The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-05-26


supplanting Asiatic labor, provided
the former proved satisfactory, is the
wages to be paid. and if 40 per cent or
any portion thereof should be taken
from the present profits, | should ad-
wise the laborer to stay at home, and
the planter will undoubtedly turn again
to the Asiatics. for it is cheap labor.
There is an appropriation of $50
900 70 assist immigration other than
Asiatic,' to pay the passage of the wo-
men and children taken under the 10
per cent clause in other words, there
is a regulation which cOmpels the plan
ter to import 10 per cent of all con-
tracted labor from America or Europe.
The Government assured me that they
would gladly spend the money in
bringing the families of the Ameri-
cans, and they now stand ready; be-
sides. the planters will advance the
passage money on all who may be sent
to them.
at is useless for the people Of this
country to attempt to blind themselves
to the fact that every country has its
quota of unemployed persons; ii is use
less for the theorist TO insist that de-
pressed economic conditions do not
exist and vainly propose measures far
beyond the grasp of those principally
affected by way of remedy. Therefore,
in the interest of wage-earning multi
tudes of this country I simply suggest
a means by which from $4,000 to
much greater number may be trans
formed from non-producers to produ
GERS and consumers to a greater eX
tent, and even if they are now pro-
ducers. their places viii be filled by
those who are non-producers, and in
looking to a foreign land for these op-
portunities I do not consider in the
strictest sense that these persons cease
to be American citizens and compo
nent parts of our commonwealth, as
they become the customers for Ameri
can consumption, and though they may
be temporarily geographically divorced
they will simply look across the Pa
cific during a brief interval before the
American flag floats over them again
in their island home.
LET us see to what extent the sugar
industry of the Hawaiian Islands inter
feres with the beet industry of Califor-
ma, of which I am as thoughtful as
any one. We have a vast consumption
of 100000 tons year in the United
States, of which we only produce about
one-sixth and the Hawaiian Islands
sends into our markets between 200,-
900 and $50, 900 tons, and in California
we are producing not more than one
third of our own consumption. This
year, / understand fully half of the
sugar from the Islands will go to New
York, so at present I cannot see where
the sugar of the Hawaiian Islands
hampers the beet-sugar industry
Further than that, let us see to what
extent protection of sugar will assist
the producer and the laborer. With
the exception of one factory in Cali
fornia and one in Utah, the sugar in
dustry of the United States is prac
tically controlled by the Sugar Trust,
and I have never known it to be re-
corded where any industry was at the
mercy of trust that it ever received
1 cent benefit from increased prices.
Besides this, I have the very best au
thority for the statement that one
sugar. beet factory in California, run
ming LA days last year. paid 20 per
cent dividends upon it's capitalization.
'"The highest price paid to the beet
raiser for his beetS is 81 per ton, and
until the manufacture of sugar from
the beets is handled by the grower
they will never be allowed more than
a living profit upon their toll. The re-
ports of over so large and small fac
tories in Germany show that to manu-
facture a pound of sugar from beets
which are bought at a price of 50 per
ton (which is 81 per ton more than
our factories paw and including all
interest on working capital and an an
nuaI sinking fund for repairs and rem
ovations. costs 21a cents. Let me as
sumo that we are able in California to
extract from the beets the same per-
centage in sugar as is done annually
by the German manufacturers, viz,
121h per cent. not taking into consid-
Grafton that our beets are richer. a
factory for the manufacture of dry
white granulated and cube sugar ready
to be sold to the consumer without I'M
dergoing a process of refining. with a
capacity of 900 tons of beets daily:
Costs approximately ..-....- S15O,OOO
Buildings, etc. -----.------.- 5O'OOO
IncidentalS OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES 5O,OOO
Together --..-----.-.--..- SZoV'OOO
"Such a factory will in the 100 days
of its run consume at least 10000 tons
of beets. which yield 1919 per cent or
3 .75O tons of white sugar, which | will
value at cents pound az a cent less
than the very lowest quotation in this
market at any period). This is $50 per
ton for the whole $3.50 tons-s3O0, 700.
The cost of production. according to
German reports. is 21A cents, to which
I will add the cost of the entire labor,
viz 100 men for 100 days at 81 per
day. 100000 and the cost of fuel. viz,
5000 tons of coal at Sc. $4,000. giving
a total cost of production of s225.500.