The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-05-15
FILIPINO SUGAR
Slaves STRIKE
CROWS STRONGER
Workers Rebel Against
Hawaiian Planters

workers from the Eva plantation
were expected today to join the IF
teen thousand workers already out
on strike for higher wages and de-
cent standard of living. These work
ers have been chatting all month to
become active strikers. They have
been doing all they could to assist
the workers already out, by going on a
silent strike" slowing up on the job,
and sending food to the strikers
camp.
A Dollar A Day?
Filipino plantation workers on the
islands of Maui and Kauai are report
ed eager to join the ranks of their
striking comrades. The slogan "Is A
Dollar A Day Enough For You?" has
caught the masses who have been
mercilessly exploited by the barons
of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters Assoc
citation, who control the territorial
government.
The Filipinos are asking for 50 a
day to enable them to approach bet
ter standard of living. The present
wage of 81 day is pitifully INSULT
cient for these workers and their
large families even in a tropical coun-
try where some foodstuffs are more
plentiful.
Attacks Labor Commissioner.
The Filipino Labor Union and the
so-called High Wages Movement"
led by Pablo Manlapit, an attorney of
Honolulu, are in charge of the strike.
They have attacked the resident La
btr Commissioner, Mr.. Cayetano Lii
got, charging him with dishonesty in
the discharge OF his duties, with &C.
cepting money from the sugar plant
ers' associate IL. with Incompetence,
and with failure to cooperate in the
activities of the Filipino community.
Four Japanese newspapers of Homo
lulu have rallied to the aid of the
strikers and are soliciting funds for
their support. Editorially, the papers
say that the lettering of conditions
among the Filipinos is essential to
the well-being of the community as a
whole. The Japanese labor organiza-
tons are also supporting the strike,
remembering their own battle in 1903.
Injunction Against Bosses.
A unique use of the injunction is
threatened by strikers. They are con-
sidering applying for an injunction
against the forcible and unlawful evic-
tons which take place on each plan
tation as the workers strike.
In the first evictions of wDikers'
families from the plantation no res
many sad scenes took place, with in
sular police and troops lending aid to
the bosses, as usual The striking
workers were peaceful and did not
provoke the violence of the police
One death resulted from the evic-
tions and is the cause of the suit
against the plantation company. A
baby only few months old, was i'll
with pneumonia in the hospital, but
when the evictions began the parents
were forced to take away the baby,
altho it was desperately in need of a
physicians attention. In the long
journey to the city the child grew
worse and by the time it was brought
to the attention of a doctor again, it
was too late. The family was disrupt
ed by the sad and unnecessary death.
New Workers Join Strikers.
Scabs brought in from the Philip
pines quit work as soon as they real
ize what they are doing. Many of
these were hired before the strike
broke, but join the ranks of the strik-
ers as soon as they hear of the stu
alton. Boys of the Industrial School
refused to scab and went on silent
strike" when their masters forced
them to go to the plantations.
The strikers have all been lodged
in city dwellings and every precaution
was taken to insure sanitary condi-
tions in the main camp. Food for a
long fight was saved, altho it limits
the workers almost entirely to rice
diet. Donations of fruit. fish, and
doughnuts have been made by vari-
GUS sympathetic firms and friends.
Whether the workers will be able
to gain their demands from the hard
boiled sugar trust owners of Hawaii
is doubtful, but they are putting up a
significant fight. They have issued a
regular strike paper, in English, call
ed "And Bantay," besides bulletins in
Filipino dialects. They are making
splendid demonstration Of working
class unity.