The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-12-09

tory is no place Tor a man ~ IoIAiS
with small capital seeking to in
crease his fortune, nor is it place
for a man without money and in quest
Of employment. While conditions are
what they are, to become a planter re-
ouires a large initial outlay and ample
| capital for running expenses. There
is no demand for the American artisan
at the wages the American artisan can
| earn on the mainland. japanese will
| do the work cheaper than the Amer
| lean, or the native. Only natives are
employed on Government works. This
is the only line of employment they
have not been practically driven out
/ of by the Asiatic inundation.
| Many small merchants in Honolulu
are complaining of the Asiatic compe-
tition. AS a general rule one can buy
more cheaply in the japanese stores
than from the white merchants. Re-
tail stores owned by Orientals do a
good deal of business with Hawaiians,
| Portuguese, and the lower-paid Glass
es of white workers. The better-class
Japanese patronize the shops of the
white merchants. This is because
these shops import a better quality of
goods, have a greater variety, and, in
such articles as clothing and furnish
ing, keep more nearly abreast of the
styles than do the Japanese shopkeep-
ers. Oriental competition is growing
keener and more pressing all the time,
and the white merchants of Hawaii
are greatly concerned about what the
future holds for them. This COMPETE
ton with the Asiatics is felt most
quickly in pursuits that are conducted
in small way. The Oriental abscrbs
all the petty traffic. The wholesale
merchants and large department store
proprietors do not seriously complain.
The japanese in Hawaii are quick to
seize every chance to become skilled in
mechanical industries. 1t is the COM
mon testimony that whenever a Jap
anese is given job as assistant TO
skilled worker or a mechanic, he be-
comes the soul of industry, working
early and late, and showing a perfect
willingness to be imposed upon and
do the work which properly belongs to
the skilled white man he is assisting.
One is told of an American mechanic
saying: 1.-The white mechanics on the
plantations have an easy job. I never
did real days work myself when 1
was out on the plantations. We got
used to sitting around and seeing Japs
work, and so got lazy. a good many
men get too lazy even to lay out work,
and leave it to the Japs. So by and
by they find they have trained up
mechanics just as good as themselves"
EXHIBITS OF THE SITUATION.
Here are some fragmentary memo
randa presenting interesting aspects
of the problem of Asiatic competition
in Hawaii, which were secured by Fed
eral investigators.
An American carpenter in Honolulu
stated: when 1 vast at
plantation, twenty-five years ago, fifty
of US white employees used to sit down
together at the clearinghouse table,
and there was quite village of white
and other citizen employees who were
married. There were several hundred
white carpenters in Honolulu, and the |
other towns at that time. AS late as
fifteen years ago about all the carpen- |
ters We're whites, and received 81 a day. |
Now we have a lot of Kanaka and |
our carpenters union we have only |
about forty members, of whom not /
dozen are able to earn the standard |
union wage"
Another American carpenter said: /
The Japanese can compete with us |
and under-figure us at carpentering, /
because people will accept work from |
japanese that they would not accept |
from white Carpenters
Several instances of very poor con-
struction, in residences occupied by
whites, but built by Japanese labor, /
were observed in Honolulu. Defective
roofs and window joinery, cheap de-
vices in framing, and the use of poor
materials We're all noticed The jap
anese can underbid whites at frame
construction, however, even where they
are held strictly down to specifica-
tons. man, intending to erect a 1
frame tenement and store building in
Honolulu, allowed a margin of $500 to
contractors employing only white labor.
In spite of this handicap the Asiatics
secured the contract
WHAT JAPANESE LABOR DOES.
An American builder, employing all
japanese labor, said. ''The cost of
|
nese labor, is less than it is on the
Coast with white labor 1 erected 1
twenty-four houses last year with Jap
anese workmen. Six of them are now
occupied by white carpenters, who are
paying $40 a month rent, where they
would have had to pay $50 or $40 a
month if white labor had been used.
The carpenter work and painting of a
nVe-room house, with japanese labor, |
costs $500. which includes making doors
and window frames from long stock,
cloth covering, papering, and interior
painting. The cost of the same house
In California would be: Carpenter work,
$500: mill work, 1885, to 5000; plastering.
Sl5o; painting, $50. So, in Honolulu,
allowing for the fact that one house
has cloth and the other plaster under
me paper, we can do for $500 what
would cost $500 or Whereabouts in Cali
fornia. My Japanese are steady and
reliable. and can make anything. They
are now making the furniture for a
house I am building"
a white contractor mentioned a case