The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1894-04-24
ANOTHER LABOR CHAPTER.
a Letter 10 the "star" on Question
of Current Interest.

! temporary, III MS cflllclsin OF tne STAR =
just statement that the United States is
congested with immigrants, shows a
lamentable lack of knowledge of social
and economic questions.
He says France and Belgium have. in
a great measure solved the problem of
subsistence. The average size of
French farms is three and half acres.
and the farmers are the richest of their
class in the world.
If we take look at Belgium we will
see that she has 93l people for every
square mile of cultivated surface, and
54l people for every square mile of her
surface.
A glance at these figures will con.
vince anyone who knows anything of
soil that Belgium cannot, within her
own borders, produce food enough for
her people, and she strives { o make up
the deficiency by exchanging manu-
featured articles for food and raw
material. She is thus forced into com
petition with other manufacturing
countries which have large bodies of
unemployed laborers Now it is i'm
possible for country which cannot
produce its food supply upon its own
soil to live in comfort when compelled
to compete with the starving
workmen of other countries for
starving workmen mean starvation
wages for their competition. Is it true
that Belgium has "solved the problem OF
subsistence" The public debt OF Bel
GUM is $63 10 per capita, or about four
and one-half times as much per capita
as the per capita public debt OF the
United States.
But your contemporary tells us that
''the French farmer, with his 31s-acre
farm, is the richest of his class in the
world" If this be true it is true in the
same sense that Jap with 81 in his
pocket is richer than white man with
So in his pocket. The most of us can
increase our wealth by lowering our
standard OF comfort, but let us pray to
be delivered from such wealth. A wife,
a child or two, horse or two, two milk
cows, light vehicle to ride in, dog, a
cat, fire to sit by in cold weather, and
books and newspapers to keep him in
touch with the great world around him,
are some of the things required by an
a 31s-acre French farm would not sup
ply them. The rigid economy OF the
French farmer and laborer is as yet I'M
known in the United States, but the
same cause will produce the same re-
suit, and the 1856 people to the square
mile il France render necessary the
rigid economy we see there practiced.
Your contemporary says the United
is capable OF supporting several hundred
millions OF people. A population OF 1856
to the square mile would give the United
States, exclusive OF Alaska, 56l ,000, 900
OF people.
| The STARS statement that the United
States has all the immigrants she needs
for long period of years will not be
superficial knowledge of political econ
omy and the conditions which exist in
civilized countries. The public debt OF
France is SIG 80 per capita, or about
SO times the per capita debt OF the
United States.
The idea that productive land can yet
be had in the United States "almost for
the asking" might be obtained by read
ing the advertisements of land agents
and irrigation companies but never by
observation and practical knowledge.
Ditch companies have habit OF charg-
ing "all the traffic will bear"
1t was my unhappy fortune to own (P)
half interest in 100 acres of land in Weld
County, Colorado, under the Larimer
County ditch. The 81 eriff administered
on my estate before death. | escaped
with my life only, and | can. truly say
that Jared as well as most OF the men
who lived under that ditch. However,
we did. not conform to the French
farmers standard OF living.
1t has been abundantly shown that
population has tendency to increase
beyond the means of subsistence" and
it has also been shown that population
invariably increases where the means OF
subsistence increase, unless prevented
by powerful and obvious checks" No
one who denies or ignores the Nal
thusian doctrine of population and the
physiological law of action can ever de-
wise plan which will deliver the in
habtants of this earth from the evils
into which they have for ages been
plunged.
Your critic says: "The present trouble
in the United States Is the falling off in
the demand for hired laborers owing to
the low prices for produce" 1t Seems
to me that the fundamental cause OF
the distress of hired laborers in tn,
United States is the fact that there is &
surplus of laborers. more men thar
jobs" is the way we laborers express it
Prices for produce did not rise thu
year after the "Back Plague" In Eng
land, but the wages of farm laborer
increased four fold. Wages increased al
the number of laborers decreased. TIL,
fact that population is nearly stationar,
in France helps her people to maintain
their present standard of living. If he
population were rapidly increasing
their standard of living would b.
quickly lowered. All thoughtful PEG
pie admit that if we are to have evei
7 standing room there must be som
: check to human increase, and upon tn
nature of this check the happiness of on
2 race in large measure depends. If w
, would live happily we must liv