The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-02-23


than the repetition and increase OF
strikes and the logged determination
and Obstinacy with which they meet
misery and with which they wal
against hopeless odds. In no sense
should a strike be "as much TO be
dreaded as the cholera" for while they
are alike warnings of neglected duty
/ the former proclaims to society its
| imperative duty 10 study out and recti-
fly the permanent injustice Of man TO
man in social and industrial relations
and TO that extent should be welcomed
| by every right-minded man as a call to
duty and a reminder of wrongs TO be
righted They are a part of perhaps
I the greatest industrial ferment in the
| history of the century now closing.
They are the manifestations by which
the problem can be diagnosed and its
remedy discovered.
I believe that there is no reason, in
adopting a class of labor to which
strikes are Familiarity known, TO appre-
bend that we shall be swamped by
their development here if two precau-
tions are taken The first being as to
method. the profit sharing principle
as already set forth. and the second as
TO the ethical relation between the
laborer and the employer. OF the last
viii say only that believe that Pro-
fit sharing will decrease the number of
strikes and possibly prevent them al
together. the more so as ii indicates
an unseIfish consideration of the in
terests of the class of labor for which
plead.
In our modern industrial world
strikes as a rule certify to the brutal
seIfshness and greed which are too
often the accompanying development
of the successful accumulation of
wealth. Tt is yet to be recognized that
an aggressive and enlightened philan-
thropy. a strengthening of the frater-
nal human relation is the safest ecOno-
mic inspiration and the soundest busl-
ness wisdom Let this, however, but
form an enlightened selfishness only
and it will be a worm at the apples
core. Not until the employer finds his
delight and his reward in doing for
others for their sakes alone will he
have reached the terra firma of life and
have established a perfectly sound re-
Iation with il.
I believe. Mr. Editor, that anyone
who has familiariZed himself with the
work that has been done and is now
being done by Mr.. Fitzgerald, the
Labor Commissioner of California,
will feel confident that by the CO.
operation and assistance of this gentle
man the planters may, if they, will,
establish upon their estates the best
class of agriculturalists that has ever
come to this country. [ am Informed
that we are TO have an early visit from
this gentleman for the especial pur-
pose of studying our labor question
and conditions. It will probably be
sufficiently early in the year by the
time of his return to California to en-
able a number of plantation companies
TO prepare and well consider plan for
beginning the work on their estates
and to make preparations for welcom-
ing n dozen families of the class 1ndi-
Gated. Time will surely justify the
calling of this golden opportunity"
1t should be no slight qualification that
we would be assisting
in a noble work.
Mr.. Editor. should the considera-
tions set forth in this effort TO demon
strate the business soundness or re-
forming our labor conditions as well
as our moral obligations in that direc-
ton prove utterly void of influence.
our precarious foreign commercial re-
lations should suffice to scare selfish
ness into action for the sake of policy.
Twenty years Of the fostering care
of the reciprocity treaty is recorded
in a ten-fold prosperity There is no
gainsaying the fact that some or the
friends of the treaty were
made so by the hope and encourage
ment that the development Of Ameri-
49, fx~f1f yslfT nTl
would accompany the protection of
American capital. The American
statesmen believed that they gave us
UNEQUAL benefits but that the enor-
nous surplus of benefit given to Ha-
waii would prove a help and aid in the
creation here of a broad Teutonic civil
lizatfon. However. perfect may be
made the demonstration of the reel
proctiy treaty for twenty years be-
tween capitaI and capital. who will
pretend that any commensurate re-
turn for the benefits conferred has
been made2
1t was we'll quoted by the essayist
of the evening that TO every agreement
there are three parties, the employer,
the employee and the state. We may
we'll claim that the United States and
American civilization should have
stood for the state in every contract
made in this country for the last
twenty years. If the martyred Garfield
could return and make an inspecting
tour of the plantations, how fully,
think YOU. would be find his hopes
realized and the state considered?
1t is probable that were the question
of annexation or reciprocity left to the
mass of the people of the United States,
without comment.-the easy-golng
goodwill of the average citizen would
grant what ignorance and indifference
would suggest as certainly nothing.
What would the vote of the same citi-
zen be. think you after accompanying
Garfield OF that fancied tour and being
assured by some of our conservative
and successful planters that no white
labor could ever produce the sugar
crop in Hawaii? American planters
here striving towards annexation iden-