The Maui news. [volume] (Wailuku, Maui, H.I.) 1900-current, 1920-02-27

Post Ohce Box SS5, Honolulu, I. II.
Dear Sirs:
Your letter of the tenth of February enclosing a COPY of the
Resolutions adopted at a meeting of the Honolulu Japanese
Merchants Association on the eighth of February, 1920, has re-
ceived the consideration of the Trustees of the Hawaiian Sugar
Planters Association.
We note that your Association considers that the demands
presented by the Federation of Japanese Laborers are Just and
reasonable and you regret that the Hawaiian Sugar Planters
Association has taken an attitude of opposition against said de-
mands.
In reply to your letter and the resolutions of your Associa-
ton we would state:
The three principal items in the demands of the japanese
Federation of Labor are:
FIRST: That the wage of the lowest paid man on the
plantations be SIPS per day and that there shall be a like in
crease, or 62.34 per cent, in the wages and salaries of all other
employees.
changed except:
THIRD: That the provision of the bonus system, requir-
ing a laborer to work 20 days a month in order to participate in
the bonus, be changed to Is days per month.
Let us Srst consider the third demand. 1t has been the ex-
perience of plantation employers for many years past that as
the day wage increases the turnout of labor decreases; and while
the principal object of the bonus system is to provide laborers
with a substantial and generous increase in their compensation
when the price of sugar is high, we also had in mind a provision
which would tend to induce a good turnout of laborers.
We think that there is no injustice in asking an %able-bodied
man who is provided, free If charge, with house, fuel and medi-
cal attendance, to work 20 days out of a month, or a trife over
AZ days per week. Prominent Japanese, to whom this question
has been submitted, have stated that the 20 day provision is a
reasonable one.
Let us now consider the first and second demands.
At 81 rs per day the wages of the lowest paid, least skilled,
man on the plantation would be $3.50 per month. The bonus
for January was at the rate of 1850, or $4924, making the
total earnings of said man $8l7O for the month. The planta-
ton would retain approximately $50 of the bonus and disburse
as a bonus payment 1850, so that the $1.25 man would have re-
ceived as payment on account of bonus for January 1878,
making the total wage and bonus $69S7, and the balance, depend
ing on the price of sugar for the year, would be paid at the end
of the bonus year.
This month, February, the bonus will be 2565%, or $685.,
for a man on wages of $3.50 per month, making the total earn
ings of such a man $l1585 for the month. The plantation re-
tains approximately $50 of the bonus and disburses as a bonus
payment 1900, so that the $l2 man would receive as payment
on account of bonus SOILS, making the total wage and bonus to
be paid him for February $9425.
The above is what the Federation of Japanese Labor de-
mands shall be paid by the plantations to their lowest paid, least
skilled men, without regard to the cost of production and market
ing of the sugar.
in the ranks of the Federation of Labor, thinks that the planta-
tons can afford to meet such an increase and maintain their ex-
istence.
Let us consider what is now actually being paid to the low
est paid laborers on the plantation.
The bonus for the month of January was 1850 and the
advance on account thereof 1850. A $1,000 per month man
would receive:
wages 9ZOVU
Bonus Advance ----~.-.--- ZSOO
Total 9foUU
and the balance of the bonus will be paid him at the end of the
year, depending on the price of sugar.