The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-06-07
LABOR OUTLOOK
IN THESE ISLANDS
To the Editors of The Outlook:

To the Editors or Inc outlook:
In the notes of The Week in the issue
of your valuable paper for March %
is an article entitled THE Labor
Question in Hawaii 1t quotes the
correspondent of the New York Even
ing Post" who mentions the growing
numbers and noticeableness of the
Japanese in the islands, the opposition
to them, and the movement to intro
duce' Chinese as laborers in place of
them. Your article in comment draws
two seemingly unwarrantable conclu-
sions. The first is that the facts
stated by the correspondent indicate
a hostility to race because of their
superior skill and efficiency" The
Japanese to whom the reference is,
are undoubtedly regarded as more or
less of a menace. In 1894 the Presf-
dent of the Bureau of immigration
recommended some measures to nold
them in check. Recently the Pink
ham" committee of investigation re-
ported spirit bordering on dicta-
ton" on the part of the Japanese.
The menace is not so much one of
skill and efficiency as of dictation
and aggressiveness. The Japanese
ed in a union which is stronger than
any generally known union of unskill-
ed laborers in the United States. Mr..
Caspar Whitney, who in 1898 made a
somewhat hasty but intelligent investi-
cation of the labor of the islands,
says: 1.-The Japanese, who at home
earns from $1.3O to $3.50 a month is a
pugnacious, troublesome laborer, vain,
10
riot" The japanese flrthe", is -,
sular in his ideals. His patriotism does
not yet include hopes for the we'll
being of the American Nation. The
hostility to this race, then, would seem
to have some foundation in reason.
The second understandable conclusion
is that there is in Hawaii concerted
effort to replace immigrants of high
intelligence by others of lower grade
of ability and character" There has
been an effort to replace Japanese i'm
migrants by Chinese. That the Chi
nese are inferior in ability or character
to the japanese is an assertion that
does not seem to be borne out by in
telligent opinion of either residents or
visitors in the islands. Mr. Whitney
says of the Chinese: 'They are quiet
industriou-. peaceful; occupy a con-
sic enable seton of Honolulu with
their mercantile houses, fill the ma
jority of the trades. and supply the
local market with most of its fish and
vegetables" He also says: "Tbe
Chinese are taxed on real estate to the
amount of 81, 146,301, the Japanese to
the amount of $4,000; on personal
property, corporations, mercantile
houses, etc, the Chinese are taxed on
$2,205,339. the Japanese $177 ,307." On
account of the increase of the Japanese
and the decrease of the Chinese popu-
lation, the tax payments are now more
nearly equal, yet the value of the
Chinese people is recognized. Most
business men prefer them . he JaPa-
nese not only because of their impen-
etrable integrity, but also because of
their efficiency. The president of a
leading Hawaiian bank says that the
Chinese have more ''savvy'' than any
other race in the islands, and that
Chinese boy will entirely and immedi-
ately fit into an office of which
white boy would need ONE months to
learn the duties. I hope that these
considerations will show that The
hostility in the Hawaiian territory to
a race which has limitations along
with its good points is nos hIil1d pref
udice.
Honolulu Hawaii @. c. H.