The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1898-10-20
THE LABOR SUPPLY.

Inc chief business OF our local GOV
eminent during the last twenty-five
years has been to foster the sugar in
dustry. No American, no European
State, has done as much in proper
ton to it's resources, in supplying the
plantations with laborers as Hawaii
has done. Towards a million of dol
lars have been spent in assisting i'm
migration for this single purpose, and
the consideration Of the needs OF mod
ern civilization have been entirely
cast aside. We state the fact, but
MAKE no criticism upon it. 1t was
natural and fair from the commercial
standpoint to do SO.
But it is now necessary for us to
realize, and realize deeply, that pater-
nalism is about at an end, and will alb
ruptly end the moment Congress
passes an organic act for the Govern
ment of this territory.
So fortunate, SO favored have been
our planters, they know little indeed
of labor troubles. They have lived
in a Paradise of labor in comparison
with the employers of labor on the
Mainland The voluminous reports of
the labor commissions both of the
Federal Government and of the sew
eral States show that the majority of
manufacturers are at the mercy of the
labor unions; that capital and labor
are in a perpetual state of suspended
hostilities: that concerns with enOr
nous capital cannot control their own
men; that the Walking Delegate de-
prives the employer of labor OF his
liberty and his sleep; that the short
ness of the labor supply, aside from
strikes, has during the last fifty years,
caused losses far beyond the value of
the sugar crop of these Islands; that
at times, parts of the cotton crop have
remained unpicked for want of pick
ers; that in places, the grain crop has
fallen to the ground for want of reap
ers; that potatoes have rotted for
want of diggers; that the fruit crop
has in many places, remained on the
trees for want of pickers. The labor
supply, on the Mainland is never
abundant, and often deficient.
While the AngloSaXon world has
been in tribulation about the labor
supply for some years, the fortunate
Hawaiian planter has simply turned
the faucet and stream of Asiatic lab
or has spurted over the land.
is useless to quarrel with them. They
must be met.
The prosperous man, everywhere, is
drugged by his prosperity. 1t is the
history of the great majority of Am
erican commercial houses that long
prosperity brings them dry rot" and
they finally fail. The prosperous man,
after some years of toll, is in no mood
to tackle new and vexatious problems.
He insists on rest. The British own
ers of the tin mines Of Banca Straits,
became prosperous, were unwilling to
meet the labor problems, and finally
sold out to the Chinese.
When annexation settled the future
THESE ISldUuS, Dy iuIhIuS lnelE tOI
tune common with that of the Main
land, prudence suggested that the one
all important question of labor should
come to the front at once. The great
industry depends upon it. So far as
we can learn, the planters have no
plan, beyond that of getting laborers
in a manner positively forbidden by
the Federal laws, though these laws
are not applicable here at present.
The comment of a disinterested OBJ
server would be, If the planters and
their agents are unwise and will not
act, let them go to the wall" But,
behind the sugar interest, is a popula-
ton of most excellent men and wo-
men who would have to go to the wall
with it.
The real question then is, shall we
tackle the labor question now, and be-
fore we are confronted with trouble,
or shall we delay until the evil is up
on us.