Mr. Chairman. the purpose of this amendment is to gradually relieve Hawaii of the intolerable conditions arising from the employment of Asiatic labor. As it stands today these islands are almost entirely devoted to the production of sugar. a production which has been made vastly profitable by the markets which this country has afforded. Lands have risen to fabulous values. The prices received for their products and the profits made have been such as to warrant the employment of a higher class of laborers and a much more expensive system of labor. Notwithstanding that fact. these corporations which own or control almost all the sugar lands and whose influence is potential in government have steadily encouraged Asiatic immigration to those islands. instead of enueavoring to increase white immigration to those isiands. Their contention has been that the climate is unsuited to white labor. I have it from those who are informed as to the climate that it is not unsuited to white labor. and especially not unsuited to those white laborers who live in semitropical countries and semitropical climates. such as the Portuguese and Italians. who constitute a most useful portion of our population. whose children are educated in our schools. and who soon become. as citizens of a republican government. devoted to its institutions and its principles.
Keywords matched
immigration Asiatic