The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-05-17


to Cuba large enough to afford relief |
10 some of the districts in which the |
population is so badly congeSted.
IDEAS OF THE PLANTERS.
The sugar, coffee and tobacco plant
er in Porto Rico is like the employer
of labor everywhere. @He would rather
nave too much of it than TOO little of
it. Hence. from this source all emf
grafton movements are likely TO De dis
couraged, and some of the planters I'M
faifly charge that Industrial poverty
is due TO the American government
when nothing could be farther from the
truth. When General George w. Davis
was military governor of the Island
he made careful investigation of
wages and of the labor question gen
orally. The conclusion he reached was
that there were too many people for
wages to reach high level, though he
thought that under the United States
there would be some advance
The complaint filed by Santiago lyle
Sias on behalf of the Porto Rican
workingmen bears this out. Igles,as is
labor agitator. and some of his state
.t1entS are oVerdraWn, but the basis of
hem is that there are too many arti-
sans in the island for the employment
which can be had. The various trade |
guilds all have larger memberships
han their trade warrants. This over
supply of mechanical labor is not so |
tural population, but it is large enough
20 illustrate the prevailing conditions !
No matter how bitterly interested par /
les in Porto Rico may oppose the idea |
the best thing which could happen !
would be emigration movement !
which, during the next five years |
would take away a hundred thousand |
people.
LESS LACK OF EMPLOYMENT
While there is much dispute growing
out of political controversy, it does not
seem probable that the lack of employ
ment is as general as during the Span
ish rule. A considerable amount of
new cane land has been put under Gull
tiYation by Boston capitalists and 9TH
RS affiliated with them. This means
that a new source of employment has
been opened up and work given 10 field
hands or agricultural laborers. 1 do
not know whether the sugar crop this
| year is going to be 900 tons, as Gov
| ernor Allen estimates. or 10000 tons, as
the members of the Porto Rican com
mission claim, but it is larger than in
/ past years. and as some of the land
gut under cultivation will not yield un-
| til next season, it is fair to assume
| that the crop will be larger next year.
| and this means employment Tor a
! larger number of people.
| Personally, / could count score of
| Americans who have gone TO Porto RI
T. L
/ fee growing. All of them have been
and buyers. Though the coffee indus
try has not fully recovered from the
hurricane, and though the worlds cot
rec crop continues to fix the price OF
the Porto Rico berry as it always viii
DO the industry has been promising
| enough to encourage the American in
vestors. There is room in the island
for 5000 small capitalists from the
United States to engage in general
farming, but the Porto Ricans have
expected that the 5000 would come In
all together and bring their capital
with them. That has not happened
and is not going to happen. but few
hundred Americans of this class set
Ting in Porto Rico each year will help
to ameliorate the conditions.
The complaint that since the legsla
ture granted franchises the parties who
received these franchises have not
utilized them is perhaps true. but it
has only been a few months, and en-
terprises of this kind are not carried
Il to completion usually within so short a
period 1t is also true that some OF
the parties who got the franchises have
not yet secured the capital necessary
to utilize their privileges. Most of
. them are in New York and Philadel-
phia waiting a favorable opportunity
to interest investors. They find one
difficulty in the fact that so large a
| measure of prosperity prevails III the
United States that moneyed men are
not seeking opportunities 20 go outside
When the boom subsidies a little there
will be a better chance. 1t is also true
, that European investors are less tlmi6
in Porto Rico than Americans. The
French company which owns the rail
way running partly along the coast, il
is reported will avail itself of the
, concessions recently granted and spent
, s2.000,o00 in completing its line.
BONDS OF MUNICIPALITIES
. The failure of American capitalist:
1 TO improve the opportunity 10 max,
. municipal loans in Porto Rico is ais,
; a source of complaint, but in this mat
n ter, as. in others. the capitalist is no
moved by sentimental considerations
= In time the bonds of some of the Porte
: Rico municipalities Will be good invest
s ments. Many of them need local i'm
@ proyements, which they now have tn
1 full legal authority TO secure by goin;
e into debt, and where they have fel
: the American contact they are read.
TO do SO. In the municipalities il
: which the Spanish element predomi
: mates these municipal investors will b.
e safe, for the Spanish merchant in Por
d to Rico, as in Cuba, pays his debts
: When il comes to the municipality o
d the state he has the same idea as il
n his individual dealings. But il will b.
{ a year or so before the political an,
e Industrial conditions in Porto Rico ar
o settled on the basis TO encourage Am
n erican capitalists to take up the mat
:. ter of municipal loans.
s 1t is to be regretted that there shoult
II be any attempt to ALLEVIATE the Span
V ish planters and commercial classe
= from the American administration
o They are a substantial element ant
:. their cooperation is desirable. But un
= der the Spanish rule the government
1 was administered so exclusively 70
]. their benefit that it was hard for then
to realize that the policy of the United
States was TO govern for the good o
all the people. and that the very larg'
, number of natives who previously haC
= no share in the government were here
. after TO be considered and their inter
, estS consulted.
: The Spanish business element under
stood only being with the government
= or else taking no part whatever II
: public affairs. They did not even ap.
preciate what it meant by legitimate
opposition. If they could not contro
, the administration in their own inter
est they wanted no responsibility. This
was one cause of the peculiar attitude
, taken in the elections when the fed
. ara1 aTfU tn RI he