The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1898-10-10
ABOUT LABOR.

In Justice fTedE paper upon the
labor question, alluded to in our Sat
urday issue, he discusses the question,
whether or not the white man can
labor in the tropics. He declares that
"our climate is an inducement rather
than an obstacle to immigration. 1t
compares with many of the climates
in which white laborers now live about
as it does with the climates from
which our Asiatics come"
The fact that the Portuguese make
excellent laborers here, and come from
a climate by no means tropical should
be a sufficient answer to the question.
If the question is confined to Europe
ans and Americans living in cold
climate, the experience of the Ameri-
cans in Florida and Texas should set
tie the question. For in those regions,
according to the census reports, the
white man, as field hand, commands
nearly double the wages of the negro.
The objection made to the ability of
the American to labor in the tropics
is generally made by those who, with
out much consideration, prefer cheap
Asiatic labor to any other kind.
Leaving aside the Portuguese labor
ers, there may be obtained from Eu
rope Hn ample supply of laborers, both
Germans and Italian. While it is easy
to make this statement, it will be diff
cult to obtain the labor. All the world
is asking for laborers. The United
States instead of having a surplus of
them, is taking them in at the rate of
three hundred thousands per annum.
In normal conditions, the rate of wages
paid in the States is the highest paid
in any country. 1t naturally imports,
rather than exports laborers. 1t has
many millions of acres of land untitled
for want of a laboring population. In
the Southern States large numbers of
cheap Italian laborers are employed in
building railroads in preference to the
negro, because the negro prefers to live
on his patch of ground, and for other
reasons, refuses to meet the demand
kluU Ol 1dDOI, dlJuOuSh LIIS
price of it is 81 per day.
While the United States ought not
to export laborers, and does not under
normal conditions, there Will always
be a percentage of men, among 1l,OOO,-
900 of people who desire to emigrate.
Many are moved to it by physical
weakness, and the dislike Of a cold
climate Many, while alleging this as
a reason, are really in search of better
opportunities to secure larger wages,
and ignorantly believe that in the first
stages aof national growth, the pres
sure of population has been reached
and that America must be abandoned.
In spite of these drawbacks, how
ever, a considerable and sufficient lab
or supply from the Mainland may be
obtained for these Islands if adequate
means are taken to secure it. Someone
asked the great engineer BRUNEI if he
could bridge the British Channel. He
replied: Il can do anything with
money" The question is a practical
one
After the Islands have been virtually
surrendered to the Asiatics, so far as
labor is concerned, it will require mar
Yelous energy, intelligence, and man
agement TO supplant that labor with
Americans. Even in the promising
coffee industry, in which the small
farmer should flourish, the tendency is
TO employ the Asiatic. 1t is even said
that the industry will decline unless
cheap Asiatic labor can be obtained.
Just so long, and it is the universal
experience, as one class of men have
the opportunity to obtain the labor OF
a cheaper class, it will not, as a rule,
do manual labor of it's own.
One of the difficulties to contend