The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-08-26
ROOM FOR AMERICANS.

That CaucaSianS can do all the work
OF cane field, but at the same time
that they will not, is most plainly set
forth by the recital of the experiences
of those who We're brought to Eva plan
tation by the management in the hope
that they would solve the labor prob
lem. They came. tried the work, sue
ceeded In doing the lightest kind of Ia
Dor as well as the Orientals. but no bet
ter. and then when the crop advanced
to It's final stages and the hard part of
the work came, they would not under
take It. but instead hired Japanese to
do 1t. They were thus brought into di-
rect contact, in so far as their labor
went, with the Oriental. and there was
at once developed repugnance to being
in this kind of competition with the Chi
nese and Japanese, and the experiment
was failure.
Despite this showing, the advocates
OF the Introduction of white labor to re-
place the Orientals insist that the way
to accomplish the conversion is to bring
in enough white men and thus force the
change, but without bringing the two
races into competition. The impracti
cable always appeals to some minds,
anu lQlS Is one Oh the cases DIT point.
The question would be how to land
upon any plantation of the entire group
enough men to do all the work, throw
ing out the Japanese and Chinese in
stantly, and bring crop to maturity
and mill it, The proper cultivation of
cane is admitted to be a matter which
takes some little education. In the mi
mute details. No man, however well he
may be educated, can go into the cane
fields and at once begin the cultivation
of the crop. He cannot even irrigate
properly without instruction. There
must be, then, a period of a certain
duration, covering perhaps one entire
crop, during which the white men are
shown in actual practice the workings
of the business, This would require
that the Orientals be kept upon the es-
tate to do the work which the white
men were learning to do. or else the
crop must be sacrificed in the interest
of the schooling. To those who have
followed the growing of cane it seems
that the only way in which the CONVEX
sion of the estates from an Oriental
basis to a Caucasian plane, could be eff
fected, would be to gradually bring it
about by the Introduction of few
American laborers, who would in learn
ing the business prepare themselves to
take up not only the working of a crop
but as well the instruction of their
brethren, who undoubtedly would fol-
low them if the reports as to their sue
cess were satisfactory. But there again
is met the objection that this would
bring the white men into competition
with the Orientals for a time and this
would not be wise nor would the whites
continue the work long enough to Sc
cure facility, and sufficient white COL
ony to permit the working of the entire
plantation without the Orientals. So It
appears that there must be performed
a modern miracle, the immediate trans
portation of large number of whites
to at once take up the work and the
instruction of this new body by some
occult means not yet discoverable
There are on the plantations of the
group about 10000 men of various ma
tionalities, who do the work on the
plantations, which 1t is designed by the
intense Americans should be performed
by American laborers. 1t took eight
months to secure some five thousand
Porto Ricans, at a time when there was