The Maui news. [volume] (Wailuku, Maui, H.I.) 1900-current, 1912-01-06
Another
Attack
Ray Stannard Baker Takes Another
Slap at the Planters.

Human Nature in Hawaii How
the Few want the Many to Work for
Them -Perpetually and at Low
Wages" is the title of Ray Stan
nard Bakers article of his Hawai-
ian series, which appears in the
January number of the American
Magazine.
Mr.. Baker quotes from the local
papers. school commissioners report
and from personal conversations.
Some of his remarks are as follows:
4 As | have already shown, practi-
cally everything in Hawaii depends
upon the sugar industry-all the
wealth, the fine houses, the beauti-
full buildings, the smooth automo-
bile roads, the extraordinary chari-
table and benevolent institutions.
And the sugar industry depends
largely upon the labor of these for
eign peoples, mostly Japanese, up
on the land.
When Hawaii was admitted into
the American union, no more Chi
nese could be brought in. Therefore,
the Hawaiian planters turned to
the next great source of labor, the
Japanese. An aristocracy does not
care whit where labor comes from
or what it is, so long as backs and
biceps are strong, and souls are
sodden and unambitious. But h
democracy in its rough way desires
not merely workers, but associates
and neighbors. And the democracy
of the Pacific Coast, where the Jap.
anese were also crowding in, began
to protest and expostulate. The Jap
anese were coming too fast, there
was no time to get acquainted or to
arrive at mutual understandings; (;
they could not associate with them.
Consequently the japanese stream
was cut off, both on the mainland
and in Hawaii.
The planters had already been
bringing in, at large expense, ship
ments of Portuguese peasants and
this was now continued, but the
supply was still inadequate. So they
tried bringing in ignorant Porto
Ricans, ignorant Koreans, ignorant
Russian peasants from Siberia, and,
more recently, considerable num-
bers of underfed and diseased Fill
pinos.
So urgent is the need of labor that
two separate immigration bureaus
are maintained in the islands. One
,xis privately supported by the Plan
sters' Association, the other by the
Territorial government, and both
expend very large sums of money
yearly. AS matter of fact, both
of the bureaus represent the plan
ters' interest, one being the right
hand of the Planters Association,
the other the left hand.
The purpose of both organizations
of course, is to to get cheap laborers,
but the Territorial bureau represents
what may be called the progressive
element among the planters. 1t seeks
to bring in white men and to offset
Oriental immigration by that of
peasant white labor from Europe.
1t hopes thus to "Americanize' the
islands. 1t has the hearty support
of men like Governor Frear and
Dr.. Victor S. Clark, who is the
leading spirit on the Territorial
board and who is intensely in earn
est upon this subject. The bureau
of the Planters Association, on the
other hand, is bringing in Filipinos
in spite of the objections and
warnings of the medical authorities.
Those who favor white immigra-
ton are having to meet all sorts of
difficulties. In the first place the
Asiatic element in the islands is now
overwhelmingly predJminate, and
Continued on Page O.