The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1897-08-13

Asintics are paid less, IL is not be.
cause they are Asiatics or because
they live more cheaply, but because
/ they are less capable or have inferior
! opportunities and cannot earn moro.
/ Each earns all he can. The ccDno-
mic relation between white and Chi
nese labor is the same as that between
! high priced and 10y priced white la
bor or high priced and low priced
Chinese labor. Neither is preiu Heed
by the fact that the other receives
more or less. Each is preiudiced by
an oversupply of his class of labor.
The lawyer who receives large fees
has no difficulty in competing with
one whose fees are small. The larger
fees and success are both results of
| the same cause-suDerior capacities
or opportunities. \ laborer who pro-
duces two bushels of wheat per days
labor whether working for himself
or another. is not prejudiced by the
fact that another produces only one
bushel. \ mechanic who gets five dol
lars day is not at Il disadvantage IN
competition with another who works
by his side for three dollars. The
! wages of different laborers of the
same class in the same market vary
with their capacities, and the way
for one to obtain higher wages is to
increase his capacity or efficiency.
The average wages of class of labor
ers varies with the supply of that class
of labor i'm the market and the way
to obtain higher average wages is 20
reduce the supply of that class, in
other words, to increase ats oppJr-
tunities. The white labor of any par
ticular class is no more prejudiced
by the Chinese labor of the same
class than it would be by an equal
quantity of white labor. The eXclI-
sion of Asatic laborers or tradesmen
of any class would benefit the white
laborers of the same class in Pre-
cisely the same way in which the en-
clusion of a portion of the white Ia.
borers or tradesmen, whether high
paid or low paid, would benefit the
others. namely, by reducing the sup
ply of that class and so creating Il
partial monopoly, but in so far as
the places of the excluded Chinese
should be filed by an additional sup
ply of white laborers, the white la
borers already here would not be
benefited. We may go further and
affirm not only that high priced la
borers are not prejudiced by low
priced laborers, but that they may
even be advantaged thereby. For since
the supply of any class of labor de-
ponds on both the number and eff
cheney of the laborers of that class,
it follows that in all cases in which
the number is for any reason limited,
the less the efficiency Gas indicated
by the lower wages) of a portion of
the laborers. the less the total supply
of that class of labor, and the grea "r
the scarcity value or wages of all be-
longing to that class. And again,
; since a great deal of low grade work
must necessarily be done, the laborers
who are capable of rising higher
would have to do the low grade work
themselves. and so would lose the ad-
vantage of their superior capacities,
if there were no other laborers who
could not rise above the lower grades.
Secondly. the question which is
just now most OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES if
white should be substituted for Ash
! attic unskilled laborers on our sugar
plantations, their greater efficiency
,, would make up for their higher
wages. The answer to this question
: is not matter of chance or guess
work. or even of probabilities; it is
a matter of certainty. For in the
same market or where there is free
competition wages are necessarily
proportional to efficiency so far as
, human Judgment can determine. AT
the present time some laborers on our
plantations are paid twice as much
as others for doing the same kind of
!, work. and the planters do not pay
the higher wages either through il.
norance or through generosity. II
any or all of the present supply al
plantation labor should be replaced
by white labor, the laborers would
as at present, be paid according tc
their efficiency, for if at any ,'mc
they were not so paid, the under paid
ones would leave and work for them
selves or seek employment elsewhere
or the employers would compete with
: each other for the under paid laborers
: until supply and demand according
to efficiency should be brought into
: equilibrium. AS between planters ant
y laborers, just as we found it to bt
'" the case as between white and Chimes,
laborers, the point of Importance i!
|, neither one of nationality nor of tn,
) relative wages of different individual
y or classes of laborers, but of the sup
! ply of labor. Here, Also we may 90
u further and affirm not only that ther
I would be no pecuniary loss in paying
{ white laborers more than Asiatic, bu
Il that there would be Il positive gail
: and that this gain would be create
II the higher the wages paid-that is
t paid, not excessively or arbitraril,
e through ignorance or generosity, bu
Il in accordance with the law of suppl,
I and demand, and therefore necessa"
II lily in proportion to efficiency. For il
such case not only would there be r,
I loss in the portion of capital expended
J. as wages, because that would be &C
/ cording to efficiency, but there woul,
p be gain in the portion of capital eX
= pended in other directions. For, tn
C greater the efficiency of the laborer>
e the fewer laborers would there b
l. needed, and therefore the less eXpen
diture would there be required of al
$, other capital, the amount of whic
II depends on the number or characte
'e of the laborers, as, for implements