The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1906-10-30
GILL DOES
KNOCKING

News, formerly connected with the de-
funct Honolulu Republican, is knock.
ing Hawaii. In an editorial on October
10, he says of Conditions in Ha.
waltz
telegram in The News of Saturday
showed that 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
n matter of fact it is n case where
the driving out has "done bcen,' ms
the colored preacher put it.
Following the annexation of Ha-
waii to the United States in 1898 there
was considerable influx of white
men IRON the mainland. What with
the war in the Philippines, and the
consequent coming and going of trans
ports end troops, and the high price
of sug..r, times were more than pros
porous in the islands. In fact 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. 1ronworkers, 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 la
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 oy 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
|
were imported INFO 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 $4,000 in June, 1900. But the fact
is that 80 per cent. of this increase
was due to the importation of the
Japanese.
Several thousand Americans went
to the islands and for a time were
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 lino. Build
ing, which had been very brisk, began
to drop off.
Owing to the abolition of the boun-
ty in Europe sugar took a 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,
blacksmiths, Transfers and in every
possible occupation be. ides 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 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 tie 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 !, 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 s 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 I'M
American and unpatriotic. 1t has
been but little better since. Now
some of the far-sighted men of the
islands are beginning to see that !
great mistake was made; that Amer I
leans ehould have been encouraged in I
every way to remain end 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 islands
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 whirlwind
of Japanese invasion that promises to
drive out even the landed proprietors.
1t is a most serious situation and one
that is certain sooner or later to lead
to serious consequences for this gov
eminent.
LlNS|AG'S OIL