Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 335, 1 December 1891 — TO THE MECHANICS. [ARTICLE]

TO THE MECHANICS.

Vo« ooiuplnineei ];ist year that <*ven whtn vbc ingVi)lantatiow» were pnyiiUK out fat div:dentlB to their lucky ahareholder6, tho ekiiled Mftbanies «oiployt\j abont tlie «vill

were being gradualiy diHplaced by eheap Asiatics who had been traihed by those dismissed. In this ner hundreds of white mechanies were obliged to leave the country with their famiiies. The most of those sugar dividends were spent abroad by the lucky ones in foreign residence and foreign travel. Isut v/ould it not have been better for the eountry if an equitable proDor 7 tion of surplus profits had been paid in fair wages to white families for the benefit of trade. As it was °what did not to America and Enrope, went to Ghii\a; but asmall percentage was di«4ributed here. Do yon think that your prospects as meehamcs are any better now that sugar is down ? You, m this oity, whatever your meehanieal trade »aay be,* in wood or tin or iron, does your prosperity depend entiroly upon the success iof the few sugar planters, or does not your trade thrive upon the needs and necesftities of many familieß, the more the better. Indirectly your work is new dependent on the Panters to the extent ©f the families who exiet on fc tlie few enterprises eontingent to sugar. ButJ where you have one planter and a thoūsand eooliea, would not vou have more trade ; f they were replaced with sav two hundred -families ? Tf this country is to heeoniē solely a cōllection of rich planters and a niass of eoolie laborers, where are you mecbanics going to get off ? At the golden gate perhaps, if not at the golden stairs, for you will snon be driven to the wall by the competition of trx»ined coolies in all the meehanieal arts. Il ia that fhe mechanics qf the two big ftmndries will feel obliged to vote agalnst the National Party. as they and their employees are depeadent \ipon plantation work for wage and salary, and there seems to he an ungenerous tendency on the part of the reformers to boyeott and shutout all those who dare to have an\' independent political opdnions. fWo do not ienow how many of the mechanics referred to have |home and faniilv here. and how many are simply here while good wages ean be obtained. but without any definite purpese of remainirg. The former will carefullv consider what hitS' been aaid to Uiem and will undoubtedly be guidT6d bysuch interest as will inelude thera and their families in the general prosperity. The latter may or may not be guided by aoeh feJlow feeling for their brother meehaniea in some other trades who have plauted their »takes here. s Tis well said, ! howevcr, that. 'a follow feelingr makes uSi W<>ndroi>s kind.'' lf ■we look pn the right side of the picture we ean almost he»r the | contmued busz of our works in the | welding of other apparat\?s than sugar mills, for the Xational |»arty believes in tlu agricultnral w-eahh and re?>rvjrces ofthis coūj)try, an<l, its continucd proBperitv .mder divdrsified industnesand an independent farming population. Meehanics, be patriotic xnd stamJ firm. t nite your political foi\r s wiih the | native Hawaiianp and the peasant ; rortuguese. for vou will all in or swim ae the pulitical of our nartv or *ueeeed.