The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1898-04-09
PLANTATION WAGES. ETC.

We print another letter elsewhere
from responsible planter en- the sub
Ject of wages.
The writer, as well as other planters,
does not understand that We are not
especially the champion of the poor
man, or do we especially advocate high
wages. What we are after is the es-
Establishment of a class Of men here, who
will make wise laws for the govern
ment of life and property if we must
remain Independent. We have no class
of this kind now here, with any numer-
icaI strength. If the planters are really
ready to be governed by the votes of
their laborers, as they are now stu
ated, we'll and good. So be it. Even
the 1862 free Portuguese Iaborers on
the plantations can now, if allowed,
out vote the planting interest. If the
planters accept this proposition, they
take the consequences, whatever they
are.
We advocate the creation, if posi-
BILE, of a class of men, strong and num-
erous enough, who at the ballot box,
will unquestionably support good gov
eminent, and protect the planting in
terest. Without outside aid" we
must have such class, because we
cannot stand alone" without it.
Whatever wages are now paid to
Portuguese laborers, the standard of
wages is really fixed by the Asiatic
contingent. Even if we had American
farmers here, under control of the plan
taitons, this standard would govern.
If Americans furnished cane to the
mills on contract at So per ton, and
the Asiatics offered it at $3.50, it would
be merely a question of time, when the
American would ego" The rate Of
wages paid to the negroes of the Amer
ican Southern States, fixes in a large
measure, the wages paid to the white
labor. Yet for 80 years, the Southern
States have wondered why they did not
get white immigration in numbers.
We refer to a good class of POrtu-
guese, because they are at present, the
only social backbone, that we have in
numbers. Something would seem to be
wrong, if only 1856 of them out of
total of 23,047 laborers on the planta-
tions. are willing to accept the planters
rapidly than any other on these ISL
ands, and yet it seems to stand aloOf
from the sugar industry. Why?
Are we not educating their numer-
GUS children, far outnumbering the
Teutonics, out of plantation life? That
is not the planters fault. The coffee
industry is not entirely settled, and it
requires capital. If we do not provide
some way of making them reasonably
they will naturally antagon-
fze us. 1t is not question Of philan-
thropy on our part, but one of purely
selfish interest, just as men often buy
tracts of lands near cities, and give
large sections of them away in order
to get good neighbors.
What sum a Portuguese with a fam
lily can live on is only relative ques-
ton and a pretty wide one, whether 1T
be S13 or $40 or more. The New Eng
land daddies were fine type of men.
They lived on in poor farms, were very
frugal, and usually died, without ac-
cumulations. But they educated their
children to have wants." to become
disseminated and sent them westward.
We are so educating the children OF
these Islands. Really about all we can
at present direct them to, for supply
of wants, are the plantations. They
seem to decline them. Perhaps they
are wrong about it. But if we look at
the ominous Census tables, we can see
where the political whip handle is, or
will be. If it is held finally by either
an ignorant or disconnected class, and
there is no annexation, it is doubtful
whether the planting class, vastly i'm
portant as it is, will really crack the
whip.