The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-09-12
OBJECTS To
AS|ATICS
Citizen Says They
Get All the
Jobs.
DRIVE WHITE
LABORERS AWAY
Hard Times Compelled Skilled
Mechanics to Leave Country
or to Starve.

Editor Advertiser: In regard to the
Builders and Traders Exchange state
ments with reference to employment Of
citizens, ETC., on public works, no one
can dispute their truth or propriety,
but they might have gone a step fur
Their. It may be well enough for the
commission to be allowed to understand
conditions here in full, in order that it
may better realize the position of skill
ed white labor" as it is called, in these
Islands.
When times began to pinch, workmen
who had been induced to come here
from, the mainland faced two alterna-
tives-one to remain and starve; the
other TO get out. They got. Today
there are very few tradesmen, compar-
atively, in Honolulu, other than Ash
atics. Why? Partly, as the Exchange
memorial intimates, because of the en-
ployment of foreign contractors and
Asiatic workmen on public works; but
more especially because of the almost
exclusive employment of Asiatics on
private enterprises.
The commission, or the Congress, can
not, perhaps, inject patriotism or prin-
ciple into any man, or compel him to
give men of his own race chance to
live in preference to pig-tailed, chol-
Iera-infected Asiatic; but it can be Civ
en- all the facts, in order that it may
understand better the real plight in
which the laboring class of the Islands
are at this time, and the need, there
fore, of their having at least one avenue
of salvation open to them when nearly
all others are closed-namely, the pub
lie works
Recently building was commenced
by this Asiatic skilled" labor (save the
markD' and the walls fell before reach
ingFthe second story; and it was only
through very persuasive arguments
from the public building inspectors that
white artisans were employed to put
the thing in condition to stand up I'M
til skilled" Asiatics could put roof
on it. And observation has shown that
those who are, in many instances, loud
est in their demands for the employ
ment of hao1es on public works, are
the least willing to set the example in
their private enterprises. When they
want a carpenter or mason, an Ash
attic gets the job, the first steamer takes
the money paid for the work to China,
and the employer has saved few dol
lars, and has the added consciousness
of having cheated his race out of it's
due: and also has, in all probability,
sadly defective piece of work on his
hands.
White laborers, as a class, spent, at
the very least, 80 per cent of their
wages in the town where employed. 1t
may be safe to say that for every dol
bricklayer, or other skilled" laborer,
90 cents goes to China by the first
steamer; and the only chance a haole
has of ever seeing it again is to go to
the mainland and help manufacture
machinery for shipment to the Orient
mighty slim chance indeed.
1t is well to bring an army of white
men here from TIE States to draw gov
eminent money when we know most of
it will be spent in Honolulu. It is prop
er and it is right-and we need the
money. But is it not also of conse-
quence that those already here be per-
mitted to live. without being wholly de-
pendent on Uncle Sam for a job-that
is, if we do not want an entire commu-
nifty of Asiatics? Many are gone al
ready, and every steamer takes more
of them away. Nine out of every ten
dollars paid to Chinaman leaves the
country-and dollars are little shy in
Hawaii just now. If some of our vigor-
Gus and strenuous advocates of the pol
icy of paying Uncle SamuePs money to
"citizens"-and having it circulated
again among them-will practice like
policy themselves, there will be more
coin of the realm in sight, perhaps, and
they may have fewer acted, if not ut
tered, falsehoods on their consciences.
E. EDGAR.