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EFFECTS OF ANNEXATION.

Annexation made radical changes in the labor conditions and the conditions of immigration in the territory. Labor conditions were revolutionized by the immediate abolition of the penal contract. To some extent this change had been prepared for by the increasing number of noncontract laborers, as compared with contract laborers on the plantations. This wage force was composed for the most part of Asiatics and Europeans originally brought to the islands under contract, who after the expiration of their term of service had elected to remain in the country. The immediate result of the abolition of the contract system was an increase in wages. This increase was partly justified by the fact that annexation made the tariff protection on Hawaiian sugar secure and gave a stimulus to that industry, resulting in a great extension of cane planting and the establishment. of new plantations, which created suddenly an added demand for labor.

The most radical change in immigration conditions arose from the exclusion of the Chinese, who no longer could come to the islands and who, since annexation, have been a constantly decreasing element in the population.

With the abolition of the penal contract and the prospect of amendments to the federal immigration laws entirely forbidding assisted immigration, there was an incentive to settle in the Territory a population likely to become permanent residents and to rear children who would supply a future labor force. However, a definite policy for accomplishing this end, though immediately discussed, did not take practical shape until 1905. One reason for this was that the voluntary inflow of Japanese continued large and was even increasing. By the middle of the decade, however, the Japanese immigration had assumed a new form. The demand for unskilled labor on the Pacific coast had been sufficient to attract some Japanese directly from their own country and others from Hawaii. These became the pioneers of a heavy movement of Japanese labor to California and the Pacific Northwest, whence it was distributed throughout the coast and Rocky Mountain States. This labor made Hawaii a half-way ground in its migration to the mainland of America. The result of this was twofold. In the first place a system of indirectly assisted immigration from Japan to Hawaii was in existence, promoted by the Japanese immigration societies and, presumably, financed to some extent by the large employing interests of the Territory. Financial assistance of this character became unprofitable to Hawaii as soon as the laborers encouraged to come to that Territory could no longer be depended upon to remain, and any such aid became really a tax on the planters to promote immigration to California. In the second place it was felt in Hawaii that the competition of Japanese laborers on the mainland would cause an agitation probably leading to a restriction on the immigration of Japanese to all territory belonging to the United States. This anticipation was realized when, in 1908, the Japanese Government adopted the policy of refusing passports to laborers migrating to America. In the meantime a comparatively small immigration of Koreans afforded sufficient

a See Vol. II, p. 584.

experience with this nationality to indicate that it could not be depended upon as a permanent source of labor for the plantations. While annexation greatly curtailed the sources from which colored labor could be drawn to Hawaii, it opened two sources which had not previously been exploited. The first of these was Porto Rico, whence some 5,000 laborers were, soon after annexation, brought to the Territory. The second was the Philippines, from which islands there has recently begun an assisted migration practically contemporary with the cutting off of Japanese labor. The total result, however, of the complex conditions following annexation was to increase greatly the demand for labor in Hawaii, and at the same time to curtail the sources from which cheap labor could be obtained. The outcome was a great incentive to the so-called "white immigration policy."

RECENT IMMIGRATION.

All these conditions resulted, in 1905, in an act of the legislature establishing a territorial board of immigration for the purpose of promoting white settlement in the islands. The federal immigration law at this time was so construed as to permit this board to assist immigrants to come to Hawaii, by funds raised by private subscription. Such a method of financing a public body from private sources had been in existence under the old government, but had been used to bring Asiatics instead of white labor to the country. The new board operated in constant consultation with the federal Bureau of Immigration at Washington, and the federal officials, from the President down, showed a strong interest in the effort to domicile in Hawaii a larger proportion of Caucasians.

Consequently the year 1905 marks the beginning of a new immigration era for the Territory. During the fifty-three years prior to that date, about 184,187 immigrants had been brought to the country. The nationality of these immigrants and the approximate expense to the islands for their importation is thus summarized by Mr. L. A. Thurston, who was commissioner of immigration under the old government:

From that day (1852) to the present time, with brief intervals, the insufficient labor supply has been a never-ending source of anxiety and expense to the sugar planters of Hawaii.

