The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1896-05-06
ON THE RADICAL LINE
SENATOR scHMIDT's PLAN FoR A
SPECIAL FUND.
levy of One Per Cent. on Dividends
From Sugar To Assist
Immigration.

The new Act by Senator Schmid,
is for levy of l per cent on sugar
dividends. The money is to be
used in assisting immigration and
plantation laborers. In presenting
the Act, Mr.. Schmidt submitted
remarks in writing, as follows:
By introducing this bill it is my
aim to enable The government to do
something more for the immigra-
ton Of desirable citizens, than they
could do heretofore. They require
more funds for this purpose and
those funds should be partly fur
nished by those whose interest it
is 10 have a large number of labor
ers available, particularly in a pos
sible time OF need. BY desirable
citizens l not only mean farmers
and settlers, but also laborers from
America and Europe. The planters
generally state that they cannot
afford to pay for the passage and
other expenses of such men and
this may be true in several in
stances and at certain times when
sugar is low. Therefore | propose
only to tax those sugar plantations,
whose large dividends are sufficient
proof Of prosperity. If there are
no dividends there will be no tax.
But in prosperous years they can
afford to contribute in advance for
bad years to come.
The happy receivers of large div
idends will not mind a small de-
duction, which is principally in
tended for the immigration of de-
sirable laborers and farmers. These
people may become of great i'm
portance in case of annexation and
in fact their presence here may
bring forth annexation sooner than
we could otherwise expect.
The depression in business has
grown wo 8, from year to year a d
if it continues this way there will
soon be many business houses
closed. On the other islands exists
the same feeling of depression as
the number Of white employees on
on the plantations is decreasing.
When inquiring into the prob
able cause of all this trouble, the
answer would have been last year:
Low sugar prices" But this rea-
son does not hold good this year.
AT present it is want of popula-
ton Of desirable class" Cheap
labor las driven a large number of
desirable citizens from the islands
and more will follow if no earnest
change is made in the immigration
plan.
In connection with these argu-
ments l submit the following
figures which l have been able to |
extract from the statement furnish
ed me by the Minister of the
Interior:
Thirty-seven incorporated Sugar
Companies have paid total divid-
ends for 6 years Of 70. sos, oo3, or
an average per year Of 1904, 1872.
The total for the last four years is
"a, oII,325, or an average per year
of $I,IS2,S3I.
The particulars show that the
plantations cannot be considered or
treated all alike and their returns
Of dividends are very different.
During the last 4 years, II Sugar
Corporations, whose capital stock |
is SIC, 727 900, have paid no divid-
ends, but they have paid taxes in
1895, to the amount of $4I,4I7.72,
or about $I6o, 600 in four years.
During the last six years twenty
sugar corporations, capital stock
S9, sos, 900, have paid dividends to
to the amount of $,94o, 243, which
is nearly the amount of their capital
stock.
The same twenty companies
paid during the last four years "a,
SIC, 325 in dividends, or annually
81, I44, osI, and have paid taxes in
1895: $50, 697.I7, which would be
about $24o, 900 in four years. So
about rs of the taxes are paid by
plantations without dividends"
and only 3-5 by the prosperous
1t is evident from these figures
that large number OF plantations
cannot afford to pay the expenses
of bringing European laborers here,
but as they pay about 2-5 Of all
plantation taxes they are entitled |
to some assistance from the Govern
ment and the Government is justi-
fed in taxing the flourishing
plantations for this purpose.
Moreover those twenty sugar cor
porations, according to the report
OF the Minister of Interior, en-
ployed 10, 283 men on December 81,
1895, or about one-half of all plan
tation laborers and if those men
were paid at the rate of SIS a
the total amount paid them
would be about 1880, $40 per an
mum, against SI,I44, oSI paid an
nually as divends to the stockhold-
ers. This is for the last four years, |
in prosperous years, like the pres
ent, the dividends will probably ex-
coed the total pay Of plantation
laborers.