The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1895-01-25


tell you what the exact condition was in
december, 1894, but we cannot do tt now.
here Is the last volume we have issued
the ninth annual-On building and loan
associations. How long do you guess we
were in getting that upi"
Il am not Yankee and don't guess
reckon IL took long time and q mighty
sight Of work.
Verify, It did. We had 90 men out In
Held work They got the last completed
years report Of each association and its
then condition. All that had to be sum-
married., tabulated, corrected and then
printed, and you know how the public
printing was behind So the information
Is nearly three years old by the time 10
gets to the public. And how do You sup
pose we could tell you anything worth
hearing on the present condition. No; sta
estics to be Of real value are necessarily
historical. Here's q volume that IL q beau
ty-our third annual, issued I'm 1887. In
1t ara details OF all strikes and lockouts
down to 1885, but no sooner was IL out
than the people called for more, and we
now have a force Of field workers out
bringing it down to July, 1894. We hope
TO get the reports In by next March, and
possibly the campaign orators of 1895 will
have the completed work to argue from
It took us three years TO get up our sixth
annual, issued in 1890, and congress spe-
cially called for it and gave US the needed
help. In it we give the cost Of production
Of iron and steel and some other things,
the wages OF the workmen, and how they
spend their money, and what it costs them
to live. A similar volume on textiles and
glass, specially ordered by congress, came
out in 1891. Perhaps you have some idea
now Of how these questions daily poured
on us, asking for snap judgment, strike
u.s."
PrIori Reasoning.
Enough. You have convinced me that
no ordinary man can master the subject,
and that we know very little to certain
ty; but, as to the criticisms on the census,
surely some Of the figures in it are either
cooked or badly taken. For instance,
after several censuses had shown the in
crease of the colored people to be about 81
per cent in a decade, the last three say that
the increase suddenly fell to per cent,
then increased to 80 per cent and then fell
of TO Ii per cent. Who can believe that?"
There you get into your priori rea-
soning again, which Is of no value in
matter of statistics. That variation which
you think impossible has repeatedly been
proved i'll other countries. The census of
1870 is admitted to have been bad. Allow
for that, and the rest is quite credible"
A certain rate was proved by several sue
cessive censuses. Then came an immigra-
ton OF about 5000, 900 foreigners in
$4,000, and yet no corresponding increase
of the population, as If the native increase
had stopped. Surely that is impossible"
why impossible? 1t has happened be-
fore. Immigration amounted to little be-
fore 1880, and the population doubled in a
term of years. The a priori reasoners
n q WErw,, Ill Il
say, that with the great immigration after
1910 the population would double in a
much shorter time, but 1t did not There
are many reasons for thinking that just as
immigration increases native increase de-
clines. There Is serious displacement OF
labor when laborers come in too fast.
trust, however, that way will be found
to check these tremendous irruptions OF
foreigners. One hundred years ago or
little more France had twice as many
people as England. 1t was expected that
this would continue on account of her
much larger area and fertile lands, but 1t
has not turned out so. They have figured
1t down very fine in France, and a few
hundred moro deaths than births cause
much comment among her statesmen, but
just the same Jacques Bonhomme will not
have larger family than he can start in
life according to his ideas. In Ireland,
too, there was a rapid increase and over
population, but when the population was
reduced more than a third the native in
crease declined. When room was made for
more children, there were fewer Of them.
So you see that priori reasoning is Of no
avail against established facts, and in this
department. of labor we intend to take par
ticular care to get all the facts"
Tho Bureau Chief.
BY n short act, approved June %, 1884,
congress created a bureau of labor in the
interior department and limited the ex-
pense to $25, 900 per annum, but its work
was so highly approved that In 1888 it was
raised to the rank of a department of Ia
Dor. In January, 1885, the now eminent
statistician; Hon. Carroll Davidson
Wright, was appointed first commissioners
of the bureau, and he remains at the head
of the department. Beyond the fact that
he was born in Dumbarton, \. H, July
%, 1910, served honorably in the civil
war, became colonel of the Fourteenth
New Hampshire infantry and afterward
served in the Massachusetts, state senate,
there Is little of interest in his life previous
to 1873, when he was put at the head OF
the state bureau of labor. Soon thereafter
his reputation became national, and now
it is worldwide, his reports and conclu-
sions being quoted in Europe with even
they are not there the subject Of partisan
contention. Beginning in 1886, the bureau
and department or labor have issued nine
annual reports and six special reports, and
the best proof OF their excellence is found
in the fact that confidence in them grows
with their use. 1t is a pity, of course, that
we cannot have the facts to date, and since
listening to Mr.. Weaver feel personal
regret thereat. In view Of the loose float
ing statements on the unemployed, get
ting the real facts would have been first
class scoop"
The first annual, issued in 1886, on in
dustrial depressions, is just beginning to
be appreciated at its full worth. The sec
ond on convict labor, was ordered by con-
gress, and it is no disparagement OF the
work to say that the figures have satisfied
neither party to the controversy. Then
followed ANIMALS on working women In
large cities, 1888; railroad labor, 1889, and
Industrial education 1892 besides those