The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-06-05
FICTION AND FACT.

FICTION AND FACT.
.aThey sailed on Saturday in the Yea
landia, iriicknamed the Slave Ship.
Twelve Of the party of 900 had died since
they left San Juan. The death certifi-
Gates give the causes as 'pernicious amaze
mia" which Is not the medical Equivalent
for benevolent assimilation but for lack
of blood and want of nutriment- Their
railway journey had been inScars fouler
than cattle cars and more crowded. Their
quarters on the sZealandia are squalid
and inhumanly acramped.
"As the ship was leaving, the mother
of one of the youths who had just died
begged to be allowed to kiss her dead
chiid's face once more. but this was de-
MED to her. And so the Slave Ship
with the free flag of the republic float
ing at Its masthead, dropped down to sea
with the walls of this mother borne back
upon the breeze.
"A disagreeable skeleton at the impe-
rialist feast. Hustle it away. And let
the band play some lively patriotic air
and play it loudly."-New York World.
SAN JUAN, Porto Rico, May 2L-Nine
hundred emigrants embarked on the
steamer California at Guanica for Ha-
wall today leaving 400 more ready to
sail Joyous manifestations accompanied
the departure of the emigrants. Four
teen weddings and forty-eight baptisms
took place Sunday. The emigration
agents are spending, 1t is estimated.
about $4,000 In recruiting and maintain
ing the emigrants. Favorable reports
from Hawaii have caused a continuation
of the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. Press Dis
patch.
The mass of misinformation concern
ing Hawaii and the efforts being made
by the Sugar Planters Association to
fill the cane fields with labor, makes
the quotations above peculiarly peril
nent at this time. The editorial from
the New York World was printed at
the time of the sailing of the Zealandia
from Port Los Angeles, the news para
graph was sent out by the Associated
Press, and printed throughout the coun-
try May 81.
The World IN introducing the para
graphs quotad. refers to the alleged
horrors Of the trip iacrpssSs Texas and
California, the foul character Of the
cars in whitH' the Porto Ricans travel.
ed. and their GENERALLY desperate con-
dition, calling these things "a vivid OBJ
ject lesson In what is happening in
Porto Rico. ""'Thfs taken in connection
with the luradaaeHoutlts of the astarva-
ton which sffAalaWed. thee hurricane sin
that island, undoubtedly gives the ina
preston that the little people from the
West Indies are doomed by nature to
suffer wheth,sg In one cline or, anothegs
and as surely has aroused much. gym
pathy over their unfortunate condi-
ton. Many peraons,. ordinarily >. just
In their methods of reasoning and with
an unbiased mind, reading the stories
of the JOY ofsthes people over PROS
pective change. aiIaVe joined athe anti
Administrations heWl against the powers
With this Sta state ' 81 mind lind obtaining "a ing
what must have been the effect In the
East of the seriusoornfc performance In
the Legislature, when the sympathetic
member from the Fifth District filed
his tear bottlejto soverfiowing when he
described to his colleagues what he
saw on Quarantine Island when the
Porto Ricans had been landed from
the Peru. Was not the statement he
made taken by the calamity howlers
as a corroboratfon OF all that they had
uttered, and a9yindication of their
prophecies as to slavery conditions
which mark the residence here of the
laborers?
Instead of squaior, of the legree with
his whip, the facts are that good food,
fresh air, proper medical attendance
and sanitary surroundings have had
the effect of making the Porto Ricans
satisfied with their new homes. to the
extent, as told In the news dispatch.
thai they have sent home reports which
made 1t matter of rejoicing among
the friends of the departing laborers,
that there was a land of promise at
the end of their journey.
Labor consideration shows that it
could not be otherwise. In Porto
Rico the total population in 1899 was
s53,243, of whom 316,365 were engaged
in gainful occupation Of that num-
Der less than 100000 were engaged in
agricultural pursuits. Forty-one per
cent of the cultivated area was in cof-
fee and is per cent only In sugar. In
the absence of official data as to wages
earned, the unofficial statement that
an ordinary laborer earns less than Is
cents, a day must be accepted, and that
the surplus accruing to the laborer Is
nil, Is strong by the fact that after
the hurricane of March, 1898. the local
government fed 250,0O0 indigent per-
sons. What does 1t mean to people liv-
ing under such conditions that home
where fair wages may be earned is Of
Tered? From an island where one
fourth of the population must be fed
by charity after calamity such as
that hurricane, to, a home where the
regular wages per month exceeds what
could be asked formerly in a season,
must mean the transition from misery
20 happiness. IL the migrant is reas-