The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1903-06-12

described limit the Industrial possibili-
ties, and no community, white or vel
low, can obviate these Limitations. Ger
tain other conditions, sociological
rather than material, still further res
trict the Industrial effort in the ISL
ands. That labor policy is wises
which, while recognizing existing con.
ditions and the natural limitations tc
productive enterprises already mention
ed, strives to maintain the economic
prosperity of the Territory with the
least possible sacrifice of the interests
of the Caucasian working men,"
WHITE MEN IN CANEFIELDs.
The commissioner says that but ter
per cent of the labor of the plantations
could be furnished by white men, and
further that no supply of the kind OF
labor needed can be taken from the
states.
| He says: ITALY furnishes a large
share of the field hands employed In
Louisiana, and Japanese cultivate the
beet sugar fields Of California. The
latter state furnishes a ready marke,
for all the agricultural labor that up
to the present date has ever reached
/ its borders, at higher wages that the
cane industry can afford to pay. Am
erican farm hands cannot be employed
and small farmers from the States will
not occupy and till with their own
hands, cane lands in Hawaii, until
some economic resolution is accom-
plished by which workers are made to
move freely from a higher to a lower
market and from more profitable to
less profitable fields of production"
He says also that white labor is
physically unable to perform some of
the plantation work. Also economic
reasons have caused the preference for
Asiatics and he cites also a number
of tests made with white labor which
use unsuccessful.
CHINESE LABOR WANTED.
The report also says that the PLAN
ters are opposed to one class of labor
ers, like the Japanese, for there is al
ready danger of a shortage. What
they want most is Chinese labor for
agricultural purposes only under res
trictions imposed by Congress. such
a law" it is pointed out would affect
only Hawaii, says the commissioner.
ut would have no influence whatever
on the migration Of Chinese to the
mainland, as they are not permitted to
enter California from the islands at
the present time"
This, he says, is opposed by many
white people and by the natives, though
favored by the planters and business
men. He finds also that general con-
ditions Of labor in the islands are as
favorable as those found in any large
employing industry elsewhere in the
states. He speaks also of the hours of
labor, comforts for the workmen, the
contract cultivation system, wages and
cost of living. A chapter Is devoted
also to a comparison of labor condi-I
tons in California, Texas, Louisiana,
Cuba and Porto Rico with Hawaii
Some attention is paid also to the
minor industries and also to the trades
in the city. The latter, the report
says, is no different from that of any
city in the United States. Relations
between employer and employees are
said to be generally amicable and the
schools are also highly complimented,
differing in no essential respect from
those of our more progressive states"
For an American having definite
missioner Hawaii offers pleasant
and satisfactory place to make a home.
For immigrants with small capital
there are public lands and agricultural
opportunities equal to those in many
other portions of the Union. Social
conditions are not so pleasant how /
ever, and it is advised that experiments
should be by colonies large enough to
make their own social surroundings.
The report concludes: "If the coffee
could be made profitable, the
success of small farming in Hawaii
would be assured. Before 1t had been
demonstrated that the product of the
Hawaiian planters could not compete
with the inferior and cheaper coffees
of Brazil in the American market, and
while there was home protection, this
industry attracted many young Am
orleans and Englshmen to the islands
and extended rapidly among the Por-
tuguese homesteaders. The method ~
accomplishing this extension of coffee
culture desired by many local interests
is to devote n portion of the local GUS
toms revenues to a bounty upon high
grade coffees raised exclusively by
white labor in Hawaii. From the Ha-
waiian point of view, the islands would
simply be paying for the privilege of
supplying American consumers with
higher grade coffee than they use at
present, the insular customs revenues
would themselves be increased by the
addition to the permanent Caucasian
population that would follow this ac-
ton, and such legislation would be a
step toward creating the home supply
of plantation labor which must be call
ed into existence before the most
pressing social and economic problems
of the Territory are solved or it's poll
teal destiny under the American flag
determined"
GOOD REPORT