The Hawaiian gazette., 1918-07-12
SOMEBODY SLEPT AND
PLANTATIONS DISCOVER
THEY NEED MUCH LABOR
Time 70 Have Met Situation Was Months Ago When
Draftees Were Being Classified and Now Industry Must
Seriously Suffer and Production Show Heavy Decrease
i Unless Some Remedy Shall Be Speedily Found

about thousand laborers taken Still
some companies felt secure that the
"worse was OVER and the draft call
WORLD not hurt much. Then came the
call Of the draft and the publication of
the lists. showed how large a proportion
came from the cane fields.
Higher Ups Remembered -
The peculiar part of the situation is
that claim for, exemption was made for
higher employers in some instances but
not for exemption of the field labor. q.
And there would have been nothing uu .
patriotic in asking sneh exemption
The army is not especially anxious Ia.
secure Filipinos, would prefer others.
The Filipino is more useful on the plan
tations than in the mobilizaticB forces
where he has to be taught English as
well as drilling and military mancuvers.
Had theae been left in the. fields other
men who were classed lower than the
class ono divisions to be First called,
would have been taken instead and an
industry essential not only to the
Territory but to the whole country
since sugar is an absolute necessity and
is now limited to three pounds a month
a person on the mainland.
Damage NOW Done
But the damage has been done. It
has been said that the labor bureau
should have acted but if that bureau
undertook to handle the labor matters
for the plantations there would be a
great to do. 1t appears to have been
an individual matter for each planta-
ton though now it affects them all col
lectiveIy. ~
If labor is not available then the
least productive fields will have to be
left uncultivated. That will mean
,relurtion of just so many tons to SO
many acres less of cane and hence of
sugar than there would otherwise have
been. a plantation that has only fifty
or sixty percent working force is not
going to grow cane to an extent where
it cannot cut it for the mill. The more
productive fields win he cultivated and
cut. the less productive ones will be
cultivated and cut where there is
reason to believe they can be-. This
will mean a considerable decrease in
the' 1919 crop, how considerable it is
as yet impossible to determine.
Where To Turn
! The next problem is to secure labor.
How or whore has not been determined.
IT win take time to bring labor from
the Philippines or from Porto Rico. IL
would take time to secure suspension
of tho Contract Labor Law to permit
the bringing here of Russian refugees
and they could not be brought in
otherwise unless the Planters Associa-
ton laid itself open to prosecution.
1t would take time to secure a lifting
of the provisions of the "Gentlemen 5
Agreement with Japan 80 that pas
ports could he issued to Japanese
laborcrs for Hawaii, they to pay their
own passage mnney. II seems unlikely
if not impossible that anv legislation
permitting the entry Of Chinese labor
I cap be secured.
Help Possible
1t is possible for the people Of Homo
lulu to dispense with japanese yard
boys TO Il large extent SO that they may
have to go to the fields. When the
next legislature cOnvenos law to put
idlers to work may be passed as haa
been done in Maryland, West Virginia,
New Jersey and Now York aud this
would send many others to the fields
in preference to Jail, or to work on
the roads. These plans would help and
, every man who can be brought to work
on the plantations is now essentially
needed
1t is unfortunate that somebody slept
at the throttle while danger signals
were passed but that is over AMI the
result il shortage of labor to the
extent of not less than $500 men and
the probability of much smaller crop
next year than would otherwise have
been. 50"