The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-05-01
Radical Changes Must be
Made Carefully.
White LaborerS Will Not Work
With Asiatics-Somet hing of
Corporation.

MIR. EDITOR:-If the sugar plant
ton of our labor problem I should not
presume to offer any suggestions on
| the matter. But such is not the case.
| 1t is not long since the laborers of
Spreckelsville gave the authorities and
| all the good people of Wailuku an
ominous warming. That warning was
| plain enough to be understood, even
by people as far away as Honolulu,
and suggestive enough to be long re-
membered by every one who was in
Wailuku during that time of suspense.
1t was a pointed demonstration of a
state of affairs which interests all and
justifies each in contributing his part
toward the solution of the problem.
Our whole labor system, for many
years, has tended to the degradation of
labor 1t tends towards the develop
ment of ''barons'' and serfs, of mas
tiers and coolies. The nations of the
earth have been called upon to con-
increase of our population. Few ma
tons have sent us of their best blood.
And the fact that the laborers are in
most cases degraded has degraded Ia
Dor itself in the eyes of the people.
A similar state of things prevailed in
the South when labor was performed
by slaves. And a modification of this
state of affairs has prevailed to the
detriment of California, owing to the
fact that certain classes of labor have
long been relegated to the Chinese.
European or American farmers, COM
ing to this country, soon become dis
satisfied with their part of the work
which they see done, for the most
part, by degraded laborers, though
they were brought up to do just as ar
duous and just as disagreeable work
in their native lands.
Commissioner Fitzgerald is right in
his assertion that it is impracticable
to change our labor in a short time;
the change must be gradual. But does
any one suppose that this gradual
change can be made by putting in a
few white laborers among the Asiatics
and by gradually increasing the mum
Der of white men finally crowd out
the Asiatics? If so, he has made small
account of the white mans spirit.
No! Commissioner Fitzgerald is
right again when he says that our
whole labor system must be radically
changed before it will be acceptable to
white laborers. But his plans for the
change. so far as I have seen them
outlined in the local press, are open to
the criticism that they are vague. Let
us agree that a radical change must be
made: what is that change?
White men will not take the place
of the Asiatics, There can be no such
thing as a supply Of white coolies.
The white man must have a radically
different position, or may the country
be spared his presence and he be
spared such degradation, Expert
ments have been tried in the way of
white men cultivating their own cane.
White men can and will do more work
in their own cane fields than China
men or Japanese will do in similar
fields. But the experiments thus far
tried have produced unsatisfactory re-
suits. owing to the power which the
mill owners have over the planters.
Profit-sharing, where the laborer
cultivates land which is so bad that
the owners of the mill will not cnl-
tivate it. and where the same owners
seize the lions share of the profits
after the cane is ripe, does not suf-
ficiently appeal to the white farmer.
But give the white man the profits on
his cane above a reasonable compen-
sation for grinding, and give him a
fair deal and it is my belief that he
will be satisfied with his returns, and
will do more work, and do it better
than any of our present degraded Las
borers
But how can these conditions be Sc