The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-12-19
FORTUNE TALKS AT
LABOR EXCHANGE

Fifty thousand hard working, law
abiding negroes could be procured in
the Southern States for Hawaii's sugar
plantations, according 10 the statement
made last evening by T. Thomas For
tune, special agent of the United States
Treasury Department at the Builders
and Traders Exchange. Selected by
such men as Booker T. Washington,
| himself, and five other negroes of ma
tional reputation these colored labor
ers would be of the kind qualified to
perform the manual labor Of the cane
fields, Just as they have been accustom-
ed TO in the fields OF the South. Condi
lions in the South are so distasteful 70
them at present that thousands are
leaving it, even going to Liberia, where
the wages are but a pittance.
Mr.. Fortune stated that it was un-
doubtedly the policy of the administra-
ton to restrict the immigration of
Chinese on even more radical lines
than before. and to include the Japan
ese.
When the time comes that the
United States says no more Asiaties
can come, said he, you people out
here have got to make UP your minds
that those already here must get out
to make room for American citizens.
q find that the climate here is not
nearly so bad as it is in some parts OF
the South, yet they work there for
small wages, generally about go cents
the year round and find" themselves.
This climate is the right kind for them.
1 will guarantee that 95 per cent of the
negroes who could be brought here,
after being properly selected. would be
the very kind of laborers your planters
want. They would make good, desir-
able citizens, but they would have to
be brought here in families, and have
some church connection l suppose
that the negroes that were brought
here as an experiment naturally drifted
into the jails, and if they hadn't done
that here. they would where they came
from"
Mr.. Fortune prefaced his remarks by
saying that he was speaking, not as an
official of the Treasury Department,
but as citizen who had made observa-
lions. He considered the Japanese the
worst competitor the American had.
far more so than the Chinaman. The
report of the Immigration Commission
er. soon to come out, would contain
isome astounding facts. This will show
that for last year u, 900 Japanese came
to America, and 5000 of these entered
Hawaii. He, spoke of the Chinese In
vasion of the United States in the sense
of labor. He said the labor organiza-
lions of the United States were about
to make a strong fight against any part
of the United States, including Hawaii
and the Philippines, producing sugar
hemp, tobacco. etc, with labor that
would compete with labor elsewhere
in the United States. The solution Of
the Oriental problem was to drive ASH
atics out Of the United States. The Chi
nese should be compelled to cut his
queue and wear his. shirt inside his
trousers. The Chinaman without 9
queue was no longer a Chinaman. Al
persons residing within the limits o.
the United States should be made int,
citizens. to assume responsibilities san6
respond to calls of urgency when tbs
nation was in trouble.
Before Mr.. Fortune spoke, w w
Harris moved for the appointment Of
: a committee of FIVE to combine witt
the Merchants Association and labor
organizations in making q census o.
= the business part OF town with view
to ascertaining the number of non
Asiatics employed as clerks and In a.
: classes of labor Mr.. Dickey suggested
that Honolulu was made too attractive
: for plantation Asiatics. They cam,
here because the work was not so hare
and the wages better. He suggeste,
that the business interests would b
i, better served if such Iaborers were on
" given plantation wages
It has also been arranged that In,
Builders and Traders Association her