The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1912-01-03

statistics of the last 191D report of
the United States Bureau of Labor.
Thus more and more the women
and children are forced to work in
1902 there we're 16,76S women and
children working in the fields out of
totak of 42,242 employees; while in
1910 there were 24,O93 women, boys
and girls working out of a total num-
Der of 1927 employees.
No one, indeed, can visit the islands
without being impressed with the
enormous amount of labor being done
there by women. Often they come
into the fields with small babies
strapped to their backs. Sometimes
they carry them while they work and
sometimes they make a little tent Of
cloth and put the baby down on the
ground, where I have seen them the
center of swarming clouds OF flies.
Among the Japanese it is the women
!
Japanese have a passion for educa-
ton and send their young people to
school until they are thoroughly pre-
pared. Among the Portuguese, how
ever, the women remain at home and
the boys and girls are taken out of
the schools very early and sent into
the fields.
| Notwithstanding the decrease in the
number of men workers and the m
crease of the labor of women and
children, however the planters have
been able every year to crowd out a
larger product of sugar per employe.
This is one of the means by which
/ they have grown rich so fast. Thus,
/ in 1902, the average production per
employee was only S4 tons of sugar,
while in 1905 it has risen to 9.5 tons,
and last year, 1910, it was l1S tons.
In short. by virtue of better organi-
zation, better machinery, and changes
in methods, the planters got "a tons
more sugar out of the labor of each
employee last year than they did eight
years ago.
So much for the common labor on
the plantations; the skilled labor has
Jared even worse.
(Mr. Bakers remarks on skilled
labor were given yesterday
These abuses are already being
recognized by the progressive and far
sighted people of the islands-men
who are learning the fundamental
truth that ignorance is cure for
nothing. Last year a special school
fund commission appointed by the
governor and consisting of Wallace
r. Harrington, Edgar Wood and w. S.
Bowen, made a thorough investigation
of school conditions. Their report is
milder, in my opinion, than the con-
ditions really warrant, and yet 1t
makes some very sweeping charges.
1t says:
an the Territory there is very
powerful element both openly and
covertly declaring that too much edu-
cation is being given the children of
lowly birth"
1t has even come to the point
where mass meetings are being held
to demand more schools. Several
were held while I was in the islands.
Partly because of the inadequacy of
the public schools but more largely
perhaps because they are a people
intensely loyal to their own language
and customs. the Japanese have es-
tablished their own schools every
where in the islands. They take all
that the public school gives them, and
nese schools. Although the wages of
those who work average only about
fifty cents a day, they tax themselves
steadily and at high rates for the
maintenance of schools. Usually
these schools in the country are stu
ated near the public schools and the
teachers are often educated men from
Japan, sometimes Buddhist priests.
In the same way, the Chinese main
tain schools of their own and there
are also a few Portuguese schools di,
rected by Roman Catholic teachers,
and even a Korean school or two. It
is easier to get help from the rich
interests in the islands for these pri-
vate foreign schools than for the dem
ocratic public schools.
In these ways the languages and
} customs of the various peoples tend
to be perpetuated-an there is a de
cided loss of the democratizing and
socializing influence of strong, able,
we'll conducted Dublic school system.