Laborers have come to Hawaii from Manchuria, Korea, China, Japan, the New Hebrides, Solomon and Gilbert islands; from Norway, Germany, Austria, Italy, Portugal, Madeira, the Azores, and Porto Rico, while both whites and negroes have been recruited in the United States. The latest addition to this heterogeneous mass is the sect of Russians known as Molokans.

The exact numbers of these immigrants is difficult to obtain, the data being scattered disconnectedly through reports of the custom-house, the Board of Immigration, the Planters' Monthly, Thrum's Annual, and the records of the Planters' Company. After research, however, I think the following compilation is approximately correct:

Number and nationality of labor immigrants to Hawaii, 1852 to 1905.

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The cost of this immigration has been enormous. As above noted, the cost of recruiting the first Chinese in 1852 was $50 each. In 1886, when labor recruiting was being carried on from more sources than at any other time, the cost per capita of importing immigrants, including men, women, and all children over 2 years of age, was as follows:

Cost per capita of recruiting and importing immigrants to Hawaii as of 1884-1886.

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During the five or six years prior to 1886 the government expended $1,079,797, and the planters expended $931,077 in importing laborers to the islands, a total of over $2,000,000.

Five shipments of Portuguese, about 6,000 in number, introduced between 1884 and 1888, cost per capita-that is, for each man, woman, and child-$89.45, of which the government paid $52.41 and the planters $37.04.

The cost per adult male laborer of the five shipments came to $266.15.

The least expensive European immigration that I have found statistics for cost $83.60 per capita and about $160 per man.

The cost of recruiting and bringing the 5,000 Porto Ricans to Hawaii was $564,191, or $112 per capita.

In the earlier days of immigration the government and the planters divided the expense by a hit-or-miss plan, varying with every shipment. In some cases the immigrant paid back a part of the expense, and in others not. The expense incident to Japanese immigration was successively reduced from $65 to $55, to $40, to $35 per capita, and since the Japanese have been coming voluntarily and at their own expense the cost of passage from Japan to Honolulu has been reduced to $30, and even less.

It is conservative to estimate that the average immigrating expense of approximately 184,000 immigrants to Hawaii, nearly all within the past twentyfive or thirty years, has been $50 each, or a total of approximately $9,000,000.

ASSISTED IMMIGRATION SINCE 1905.

The establishment of the territorial board of immigration by the act of April 24, 1905, did not supplant the system of assisted labor immigration formerly in operation, but created a new agency supplementary thereto. The Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association continued to seek and to assist to the Territory labor from all sources still open to private solicitation. Consequently a division of functions between the territorial board of immigration and the Planters' Employment Agency naturally took place, the planters seeking immigrants within the territory covered by the federal immigration laws and the territorial board seeking immigrants principally outside of these boundaries. Furthermore, the planters have had no motive to avoid bringing colored labor to the Territory, while the territorial board, which promotes immigration with a civic as well as an employment object in view, has confined its encouragement to Caucasian settlers.

Tracing briefly the operations of the Planters' Association, after the immigration of Porto Ricans in 1900 the inflow of Japanese,

which was largely voluntary, made unnecessary further recruiting for several years. When this supply of labor was cut off, measures were immediately taken to substitute, in the place of the Japanese, field hands from the Philippines, and the Planters' Association has for the past two years maintained a recruiting system in those islands, with the result that nearly twenty-five hundred laborers of this nationality have within that time been brought to Hawaii.

The territorial board of immigration is a body of unsalaried commissioners, authorized to expend specific territorial appropriations for immigration purposes. With the enactment of the new federal immigration law, in 1907, it became impossible for the board to pay the passage of immigrants with funds solicited from private parties. Thereupon the territorial legislature amended the original law by a revenue act, levying a tax of 4 per cent on all incomes exceeding $4,000. Three-quarters of the revenue from this tax was appropriated "for the encouragement of emigration to the Territory of Hawaii in aid and development of the agricultural resources and conditions."

