Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1916-12-04
PROBLEMS BEFORE THE PLANTERS.

The thirty.sixth ANNUAL meeting Of the Hawaiian
Sugar Planters Association which begins tomor
row, brings 10 focus the usual and several new
problems in Hawaii's backbone industry.
Year after year the planters meet to talk over
such problems as those Of cultivation, milling trans
portation, machinery, labor and wagescales. Each
year chronicles a steady advance in perfectng the
processes of sugar production and in commune
ing and satisfying the labor element, but at some
annual meetings the business is hardly more than
periunctory
Not so with the session which begins tomorrow.
The labor situation, while by no means alarming,
needs some discussion. Certain of the plantations
have had their difficulties in securing Il sufficient lab
supply and all have had troubles of detail under
the new bonus system. One apparent inequity in
that system is that the bonus payment is made on
the market price of sugar through every month, ard
in the. 'of months of Hawaiis industry the
bonus payment continues. Thus the recent record
figure OF 6.52 cents ruled al time when virtually
no sugar was being marketed, YET the local planta
tions continued to pay bonus based 6.52. There
is talk of bonus based what the planta-
tions actually receive for their sugar.
The bonus system is, however, here to stay. until
some other plan has been devised equally as effective
in satisfying the laborers that their wages pro
portionate to the returns to employers.
seen steady development of building up homes and
home-interests for the unskiIed and semiskilled
1aborers, so that the plantation becomes happy
community in itself Such development on one island
was recently told in considerable detail in the Star
Bulletins special Maui edition While other panta-
tions than those on Maui doing great deal for
the health, comfort, recreation and amusement of
their laboers, Mauiis carrying this plan of comlnun
ty interest to noteworthy extent And it will prob
ably be found to be rule that the plantations which
do most to better the conditions of their laborers
have the least trouble in holding satisfactory sup
ply of labor.
The Increased cost of the labor factor-an in
crease particularly marked this year-makes neces
saIy greater economy and efficiency in production
and tensequenflgthe planters are ready give close
attention to any labor-saving device and any i'm
proyement in cultivation which promises to cut
costs. An instance of the renewed attention given
to laborsaving devices is in the report of the com
mttee on that subject printed in advance of tomor
rows meeting. One Of the members of the associa
ton points ont that the development of harvesting
machinery has been rather slow, since hand labor
has been cheaper than machinery for some of the
methods but adds that "the recent increase in the
RATE of wages to laborers and the lower price of
sugar which is bound to follow the end of the great
war make it advisable that the committee SHOULD
continue its Investigations so as to secure amechan
iol1 loader that will compete with hand labor"
These same reasons have turned renewed attention
to the HindOgg conveyor dry fume,r and to
several other mechanical inventions which become
more desirable as the cost of hand-labor and the
necessity for rigid economies emphasized on the
sugar men of Hawaii.
The meeting of the planters this year also brings
before the territory that oftdiscussed problem of
acute, and the uncertainty of the future regards