Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 273, 4 September 1891 — No Peon System in a Free Country. [ARTICLE]
No Peon System in a Free Country.
By news from thc C T nited it that nn ; to unio tiiat oountrv-? ." * * » ?
coo.tract laborers from Europe. The coritrators were Austrians shipped to work for Co!.. Claus. Spreokels in his refinerieß. Two of the men were returned from ,New York, soon after their arrival j This action on the partof the United Btates , authoritieß is coniste»t with! the spirit of freedom that first | made that country waht it is today, and shows the appreciation in whieh that priceless boon — fiieedom— is ēsteemed there. It is a lesson that Hawaii should follow. The contrary praetiee here is sufficient to condemn ūs, in the eyes of our gOod neigiibor —' America — and for whieh we do deserve to loose all .favors from that or any other country. The system of eontract labor is detrimental to the substantial progress of any eountry, i-&.only cakulated .to foster and concentrate weallh in the hands of a few at the expense of tlie pepple.
This paper has beon opposed to i the worse than slavery practieed by our planters and perniitted by this governiuent. We propose to continiie our opposition alone against āny bastard organ under j eontrol of the gcvernmpnt or the slave drivcrs. It is as we have implied, a carse to any country that allows meri to be eohtracted for without a just knowlēdge of the conditions of their future field of labor. It will, as the Kohala uprising testifies, be a source of danger to the v country if • eontinued. Every free laboring nian shoul3 work to suppress this inhuman and selfish practice. We ahall amopg other things,- in our effort against the importation of living chattelH by professing Christians, erideavor to inculcatc a )ittle more charity and. less aVariciousness among our missionary capitelists and sugar barons, as it is very evident that they have lost all knowledge of the principles of thetr professions and only remember it bv
name, making use of it as a eloak to foster a system that tends to make mere animals of human beings instead of elevating them to that perfe<?tion in whieh they were created.