The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-10-05
SUGAR AND LABOR.

planters are uOlnS III the iHdleSi VI q
new labor supply. for the results OF
their meetings and discussions are not
given to the press. Items in the Main
land files. caught on the fly from travel
ling labor agents yield more data than
can be had here, but at best the facts
obtained are discursive and fragment
airy. Enough is known of current un-
dertakings, however, to make 1t appear
probable that neither the Porto Rican
nor the Southern negro venture Is pros
pering.
There has been some conflict of rul-
ings over Porto Rico but the weight OF
judgment is on the side of the plea
that while Porto Rico bears the rela-
ton OF a colony to the United States,
her people cannot be regarded as ex-
empt from the inhibitions of the alien
contract labor law. The Porto Rican
and the Filipino are not citizens of the
United States, they are its wards; and
as wards they are not entitled to the
privileges conferred upon citizens,
among which is placed the right to en-
ter into labor contracts anywhere with
i'm the national domain. Even If there
were grounds to admit the Porto Rican
peon to the American labor market the
Federal Government would not recog-
nize them because of the political effect
upon the American workingmen-an
effect which might be disastrous to the
expansion policy itself.
There is no law in the way of max
ing Hawaiian contracts with Ameri-
can negroes but from comments we see
in Southern papers there is something
oil fha I'm l.
ingness of the white employers of these
people to let them go. In the Seventies,
at time of sectional warfare upon
black voters, the Southern whites turn
ed out with shotguns to keep the negro
"exodusters" from going to Kansas.
However much the Southern employer
objected to the attitude Of the negro
In politics he wanted the cheap labor of
his former chattel in the fields. This
spirit still exists, evidence of it crop
ping out in newspaper paragraphs of
which the following letter from a con-
servative Georgian to the Philadelphia
Record is type:
Editor of the Record: The Macon Tel
egraph of Monday last reproduces an edi-
torial from your paper touching the ques-
ton of Migration of the Negro" You
Il
Southern opinion in the matter; 1t is
generally adverse to such movement.
with all his faults We love him 0he ne
gro) STILL" We neeo or fancy we need.
his labor; yet if we change our point OF
view, taking into consideration in what
way the Southern negro can attain the
best conditions, | am confident the in
telligent reply must be: By an attempt
to found his own nationality in a land
of his own selection. When this truth Is
accepted as truth, the work of prepare
ton must begin; he must be aided by his
former master and friend. So soon as the
work begins and is generally recognized
as feasible the friction now existing vii
Il no longer hinder his development; his
fellow workers will not dread an unscru
pulous competition, but will gladly aiC
him in the work of preparation. So, a
least, il seems to me, and have observed
the situation for nearly half a century.
Ike and respect the negro, and wish hin
all possible good.
/ WILLIAM RILEY BOYD.
Atlanta, Ca, Sept. IL, 1900.
Reduced to brief compass this argu
ment is: We want the labor of tn,
negro but if the time comes when W.
can get along without it, the Negro
will be invited to go back to Africa
But we can't let him leave for a lon,
time to come.
Viewing the trouble the Hawaiian
planters have had about bringing II
Italians, Galiclans and the like it look
as IL they would be forced, eventually
to appeal to American white labor OIL
some plan that would assure such labo
a better profit than 1t can make a
home. We know Of no material con
summation more devoutly to be wished
The hope of Hawaii Is in a great earn
ing and consuming population of whit
men. taking the place Of Asiatics who's
wants are few and whose incomes ar
mainly spent abroad. The planter
fear that white labor. by costing more
would reduce dividends; but of this re
suit we cannot be sure while the prop
osition that one white field hand Il
worth two yellow ones stands unchal
lenged. On the favorable side are tn,
advantages OF stability, for it is not OF
record that American agricultural la
borers ever struck; the profits of plan
tation store trade with men who's,
wants are varied; the comparative i'm
munity from plaques which might, a
any time sweep through the hosts Of
Asiatic labor; the increased security o.
/ Legislatures which, as things are now
may be made the instruments of pratt
cal taxation of sugar properties: the
preservation within the country of the
I money paid for field work: and finally
the building up of a yeoman citizen
ship which would be the safeguard OF
all property. the pledge and promise Of
that Statehood without which the plan.
tiers may not be able in the long rur
to save their staple product from in.
furious foreign competition.
/ On these accounts we are not dis
turbed by the failure of the planters
to solve the labor problem in their owl
way. There is a higher and a better
way: more American and, we believe
a more profitable way; and If the sugar
men are forced to accept it they will
one day look back upon. the circum-
stance with no more regret than the
rest Of the old white population will
feel.