The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-02-08

! PLANTERS QUAKE,
FEARING REPORT
Astounding Conditions in Hawaii
Revealed by Visits of Chief
immigration Official.
LOWEST CLASSES IMPORTED
Are Then Ground Down to the
Lowest Wage While Being
Robbed at Stores.
HONOLULU, January 2.-Hawaian
corporate interests are now, with few
exceptions, awaiting anxiously the re-
port of Daniel ]. Keefe, commissioner
of migration, whose official visit to
the Territory ended on December 81.
The sugar interests are particularly
worried over the situation and it is
generally appreciated that Keefe's re-
port will have tremendous effect on
the life of the Islands for years to
come. Without exception, Keefe's visit
was the most important official tour
made by any officer of the American
government.
He had not been in Honolulu week
before he had the sugar planters figur-
atively scurrying for cover like scared
rabbits, with his statements that wag-
es on the great plantations were too
small and that plantation company
stores were charging prices too high
in proportion to the wages This state
ment was made in secret meeting
attended by territorial officials and Of
ficers and members of the Hawaiian
Sugar Planters Association.
The commissioner had long array
of prices charged by plantation stores
and with grocer-like accuracy had set
opposite them the prices charged for
the same commodities on the main
land. In almost every case the conf
pany figures were higher than retail
figures elsewhere; sometimes the
} prices were higher on the plantations
than they were in Honolulu.
Assisted immigration.
In a great many respects, this por-
ton of Keefe's investigation was sub
ordinate to other objects of his visit,
but nevertheless the planters are par
ticularly averse to having it published
= in a government report, especially as
: it will influence government conclu
sions on assisted immigration.
, Assisted immigration was the prin-
cipal object of study which brought
Keefe to the Hawaiian Islands. This
institution has become divided into
two classes in Hawaii, one being the
immigration assisted by the Sugal
Planters Association and the othel
assisted by the Territory officially
, The latter extends its operation onl!
to foreign countries and has intro
duced into the Islands Portuguese ani
Russians. The sugar planters ar
necessarily restricted in their immi
: grafton endeavors to Islands and Ter
r ritory a part of or controlled by thu
g United States, where the inhabitanu
t are not subject to the immigration
e laws. Both systems are ostensibE
t for the same purpose, the supply o
v labor for the plantations.
! Keefe's verdict on these matters
did not please the planters. The Rus
slams, who had refused to work fol-
the planters at the $1S a month re
ceived by the Japanese, and who were
consequently anathema with them
were highly praised as workmen by
Keefe. The Filipinos, of whom thu
. planters have boldly announced thai
they will import 10000 a year, were
roasted into the middle of next year
by the commissioners general
The Filipinos He Saw.
Keefe's remarks on the subject d
= Filipinos, with which he was not spar
ing. and the Filipinos themselves ar'
a expected to be the stumbling bloch
t over which the Planters Association
e will break the neck of their power II
the Hawaiian Islands, the last organ
- lied territory under the United States
banner
= Without one exception, the Filipino.
= are the most miserable lot of people
ever brought here. Most of them ar
: afflicted with chronic dysentery'
), mild form Of plague and so far incur
r able. Those who have not got TINS
are suffering from skin diseases an'
other unpleasantnesses. Smallpox ha'
started on Maui, introduced by Tart
!. Little Brown Brothers.
g The day before Keefe sailed and OF
t the same steamer on which he sailed
{ for San Francisco, large baton o
Filipinos arrived from Manila Thi'
was the last straw on the commission