The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-05-11

gar planters are DESTROYS of contribut-
ing that money to the treasury of the
Hawaiian Islands for any phtlanthro-
pic purpose They are doing it because
they will be enabled thereby to get
cheauer labor than they otherwise
could.
Now, Mr.. Speaker, the sugar made
in the Hawaiian Islands is admitted
to the United States free Of duty. They
have an advantage now over the SUI
gar PRODUCERS of the United States,
because sugar can be produced in the
islands cheaper than in the United
States, and they want an additional
advantage, by being able to get cheap
er labor there than we can in the Uni
ted States: and that is the milk in the
cocoanut in this bill, and nothing else.
| Moreover, Mr.. Speaker, l want to call
attention to another fundamental OBJ
Election to the bill. 1t is true that
section provides that nothing in the
| bill shall be construed to admit those
who have been imported into the Ha-
waiian Islands to come to the United
! States but everyone knows, who will
give it a moments consideration, that
if this contract labor is admitted into
! the Hawaiian Islands, it will be inn
possible to keep that same labor out Of
continental United States. They will
work their way TO continental United
| States, and the Hawaiian Islands will
| be the gateway through which contract
labor can be imported not only into
those islands but into the United
States, Applause.
Mr.. Williams / now yield one-half
of one minute to the gentleman from
North Dakota Mr.. Gronna
Nv ATr 7 ON nm
posed to this bill, because I believe it
is a discrimination in favor of large
interests and against labor. 1 live in
a community where labor is very hard
to get and where we have to pay as
high as IS a day for harvest men. Why
not give to the small farmer, with the
small acreage, the same opportunity to
get his work done as you are giving
to the people, who own these large
plantations? Applause.
Mr.. Williams. | now yield the re-
naming two minutes and a half to
the gentleman from New York Mr..
Fitzgerald
Mr. Fitzgerald. The gentleman from
California Mr.. Hayes has introduced
bill to exclude the Japanese from
California. He is willing to have alien
European labor come in by way of The
Hawaiian Islands. If the House passes
both his bills, he gets the benefit com
ing and going" I wish to call the
attention of the House to this fact.
that this bill will not accomplish what
it's authors desire. Several shiploads
of Portuguese farmers were brought to
the Hawaiian Islands. They were en-
ployed there by the sugar planters Be-
cause of the conditions and the terms
@ /
evident to everybody in the islands |
when I was there last summer, that |
Just as quickly as those men could |
accumulate the price of passage to this |
continent, they Immediately embarked |
for the United States. The Portuguese |
are homeseekers, they are home build |
ers; they wish to acquire a small tract |
of land and to build and own their |
own homes. In those families where |
it was impossible for the heads of fam
lilies, because of the drastic conditions |
under which they were employed by |
the sugar planters, to accumulate |
enough money to take their families of
five or six to the United States, the |
young men, as soon as they reached
the age of twenty-one, left the employ
ment of the sugar planters and went
into other fields, and as soon as they
could get sufficient money, or if they
could get employment of any character
upon ship coming to the Coast, they
took passage and came here.
This bill should be entitled "a bill to
permit the sugar planters of the Ha
waiian Islands to legalize peonage," /
because that will be it's effect. Until /
some change is made in the Hawaiian
Islands, so that the homeseeker, the
L I
or two acres and to build his own
house and establish his own home for
his family, is permitted to do so, then
it is a wrong to permit men to be
brought to the Hawaiian Islands with
their families and practically placed in
slavery and bondage to the
sugar plantation. Applause. hope
the bill will be defeated.
Mr.. Hayes. Mr.. Speaker, I think
am as thoroughly in favor or the con-
tract labor law and it's rigid enforce
nent as any gentleman on the other
side of the House, and helped to frame
The present law on that subject; but
hat question is not involved in this
dill. I yield the remainder of my time
% the gentleman from New York Mr..
Bennett.
Mr.. Bennett of New York. Mr.. Speak
ar, that probably is just enough time |
,or me to say that, differing as l do |
With the gentleman from Iowa Mr..
Hepburn on the immigration question, |
agree with him on this. The condi- |
ion of the Hawaiian Islands is simply |
his: There is no white labor to speak
If, and the native race represented by |
he gentleman from Hawaii, who has |
ust spoken, is decreasing. There are |
e, 900 Japanese in the islands, 5000 of |
hem veteran soldiers of the war be-
tween Russia and Japan. Why that
5000 are there I leave the answer to |
your imagination. The sentiment of
The American citizens there is in favor
IF white people. but they can not get
them. They have been getting them.
but we passed an act which prevents
them from getting any more. I am in
favor of their getting every white man
they can and keeping out the Japanese
abOrer
My friend from Colorado T Mr.. b.
nyngel says that we want cheap labor.
The labor they get from the Portuguese