The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-04-24
AMERICAN LABOR
Laborers Should Have
High Political Status.
Destructive Influence of Compe-
tition With Indentured
COoIie Labor.

J The Louisiana Planter publishes an
! article or the American labor system.
which deals with the destructive in
/ fiuences" upon the American sugar in
dustry of competition with other sugar
producing countries where imported,
indentured labor is used. The writer
says, in part:
Henry Clay said that to maintain
the American Union in all it's integrity
it was essential that the American la
borers should have higher status in
our political organization than the Ia
borers engaged in similar occupations
in other countries, if it were hoped to
perpetuate the American Union.
If there be any we'll defined eco
nomic conclusion to be drawn from the
last four presidential elections, one
would seem to be that the American
people were determined that the Am
erican laborer should have some con-
sideration in our national legislation,
such as shall the better enable him TO
acquire such a condition of living and
degree of intelligence as shall enable
him TO maintain the dignity Of the
American citizen as one of the peers
of the Republic, and that he shall not
be reduced to conditions similar TO
those of the low forms of labor en-
gagged elsewhere in those industries in
which we find satisfactory fields for
the energy, skill and intelligence of our
laborers.
These reflections are brought about
by consideration of the existing
cricis in the sugar industry, not only
of this country, but of the world. In
the West Indies, in the English colo
MES of Demarara and Trinidad, it is
asserted that without the indentured
or semi-slave coolie labor they would
be lost Similar conditions prevail in
Queensland. In the Sandwich Islands,
that little Republic in the Pacific that
sends it's sugars to us free of duty un
der the reciprocity treaty of 1876, we
find that other than Portuguese, there
are about 5000 or 1000 white citizens,
and that the labor system is based
upon Chinese, Japanese. Kanaka and
Portuguese imported, indentured labor.
OF course, we in Louisiana feel, with
exceptional senSibility, the destructive
influences that such competition from
Europe the English colonies, the Sand
witch Islands, and in fact from through
cut the whole sugar world, has upon
our domestic industry. The principle
is the same, whether We be engaged IN
the manufacture of sugar, of iron, of
cotton, or of wool, the working theory
of our Government has been to pro-
tect and maintain the dignity of the
American laborer, to give him a status
in matters educational and social that
shall make him the possible recipient
of the highest hOnOrS the nation can
grant There would seem to be no
other way by means of which our great
Republic can be maintained, and such
a sacrifice as is essential to the main
tenance of these conditions must be
made by the various parties in interest.
Selfish men will avail themselves of
the right as we'll as of the wrong, to
promote their personal ends, and the
doctrine of the judicious protection Of
the American laborer has been attack
ed as the cause of some of those fla
grant abuses with which public opin-
ion has been outraged during recent
years