THE RACIAL DIFFICULTY IN HAWAII.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12827, 11 June 1907, Page 6

THE RACIAL DIFFICULTY IN HAWAII.

The third report of th© United States Commissioner of Labour on tho territory of Hawaii, posse-os peculiar interest, by reason of th© exhaustive account which it contains of the racial difficulty to which a policy of unrestricted Asiatic immigration has given rise. As tlie report points out, Hawaii is singular in two respects —it has no sufficiently large native population of its . own to supply the local domand for labour, and it is wholly dependent upon tho sugar industry. Directly or indirectly, all other industries in Hawaii aro dependent upon tho sugar industry, and tho territory is, in fact, one huge sugar plantation. Before annexation, the policy of the Government there in regard to immigration was dictated by the plantere, who were allowed to draw cheap labour from the Asiatic market Without restriction, and for nearly forty years previous to annexation, Chinese and Japanese coolies were imported "under a form of contract, "which prescribed tho conditions of "workers under a penal sanction." But such labour did not settle in Hawaii. On the expiry of the contract, the labourers returned to their native lands, and the position, therefore, is that th© planters are still largely dependent upon imported labour. But side by side with these facts, there is this other, that the proportion of Asiatics to the whole population has been increasing of late years by leaps and bounds. In 1853, the Hawaiian native population was nearly 96 per cent, of the whole, whereas in 1900 it was only 19 per cent. In th© last twenty years, tho Japanese hay© increased from 0.14 per cent, to 86.61 per cent, of the whole popubir tion; the Chinese have decreased from 22.20 por cent, to 14.12 per cent., whilst the proportion of all other nationalities has remained almost constant, mc increase being only from 22.70 per cont. to 24.92 per cent. And tho change is oven more strikingly seeu in the" fact that out of a total male population of 106,309, no lc6B than 69,804 aro Asiatics. Since 1902, the whito immigration into tho Territory has been diminishing, whilst thero has been a constant departure of whites since annexation. But this is not all. For, though the proportion of Asiatics to total population has increased, the actual number of arrivals during tho period 1900-0. was exceeded by tho departures. Taking Japanese, Koreans, and Chinese together, there was a decrease of population of 4100 odd in five and a-half years. In so far as natural increase may affect the position, the Report states that the giowth of the Japanese population through natural increase >s far greater than that of any other nationality. This Orientalisation of the islands has created a very acute labour problem. "For the omployer, " represented chiefly by the sugar ."planter, the problem is one of secur- " ing* a sufficient and a stablo labour " force; for the white and native wage- " earners and small merchants the " problem is one of survival ip the face "of an increasing, irresistible, and dis- " ast-rous competition of Asiatics with "their lower standard of living; and " from the view-point of tho citizens " of the Territory—and of tho peoplo " of tho United States—the problem is "one of securing a working population ".with the civic capacity necessary to " the upbuilding of a self-governing '•'American Commonwealth," Since annexation further complications have arisen to make this problem still more menacing and perplexing. The supply of Chinese coolies has been cut off entirely, and the relation between employer and employed has been Completely changed by the abolition of the penal contract under which coolies were formerly engaged. Aloreover, other industries, both local and on the Pacific Coast, have entered into active competition with the sugar industry for Asiatic labour, and as a result there is frequently a very real and keenly-felt shortage of labour.on tho plantations. It is computed that not quite one-half of tho male Asiatic labour supply is available for tho planters. The rest have been absorbed in the trades and in mercantile pursuits, whilst a largo number of

Chinese and Japanese have become owners or tenants of tho soil. The exclusion of Chinese ga.v© the Japanese, moreover, after annexation,' a preponderance among th© plantation workers, and this has given ris© to serious difficulties of administration, whilst at the same timo increasing tho possibility of great loss through strikes. Tho Commissioner docs not seek to hide his apprehensions on this score, and he declares that it is more than probable that strikes of Japanese will soon spread beyond th© plantations. Further, the abolition of the penal contract has had tho effect of bringing a moro highly-educated class of Japaneso to Hawaii —men capable of assuming leadership, and thus being a moro dangerous menace to their white employers, and also anxious and able to compete successfully with whites in tho skilled trades. "It is piobablo," wo are told, ''that in. some "linos tho Japanese are actually displacing whito labour, and tliat in "othor lines tihey are merely holding "their own, whilo diminishing business "is driving tho whites out of tho oc"cupation, and sending them back to "tho mainland." The only occupations not subject to Asiatic competition appear to be tho English printing trade, and somo forms of employment in machinery and metal working. From tfhoso facts and the situation they imply in Hawaii, a moral is to he deduced of th© danger cf allowing a large Asiatic population to invado a whito man's country. It is tolerably obvious that Hawaii'has become almost completely Orientalised, and that beforo very long there will be no room left for tho white man at all. It will bo interesting to see how tho United States Government, which lias sudi a serious problem at homo, will deal with this etill more urgent difficulty in Hawaii.