So long as the board was largely financed by private subscriptions, these subscriptions were adjusted to the requirements of the work it was undertaking. The first active campaign to secure immigrants was begun in the spring of 1906, when two agents were sent to Europe to secure laborers and settlers for the Territory. From the establishment of the board, in the spring of 1905, until 1909, when the funds from the income tax just referred to became available, the board of immigration received from the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association subscriptions to the amount of $314,542.15. With these funds 2,438 immigrants were brought from the Portuguese islands and 2,246 were brought from southern Spain, at an average cost per capita of $62.19.

In addition to bringing immigrants from foreign parts, the board established a recruiting office at New York, and employed agents to solicit immigration on the Pacific coast. These two ventures, however, were failures so far as securing settlers for Hawaii was concerned.

That part of the income tax devoted to immigration amounts to about $210,000 per annum. During the first year this money was available it was expended in soliciting immigrants from two points, the Azores Islands and Madeira, and Manchuria. An agent of the board was sent to Madeira in 1909. Conditions for securing emigrants were not so favorable in these islands as they had been three years previous to this date, a large emigration having set in for New England and for the South American countries, thus depleting the surplus population and rendering more tolerable local labor con ditions. A single shipload of Portuguese emigrants, numbering 868, was secured by this mission. On account of the comparative smallness of this party the per capita cost was $97.18. These immigrants have not proved in all respects as satisfactory settlers as those previously secured from the same source, a larger proportion of them coming from the towns and being accustomed to town vocations, which do not adapt them for plantation labor or the other rural pursuits which afford the principal sources of employment in Hawaii.

a See Vol. II, pp. 731-744.

In the meantime a novel experiment had been commenced in the Far East. Since 1906 the attention of the territorial authorities had been repeatedly called to the presence of a surplus population in Manchuria and eastern Siberia, from which these informants stated a class of very desirable immigrants could be obtained. The Russian Government had been promoting emigration from Russia to eastern Siberia for several years, but many of these settlers found the climate too severe and the agricultural opportunities inadequate or unsatisfactory, or for other reasons were dissatisfied with their new home. A large number had drifted over into Manchuria, where they came into competition with oriental labor, and in many instances experienced great distress. The average wage of field laborers was from $35 to $40 per year and subsistence. An additional reason for considering this source of immigration was that the people could be brought to Hawaii in transpacific liners by a short and comparatively cheap route, while the Portuguese and Spaniards were being brought around Cape Horn in chartered ships. Consequently, in the summer of 1909 a representative of the board was sent to Manchuria with instructions to bring over 50 families on trial. These Russians were easily obtained and proved exceedingly satisfactory laborers on the plantations. The cost of importing the 255 persons in this party averaged $70.13 per capita. So successful did this first experiment prove that, immediately upon the return of the agent of the board, a strong desire was manifested by many influential men in the Territory to have the immigration continue. The members of the board considered it expedient to allow the first lot a year in which to become assimilated before resuming the movement, but the urgent outside demand for more settlers and laborers, accentuated by a recent strike of Japanese plantation employees in Oahu, overruled their judgment in this matter, and the same agent was forthwith dispatched on a second mission to Manchuria. Ďuring the winter of 1909-10, 1,788 Russians were dispatched to Hawaii in parties ranging from less than 100 to several hundred, and nearly as many applications for passage were rejected as were accepted. The per capita cost of bringing the second lot to Hawaii amounted to $85.79, the conditions under which they were recruited having proved less favorable than was anticipated and a heavy quarantine expense having been incurred in Honolulu. This quarantine expense was due to the outbreak of an epidemic of diphtheria soon after the arrival of the first party, which led to several hundred persons being held in detention at the quarantine station for several weeks.

Difficulties were experienced with the new immigrants as soon as the first party of the second migration arrived in Honolulu. These difficulties were apparently occasioned by a number of causes. The quick transition from the intense cold of a Manchurian and Siberian winter to the enervating heat of Hawaii distressed the immigrants, who came without suitable clothing. By the time of their arrival a certain number of the former immigrants, discontented with plantation labor, had drifted into Honolulu, and fomented distrust of plantation conditions in the minds of the new arrivals. While by no means entirely illiterate or uninformed concerning their home country, the recent arrivals were intensely ignorant of affairs outside their previous range of experience and of the new conditions of life

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