The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-05-24
WHAT CORRESPONDENTS THINK.
A Good Argument in Favor of Wo-
man Suffrage.
MR.. MARsDEN FILES HIS ANSWER.
Made BY Ceyion Planter-Has the
Suffrage OF Man brought the MIL
lenium?--win Women Vote at z.asts

MR.. EDIToR;-In yonr issue of the
2lst inst, Ceylon planter states that
in my article ON diversified indus
tries, printed In Thrum's Annual,
there are misleading statements and
errors that should be corrected.
If there is anything that / have
said In that article that is not true. or
that is misleading, i am quite willing
to have it corrected, but cannot see
that G. r. has proved this TO be the
case.
In one part of my article say
that the coffee industry on these
islands has brilliant prospects before
it. Further on / say that tea Is un-
suitable for cultivation, on account of
it's being the product of those coun-
tries where the low price of labor en-
tirely precludes competition by this
country. G. p. inquiries why Mr..
Marsden's argument against tea does
not hold good in regard to coffee, and
G. p. cites the well-known fact that
before the era of tea Ceylon was, next
to Brazil, the largest coffee producing
country in the world, leaving it to be
inferred by your readers that tea has,
by its own merits, supplanted coffee
in Ceylon, when the facts are that the
introduction of tea into Ceylon was
the result of an accident. In 1870 the
coffee leaf disease hemilei0 Vastu-
triG) made its appearance among the
coffee plantations and spread with
such alarming rapidity, which no
efforts of the planters could check,
that ruin speedily stared them in the
face. 1t was then for the first time
that attention was directed to the
cultivation of tea. The weary strug-
giles and vicissitudes that the planters
had to go through for years before tea
culture became established upon a
paying basis are now matters of his
tory.
Were it not for the leaf disease,
coffee would reign supreme in Ceylon,
and the production would be 80 great
as to materially lower the price all
over the world, and Hawaii would be
at great disadvantage, owing to the
great difference in the price of labor,
as it is at present. Ceylon is not
likely to produce coffee to large ex-
tent.
Let us take glance at the great
coffee producing countries and COM
pare the labor conditions there with
those of Hawaii.
Brazil is the greatest coffee growing.
country in the world, and produces
55 per cent. OF the total supply. Prev
ious to the deposition of the Emperor
Dom Pedro, all the coffee in Brazil
was produced by slave labor. Since
then the slaves have been free and the
planters have had to pay their labor
ers. History has shown that in most
slave countries the emancipated negro
is not to be depended upon for steady
agricultural labor. This is especially
true of Brazil, and that country is
now looking to other countries for a
supply of labor.
The Brazilian Commissioners to the
Worlds Fair informed me that his
Government had instructed him to
inquire into the feasibility of intro
ducing Japanese into Brazil, and that
his country could offer equal advan-
tages, such as pay and other condi-
tions, as is given to the japanese in
Hawaii. He further assured me that
the cost of labor on coffee plantations
in Brazil was about the same as in
Hawaii, and the demand much greater
than the supply.
From the Mexican Financier take
the following: "The unfavorable con-
ditions of the labor market in Brazil
and the unsettled state of affairs there
generally, have furnished Mexico with
her golden opportunity in the way of
coffee production"
1t is well known that Mexico her.
self is trying to get laborers from Chi
ma, Japan and India in order to de-
velop her agricultural industries,
principally coffee.
It is clear that Mexico cannot i'm
port labor from the countries men,
toned at less cost than we can, in fact
we have the advantage, we are nearer
and our Japanese immigration is es-
while Mexico has yet to
complete her arrangements for labors. |
Another great advantage our coffee |
growers will have over the planters of |
that country, is that Mexico imposes |
an export duty on coffee of So per 100
Next in order are the republics of
Central America. / have been in |
those countries and / can assure your |
readers, that before there is any ma |
teriaI increase in the production of |
coffee in those countries, labor will |
have to be imported and the planters |
there are looking with longing eyes |
to China and Japan for the much |
needed laborers.
The straits they are put to for labor |
was plainly shown by the late partial |