The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-04-15
TWO KINDS
Of NEGROES
Planters Might Get
the Right
Sort.
A TALK WITH
W. N. ARMSTRONG
How c. P. Huntington Employed Ne
groes in His Shipyard and
Was Successful,

People who have reflected slightly on
the subject says Hon. W. n. Arm
strong, fail to realize the fact that
there are negroes and negroes, as
there are white men and white men.
1t woulu be a public calamity to import
a certain class of negroes into these
Islands as it would be calamity to i'm
port certain class of white men.
There are thousands of good workers
among the negroes, and they would be
in many ways desirable class but
they will not respond to the call of a
whistle. A large and most arduous pre-
lliminary work must be done in advance
if the desirable class is induced to
come.
II believe that a brief story of Mr..
lC. P. Huntington's relations with the
negroes should be useful. This great
lcapitalist and employer of men always
took the deepest interest in the black
trace of America. In his youth he once
knocked man down who had assault
ed a black in Sacramento. He was one
of the strongest supporters of the
Hampton School and the only chart
table bequest, save one. which he made
in his will, was 100000 to that school.
when he had finished the finest
Ishipyard in America, at Newport News,
The directed that the negro should have
the first chance as a laborer in the
yard. His business friends, with the
usual want of foresight of the average
business man, opposed this PROPOSE
ton, and predicted failure to build
|good ships; they said his yard would be
la laughing stock. The President of the
lDockyard company told me that he
feared that the old man had lost his
head But no one dared to disobey his
lorders. He did not permit his lieuten-
ants to whistle for men but ordered
them to take the trouble to select them.
The care and patience taken in choosing
Iblacks and in kindly pointing them in
the right direction, in their ignorance
and apparent stupidity, would have
astonished our own sUgar cane plant
ers. There were some dark days at
first and the 1unas' were discouraged;
but they dared not to oppose the in
perious will of that industrial tyrant.
often heard their growing and pre-
diction of commercial ruin. They
damned the niger when the old man
was away. But with kindly treatment
the black got into the harness and
pnlled by the side of the white man in
rough him. Behind him was the
despotic hand of Huntington, who was
his friend. Last summer, two days be-
fore Huntington died the President of
the Dock company told me that out of
5000 men employed in the building of
vessels 5000 of them were colored men.
The result is that the largest steam
ship ever built in the United States
the Korea-is largely the product Of
negro labor. Moreover the wages paid
to the colored men are the same as
those paid to tha'white laborers The
event has justified Mr.. Huntingtor's
radical views.
1T goes without saying that If he
had invested money and brain in the
sugar industry here. he would have
solved the labor problem as he solved
all of the industrial problems that con-
fronted him.
II do not discuss the general ques-
ton of negro labor here. l cite only
the example of what one man did in
Ispite of the opposition of his business
friends. Negro labor on these Islands
can be made successful here only by
following these simple and radical
ways. Without them the ind rimi ate
importation of colored men will be a
calamity. The planters of Cuba and
Porto Rico believe that the American
negro is superior as a laborer to the
native. They may be in error. 1t is
probably largely a matter of opinion.
Thousands of white men in the South
have no use for the negro Thousands
more are satisfied with him The per-
sonal factor makes the difference In
opinion. Booker Washington has al
ready raised many of the blacks above
the condition of the poor whites
Their progress is surprising, when we
remember that the provisions of the
Constitution of great Christian nation
kept them in slavery and ignorance for
a century and those who were born at
the foot of Bunkers Hill consented to
it. All we know of the black race at
present is that, on the whole, 1t re-
stronger race must make the environ
ment in the first instance as Mr. Hun
tington did it. This calls for industrial
philanthropy, and measured by the SUI
gar producing standard, that product
is hardly above six ounces to the acre.
Under the circumstances, the fmporta-
ton OF negroes is rather a dangerous
venture. If the further Importation of
Asiatics is also dangerous, there is the
satisfaction left to us that Ii is profit-
able, and profit is the rock on which we
nave chosen to found our Territorial
n tryoS sN~,