The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-06-15
ORIENTAL "PAUPER LABOR

Labor OF Asa, thc New OH
Nation draws attention 10 the fact
that the campaign cry OF the Aln-
erican protectionists and American
Iaborer Is gradually undergoing It
change. Whereas great stress was
once placed upon the pauper Labor
products Of Europe, the work of
poorly paid slaves in the Orient IS
now being brought prominently
before the public. The Nation re-
presents the situation in the follow
ing style:
'"Signs of another change of
base are now visible. Continental
Europe may still serve to brighten
few who have not been enlighten-
ed, and even English wages are
quoted occasionally as a memorial
of the good old days when such
an argument was accepted without
question. But neither of these eX-
cites the same horror that it once
did, and the pauper labor of Asia
is now the scarecrOw. Manufac-
turers passed before the committee
of ways and means and urged du-
ties that would protect them and
the labor they employed from the
products of China and Japan, of
British India, and the East Indies.
The narrowing condition of labor
in those parts was dwelt upon with
almost morbid horror, and any
wages-a few cents day-were
named as representing the earnings
of these peoples. Textile fibres
grown by 'pauper labor or labor
paid in the most niggardly man
ner;' chemicals, made or to be
made in China, with labor at star
walton wages; machinery and ma
chine products, the outcome of ia
panese ingenuity in applying their
ridiculously cheap labor to copying
American inventions and trade
marks-these are a few of the mat
tiers brought before the committee.
One and all spoke of the impend-
ing (for there was always an atmos-
phere of futurity in the conditions
they described) influx of Eastern
copies of Western manufactures,
and one and all saw In a nearly pro-
hibitive tariff the safety of the in
FAINT industries of the United
States"
Without commenting upon the
merits or dement's of the argu-
ments made by the Nation, the
mere fact that the change is taking
place, that the leaders are adding
to the theme of their arguments a
picture of the conditions in coun-
tries where Oriental labor Is en-
ployed, Is a matter of no small I'M
portance to the people of Hawaii.
We have already seen a few hands
reach out and grasp the Oriental
labor of Hawaii as a handle with
which TO WELD the club that will
thrash Hawaii's free sugars out of
the American market. We have
already seen the Oriental popula-
ton of Hawaii held up as a barrier
to annexation.
If there were no other reasons,
if a change in the labor policy of
the country were not demanded by
local conditions, this growing SEN
timent in the United States against
the products of Oriental labor
ought alone to be sufficient warn
ing TO the people of Hawaii that
a revolution must take place in
our industrial conditions if we ex-
pect TO maintain commercial
friendship with, and later secure
political equality in the United
States. Some of our people may
sheer at the arguments made by
the protectionists of the United
States, they may call it idle babble,
the opinions of men who want a
protecting fence about each indi-
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