The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1917-09-22
RuLE0F
SUGAR TRUST.|N
FIJI ISLANDS
Unspeakab|e Conditions Under
Which Coolies Toll De-
scribed by Writer.
BY w. FRANCIS AHERN.

SYDNEY; N. S. w. Sept. 20.-The
history books tell US that the Fiji
islands were taken possession of by
Great Britain in 1876. Today it
should be said that the sugar trust is
the complete owner of those islands,
though the British Union Jack still
flies from the masthead. Shortly
after the British government as
sumed ownership, the sugar trust ap-
peared on the scene and after ex-
perrin enting with the black labor of
the islands, found that said black
labor did not take too kindly to white
boss domination. So it was that the
sugar trust went to India and re-
cruited 100000 coolies. These coolies
are bond slaves for a term Of years,
forced to live in compounds-three
; men to howell measuring 10 feet by
Z feet. Both men and women are
recruited as slaves from India. The
mind can imagine without being told
| Of some Of the things that happen.
Truthful missionaries, in fact, say
crime is rampant and bestiality runs
! riot. The Fiji islands are described
! as human piggery-a cesspit of
human obscenity. It is in this hell
that the children are reared. They
run around naked till they reach the
age Of ~, when they are turned into
the mills or fields to work.
Work Under Task System.
Men, women and children work
under the task system, which is slav-
cry in everything save the name. The
hours are from half past S in the
morning. The average wage paid is
% cents per day for the men and
IL cents for the women. That is why
at the present time, owing to the fact
! that Indian coolie labor can not be
got, that the sugar trust is kicking up
such noise because it has to pay
Sc cents per day for Chinese labor
| to work in the cane fields Out of
! the above miserable wages the coolies
haze to buy their food and clothing.
Rice runs about cents per pound,
so that the women work all day for
about two pounds of rice.
Hence, the coolies are always in a
state Of semi-starvation and thus
| brain weary and unable to fight
| properly against the hellish condi-
! tions. If. through weakness they can
not do their work their wages are
reduced accordingly-indeed. the
average wages of many of the men
fall to as low as, cents per day.
Mothers Are Flogeed.
Cases are common where mothers,
With children strapped on their back,
too weak to work, are flogged with
}horsewhips, while it is a common &C.
currence for an overseer to bash some
| poor male slave IN the face with a
billet of wood because he is unable
to do his work properly.
Is it any wonder that the Indian
coolies. after having done their
years. toll, refuse TO work any longer
for the white master. They have
openly said that they would prefer
to work for Chinese or Japanese task
masters. So awful have grown the
conditions that representations are
,, now made to the British government
to not only prohibit the traffic in
slaves from India but to see that de-
cent conditions are imposed in Fiji
as we'll:
As would be guessed, the sugar trust
has it's representatives in Britain. ad-
vocating a continuance of the old
system. What. side the church is
going to take in the matter has not
yet been declared.
Labor Conditions Awful.
They start work in Fiji at $3.50 a.
M. Long before this hour they are
on their way to the fields, in rain or
dew, with their cane-knives in their
hands. women and men alike. They
stand in the wet vegetation and black
mud cutting and slashing at the
weeds and other growth.
Their whole bodies soon become
covered and fouled with the sticky
mud and decayed vegetable matter.
Many women are engaged to carry
seed-cane on their heads in bundles
perhaps for a mile over slippery
roads, up and down steep hills, >and
placing the cane in the drills. and
cutting it with their knives. No
Man with the Hoe" about this but a
woman goaded on by a native "sar-
dar. who sees to 1t that no loafinR
Els done. 40
Every morning crowds OF the
women, shaking with the consump-
tive couch line D before the .'sahib''