The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-11-06

In dealing with Hawaii, you must
understand that you are dealing with
a one-crop country. Every commercial
and financial interest there has to be
rated as to it's influence on our chief
product, our one main crop, sugar.
You must bear in mind, first, that
ninety-six and one-hah per cent of
Hawaii's living income is from sugar.
And, second, that the Oriental is the
most numerous laborer on our planta
lions, and that if he quits the field,
the field will remain unp1oughed, I'M
planted, unwatered, and all which that
implies.
1t is a significant fact that the non
Oriental population, which in 1872, was
in a majority of ninety-six and one
half per cent has dwindled until in
1900 it was forty-three and four-tenths
per cent; while the Oriental population
has grown from three and four-tenths
per cent to fifty-six and threetenths
per cent.
The pinch of the race problem be-
gins, however, not with the entrance
of the Oriental into the country, but
when he throws up his job on the plan
tation, becomes a peripatetic seeker af-
ter an easy snap, a small shop-keeper,
and incidentally an agitator and STIR
rer up of strife. Welcome as a plan
tation laborer and worker in the great
national industry, when he takes to
moving about from place to place, liv-
ing by his wits, assuming the role of
a promoter of sedition, he becomes a
persona non grata. To complete the
presentation of this point, it is only
necessary to say that of the $1,000
ia panese in the Territory in 1906, only
26, 600 were then engaged in labor on
the sugar plantations. It is with these
nom workers ON the plantations that
the race-problem concerns itself.
Pinch number two of the race-prob-
lem is felt when the laborer, in addi-
ton to throwing up his job and max
ing himself disa greeable, takes to call
ings the numbers engaged in which
are already sufficiently numerous, and
by strenuous competition and under
cutting, manages to make it hard for
the man of the soil, as well as for the
white man who has come in from
abroad.
Time will not permit the presenta-
ton of statistics showing the differ
ent occupations into which what I
shall call the surplus population of
Hawaii has entered. Such statistics
show that these races are crowding
into nearly every branch of business
and occupation to such a degree as to
give occasion for grave thought.
You all know the process of substi-
tuition by which the white man is
pushed out. The Oriental has few
wants; his expenses are small; he can
live and lay up something on a few
dimes a day. The white man cannot
and will not do this. Wisely or I'M
wisely. rightly or wrongly, he declines
to come down to the economic level
of the Oriental. It forced into compe-
tition with him, he simply quits the
field.
I hear some one ask, is not the An
glo-Saxon man enough TO stand up and
hold his own against the Oriental? If
not, let him go to the wall. Not so
fast, my friend. Do not forget your
political economy, nor the teachings
Of experience and common sense. E
might ask, is not the gold dollar good
enough and strong enough to hold its
own against a debased currency? Ev-
cry practical business man recognizes
the soundness Of Gresham's law. There
Is competition that kills.
But. asks some obiector. if the white
man will not come in and occupy the
land, but insists on biding his time.
why should he object to the thrifty
0rientals doing that very thing. I will
not directly answer this question. It
is part of the problem I lay before
you. Let me say, however. that Ha-
vail is now bending her energies to the |
and introduction of the bet |
er elements of population, consanguin-