The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-12-18

A CAUSTIC DEBATE
AMONG SENATORS
The Kansan's Hawaiian Amend
merit Was laid on the Table
Without Division.

WASHINGTON. Dec. s.-senator
Burton of Kansas was roughly handled
in the Senate today when he tried TO
railroad through an amendment to the
immigration bill, admitting Chinese
agricultural laborers into Hawaii.
Senator'S Bailey, Hoar, Mitchell, Bacon
and Tillman kept Burton busy for an
hour, at the end of which time Chair
man Penrose of the immigration Com
mittee gave the amendment Its quietus
by moving that it be tabled, which was
done. Burtons only ally was Senator
Foraker, who, as chairman Of the Com
mittee on Pacific Islands and Porto
Rico, has been informed of the hard
times prevalent in Hawaii and who was
ready to advocate the amendment If
indorsed by the subcommittee of Sena-
tors that visited the islands last fall
But Mitchell, chairman of the sub-com-
mittee, stated positively that the COM
mittee was not agreed on the subject
and that he personally opposed it.
Burtons amendment provided that
the Chinese might be admitted for agri-
cultural labor in sufficient numbers to
supply the demand, and that they
should be permitted to enter for the
sole purpose of doing agricultural work;
, that the corporations in whose service
the Chinese were engaged should first
give a bond for their deportation to
China in case they deserted the labor
for which they were engaged.
It did not take long for the Senator'S
on both sides to fay Burton. His
amendment was shown to be ineonsist-
ent with the contract labor and Chi
nese exclusion laws. Hoar wanted TO
know if Burton favored taking a man
! by the nape of the neck and throwing
him out of, the country whenever he
refused to do certain work. Bailey
suggested that slave days were over.
| Bacon said the Chinese, under the
amendment, would be bondmen and
slaves. Perkins said the kernel of the
whole matter was that the sugar
planters wanted cheap Asiatic labor at
| the expense of the American farm
ers growing sugar and employing
white labor Mitchell pointed out that
! the bulk of the Asiatics in Hawaii
were not on the plantations at all,
but in competition with whites and
natives in skilled labor. Bailey said
the amendment required the Chinese
to stick to the lowest rnenial labor,
j with the pain of deportation IL they
looked to higher things. Tillman pitch
forked in few sarcastic comments on
the amendment.
DETAILS OF TIRE VOTE.
The amendment opened a discussion
of the Chinese question. Burton de-
clared that the Hawaiians cannot make
money because the japanese have rais-
ed the price of labor higher than the
traffic will bear, and he added that they
are not as good citizens as the Chinese.
] TiIlman remarked that there may be
other parts of the United States that
might want labor. and he did not see-
why we should discriminate in favor
Of few corporation pets who own sug-
ar plantations in Hawaii
] Foraker of Ohio, differed with him,
and insisted that it was intended to
benefit all the people of Hawaii.
Burton said the Porto Ricans taken
| to Hawaii proved failures, but the Por-
/ tdguese had done very well. White
men would not work in the sun in the
Hawaiian climate He thought the
! Chinese should be allowed to go 20 Ha-
waii for agricultural purposes only.
! He added that he thought such immi-
! grants should be placed under bonds,
and in response to Bacon said he did
not consider that such conditions would
render the Chinese a slave.
Hoar asked Burton whether he would
! favor the admission of Chinese TO do
agricultural labor in the United States.
The reply was in the negative.
| Then" said Hoar, "are you doing to
| Hawaii as you would do to the United
! States?'