The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-10-29
GILL. DOES
KNOCKING
Reels Off Slanderous
Stuff About
Hawaii.

funct Honolulu Republican, is knock
| ing Hawaii. In an editorial on October
Is, he says of Conditions in Ha-
waii:''
| A telegram in The News of Saturday
| showed that a bulletin just issued
| by the Department of Commerce and
! Labor pointed out that the Japanese
| were driving the whites out of Hawaii.
The bulletin is only true in part. AS
a matter of fact it is a case where
| the driving out has ''done been,'' as
the colored preacher put it.
| Following the annexation of Ha-
| wall to the United States in 1898 there
was a considerable influx of white
men from the mainland What with
| the war in the Philippines, and the
consequent coming and going of trans
ports and troops, and the high price
of sugar. times were more than pros
porous in the islands. In fact a regu
| lar boom was on from the latter part
of 1898 to the spring of 1901 and
there was a demand for skilled white
| labor. Ironworkers, painters, brick
| layers, steam engineers, surveyors and
others found ready employment at
large wages. But this was not to
| last for long.
| Hawaii was an oligarchy controlled
| by the large sugar planters and until
| annexation there were virtually no
| middle classes There was simply the
| landed proprietor, professional men
and merchants, and the plantation Ia
borers. Chinese had been brought in
| to the country in large numbers to
| work on the sugar plantations, the
! great cry of the sugar barons being
constantly for cheap labor. The New
| lands resolution provided that from
| and after its passage py Congress the
Chinese exclusion law should be ex
tended to the islands. Between the
| time of annexation on August II,
1898, and the organization of the ter
ritorial government on June IA, 1900,
| the laws of the old republic of Hawaii
continued in force.
Seeing that cheap labor from China
was shut out by the Newlands reso-
luton the planters at once began i'm
porting japanese laborers by the ship
load and in the twenty-five months
between the annexation of the islands
and the organization of the territorial
government more than $1,000 japanese
were imported into the islands by
the planters in order to insure plenty
of cheap labor. A great deal of at
tention was devoted in this country to
the fact that the population of the
islands increased from 100000 in 1896
to 154 900 in June, 1900. But the fact
| is that 90 per cent. of this increase
| was due to the importation of the
japanese.
Several thousand Americans went
tn the islands and for time
prosperous but the American laborers
organized unions and took into the or
ganization the native skilled laborers
and the Portuguese. This was some
thing the sugar barons did not want.
The first labor day ever celebrated in
the islands-September 1900,-had
fully 1000 union men in line. Build
ing, which had been very brisk, began
to drop off,
Owing to the abolition of the boun-
ty in Europe sugar took big drop
in price and the planters curtailed all
improvements on the plantations. AS
fast as they could be trained to it
japanese were employed as civil en-
gineers on the plantations, as steam
engineers, as carpenters, painters,
blacksnniths, teamsters and in every
possible occupation besides that Of
tilling the fields. By the middle of
the summer of 1901 the Americans
began to turn back to the states as
they found their occupations gone.
Labor day was celebrated that fall
but it was a sorry parade compared
to that of one year before and that
was the last labor day celebration
ever held in the islands The natives
and the Portuguese discouraged by
the absence of the Americans and CO.
creed by the employers dropped their
unions. Hundreds of the Portuguese
came to California, Oregon and Wash
ington. 1t is safe to say that be-
tween July l. 1901, and December 81,
1902, more than 1000 Americans left
the islands for the mainland. For a
number of months every steamer com
ing to the mainland was crowded to
its capacity by Americans returning
to God IS country.
They were not wanted in Hawaii
by the sugar barons; they talked too
much and they thought too much
Small farmers, the salvation of the
islands, were discouraged not only by
the planters but by all the territorial
officials. The government of the Ter
ritory, especially under Dole, was uu-
American and unpatriotic 1t has
been but little better since. Now
some OF the far-SIohted men of the
islands are beginning to see that a |
great mistake was made; that Amer
leans should have been encouraged in
every way to remain and to start
small farms on the various islands.
The japanese from being the docile
plantation laborers are now engaged
in every calling known in the island.
and by their superior numbers and
force and ambition are fast turning
the Territory into a Japanese colony.
The sugar planters sowed the wind
Of cheap labor and they are now faced
with a harvest which is 4 whirlwind
of japanese invasion that promises to
drive out even the landed proprietors.
1t is a most serious situation and one