The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-09-05
LABORERS TALK
What White Men Employed on
Sewer Work Have to Say.
SOLUTION OF LABOR PROB Lem
The Climate is Cooler Than in Many Parts Of
California and They Are
Contented.
SOLUTION OF LABOR PROB Lem

The sewerage construction now go
ing on is interesting when the labor
side of it is taken into consideration.
When Mr.. Vincent, of the engineering
firm which was awarded the cOnstruc-
ton contract, arrived in Honolulu he
brought with him a number of white
laborers. These men had been with
him in similar work at Fresno and
other places. They had used the pick
and shovel under the glaring sun of
the San Joaquin valley and under Ore
CONS leaden skies. They are capable,
intelligent men, good examples OF the
average day-laborer Of the United
States
Their advent here and their subse-
quent progress has been watched with
close interest by men who are consid-
ering Hawaiis all-important question
the labor problem.
How have these laborers doing day
labor during the hottest months CT the
year stood the work."
There has not been a single COM
plant, nor any sign of sickness among
the men," was Engineer Vincent's re-
ply to the question. "The heat il. not
so overpowering and oppressive as
you find in the San Joaquin valley of
California. Men who can work there
along the Sacramento and down near
Fresno, where the grapes grow, will
have no difficulty in bearing Hawaii's
heat. The wages paid the men we
brought with us are the same as they
were receiving on the Coast They
are fair, living wages, enough to make
it some object for a man to handle a
pick and shovel
How do the men stand it? Look at
them and see for yourself" said the
foreman in charge of the gang working
on Union street. I'VE have had no
sickness, and the heat has not at all
inconvenienced the men. If labOrers
attend to their business and do not
run around following cocktail routes
they can do as much work and suffer
as little here as anywhere else. Ger
tainly, white labor could exist in the
cane fields. But they must be paid
living wages and have the assurance
that they are to be treated like men,
not like dogs. These two conditions
granted, white labor could thrive and
grow fat in the Islands,"
See that gang of men," he contin-
ued. "They are Galicians, the same
men that were released from Jail Sat
urday. We have employed about twen-
ty of them and so far they seem to be
willing workers. 1 should prefer them
to the Portuguese because the latter
are more anxious to talk than to
work
mo, sir, the heat has not seemed at
all oppressive to me-" was the reply of
"a brawny and Drowned typical Ameri-
can laborer, as he brought his pick
down on the obstinate coral. Il would
rather be at work here than in por-
tions Of California, where the heat is
so intense that you would like to drop
when working under the blazing sun.
None of us have been sick, although
/ don't think the water is as good as
it might be. / have never seen cane
field, but don't see why white men
couldn't do the same work that these
good-for-nothing Japs and Chinese do
we don't like them in California" !"
He duueu, dpoioSeIiCdlly. Aet Tic
plantation owners pay mans wages
and give manly treatment and it seems
to me that the labor problem l hear
so much about is solved"
The sentiments expressed in the
foregoing talks were echoed by all
along the line of sewers. The white
men, working with pick and shovel un-
der a Semi-trOpic sun, representing as
they do the average American labor
er, are satisfied and contented They
also say the labor problem is easy.