The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1903-03-13
WHITE FARMER IN Hawaii
VS.. ORIENTAL LABOR
Miss Katherine Conan, Professor Of Economics
at Wellesley, on Hawai's I'm
pending Crisis.


what I'm talking about. The Eva ex
pertinent failed, yes; but that was not
fair test. The management meant well
and they made good business PROPOSE
ton. but the superintendent had n,
faith in the thing, and threw cold waite
from the start. Then the living condi
tions were such as no Americans woult
accept A row of whtewashed shantie
on stills. built all alike and all in on,
yard. The women got into a tangl,
with their gardens and their chickens
No church privileges. and the children
went to school with lot of Japs and
Portuguese. Learned pigeon English
| Portuguese and Hawaiian mixed rhe
men weren't the right sort either
| sober and all that, but lacked sand.
| tenant farmers from Missouri most OF
hem. sort OF fellows that aren't iooE-
ing for hard work. When they began
sub-letting the job to Japanese, the
company decided they could dispense
with their services. If Eva plantation.
would set aside a thousand acre-tract
and give twenty intelligent farmers
long term leases of fifty-acre lots, all
lowing five acres for homestead for
each family, they would get much bet
ter crops than they can grow with Jap
anese labor. Work unsuited to the An
glo-Saxon? No. Why I'm experiment.
ing with an acre of cane right here. I
planted rose bamboo in rows eight feet
apart. This cane grows straight and
strong. A horse and plow can get down
the burrows as long as cultivation is
needed. AS for stripping. my cane is
no more difficult to get through than
field of corn, but the rose bamboo
doesn't need much stripping. Field
could be cut by steam same as corn.
The planters have offered a prize of
ten thousand dollars for machine that
will cut their cane, but you could as
easily run a corn cutter through an
African Jungle. That field has had no
irrigatinE and no fertilizer, but it will
yield five tons of sugar. Eva raises ten
tons to the acre. but their crop costs
four times as much. My scheme Of
setting the rows wide apart not only
makes cultivation easier, it actually re-
suits in an improved quality of cane.
The greater amount of air and sun
shine admitted to the stalks enriches
the juices. I've had my cane tested
by an expert, and he says that it will
yield n higher percentage of saccharine
matter than any other grown in the ISL
ands.
mo. | don't suppose the plantations
will ever be cut IN into farms. Not
many of the big sugar companies own
their lands. They rent on long leases
from the Government or from some
Kanaka estate. They could not sell the
land If they would. but they prefer to
have 1t under their own supervision.
The more progressive OF the managers
see that the Jap as a wage-paid labor
err can never be a success and they are
trying the contract company scheme.
is something the Jap I'M
derstands. 1t brings out the best there
Is In him both as laborer and as man.
To my thinking. the solution of the
planters labor problem lies right there.
"Annexation hasn't Americanized the
islands. There are only 10000 Caucas-
ans in population of $4,000. accord
ing to the last census a smaller proper
ion than in 1896. Many Americans
who came out here then. thinking to
make fortunes. have gone home disap-
pointed. Meantime the Japanese are
coming in at a rate that will Oriental
re the country before many years. The
'nly hope for white civilization. as l
zee 1t, is the small farmer. At home he
s the sheet anchor of political and
ocial institutions, and he would be
lere, once given chance.
THE LAND LAWS.
Homestead lands? Well, Governor
Dole and men like him have advocated
hat for the past twenty years. The
and act of 1895 is the best they could
o. They tried to suit the sugar planter I
nd the coffee planter, and the small 1
lrmer and the Kanaka peasant There
re six classes of land and five forms of {
urchase. 1t would puzzle a Philadel- I
mia lawyer to see his title clear under
bat act. Can't expect Americans to I
ONE out here to take up land when 3
hey can get it on better terms at home. Z,
icwever, when a man once opens up /,
md in Hawaii, its value grows like I
weed. This land for which / paid IS ,
II acre four years ago is now worth
100. There's no more paying invest :,
lent in the United States. The pity
that there is so little left, only $4,000 ,
creS OF agricultural! land is still at the !
lsposal of the land commissioners.
wo years ago the United States gov |
'nment stepped in and set aside as p
ilitary reservation n fourteen tnou
tnd-acre tract right alongside ;his II
llony \ deputaton of army officers {
lnle here to select camp where the e
'oken down soldiers from the Phil Il
pines might be sent to recuperate.
he Secretary of War approved their
commendation,, and there it lies, the l.
,st land on Oahu for the small farm p
IS purposes, entirely withdrawn from %
ttlcment 1t has never been used as G
1 encampment and probably never n
i'll be. :,
When | first came to the Islands. N
ffee was the hope of the small farmer. n
'ores of enterprising young fellows =.
ok up land in Hawaii, borrowing :,
oney TO develop it, and hoping to re- :,
~ with interest in a few years. But -
ey couldn't make 1t go, Kona coffee D
ought no price. Java can be grown
re as well as anywhere. There's a II
ie plantation over in Makaha valley, IL
IL the DrDluct CutS no figure in the ni