The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-01-26
FOR
What Hawaii Offers to
Them.
A Magazine Article Full of Points for
Intending Settlers by a
Former Resident.
(Concluded.)


about $4,000 should be considered as
an enduring factor. The native race
is passing away. The statement may
seem harsh, but it is true. The Asiatic
population, under the restrictions
which will inevitably be placed upon
it, must finally dwindle away, while
the Portuguese, quick to accommodate
themselves to changed conditions, will,
with other foreigners, gradually as
simulate. There is no reason why Ha-
wall should not support 100000 in
hbaitants instead of one-tenth of that.
The labor question has bobbed up
quite often in the last year, being af-
fected by the annexation agitation. II
ought to come up. But do not think
that it need cause any alarm to either
the employer, or, what is more inipor-
tant, to the laborer. Contract labor.
which exists at the present is not de-
5irable, and in few months will prob
ably become a thing of the past. Hence
IL need not be discussed. Anything re-
sembling ii is not the sort of system
for the ordinary American. Going to
Hawaii under an agreement with a
company which for specified considera-
tions is to pay the laborer's fare. fur
nish him a house. fuel. and medical
service, is contrary to the genius OF
American citizenship. 1t Is not best for
anybody. 1t would certainly end disas-
trously and injure the cause of immi-
grafton in Hawaii.
Mr.. Fitzgerald, who went TO Hawaii
from California to look into the labor
question, may be enthusiastic. and alb
solutely honest, but he is not wise. The
only class of men Mr.. Fitzgerald could
get to come under an agreement are
the day labOrers. men who go about
the country seeking work, and they
are not the men to make the citizens
needed. Such foot-loose men have al
ready been to Hawaii. The Spreckels
brathers have caught them up, and
they have proved a disappointment to
everybody, including themselves. They
were generally either foreigners or the
Americanized sons Of foreigners. They
were generally ignorant. They were
generally shiftless, roaming with the
true California spirit.
| reiterate once more that Hawaii is
a good place for a man of small means.
if he is the right kind of a man; but ii
is not the place for a man with no
money at all, whose fare even must be
paid. 1t is true that many Hawaiian
citizens have reached there without
means. but they were not farmers; they
were persons who came with special
qualifications for some particular work
in which they could at once find use for
their knowledge.
While do not think that the climate
contra-indicates field labor for the
white person, far be It from me to say
that any American farmer could go
and carry out his agreement to work as
an ordinary laborer upon the sugar
plantations OF Hawaii. I have too
much regard for my own countryman.
He could not do 1t for any length of
time. Does he have to work at home
as he would have to do in Hawaii. go
ing out early in the morning, working
all day, and keeping it up for twelve
months in the year? Not at all. He
works for six or seven months very
hard. but at various, and therefore
stimulating, kinds Of labor. then takes
a rest like the bear, literally hiberna-
ting. He fattens up on rest all win
ter, with enough exercise to help d.
gestion, good cold tonics. and a differ
ent variety of food from what he con-
sumed in summer. If he have no farm,
and must depend upon odd Jobs all the
year round, his work is not wearing,
though much more disagreeable than
1t would be in Hawaii. Down South
where II Is warm, the average man
does not do continual, hard manual Ia
Dor. Nor is II done in any tropical or
sub-tropicaI country under the sun.
Mr.. Fitzgerald says that these agree
ments are gone into voluntarily; that
no one is obliged to agree to anything.
This Is true. But may not a man agree
to do the thing worst for him, thinking
that it is the best? And would it not
be hard for any American farmer, not
a business man or lawyer, to Judge
rightly what he should do when neces-
sity demands that he enter upon some
working plan whereby his condition
will be improved? / doubt very much
whether a farmer working even In the
Northern States could endure the labor
OF three consecutive summers without
a rest between, especially II he had the
small amount OF change In climate,
food. and relaxation furnished by Ha-
wall in its average year. Monotony Is
what kills. The same work, the same
ideas, the same OF anything, year In
and year out. This is why | can never
accept the general idea Of heaven as a
place where we shall do nothing but
sing hymns and walk up and down
gold-paved streets. 1t would be dis
tressingly awful to have to do this for
ever. and would most certainly result
in the nervous breakdown OF 80 per
cent of the good folks who had TO do it.
1t is true. Germans and NOrwegians
came as contract laborers. but few Of
them turned out well. and they are
complaining yet. The Portuguese.
many OF them. are contract laborers,
but what are they beside American
men? What are their homes? How
are they housed? What do they live