The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-09-21
ARE THE JAPANESE
A MENACE TO HAWAII?
Mrs c. R. Miller in Leshe's Weekly.


evening refreshments were served by
a Japanese woman wearing her native
dress. Her manner was graceful and
natural, and as she moved about
among the guests (for the occasion wa.
a dance given in honor of the young
son of the family I could not but re-
mark upon her wonderful adaptability
to our ways and customs. The mas
ter OF the house told me of her many
good qualities and how, without being
told, she kept things in order; how
she mended and cared for the linen
and, in fact, did numberless things
that an American servant would new
er dream of doing. The japanese wo-
man servant is quiet, neat, and re-
fined at all times, and I have been
| told by Americans that as a lady's
maid she has no superior.
The Buddhist religion, of course, pre-
| dominates, although there are num-
Der of Christian churches with Japa-
nese cIergymen in charge.
/ The cost of living for this race is,
perhaps, less than for any other. A
plantation worker, with his wife and
two children, can live on ten dollars
| per month. This, of course, does not
| include house rent, light, and fuel, as
these are furnished by the plantation
/ owners. Single men pay from six to
seven dollars per month for board.
The standard of living is somewhat
higher in Honolulu, although Japa
nese rarely pays over $3.50 per month
for lodging. The food used is Japa-
nese rice-as they refuse to eat the
hn ;clan dc Inv he
nese farmers-soy, dried fish, beans,
Japanese canned goods and preserves,
with occasionally little fresh meat.
On account of their cheap living the
Japanese merchants can undersell the
whites and yet make good profit.
Whether the Japanese are menace
to the islands remains to be seen. How
ever, the white residents of Hawaii are
alarmed over their increasing numbers.
That many of them come to Hawaii for
the sole purpose of entering the United
States is well known. Last year the
bureau of immigration had evidence
that some individuals or corporations
were engaged in importing these men
as laborerS for the American North
west. While the japanese Government
will issue only limited number of
passports to the United States, it is less
difficult to secure them to Hawaii, so
these laborers come to the islands, re-
main a few weeks, and then proceed to
the States. Having already been adj
mitted to the Territory of the United
States, their voyage to the mainland is
'coastwise," and formerly they were
not under the alien-contract law. Last
iry, DO,
California fell off considerably, but
from Honolulu they arrived in large
numbers. Under the new immigration
law the immigration agents were COM
PEELED to devise new scheme, which is
the taking of the Japanese direct from
Honolulu to Vancouver and slipping
them into the States from different
parts of Canada. I saw about eleven
hundred subjects of Japan take pas
sage on a vessel bound for Vancouver.
They had come from different parts of
Hawaii and had waited in Honolulu for
several days. The whole trip was be-
ing planned by an agent, and each
evening his Office was besieged by
crowds of Orientals to know when they
were to sail. That the Canadian Gov
eminent did not want them was evi-
dent from the rules made as, to their
landing. one of which was that each
man must have twenty-five dollars in
his possession. This was easily ar
ranged, for one Japanese showed me
his money, which amounted to three
hundred dollars, and he assured me
that many of his countrymen had that
amount and much more, The white
tn, &c
at their coming, yet the Japs sailed
away, and on reaching Canada they en-
countered little difficulty in landing,
and it is doubtful whether today a hun
dred of these men could be found in
Vancouver. The inspectors of the
Northwest. whose duty it is to patrol
the Canadian border, will have a trou-
bIesome task in keeping these men out.
The Mexican border has been the route
by which the most japanese have en-
tered the country, and recently one
hundred and seven such were deported
from San Francisco.
AS the Japs in Hawaii were proving
a failure as laborers, leaving the un-
inviting cane fields for easier modes of
living, and assuming an air of indepen-
dence-perhaps as the result of the atti-
tude of the Mikado's government in the
San Francisco school questionable SUI
gar planters went labor-hunting again.
Germans, Silesians, Porto Ricans, Mo-
lokans and Portuguese were tried.
Korean emigration was stopped when
the hand of Japan fell upon that land.
OF all these the Portuguese proved the
most satisfactory in many respects, as
they are law-abiding, and their chill
dren are likely to grow up to the loyal
to the country of their adoption. Mr..
E. R. Stackable, the collector of the
port of Honolulu, was granted a leave
of absence in order that he might go
abroad in search of more such desir-
able immigrants. Evidently they were
found, as the steamer HeHopois ar
rived on April 26th of this year with
| p, 293 Spaniards on board. On April
| 30th the immigration inspectors held
a special meeting to find out whether
/ in this instance the law had been vio-
| lated. Mr.. E. d. Tenney, the Presid-
/ ent of the territorial board of i'm
migration, who is interested in the
best paving sugar plantation on the