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

| tend to show that after the naturally
vagrant and criminal classes We're once
| eliminated the remainder form a reas-
| onably steady class of employees. The
! figures of the total number, of both
sexes, employed at different dates, as
given by the Planters Association are
as follows:
| October, 1901 OS5
| February, 1902 ...................1,S 5I
| September 30, 1902. 1853
OF the 55 plantations in Hawaii, "a
had Porto Ricans on their pay rolls
in the autumn of 1902. One thousand
, seven hundred men,. or slightly more
! than So per cent of the whole number
of men imported, were then employed.
and were earning an average monthly
wage, without bonus, of $17.52. .Includ-
| ing the weekly bonus of so cents paid
to very large majority of them for
regular work, their possible wages were
nearly 81 a month more than this, and
their real monthly earnings probably
averaging between $1S and $40. On one
plantation, where the actual wages paid
81 Porto Rican employees were aver
aged for the month of August, 1902, it
was found that they earned $1S.S5 each,
or 81 cents a month more than the
Japanese. There were also 172 Porto
Rican women employed, at an average
wage of $11.13 month, and f64 minors.
whose average wages were 5000. The
occupations of the men We're distrib-
uted as follows: Four held clerical
positions, paying an average of 1852
month; IL were overseers, receiving
5000 a month; IS mechanics and me-
chanics' helpers received $21.57: %
teamsters received $2O.61; 10 wharf
--.
received 500; 9 mill hands received
$500: and 1,734 field hands and COM
mon laborers received. without in
Guiding the bonus, an average of $16.13
a month. The average wages of the
Porto Ricans employed on the planta-
.tions are therefore higher than those
promised them when they left Porto
Rico. But slightly more than half of
those imported still remain in planta-
ton work. OF these $50 are accounted
for by the school children, 166 had been
committed to Oahu Prison, and the re-
naming 1900 represent minors too
young to attend school, those employ
ed off of the plantations, and the Vag-
rant and vagabond population that has
collected in Honolulu. Some also have
died and few have left for the Coast.
Twenty three Porto Ricans are also
engaged in cultivating on contracts,
and are earning about $26 a month
besides quarters, fuel, and medical at
tendance. These are not included
among the plantation wage earneFS
enumerated above.
From the planters point of view an
important result of the Porto Rican
immigration was the moral effect that
their arrival had upon the Japanese.
The latter had begun to fancy that
with the enforcement of the Federal
Chinese exclusion and contract laws
after annexation they were complete
masters of the labor situation in Ha-
wall. They formed temporary combin-
atoms for the purpose of striking at
critical periods of the planting and
grinding season, and in this way had
succeeded in forcing up wages. This
is sufficiently shown by the rise in
the average wage of field hands from
so to rs cents a day or an Increase
of over % per cent, during the year
ending June 80 1901-the first - months
following annexation. The regular ar
rival of monthly expeditions of Porto
Rican laboring people throughout an
entire year largely disabused them or
this sense of monopoly and made them
much more reasonable in their relations
with their employers.
THE ULTIMATE EFFECT.
The ultimate effect of the Porto Rican
immigration upon the islands will prob
ably be unimportant Those who re-
main will doubtless amalgamate more
or less with the Portuguese during
their transition into Hawaiian Amer
leans They and their descendants
will in all probability be vastly better
off than they had any prospect Of be-
ing in their own country. They have
brought with them a criminal element
which it may take time to eliminate,
but which will find the islands a de-
cidedly discouraging field for opera
tions, and they have faults and weak
nesses which it may require a genera
ton or two fully to correct. They are
somewhat given TO drinking, gambling.
and carrying concealed weapons. and
are more quarrelsOme and vindictive
than the other inhabitants Difficulties
sometimes arise between them and the
Japanese The latter are seldom the
aggressors and rather fear the Porto
Ricans in individual disagreements. but
on one or two occasions, when their
blood was Up. ii required prompt and
energetic police interference 10 pre-
vent a sudden determination Of the
local Porto Rican population. me
customs of the two people are so diff
ferent that trouble is apt TO result II
they are placed in neighboring quar-
tiers. The japanese. for instance, nave
Continued on page ~