The Hawaiian gazette., 1908-06-05

A w. Carter, manager of the Parker
Ranch, accompanied by his wife re-
turned to Hawaii yesterday.
SsssssssssssessssssSs ssssSssSssss>ssSssssS
plement if he trailed it over Hawaii.
On the other hand, the prosperity OF
the islands and everybody in it has
been made by sugar. is supported by
sugar, and without sugar would perish
miserably. The sugar barons hav,
brought a great curse upon their land
by the Importation of an excess Of
Oriental labor, perhaps. but whatever
blessings the country has they also
brought. -
Politics in Hawaii is not ideally ~
from corruption. 1t wasn't in the old
days of the monarchy, and it isn't now.
But it is to be doubted if any state in
the Union has laws which throw as
much light into the inside workings
Of corporations as do the laws of Ha-
wall. This in spite of the fact that a
dozen men control all of the one great
industry of the country. It is not
meant that these laws are Utopian, or
that they accomplish great results. It
is merely the wonder that such pub
llcity laws are on the statute books.
The sugar barons apparently have
not been put to the necessity of study
ing politics. They had a bill in the
legislature two years ago to enable
them to bring in some Portuguese and
Spanish immigrants. badly needed to-
relieve the labor situation. They did
MT mention it to their leader in the
Senate and 1t went to the table. If
he had known it. 1t could have been
passed without a word. As it was. it
required hard work to pull it through.
On the whole. the sugar barons seem
not to be such bad barons after all.
The community knows that they
have built it's prosperity and. in a
measure. the community is grateful.
These things may change. Some OF
the sugar barons are placing obstacles
n the way of homesteading and other
Efforts toward Americanization. fearing
he effect upon their system of labor.
This attitude is antagonlstic to the
moving spirit of the territory, and
when the clash comes 1t will be the
ugar barons' heads that are cracked.
some of the sugar barons. especially
he British and Germans. still believe.
,r affect to believe, that the United
states will again open the doors to
Asiatic immigration so far as Hawaii
s concerned. The majority of the
American planters look toward the
outh of Europe for help.
The sugar planters have problems of
.ourse, but in Hawaii their outlook is
osy. Just now they are glorying i'm
ne biggest crop of their history and a
op-notch price. Even if the dreaded
hing happens and Philippine sugar. or
wen Cuban sugar. is admitted into the
United states without duty, the sugar
planters may find consolation in the
'apidly increasing consumption OF su-
gar Tnirty-five years ago the sugar
;rop of the world was two or three mil
lon tons each year. over half of which
vas made from cane. It did not reach
,our million tons until 1888, when for
The first time the beet sugar produc.
lion was a little the larger half. The
,rop reached the ten million ton mark
N 1902, six Of which was from beets
and four from cane.
The last annual statistics reported a
worlds crop of over twelve million
tons, seven from beets and five from
zane. The increase of consumption Of
sugar in the United States. as might
De expected. has been startlingiy rapid,
having tripled in a quarter Of a CEN
lury- This growth continues all over
he world, and the sugar producing sec
tons are called upon TO do their Mt
most SO far as Hawaii is concerned,
t is believed that practically all the
available sugar land Is now under cul-
ivation- But such predictions are un-
certain, as witness the maximum pos
siDle' estimate of twenty-five years
ago. In the meantime. King Sugar
smiles on Hawaii, and this territory is
one part Of the United States that =,
knows not the meaning of Industrial I
adversely in the good year 1905