Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 183, 30 April 1891 — The Policy of Discontent. [ARTICLE]

The Policy of Discontent.

In yesterdav article under th© above lreading r we indicate"d a few of the many causes, operating under ©ur immigration policv, to generate discontent. ! AVe ask in all 6eriousness, if it is not a matter of the deepest eoncern to find an association eonsistmg . of a few capitaiists, who studying nothing their own greed, are armed with the p?wer under a very limited cabinet restriction and even that appears to be in abeyance—of dictating the whole immigration policv of the conntry. A contract exists between certain private parties and ths government for the intreduction of JapaneBe, and they are coming in the rate of about frorn 2000 to 3000 a month, and are to work for $15 a month under a three years contract, after whieh tbey at liberty to return to Asia, or remain and swarm; over the islands. starting retail stores and entering into competitioß with Americans and Europeans, who will have to retire before the eheap asiatic. who is not burdened vdth the obligat ; on of living in decency or inaintaining a wife and fjimily. How comnlete a fraud the plantation industry has proved in its dealings with Hawaiian and white skilled and unskilled labor, only those who have trave»led over the islands ean have anv conceptiou —Large plai}tations like tnat at Lahaina, employ Japanese carpenters and blacksmiths to t,he total exclusion of white skilled labor, except in the of the engineer. A fair illuptration is that of Spreckelsville placitation Maui, where a few vears ago under the manftgement of the late Mr. Williams nearly eyery teamster was an Anglo Saxon or Hawaiians, whereaB in the government retums from whieh we qtiote, published a year ago, out of a total nu: ?'>er of 1,422 laborers on Spreck< ls\ ills, not on« was either an Amenean •r BritiBher, whilelhe entire number of Hawaiians returned is twe!ve as against over a tbousand asiatics!l These figures are etartling when we understand their true signifieanee. We are constantly remiaded that sugar i« king; that as an industry it i* the blaok-bone of the country, in the fac« of figuree; whieh like B&lem Camera ' eanH lie," the "back-bene" is a' poor affair for white or native laber to lean up o&. Thepublicare ntterly igoor&nt

of the -pregeat or futqrfr moveruents_of these labor introdiicers. Whether tjhey intend to flobd. Hhe country with .10,000 or 100,000 ?apanese this year,; and by that means bring e own the wages of Portugi3t?se to tiie level of asiatiCs,' is a matters whieh the Planters labor Co. keep to themselves, a«d M apparently no eoneem ofthej puhlie! ( | * ; - ' ,vS : ' : ' Of one thmg aowever thepublicj must be satisfied beyoud & perad-1 venture; that the wages of unskilled labor has gone steadilv dnwn te-i a pōiut at the laborer of the j western be he American or Portuguese, must eeaāe to eompeie. lj, is equafly certy,in that the increalsed acreage under eane, and the increased export of sugar has been aeeompanieu. by a reduction amounting to-« compulsory of Ha. waiian whiie labor out o sugar production; and if the peoole should prove that they are too ignorant or apathetic—whieh we do not for a moment suppose—to realiBe the fact, that there is a Taßamany ring at work to bring down plantation wages to starvation point for ajl Non-Asiatics, a,nd reaJisinfg the faofc, fail to deal efiectively with Tammany; then we say it would n©t nueh matter what happened to suoh a people. Self preseryation is the first law of nature, and like all law will gravitate towa;*As a means .to secure its end. I If we cannot get to any higher notch in const itutional monarchf ial government- than the dictation of a saccharine arißtocragy, whose octopus gnp tai:es the form of eontroling the enti:*e immigration policy of the coi]ntry; it is iime to reflect upon whether - our present parliar|nentary system of law making is not a toy-sham, thrown to the | peoplo to delude, and blind them to the fact, that the real govejrning bnsiness of thiB cnuntry is in charge of a ring of sugar-stock osvners, who assame the right to clictate in everything pertaining to the peoptes government, from our treaty provisions, fco the holder of an effice.