plantation labor system; the States
have none; farming communities none
to speak of. In considering the ques-
ton / would first remind you that the
farm labOrer is the poorest paid wage
Garner in the United States. The sim
gle silver assayer, over his smoking
cupels, at the little mills hidden away
in the rock-ribbed wales of the noun
tains, receives more for bisstwo hours