The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-07-08
JAPAN'S HAND STRETCHED
TOWARD HAWAII
By Frederick o'Brien in the New York Herald,


in Hawaii the Japanese. hitherto con-
sidered but ciphers in the political
monde, mere sugar making machines
imported by the planters, became sud
idenly the wonder Of all Later wonder
i grew into suspicion, and the recent con-
/ troversy in California over schools and
iexclusion famed this into fear.
Their fantastic business signs are IL
every block: they hold three-fourths Of
the licenses for all occupations, form
ing, with the Chinese, ninety-eight per
cent Of all the workers in these islands,
occupying eighty per cent Of the seats
in the schools and pouring in by every
steamship. The white and Hawaiian
residents have awakened at last TO the
fact that they are sold for mess Of
pottage to an Oriental race, and are
now in the jiu-jitsu clutch of the lit
I tie. brown and strong man.
| OF course, II may be argued that pre-
I ponderance of population does not IN
sure any races supremacy, and India
/ viii be cited as the most striking ex-
ample and perhaps even the Philip
] pines as nearer home. But it must be
4 rememb ered that back Of the few scores
I of thousands Of British in India and
/ the one score thousand American sol
1 diers and civilians in the Philippine
1 archipelago are the millions and might
/ of Great Britain and the United States,
while the natives of both India and
/ the Philippines stand alone. Reverse
| the medal and put as many Americans
| in Aguinaldo's land as Ffipinos, and
! it is evident that no invaders would
subject them.
Whereas until a few years ago the
entire importation of Japanese was Of
the Iaboring class, now a different kind
enters. And this despite the desires Of
the sugar planters, who foster the i'm
migration. To understand this one
must go a little into the history Of the
japanese movement to Hawaii There
is little else grown in Hawaii than su-
gar. Out Of $36 900, 900 of exports a
year. S35, 900. 900 is from the cane. Cheap.
efficient labor is the basis Of cane grow
ing At first the planters employed
kanakas, but that race is dying and
with the present extended domain in
cane forms less than a seventh of the
laborers necessary. Then came an era
of Chinese. They were cheap, and, like
their successors, the japanese, rarely
brought families. This lessened the
cost of transportation. After a while
the planters grew fearful of the single
race problems. for with their secret
societies and family ties the Chinese,
united, threatened to raise wages. Then
began the real effort after japanese.
A formal convention was finally en-
tered into between the kingdom of Ha-
wall and the empire of Japan as TO
immigration This was in 1886, and a
year later Chinese were excluded by the
Hawaiian King and his advisers.
Japanese rushed in then by the tens
Of thousands.
The men who in 1898 deposed Liliuo-
kalani and ended the last picturesque
pageant of these summer seas-and
they were the sugar planters-sought
Chinese again. The Mongols came with
a will. but the japanese did not cease
to arrive or TO shirk competition with
the Cantonese.
Now the japanese government, West |
ernizing always, passed laws compelling
protective bonds for the good treatment |
of its emigrants. From this sprang /
great corporations which gave these |
bonds and sold the emigrants to the /
planters for a period, and this sale, /
until annexation Of the islands TO |
America. was enforced by imprison- |
ment and not seldom by harsh treat
ment
These companies waxed rich and bied /
the planters leechfully. The planters
and pleaded vainly. and finally
revolted when from veins the labor
trust fixed on arteries. When the
American flag went Up the planters
withdrew the bounty they paid the
monopoly. as. all the penal labor being
freed Of its contracts, wages rose with
a leap. Then the trust stopped the flow
Of japanese almost absolutely and fore
ed the planters to pay literally before
thev. permitted workers again 10 come.
Annexation barred the Chinese and the
planters found themselves at the mer-
" of the octopus.
More and more since then have the
sugar growers looked about the world
for men to cultivate their fields. A
clever lawyer went to Manila as their
agent G year ago and tried in vain 40
induce Fiipinos TO take the waiting
Jobs. The Filipino is not migratory,
nor does he ever seek work. A scora
we're obtained. This week a ship ar
rived from Spain with twenty-three
hundred laborers and their families
Another sailed from Portugal with
seven hundred and fifty. Agents Of the h
LdEMIcIs mere c1OAE S~40
earth for men. Many races have been
rried-Koreans, negroes, Porto Ricans.
South Sea Islanders, Portuguese, Span
sh, Filipinos-any nationality to pre-
vent the monopoly and increasing de- /.
rands Of the japanese
But the japanese specter will not
down. It is not patriotism urging ths
planters to escape the domination OF
The japanese. It is fear, and just how
Tar the fear of their controlling the Ia :
Dor market UlingIes With the dread OF ;
their getting the upper hand politically :
an not be guessed II
The Hawaians are vanishing race. /
There are hardly more than twenty-five :
thousand Of them in all the Islands. 7
Germs and gin have thinned their leans I
brown ranks until except as 3 majority c
n the voting booth they are q negative
equation. They delight 70 loaf and a
owe while the sturdy fellows from :
Nanagawa and a dozen other kens or
Japan toll with hoe and shovel and sen :
hem their daily food. Even the ao- z
steuious Chinese goes down before the
1halanx. Of numbers. energy anE Drawn >
rom Nippon Prevented from imrnl-
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