The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1907-07-05
= nap JHONlNG G7RATEGIC
i POGI7TOH or A,ANIlILHH
lIcN. HNDcS

than sugar. Out of $36,000,00O Of ex-
ports a year $35,O00,000 is from the
cane. Cheap, efficient labor is the
basis of cane growing. At first the
planters employed Kanakas, but that
race is dying and with the present
extended domain in cane forms less
than seventh of the laborers neces-
sary. Then came an era of Chinese.
They were cheap, and, like their sue
cessors, the Japanese, rarely brought
families. This lessened the cost Of
transportation. After a while the
planters grew fearful of the single
race problem, for with their secret
societies and family ties the Chinese,
united, threatened to raise wages.
Then began the real effort after Japa-
nese. A formal convention was finally
entered into between the kingdom of
Hawaii 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 advis-
erS. ........
Japanese rushed in then by the tens
of thousands.
While one has no foundation, except
that vague, intangible one of suspi-
cion and probability, to affirm that
the Japanese war department is send
ing to American territory a body of
soldiers, yet it is certain that there
would be no hesitation on her part
in grasping promptly whatever advan-
tages this situation offered her in
event of Tao actual outbreak of hos
tilities. Moreover, it is absolutely GER
tain that the Intelligence Office of the
Japanese war department avails itself
of the opportunity afforded to send it's
spies among the immigrants when
ever it seems worth while and that
many soldiers or former soldiers
qualified by their special training as
well as their racial characteristics
for such work are engaged in prac-
teal espionage, which in the aggre-
gate must supply to the Office data of
vast Importance.
At the suggestion of Gov. Carter a
correspondent of the New York Her.
aid interviewed Mr.. G. Shiozawa, the
proprietor and editor of the Hawaii
Shimpo, the most influential daily
newspaper printed in Japanese here.
He has been in Hawaii 16 years, is q
gentleman by birth and has a brother
major on the general staff of the
army. He said:
''The Japanese in Hawaii are here
solely because they can make more
money than at home. Plantation
hands now receive on an average $18
a month. 1t is too little, but it is
more than they pay in Japan. There
fore they come here in hopes of saw
ing enough to return home and be-
come farmers on their own account.
Few intend to remain here. There
are no inducements after the immi-
grant has amassed his tiny compel
ency. You refuse us citizenship, con-
ditions on the plantation are humili-
ating and disagreeable and the plant
err seeks only to grind all the energy
possible from our people. Under the
new understanding between the Unit
ed States and Japan no passports are
to be issued to Japanese laborers to
go to the mainland of America, nor
are any to be permitted to go there
from Hawaii. Except for the few
who will emigrate from here to Cana
da and Mexico in the endeavor to
smuggle themselves into the United
States the Japanese population of this
territory will not decrease unless ex-
lies return to their own country.
Il calculate there are 10000 Japa-
nese here now, of whom 10000 are
plantation laborers. This is enough.
There is hardly work now to go
round. OF course, the planters will
encourage an unnatural immigration,
so as to flood the market with labor
and force and keep wages down.
recommend that the japanese govern.
ment refuse to allow more Japanese
to come here"