The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-08-12
~ A TRAVELLING ANANlAS.

branded Judge, Abram S. Humphreys
| to discredit the sugar industry Whlcn
has Welded him nearly all the money
I,a over made, and to add to It's labor
difficulties.
| Pecore leaving here Humphreys sold
| the most if not all of his sugar STOCK
and on arriving ct New Orleans, the
canter of the competing Gulf State SUI
gar industry, he undertook to cut down
| the value of the stock to the purchas-
e-s and the value of all other sugar
holdings here. His weapon was an IL
terview full of falsehoods as inexcusaoie
as were those for which he was recent
| w branded by the San Francisco
chronicle. the text of which Is pelns
sent broadcast by Louisiana papers.
Here are some Of the sample lies aoou'
the treatment given the Porto Rlcan
immigrants:
..rhas. newcomers nearly all arrived In
| an anaemic condition, due TO the pour
ard Insufficient nourishment they were
accorded aboard the ships on the trlp
across the Pacific. I do not think they
| were treated at all well from the time
| they left their homes in Porto RICO. lhey
have been imposed upon and woeiuiiy ue
| ceiyed since they arrived in HaWah, eotn
&c m tho wages they were promised ana
the hours they were to work unuei-
stand the Porto Ricans have not peeh
paid the wages promised them ana my
have been made to labor a longer time
! than originally held out to them peioi
| they left their homes.
..The planters promised TO educate the
| children, but they are trying also 10
break their word in this regard, with the
excuse that too much education Is
| curse to the Latin laborer. The planters
| hold that il is better to keep the Porto
Ricans in their natural condition, and not
| elevate them from their condition Oh
| semi-serfdom
Now that We are a part of the United
States the alien contract labor law is en-
forced in the Hawaiian Islands as well
as in the other portions of our country,
so that we can no longer draw upon en-
uese and Japanese for our labor CON
seuuently the planters have had to look
elsewhere They seemed to have settled
upon Porto Rico as country from
which they might draw timid and lS
norant element easily imposed upon ana
subdued A short time ago vessel ar
rived in Honolulu containing 500 Porto
Rican men, women and children, and out
of the entire lot not fifty We're capable
of doing half days labor if put to work
Immediately, so weak and exhausted We're
they from lack of food.
Just prior TO the Spanish-Ameriean
war Harper's, Leslie's and other illus
trated periodicals of our country in pic
turing the reconcentrado camps around
cities In Cuba exposed to view dying
mothers clasplng to barren breasts fam
shing babes. l thought then these pic
lures We're from the pen driven by few
ered imagination but / have seen sub
stantially the same thing when the emf
grant ships would land the Porto Rican
laborers in Honolulu.
Abram S. Humphreys, who has not
hesitated to speak falsely from the
bench and in the columns of his own
paper, naturally resorts to the same
method when he has any criticism to
make of men and interests that he
knows to distrust and despise him.
Hence the false statements quoted.
Humphreys knows as We'll as the next
man that the Porto Ricans, who left
their impoverished country III and
5half-starved, were treated well on the
way here and are being treated well
on the plantations. Sugar men do not
pay the passage of laborers from Porto
Rico to Hawaii for the sake of destroy
ing their health and thereby their ca
pacity to make good the expenses they
have caused and assure profits to their
employers. That is not a part of the
game. 1t is for the planters to save the
men they have brought here at large
cost and treat them so we'll that they
will draw others from the same local
ity That is precisely what has been
and is being done. We have the testi-
mony of the travelling correspondent of
the Los Angeles Times as to the good
treatment of the Porto Ricans on the
train from Louisiana to California: and
we know of their treatment here. So
does Humphreys. but he chooses to
bear false witness, at no matter what
cost to Hawaii simply to satisfy his
spite and malice 1t is a dirty bird
that fouls its own nest and Hum
phreys. all things considered. is one of
the dirtiest birds an ill-wind ever
brought to Hawaii.
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