The San Francisco call., 1898-03-26
VAIN TRICKS IN HAWAII.

l. -N~- / \ of government in his organ, the Advertiser
 one is prepared to properly weigh and meas ure the propositions coming from Hawaii and in tended to affect annexation There is pending in the Legislature at Honolulu measure affecting contract labor This has been urged by Doles representatives at Washington proposition to abolish such labor and IS used as an argument for annexation An ex- animation ot the proposed bill shows that 1t does not abolish contract labor at all. It merely aboshes the penal clause in labor contracts The contract labor law of the United States passed in I864 had no penal clause Its liens not upon the person, but upon the property of the contract aborer. That law (see Brghtlys Digest vol ?, I857-o5, page I48) pro- vided: Section All contracts that shall be made by emigants to the United States in foreign coun- tries in conformity to regulations that may be estab- ished by the Commissioner of Immigration, whereby emgrants shall pledge the wages of their labor for a term not exceeding twelve months to repay the eof their emigration, shall be held valid in law and may be enforced in the courts of the. United States of the several States and Territories; and such advances, stipulated in the contract, and the contract be recorded Ill the Recorders office where the emigrant shall settle shall operate as
 lien upon any land thereafter acquired by the erni- grant, whether under the homestead law when the title IS consummated property otherwise ac- quired until iquidated by the emigrant."
 That contract law which became offen- sive that 1t was repealed upon the demand of our labor organizations It made the contract a first
 lien upon the laborers wages for twelve months, and upon his real property forever until liquidated. The difference between this and the Hawaiian contract labor is that the latter instead has penal clause enforceable against the person instead Of the prop erty of the aborer The withdrawal of this penal clause leaves the statute just offensive own and with every feature which made it ob- noxious that dared resist its utter repeal.
 Again, the repeal of this penal clause has not passed It is proposed blind by the crafty island politicians, who brazenly quote what all understand to be the odum of our politics as the avowed rule of action in theirs.
 If the penal clause in their labor contract law is wrong 1t is wrong regardless of its effect upon the fortunes of annexation. If 1t Is right its rghtfulness is not measurable by its relation annexation The men who parade a virtue the proposition for its repeal have had the power abolish 1t since I8o3 but they have let stand and have taken the benefit of it.
 If Congress defeat annexation this penal clause will not be repealed. The Macchiaveis of the ol- garchy will reveal their true character by continuing and enforcing it.
 These things teach and exhort. They illuminate Does remark that Eve expect the United States will give us special laws by which we can get labor" II annexed they expect to exert their peculiar craft in violation of our labor laws or in getting special and unequal privileges
 Existing conditions the islands expose the hypocrisy of holding out hope to white labor of an outlet there. The highest wages paid to field hands are SIP 50 per month, and it Is proposed to reduce this to $Io The Portuguese disquieted by this for they and many of the natives are now on the verge of starvation for the first time in the history of the country. Doles government IS the author of these distresses, and the signs of disntegration among its supporters the increase The sham republic will totter and fall, to be replaced by real republic in which the people will have voice and the power to protect themselves against starvation by the use of the ballot