The Hawaiian gazette., 1910-09-30

farms has nearly doubled during these
ten years, and thut' large labor-using
agricultural industries like pineapple
planting have grown MP since the last
census and that the plantations keep
on their payrolls over 10000 men, IL
win be seen that there is very little
surplus labor in Hawaii During such a
crisis as occurred at the time of the
late strike, plantation in the immediate
vicinity Of Honolulu might temporarily
obtain considerable labor from the city
by paying $3.50 a day. But quite apart
from the question whether many plan.
tatiOns can afford to pay such wage,
there is not enough labor, even at this
price, to supply the plantations on the
other islands; nor is there a guarantee
that even near Honolulu such labor
would prove permanent.
immigration Is Certain.
However, there is very little use of
considering this question at all. Every
Intelligent man in Hawaii knows that
if government immigration ceases the
sugar industry will do Just what any
other large industry in the United
States would do under like circum-
stances, import labor from other places.
Under the federal constitution Hawaii
can not make law to keep out labor
from Porto Rico and the Philippines.
Within ten years the population of
Porto Rico has grown nearly 100000
or equal to the whole population of FIa-
wall today In other words, Porto Rico
could send man here for every man,
woman and child in Hawaii at the time
our census was taken last spring, and
still have as many people left as were
in that country ten years ago. And
Porto Rico is small island, consider
ably smaller than the single island of
Hawaii. but with over 100000 popula.
ton Yet those 100000 people, on
such a small island. all make living
From the Philippines with their s.
100000 people. a still larger number
of laborers might he brought. Fill
pinOs work for $1S a month. The
planters, in order to encourage a per
manent population of desirable set
tiers in Hawaii. will pay Portuguese
and Spaniards 1914 month. But pri.
vate individuals and corporations can
not bring here Portuguese and Span
iards-that is left bv federal law for
the government to do. So to cut off
government immigration is to substitute
T..
mcnt immigration means bringing
in settlers with families who can not
live without fair wage To abolish
government immigration means to
force the planters to bring in single
men without families, who will com
pete at a lower wage with Hawaiian
workers having families to support.
Effect OIL Public Lands.
Under the law just passed by con-
gress our public lands must be sub
divided and sold to citizens. It should
be sold at fair price. This land is
the common property of all the citizens
of the Territory, and ii would be rob
bling the many to favor the few to give
it away for nothing to a small numper
of homcsteaders. Tt would be as if
several of us inherited lot of land
from our grandfather, and the court
should give all the land to two or three
of the heirs and leave us without any
thing, instead Of ordering the property
sold and the money divided equally
among us.
The public land should be sold for
its full value, so the money may be
divided among the citizens of the Ter
litory by being invested in public
| schools and roads and other things for
public use, and employed to pay wages
to citizen laborers for building these
roads and schools and other works. I'm
migrants are not likely to get these
public lands for two reasons az they
are not citizens and most of them dc
not take out their first papers until
! they have been in Hawaii some time;
| and (2) immigrants are mostly very
poor when they come here and have ia
work several years before they have
money enough, and experience enough
with the land and crops, to do success,
full farming. But by bringing in immi-
grants and increasing the population OF
settlers we make our public lands more
+, valuable. " there were only 100 PEG
! pie in the Hawaiian Islands the publiC
lands would be worth little or nothing
/ Therefore immi grants, though they maS
not buy public lands themselves. caus,
a larger sum to be received from tn,
sale of those lands which makes NOR,
money 10 he snent for roads. schools
and public works, and more money t
go as wages TO the citizen laborers EN-
ployed TO build them.
Large Tracts May Be subdivided
1t is a commonplace in economics tina
the more settlers there are in a countr
the more the land is subdivided int
small farms. In the early days, whel
there were said to be half a millio
Hawaiians in these Islands, the Who'll
country was covered with kuleanas. Ii
Porto Rico, with its 100000 people
even the great sugar plantations ar
simply collections of small farms send
ing their cane TO central mills. Now
the ease with which a man can get
farm in Hawaii, or any other countr,
where land has real value, depends no
so much upon the amount of public Ian,
as upon the extent to which it is di
vided into small holdings. Were Ha
waii divided into forty-acre farms
we could always buy a farm, becans
for various reasons farms would Away
be on the market One man would wan
to sell to move into town, another be
cause the climate did not agree wit
his wife, another because his father ha
died and left him property elsewhere.
Part of our government immigratio
policy is to negotiate with the larg
private landowners of Hawaii to sui
/ divide tracts Of land into small farmi
to be leased or sold to both citizens an
immigrants. If that can be accom-