The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1915-03-30
Only That Or Federal Mills, Says
Witness, win Give Little !.
J. Fellow a Living 5...
BONE OF CONTENTION, IS
stp ALLOTMENT or PROFITS
Hearing Before House conimIttee
Resolves Itself Into Book J
"a !. 81 ID. Keepers Analysis -.

What the small cane planter wants is
either n federal commission to regulate
the division Of profits between the
grower and the sugar mills. or else |
government owned mills, such as have /
been established in Queensland. I'm
der present conditions, said A.. d.,
Curtis Of Olaa, Hawaii, testifying
last night before the house committee
on agriculture, he cannot possibly
make a living. ~ .e q. e, i
"Then or twelve years ago." said
Mr.. Curtis, "when / first began rails
ing cane at 0laa, / had twenty white |
neighbors. Now they are all gone.
They could not make living, and their
holdings are being worked by 0rientals.
tThe contracts the plantations oner
the small growers always give the
power to the plantations. They can
make or break him. The powers Of i'm
depreciation given the plantation man
ager are enormous. ..5- GE..t'
The Eckart contract which the
Qlaa Plantations offers me when my old
contract runs out, as it will when the
-. crop on the ground has been harvested.
is a eoolie contract. Not even a Scotch
man would have the courage to
tackle it. - .a0"' \
Lindsay Cross Examined
On cross : examination, Alexander
Lindsay, representing the Olaa com.
pany, made 1t plain what the defense
of the great plantations will be. The
trend of his questions all went to show
that he will contend that the small
grower often occupies inferior land,
that his management is bad, and that
his lack of business training makes it
difficult for him to understand the ap.
portionment of overhead expenses
which 1t is necessary for scientific man.
agement to charge up against the cost
of sugar -. 's.' '.a
Correspondence was read into the
record to show that in one instance
small plantation, abandoned after two
lean years, was in "deplorable condi.
ton by reason Of neglected cultiva-
lion, when the company undertook to
work it, and that what was possible
to make it pay had been done, though
the wisest thing would have been to do
nothing at all, Where the company had
been getting forty tons an acre from
its own lands il had been able to get
only a little less than twenty-five tons
from the small farmers holdings. M
F'Do you think, - asked Mr.. Lindsay,
that any attention ought to be paid
In matters of dollars and cents to the
color of a man 5 skim
- think, answered the witness,
that a man who puts capital into his
farm and lays little something by
and comes TO have All interest in the
neighborhood is very much more
profitable customer for the mill than
barefooted cooIie, who comes into the
COUNTRY without dollar in his hand.
j think the responsible man deserves
more.' r. -,
Took Up Homestead in 1901
Under. direct examination Curtis tes-
tilted that he had taken up a home
stead in 1901 and that, under the so
called McStoeker contract, given him
in 1904 by the 0laa company, he had
been able to make money. From a
hundred acres, he had cleaned up net
profits in good years of little less
than 1000, on division which gave
the mill sixty per cent of the net and
forty per cent to him.
He was not ready to say that he con.
shered That division altogether fair,
IN view of the fact that In the Philip
pines, Senator Fafrchild made money
operating his mill on a division of pro.
Its exactly reversed, but he would be
willing to renew the old contract If the
company would allow him TO- w.
" wouidn T., Under the terms of the
Eckart contract now offered him, he
figured that his sugar would be yield
tg him $25.65 a ton, without reckoning
any charges for taxes, rent, superin-
tendance, book keeping, or insurance,
and that the profits he had been able
to show under the old contract would
he converted into losses. ~ &.
Witness Is Satisfied ~ ~ Z. r. a
The witness was conducted through
long explanation of the basis on
which the cane is paid for--the method
of harvesting and cleaning the dedue.
tions for tares, the test for sucrose and
other teehniealities,' ~ 81
On the whole, he was fairly satisfied
with the treatment he received. The
cane was sampled fairly, he had found,
and he had absolute confidence in the
analysis of the chemist. To be sure,
he had been oVerchaTged for fertilizer,
at times, he believed, "ud eight pei
cent interest in advance. compounded
monthly, was a pretty stif rate for
loans, he Thought, but what s. sex in
his crop, was the superintendent of over
head charges, -nE,gr
- All the small planters felt, he said,
that they were being assessed for costs
which might well enough enter into the
superintendent charges against his
own acres, hut ought not to be levied
on the outside farmer, Why should
he, Tor instance, be charged with up
keep Of the eompany's railway system,
when bis sugar was delivered by funnel
Another deep grievance was the fact
that the small planter could not seem
to profit proportionately by market ad.
vances. II sugar were to bring 500
ton instead Of $50, the increase of
$50 would be divided under the Eckart
contract, as he interpreted il. Sl.02 TO