Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1917-10-05
THE HIGH PRICE OF FISH.

| Editor honolulu Star-Bultet!r.
Sir: On behalf OF the lovers
| OF fish OF Honolulu, especially the
| poor Hawaiians, who are the greatest
consumers thereof. hope you will pub
| !ish this protest against the baretaCed
! robbery Of the poor workers by the
| fish dealers. | am much addicted TO
rbe use OF fish myself, and almost
c;.ily go to the market TO purchase
some for myself and family, but often
go home without il, buying something
else, which | don't care half as much
| for, owing to the outrageous prices
| charged-25 or 80 cents a pound. and
| 20 cents for iced fish, more or less
stale. with the quintessenCe OF nOur'
ishment evaporated from it.
| A good healthy Woodworking labor
! ing man will readily eat a pound OF
fish at a meal. and when you consider
! that very many of the poor men have
| large families, you will see how great
is the privation forced upon them by
such prices; and with the HawaiianS
| fish is an absolute necessity in their
diet. so that the self denial. the poor
creatures must perforce practise is
readily seen. You have but to visit
! the fish market of an evening TO see
| how sad the people look about buying
a bit of fish for their dinner, many
Of the poor laborers, dirty with toll,
going from stall to stall trying to get
a piece of fish to match the slimness
of their pockets.
| have talked to dozens Of them,
men with large families among them,
and only receiving two dollars a day
the highest being about three, and one
of them, a Hawaiian, receiving even
this big salary for common labor. had
ten children and a wife! would ask
them why the Hawaiians did not get
together and do something practical
about getting cheaper fish, but the
poor men generally are like children
in that respect, and just say, "What S
the use: we no can do nothing, and
nobody help US
One young fellow. half white. pro-
tested loudly against the impo: lion,
pulling out 25-cent piece from his
pocket, saying: This is all the money
I've got, and wife and five children.
Suppose l buy a pound Of fish with
this I can eat it all myself, and what
will my wife and my babies have to
eat?" And he was getting the mag
nificent salary of three dollars day
to keep big family.
You haoles getting even four or
five dollars a day can imagine what
luxuries they are having in that house
hold in these days Of wholesale rob-
berry. | too have family of five to
support, and am very conscious of it;
but the people with the big salaries
and the rich people with few excep-
tons are not conscious of it, nor do
they wish to be reminded OF 1t, either,
from the way in which they sidestep
when the fact is preached. | have
asked many of the fish sellers what
is the matter with them that they are
charging poor people such prices, but
they just shift the blame onto the peo-
pie who sell to them. Though the
Advertiser the other day stated that
perhaps the people who buy are res
ponsible for the high cost of fish,
paying so much for it. | think that,
however, is a very good suggestion.
Let the people combine, as the women
did in Chicago and New York some
time ago about reducing the price of
eggs, and see if it will not induce
these insolent exploiters to sell their
goods to the people at a fair profit
One of the sellers recently said to
me, Suppose people no like pay the
price, all right; they go hungry" |
told him if he kept on like that bye
and bye the government would bun
die him out of that and sell the fish
for him. l was glad I told him that
so forcibly, for he actually gave me
two pounds of mahimahi fo" a quar-
ter, when he wanted twenty cents a
pound a few minutes before.
Scarcity of fish usually puts up the
price, but in the evenings have often
seen many of the stalls loaded with
fish, at prices from 20 to 80 cents
pound, and they would not sell them
a bit cheaper, though many of them
would be spoiled by the next day, as
the eyes and the gills were very dull
in color; just letting it rot rather than
give the hungry-eyed crowd any re-
duction in price, though in justice |
say 1 nave hhO"A IuoIQASCC
where it has been reduced consider
ably. 1t makes ones blood boil with
indignation to look upon such cold
blooded tactics as that to keep up
prices! But the highest pinnacle-for
the present-was reached last even
ing when l was asked sixty cents for
very small aku, the commonest and
cheapest of fish, which you could buy
a week ago for 20 or 25 cents. l asked
the Chinaman if he was crazy or did
he think | was to pay such price,
that I would buy beef instead and that
others should do the same. He just
grinned and looked as indifferent as
only a Chinaman can look when he
desires.
We have a food commission, of
course; but what is the good of it if
it doesn't take action in reducing
prices of this commodity as we'll as