Honolulu Republican, Volume IV, Number 498, 16 January 1902 — LABOR IN HAWAII. [ARTICLE]

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LABOR IN HAWAII.

• Chicago Record-Herald. • The labor problem has become a * very serious one in Hawaii owing to the exclusion of the Chinese, who are by far the best f. Id hands that ever worked upon the sugar plantations Japanese substitutes have not ' proved anything like as desirable, the Porto Ricans who were imported recently were a dismal failure and the natives fcav- neither the thrift nor the energy to make good workmen. Though it may be inadvisable to pass exceptional legislation for Ha waii the facts are too plain to be disJ guised and they may be described briefly as follows; There is practi- ; cally no America’s farm labor in Hawaii and there are no inducements for its immigration. The country is going more and more to large sugar ) plantations, capital is almostly com pletely absorbed in them Consequently there is no small farming worth mentioaing, nor is there likely to be in the future. For the tendency toward sugar is a perfectly i natural one which is determined by the question of profits. That explains why some recent attempts at estab- * tishing coffee growing by small proprietors have been abandoned. The sugar planters needed to increase 1 their acreage and were able to pay for land good price which the coffee growers were glad to get. Add that , the whole territory, including culti- ! Table and uncultivable land, is on- ' ly about one-eighth the size of Illi nois and that white men will not work as plantation hands in the tropics and it will be seen that it is a waste of sympathy to shed tears on ' their account. As for the Hawaiians. if they had j been industrious they could have kept the orientals out. But they will work only under immediate oompul--1 sicn and are eager to knock off the moment they have a little ahead.