The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1898-03-14
FREE LABOR.

An important meeting was held yes
terday forenoon with regard to Rep
resentative Gears bill to prohibit the
specific or penal enforcement of con-
tracts for personal services" or i'll
point of fact to do away with labor
contracts.
The line which the bill takes is
practically that in a circular letter
from Lorin \. Thurston addressed to
the politicians and newspaper men of
Honolulu. and dated from the Cochran
Hotel. Washington. d. c., December
23, 1897. This letter was discussed in
these columns. and the whole ques-
ton of contract labor was argued pro
and con in a series of articles. The
morning and evening contemporaries
of The Star argued the question also,
and there seems a consensus of opin-
ion that contract labor should come to
an end.
Upon the matter little light has
been shed by the planters or the
planting interests in the way of pub
lie expression of opinion. One gentle
man, representing large sugar inter
ests has. however. addressed one of
the members of the House, and says
that at is the general feeling of the
planters of the Islands that it would
not be wise to do away with the con-
tract system while our future is I'M
certain: those of the planters who are
not Royalists are. of course. willing TO
do without contract labor. if. they have
anneXation-but it is a difficult mat.
ter if we are to float along in the I'M
certain way that has existed for some
years back-as the contract system is
valuable factor in keeping control
of the labor of the country"
This is at all events an opinion eX-
pressed on the other side to what the
entire press here has urged. The Star
after giving great care and study to
the question does not believe that the
contract system with its penal clause
is as vitality necessary to the prosper
ity of the great industry of the coun-
try as people are inclined to think.
Mankind in the mass is conservative.
and to uproot a custom which is the
legacy of years is bound to meet with
strong opposition, and the arguments
are always that the ruin of the indus
try or of the country will follow.
When slavery was abolished in the
Southern States, the cry was that the
Southern plantations would be ruined,
yet in spite of the loss of the slave la
Dor, and in spite of defeat in war, the
South is today more prosperous thaa
ever it was in the days of slavery.
When Alexander of Russia freed the
serfs, the whole of Russian aericul-
ture was to be destroyed and every
zone was to be ruined, but the black
soil of the Russian plains still brings
forth its millions of bushels of wheat,
only that it is planted and reaped by
free laborers instead of by serfs.
The Star in common with many keen
thinkers and careful observers, does
not believe that any cataclysm will
follow upon the passage of Represen-
tative Gears bill. The moral effect of
the bill in the United States will be
good, and though at the present mo-
ment it might have small effect upon
the Annexation Treaty. it will have
effect upon the Reciprocity Treaty
should we not obtain the Annexation
Treaty this session.
1t must be remembered that already
hree-fourths of the labor on the
plantations is free labor. 1t is after
all only one-fourth of the labor that
is under the penal penalty. The final
clause is one which stands in the way
of United States labor coming here.
hasty action. There will be no inter
ference with existing contracts and it
will not take effect at once; the ac-
ton will be gradual.
Upon vote taken by the Central
Committee of the American Union
Party yesterday, it was decided to in
struct their Representatives to legls-
late for the removal of the penal
clause at this session. So Representa-
tive Gears bill will probably be push
ed vigorously.