Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1905-08-12
THB NEW LABOR PROGRAM

Replies Of the plantation managers
to t.e queries sent to them regarding
a more general employment of Euro
pean labor will be awaited with great
interest, Notwithstanding the usual
probability that the public will secure
only a general report on the result.
The labor problem is as vial today
as 1t ever was. Some believe that II
is more critical and one expert has
said that a generation hence the burn
ing question Of the Hawaiian Islands
will be- labor. Though the plantation
iLs.. Gsts are inclined to approach the
question as il were very much their
own pigeon and no one else's, though
he be a stakeholder. deserves atten-
ton. It ia nevertheless true that the
subject of labor is dealt with today
more as community interest than II
ever has been before. Hawaii is lib
eralisiug or harmonizing gradually on
all public topics, though 1t is yet u
long way from the spirit of unity that
makes so many mainland communities
move and accomplish results.
I There cannot be the slightest ques-
| ton that the mercantile people of Ha-
I wall. the American citilen-meChanic,
or what Europeans call middle class
/ are very anxious to see success crown
the plans for a European immigration
that will add to the cane field labor
force.
! The life of the land is perpetuated
In righteousness but the merchant and
the mechanic knows that II he wants
TO live he must have people about
him who will do business with him.
buy the goods he has to sell, whether
II be labor or material.
The day WAS. when the merchant and
mechanic were looked upon as having
no real interest but in these later days
of gradual harmonizing, there has
been some recognition of the fact that
what surplus these small business men
have is in sugar as a direct investment
so that they are indeed financially in
terested directly and indirectly.
Hawaii must have labor attached &c
the soil. and broad national American
interests demand that the character
Of this labor shall be such as will
readily assimilnte with American citi'
zenship and dignity labor. If the eX'
perienCe of the past has not taught
this, It has not presented anything that
can be accepted as final.
Hawaii has seen the contract labor
come to the islands, remain its stated
period and depart. Some people arc
still whining over the loss of contract
labor They are not to be considered
It is the people who live in the present
md look to the future that count. Ha'
wall has also seen the free day labor
come to the Islands. and pick up It!
he'd and walk at the first suggestion o.
something better in the unknown dis
lance. In other words. up to the pres
ent time the whole scheme of planta
ton labor has been a dealing with no
madiC classes. incidentally these no
MAIDS have been largely Orientals.
Proper insurance Of the labor suppl!
for future years demands that the mali
industry of these islands shall have /;
class of labor that will build home. ,
worker who will seek to establish him
self on the land rather than leech wha
money he can out Of 1t and move on
We are aware that not few plantation
: managers claim that this is impossi
! BILE. and even If It is possible. it mus
be done with the Oriental. They als'
state that the newspapers don't know
? anything about it, Theirs is sort of
I stone wall argument--it goes to Ger
tain point and stops-but any proposi
ton must be very narrow and one elias
I of men omnipotent, II all the knowl
/ edge and practical sense is centered Il
their human circle.
II is n condition. not a theory tina