The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-06-11

plantation in the islands save one land
that place where no Porto Ricans
were or had been employed was able
TO show, the planters appear to have
/ fully kept their side of this agreement
In most cases, however. the men have
left the plantations originally employ
ing them and wandered from place to
place, taking such positions as their
fancy or necessity dictated, like other
| free agricultural laborers. On nearly
every plantation they are given in ad-
ditlon TO the wages agreed upon in the
contract" bonus of so cents a week
for every week in which they work the
! full six days. They receive special
| consideration in many ways that is not
shown laborers of other nationalities
| One plantation employs a physician
for Porto Ricans exclusively, others
| that do not run plantation stores buy
rice and similar supplies at wholesale
which they sell at cost to these EN-
ployees; a planter on the island of Ha-
wall gives his Porto Ricans a sack of
! flour in addition to their weekly bonus
| whenever they work a full month of
| 20 days, and at an another place, where
there are nearly 100 employed, they are
! served with a free luncheon of hard
| tack and coffee in the field. Among
about 100 Porto Ricans interviewed
there was not a single man who COM
planned that he had rot received full
compensa ton for his services.
The quarters provided for the Porto
Ricans were in many cases new and
We're usually modelled after those sup
piled the Portuguese, with whom it
was assumed they would associate,
and were superior to most of those oc-
Nv OF TThaN -
Portable cottages. equal to the better
class of plantation quarters in the
South or in Cuba, and considerably
superior to the dwellings of the coun-
try laborers in Porto Rico. But COM
plant is made that, compared w tn
other working people in the islands,
the habits of the Porto Ricans are
untidy, and. as result, many were
transferred to poorer quarters, and
Asiatics and other laborers We're put in
the homes that were originally built
for them. In these things they were
compared with the tidy Japanese and
other Asiatics employed in the islands,
who, as we'll as the native Hawaiians,
are clean about their persons, and this
fact reacts favorably upon their sur
roundings, even when they neglect san
itation and orderliness about their
houses.
PORTO RICANS UNPOPULAR.
This fact has prejudiced plantation
mana gers and the people of the islands
against the Porto Ricans. They are
also unpopular on account of the num- |
Der of criminals who accompanied
them. Petty thieving was extremely |
rare in the country districts of Hawaii |
previous to their arrival. In this res
he HaNUaiianS a |
perfectly honest, unless corrupted by |
city influences, and the Asiatics and 9TH !
er laborers are not inclined to pilfer from |
the whites or to commit any lawlesS |
acts that will bring them into direct |
relations with other than their own
people. Heretofore doors and windows |
of private residences have seldom been !
locked, and small articles of value and |
other property have been left about |
uncared for with perfect security. The |
planters state that the arrival of tie |
Porto Ricans changed all this and |
bring in support of this statement Off |
cial statistics which show that the |
commitments per thousand inhabitants
to Oahu Prison, Honolulu, during the
first 10 months of 1902 were, for the
IL; Chinese, 8; whites, 5.3; |
Hawaiians, 61: and Porto Ricans, 49,
not been uniformly contented with the
conditions they have encountered in
Hawaii. Complaints of i'll usage and
Injustice were made. 1t was claimed
that they were charged eXorbitant
prices att the plantation stores, and
were obliged to be at work at unreas-
onably early hours. A careful inVesti-
CATION failed to disclose any eXtortion
in the prices charged by the plantation
stores or any discrimination as to
hours of labor. The cost of living Is
relatively higher in Hawaii than IN
Porto Rico, so that prices that seem
but normal to those familiar with the
islands might we'll appear exorbitant
to the new arrivals. The hours of Ia
Dor generally observed in Hawaii would
naturally seem a hardship to those ac-
customed to the somewhat easy gong
Porto Rican methods. Other planta-
ton laborers work rainy days as
matter of course. but over this point
trouble with the Porto
Ricans in Hawaii occurred. Especially
were complaints made by those work
ing in the Hilo and Hamakua districts,
and it is in this country that there Is
the most rainfall. As a result of this
climate condition there has been
gradual movement of the Porto Ricans
toward the dryer sections of the ISL
ands and in those regions they are
more contented and give better salts
faction as laborers. To repeat a state
ment already made, the industrial re-
gimen of the islands is a strict one.
Hawaii is a country where no en-
is given to idlers. 1t Is
probably the most energetic tropical
country in the world.
SOME GOOD ONES LEFT.
But the condition of the Porto Ric-
ans in Hawaii has another and a pleas
anter side The hopelessly i'll have
lied, some of the disconnected have
left for California. and the criminal
element has been largely weeded out
IF the working population in the coun-
try. There remains upon the planta-
ions a considerable body of fairly eff