The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-04-26
HOAX OF
EXAMINER
HawalIans MaIigned by
Yellow Sheet.
Contract LABOR STORY
Narrowing Fake of Fate Of Twenty
Two Austrians Who Came ON
the 0oric.

On the Doric arrived TWENTY-FIVE
Austrian laborers for Maui plantations.
brought by Joe Lucas or Lucca, the
well-known former hackman. The
San Francisco Examiner made a SEN
sation of their being brought here I'M
der contract, and published lurid pic
lures of their sufferings en- route. Rab-
/ bi Levy, who has been conspicuous in
the newspapers lately by his claims of
| freeing the Galician laborers in Ha-
wall, figures also In the Examiners
story of the Austrians, which is in part
as follows:
| White slaves have been hunted down,
herded and held by force right here In
San Francisco. When these slaves have
attempted TO escape. the police of San
/ Francisco have been sent out to run
/ them down and recapture them. The
| Federal authorities have looked on and
with open eyes have seen a law of the
United States violated, and they have
made no move to enforce the law or free
the slaves.
The Southern Pacific of Kentucky has
brought the slaves here Ii has forcibly
held them in the dark hold of one of its
steamers. A few months ago the entire
country was startled by the pitiful
story of the Galician slaves, who were
thrown into a Hawaiian prison be-
cause they revolted at the fearful hard
ships of their toll. So stirred were free
Americans by the story brought from
the islands by Rabbi NJ s. Levy and by
the fight for freedom for free men made
by THE Examiner" that Congress has
passed a law preventing Imprisonment
because of the violation of labor con-
tracts in Hawaii.
Some ten days or two weeks ago
twenty-five men, women and children
from the Austrian Tyrol were brought
over the South Pacific to the ferry
building in this city. At the ferry Joe
Tape, Chinaman in the employ of the
Oriental & Occidental Steamship Co.,
which is the ocean branch of the
Southern Pacific system. carried them
in two wagons and loaded them into
the steamer Doric at the Mail dock.
These people came under contract to
work on the plantations of Honolulu.
They say they signed to work for SIS
a month for three years. Their friends
say they were cheated in the contracts
and that they really signed to work
for So a month for five years.
After the twenty-five slaves had been
on the Doric for some time the vigil
lance of the Southern Pacific's slave
drivers somewhat relaxed. The espio-
mage was not so close. The poor Ty-
rolese were permitted to get their
meals at restaurant and to hold con-
verse with men of their own tongue
whom they met at the eating-place.
hn fol OF a
their eyes and filed their souls with
dread. They said they had been prom
ised that they were to work in the
United States. They were told that
they were being taken to Hawaii,
thousands of miles out in the trackless
ocean and burning under a pitiless
tropic sun.
Worse than that. They were told
the story of the Galicians; how the
horrors of the plantation pens had
driven them to revolt, and how they
had then been hunted down and cast
into a noisome Jail. They learned how
hard it had been to free these men
from prison, and how fearful they
were of returning to the life under the
slave-owners.
These Tyrolese mountaineers learn
ed thai as contract laborers they were
nothing more than white slaves. The
thought made the blood of the men
boil 1t blanched the faces of the
women Even the children covered
in a nameless dread.
John Turato, an Austrian, a coun-
tryman of the poor, deluded slaves, in
terested himself in their behalf. I'm
der his direction eleven of them fed
and hid themselves in the city.
At once the Southern Pacific clapped
the other eleven into the dank fore
| hold of the Doric, locked the big doors
and shut down the matches on them.
They pleaded in vain. The tears OF the
women and the cries of the children
went unheeded. A patriarchal old man
| begged for liberty. His prayers were
met with sneers and gibes. All were
huddled together and shut out from
the light and air.
John Turato, mindful of the plight
of the men,. women and children of his
native land, went down to the Doric
I yesterday morning to attempt the lib
Grafton of the prisoners In the dank
/ forehold. Two hired ruffians in the
Southern Pacific's employ hustled him
| from the steamer with force and VIC
/ lence.
Then the Southern Pacific sent its
/ ruffians out into the city to hunt down
/ the poor slaves who had escaped from
/ the Doric prison pen. They went
here and there like bloodhounds nos
/ ing the escaped slaves from their hid
/ ing places.
And the Southern Pacific appealed to
the police of San Francisco to aid In
the work of dragging the runaway
slaves back to the prison ship. A de-
tective was detailed.
| Tbraa of tho escapes were recaptur-
ed by Southern Pacific detectives. They
were dragged, protesting bitterly, back
to the Doric's dungeons. They were
thrown with the others into the DARK
and noisome forehold. The matches
we're closed down upon them. Ihelr
protests were smothered.
And so the Doric steamed away yes
terday with fourteen Tyrolese slaves
in its .hold-men, women and children,
who piteously begged not to be taken
to the life that is worse than death IN