The San Francisco call., 1898-08-22
CHINESE PROBLEM MUST BE SOLVED Asiatic Competition in
 Hawaii. EVILS OF CONTRACT LABOR CooLIES REMAIN WHEN THEIR
 TERMS EXPIRE. Engage in Other Ventures to the Discontinue of Whites Instead
 of Returning to Their
 Native Land.
BY HORACE WRIGHT.
Special Correspondence of The Call.

Special Correspondence of The Call.
 HONOLULU, Aug. 1o.-One day last
 month there appeared in The Call an
 elaborate interview with Representa- tive and Congressional Commissioner Robert R. Hit, in which MT. Hit was reported as having said in reference to the Chinese problem:
 This is a most difficult problem, but I trust not an insoluble one. My un- derstanding is that most of the China men and Japanese are there under con-
 tract. and that they will steadily tend
 to go back to their homes when the
 contracts expire"
 How very little even intelligent Con-
 gressmen know on this subject may be illustrated very briefly. There were at the last census Q896)-and the num-
 Der for the present is daily reducing) 10,s41 unskilled Chinese laborers in the country, of which number in December, ! 1896, there were employed on the sugar
 plantations 52S9; 1915 as day laborers
 and 4374 contract laborers. In Decem-
 Der, 1897, there were S114 employed, out
 of which number 639S, the largest num-
 Der ever engaged as such, were con- | tract laborers. AS no Chinese were im- ported since that date the number of contract laborers has been materially
 reduced, and in the ordinary course of events, and unless advantage is taken of Minister Cooper's bill of the last session to introduce other large patches, their threeyear contracts will rapidly expire. The other ten thou sand (roughly speaking) Chinese are divided, like other aliens, among other pursuits, especially raising rice, fruits, | fishing, and in all the mechanical | trades. They are also deserting their | contracts in large numbers to join the coffee planters.
 It is not so much the number of the | Chinese coolie laborers that we dread | now as the possibility of being swamp ed with more who, In course of time, | will follow the example of their pre- decessors and overcrowd the cities and l compete, as they are even now most l disastrously doing, with mechanics, 1 artisans and tradesmen. We would be willing to concede to the sugar, rice l and coffee industries well regulated coolie labor If 1t is conclusively proved that respectable white labor cannot be | obtained at reasonable rates of wages, l but the people feel that no honest ef l fort has been made to solve this prob | lem, owing to the cost of importing competent labor and the necessity, as the planters claim. of paying wages which insure to them commensurate profits. All will admit that no coun- try has ever expended so much money on labor experiments as has Hawaii
 in proportion to her wealth and pop ulation. Whether Congress will solve
 the knotty problem remains to be seen.
 Another interesting matter for the Congressional Commissioners to con- sider will be the status of the Hawai- ian Chinese. Seven hundred and over
 have been naturalized, for under the
 old laws no alien could marry Ha- waiian woman without first becoming a citizen of the country, and recently no less than 1900 Chinese children have
 been registered in the Chinese Bureau
 of the Foreign Office as having been
 born in Hawaii, and curiously enough the eldest of four of these children was born thirty-seven years ago. The first recorded Chinese naturalization was in 1S45.
 The view that the Chinese in Hawaii take of themselves may be foregathered from a memorial which they will pre- sent to the Com issioners and in which they thus speak of themselves in ad- vocating an impartial consideration of their future status under the American flag: They will assert that under the laws of Hawaii they have, notwith- standing the fact that there never have
 existed treaty relations between the empire of China and Hawaii, fully and
 freely enjoyed the same rights and privileges In regard to person and prop erty as the citizens or subjects of the most favored nations having treaty re- lations with Hawaii, with the exception
 that they have not openly enjoyed the
 privilege of political representation in the conduct of the affairs of the coun-
 try; they have been admitted to citt-
 zenship by naturalization; they have intermarried with the natives of the country and have had children born to them in the land; they have expended
 large sums of money and much labor in the reclamation of waste and bar ren lands and have done much to fos- ter and insure the commercial and in dustrial resources of the Hawaiian
 Islands: they have learned your lan-
 guage. and many have adopted your civilization, religion and dress; their children have been educated in your churches, schools and colleges; they have esta blished and aided in establish ing Christian churches, schools, hos pitaIs. Young Mems Christian AsSocia- tions and other kindred societies: they have watched over their own sick and poor and contributed generously to the wants of other nationalities, and aided in all public enterprises for the heneflt of Hawaii Nei they have contributed very largely to the revenues of the country and their progressive influence, from knowledge gained here. has been beneficially felt in their own land. To them is largely due the prosperity of Hawaii to-day through their labor de- welcoming the sugar and rice plantations, the fruit farms and vegetable gardens and the great shipping business and commercial relations with the Orient of which they were the pioneers. To them Hawaii has become endeared as their adopted home by the kindness and fair treatment of many years, and their long sojourn here has been marked with amity and the absence of all discord- ant influences. Tn commercial and so- cial life they have been respected and esteemed and as obeyers of the law they have been the equals of any other nationality.