The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-05-29
LABOR PROBLEM
IN HAWAII-NE|
The Story of Hawaii's Great
Procession of In
migrants.

advertiser Correspondence, Copyright
by Frederic j. Easkin.)
HONOLULU, T. H. MAY 13,-In Ha-
wall the labor question is ever present,
ever paramount and never settled.
One-fourth of the total population of
the Territory is made up of laborers
actually employed in the cane fields.
OF these more than one-half are jap
anese and Chinese; in other words.
non-citfzen and non-assimilable. Sugar
demands cheap labor. Hawaii lives on
sugar and unless it has a permanent
supply of remarkably cheap Labor it
races ruin. Before annexation to the
United States the government and the
planters, sometimes acting Jointly and
/ sometimes acting separately, brought
in laborers from various parts of the
| world under the contract system.
| When the United States flag perma-
! nently f1oated over the Islands, and
American laws applied to Hawaiian
affairs, contract labor was without the
pale of law
The leading men of Hawaii then
| turned toward Europe as a source of
labor supply. 1t was thought the
south of Europe would furnish hardy
laborers perfectly willing to work for
wages which the planters could afford
Being Christians and Europeans they
would naturally be in sympathy with
American institutions and ideals, and
would bring forth a second generation
of real Americans. Under the plan
adopted by the states of South Caro-
lima and Louisiana, the planters con-
tributed sums of money to fund, and
by the authority of the legislature, sent
an agent to Europe. He succeeded in
obtaining two ship-loads of immigrants,
one of Portuguese and one of Spanish.
Then fell the blow from the Federal
Government at Washington in the form
of a decision that immigration stimu-
lated in this fashion was illegal and
must cease. Afterward came the re-
striction of Japanese immigration.
Thus Hawaii found itself in the posi- |
ton of being prevented by either pri-
vate or public enterprise from assisting
immigration. 1t is too small and too
out of the way to attract voluntary
immigration, and its labor question is
most acute.
Politics thrives on conditions The
Southern States of the Union, with
practically no exception, are suffering
from lack of labor supply. The mill
lions and millions of men and women
who have come to American shores
from Europe in the past fifty years
have all found homes north of the
Mason and Dixon line, or west of the
The Southern States were
stagnated on account of the devasta
ton of the war when the great tide
of immigration began, and it is only
within the past seven or eight years
that the South has begun to feel the
need of new white blood. The South
is like Hawaii in that it needs this
but cannot get it. While
the North is clamoring for regulations
which will place further restriction up
on the influx of immigration, the South
Is crying for a relief from labor famine.
South Carolina sought to solve the
problem by state assisted immigration;
Louisiana tried the same thing, but
powerful influences at Washington
were able to put a stop to the plan.
If it were not for the fact that the
Southern States. and some of the Pa /;
cific Coast States, were thus suffering s
from a shortage of labor supply, the 4;
Hawaiian situation would be quite 4:
hopeless. AS it is, the Hawaiian lead h
ers are confident of pooling interests in
Congress. Although they have no vote
hey will be able to secure some legis-
alton which will permit the Territory, |
rs a public necessity, to bring about
artificial immigration from Europe.
Even the sugar planters sadly accept 5
he fact that the days of Orientalism I
ire passed.
The mere question of getting laborers
hn1F IA
them to stay here has I
proved equally difficult. i
The first laborers imported to Ha- {
vail. when the native Hawaiian labor /
n was found Inadequate, We're ISG Chi 1
lese brought in in 1852, during the /
'eign of Kamehameha III. These Ia Y
,orers cost $50 apiece to bring over. 6
They were paid So a month in cash i
wages and furnished with food, lodg- {
ne and clothes, which cost 81 per Y
month more There was no economic /
Inference between the system of con- I
ract labor, which had its beginning at /
hat time. and actual slavery. Since /
hat day laborers have been brought to /
Hawaii from Manchuria, Korea, China, '
Japan. the islands of the South Seas, i
rom Norway, Germany, Austria, italy, I
Russia, Portugal. Spain, Madeira and /
he Azores, while both whites and T
negroes have been recruited in the {
United States. Since 1852 the number a
# labor immigrants to Hawaii has /
cached the enormous total of $4,000
II q, 900 more than the total popula- i
ion of the Territory at this time. What o
las become of them? Some have died L
f course. but the immigrant class is $
suany sturdy and the records show : Il