The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-12-23

great majority Of the Iaborers are shell
tered in quarters" in Barracks IL
| buildings which are sanitary and rea
| sonably clean, but so small that there
| can be but little privacy, as between
| members of the family, and so close
! together that there is but Sigh, sepa.
| ration from neighbors. So crowded to-
| gether are the buildings that sanitary
necessities prevent keeping chickens or
| pigs. while the keeping of a horse, or
cow or even a goat. is an impossible
luxury to the overwhelming majority
/ of plantation laborers, even though
they have the means with which to
procure them.
There is a lack of individuality in
the treatment of the laborers. They are
utilized in gangs" and are shifted
from field to field as necessity requires,
in many cases not even acquiring the
small interest which attaches to see
ing the cane which they have planted,
develop. grow. and mature. Could a
system be devised. deliberately and of
intention, better calculated to produce
a restless, nomadic, drifting population,
especially when eighty per cent. and
upwards of the men under discussion
are unmarried, or are absent from their
families? The wonder Is that they are
as eontented and steady as they are.
No increase of wages that the plan
ters can afford will do it. Wages are
approximately the same throughout the
territory for the different classes Of
work, and if one plantation raises
wages, all the others do the same;
while the wages offered on the main
land for railroad construction and
other employments cannot be met. It
is claimed that sugar plantation quar-
ters are better than those furnished
laborers in many parts of the United
States. I admit it. IA know of no Ha-
waiian labor camp that is as crowded,
filthy, or insanitary as the residences
of the miners in Pennsylvania, to say
nothing of the slums of every city in
the Union.
DREARY PLANTATION QUARTERS /
With exceptions, there is little about |
the plantation quarters to suggest or
invite permanency. On their face they |
are temporary abodes, to be occupied |
until something better can be found; /
and the unpleasant and uncomfortable |
features are so pronounced, that in |
many cases it takes a mere shadow of
a chance of Improvement, or no
shadow at all, to induce a man to
move on and try his luck elsewhere.
One remedy that I suggest is the
of the laborer. BY domi-
CLING him, I mean giving to him, or
selling to him, at q price within his
reach, a piece of land on which he
can create a home; on which he can
raise fruit and vegetables for his own
lse maintain a few domestic fowls
and animals, and in connection with
which he can gather around him
few luxuries and conveniences such as
ire not and can not be accumulated
ind protected in a plantation camp; a
home to which he can retreat and be
lis own master; a place where ne can
i've and where his family can live
without being subject to the possible
ty of dispossession without days
notice; a place where he can feel that
lie is an individual and not a compo-
lent part of a gang; a place where he
an be an independent man, instead OF
dependent hireling, subject abso-
utelv to the orders of another man.
IL NAV be claimed that this home
instinct does not exist among the
lass of people who constitute our
lantation laborers. This is undoubt-
div true concerning a large number.
he unmarried Chinese laborer seems
0 prefer to work and live in crowd,
nd with exceptions does not do
therwise when he becomes his own
laster. There are undoubtedly mrny
theirs of various nationalities who
ave become habituated by long usage,
nd who are content with present con-
itions: but even among these, more
pom is appreciated, as is evidenced
V the fact that if 100 laborers are re-
loved from a plantation camp de-
gned for 200 it will be a matter of
few DAYS only before the remaining 4
10 will spread themselves out over
ne entire camp, if permitted to do
}. with no other possible object thar
, secure more room and privacy. But
1ere are hundreds and thousands of 4
Their cases in which, to a greater or
IS degree, the homing instinct is pos
sssed by plantation laborers as fully S
nd completely as by members of the
Immunity who stand higher in the
,ciaI scale.
THE HOMING INSTINCT.
Take the Portuguese, for example.
he PunchbovI district Is a lVlng eA-
nple of the home-Ioving and home
eating instincts of the race. There
not, to my knowledge, Portuguese
.nelnent house in the Territory BY
lndreds. little individual homes, cost
9 from $500 to $1,000 each. have been v
lilt with their own money. The
me condition prevails in Kona, Ha- A
ali; and wherever on the plantations
lere are detached houses, with some
,ounds around, the Portuguese are
ger applicants therefor. The same
.ndition exists in Lihue, Kauai, with a
latfon to the Germans. There mas
zen. perhaps, more opportunity for
.yelopment and exhibition of these
ndencies among the Portuguese and
ermans. because the migrations or
ose two nationalities to Hawaii :
we consisted exclusively of families q
stead of an overwhelming proportion &
male adults.
The Japanese, on the contrary, have
r thousands of years been nom IS
igratory. There are no japanese
,o,,;aS axcent the recently acquired ! a.