Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1906-04-21
Roosewlts Straight Talk To Labor

hour law for our own people In our
own country.
But the conditions of labor such as
we have TO work with in the tropics
arc so absolutely different that there
Is no possible analogy between them,
and an eighthour law for the Panama
Canal Is an absurdlty.
Every one Of you knows that we can
not get white labor, cannot get labor
Of the United States, to 90 down to Pa.
mama and work.
/ We arc driven To extrcmities In the
effort to get any kind of labor at all.
Just at the moment we are working
chiefly with negro labor from the West
Indies. The usual result in the EN-.
ploymcnt of those men is that Monday
and Tuesday they work fairly well.
Wednesday and Thursday there Is a
marked falling of, and by Friday and
Saturday not more than'a half. some.
times less than oncfourth, Of the la
!, borcrs will be at work.
The conditions that make the eight.
hou" law proper here have no possible
reference to the conditions that make
! the elght.hour law entirely improper
! there.
The conditions are so utterly differ.
cnt on the isthmus as coparcd to here
that II is impossible TO draw conclu.
} Blons affecting the one from what Is
true about the other. You hamper mo
In the effort to get for you what |
= think you ought tn have In connection
b with the cighthour law when you
: make q request that Is ihdcfcnsiblc:
I and TO grant which would mean indeh.
? nile delay and injury TO the work on
I the isthmus.
AS 10 the violations Of the eight.hour
law, Mr.. Morrison. you give me no
l specifications. At your earliest convc.
= nicnce, please lay before me In detail
! any complaints you have Of violations
I Of the cighthour law. Where ! have
power ! will see that the law is obey.
cd. All ask Is that you give me the
: cases. will take them up, and II they
, prove to he sustained by the facts
Il shall see that the law Is enforced.
, No Chinese Peril Here.
n Now, about the Chinese exclusion.
. The number of Chinese now In the
: country 10. II remember Alright, some
- sixty or seventy thousand. So far
y ChirCso, the fact Is that the number
: has steadily decreased. There are
4 fewer Chincsc than there were ten
2 years ago, fewer than there were TWEEN
ty years ago, fewer than there were
g thirty years ago. UnqucstiOnably, some
10 scores Of cases occur each year where
4 Chinese laborers get In either by being
a smuEglcd over the Mexican AMI Cana
e dian borders or by coming In under
n falso certificates but the steps that
l. We have taken, the changes In the con
i suls that have been made within the
4 last few years In the Orient and tn,
Q effort TO conduct examinations In Chi
q ma lCfOre the immigrants are allowed
| To come here are materially reducing
II even the small number Of cases tina
A. do occur.
81 But even as II Is, the number o
u. these cases IL insignificant. There 1
.. no apprcCiabln influx Of Chinese labor
A. Crs. and there IL not tho slightest O
most remote danger Of any; the Who'll,
| scare that has hCcn worked - on th'
Vt subject Is pure Chimera.
N II 10 my deep conviction that WI
m must keep out Of this country ever,
81 Chinese Iaborer. skilled or unskilled-
every chinaman OF the eoolle class.
IT This Is what the proposed law wi
st do; It will he doun MS effectively a
ID under the present law, and the pre-
N ent law Is being handled with the u
70 most efficiency.
u But viii do everything In my pow
n. or to make II easy and desirable fC
~ the Chinese of the business and prOfol
10 sional classes. the Chinese traveller
NJ and students, To come here. and wi
st do all | can to secure their good trea
vn men. whom thpy pOmo, and M lnhnrin