Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1909-03-25

~ HE history of most sugar countries Is
one of general degeneration finally
ending in disaster. Some say this
is because there Is something about sugar
and this sugar industry that finally and
permanently Injuries every country that
comes to rely upon IL for industrial sue
cess Others, with more reason, point out
that the trouble is not with sugar as such
but with the fact that thus far sugar pro-
ducing countries left to themselves have
generally introduced to work their fields
low and degenerate class of people who In
turn have permanently destroyed the pros
perity of the country. In Hawaii there are
two conflicting ideas on this issue. Some
believe the ideal condition for Hawaii, and
for continued success of the sugar indus
try, would be plenty of cheap male laborers
unattached TO the soil unencumbered by
women or children, except to an extent
necessary to keep down positive disorder,
and with no right and as little desire as
practicable to acquire land Others be-
lieve that we would inevitably come to
grief working on those lines; that while
such conditions appear to be an ideal from
money making standpoint, yet IL Is case
where things are not what they seem, and
the final result would be industrial chaos
and loss even from the standpoint pure and
simple of dollars and cents. 1t is becoming
apparent of late that the ideas of the later
class are coming to the fore and the old
idea is passing away, and this on mere
question of dollars and cents without at
tempting to mix morals or high ideals In
the issue at all. In other words, those in
control of the Industrial affairs of Hawaii
are coming more and more to believe that
prosperity measured even in dollars and
cents is surer In the end If we adopt the
course of discouraging alien immigration
which cannot develop into desirable and
loyal citizenship, and by cutting up a large
part of the lands of the country into small
holdings for use and cultivation by a land
owning and citizen class.
Taken as a whole the lands of the coun-
try naturally divide themselves up into the
sugar lands on the coast and small farming,
and fruit and homestead lands on the
higher levels need not conflict materially
with the use of the lower lands for cane.
But the man on the high levels to live on
the comparatively few acres that are avail
able for EACH must have cheap transporta-
ton for his produce, not merely to the sea
coast but to the coast of the mainland and
he must have rapid and cheap transporta-
ton for himself to the sea coast where he
can sell his labor to the plantation or other
labor employing concern to the mutual adj
vantage of both. Land like that of the
Koolau district, on Oahu, where cane does
not do well. could with rapid transit fur
nish labor for Kahuku and even Waialua
Plantations; Eva Plantation and Oahu
Plantation, and Waialua Plantation as
well, should draw labor from the upland
territory lying between the Eva district
and the Waialua district. Hawaiian Com
mercial q Sugar Company, on the Island
of Maui, ought to be able to draw a sup
ply of labor from the kula lands above It
and the pineapple lands to the windward
side of that plantation, and so on. Some
plantations would be handicapped by local
conditions but in the main the proposition
stands good that the low lands are suitable