HARDWOOD RECORD 



Lumbering in HaWaii a Hard Proposition, 



Lumbering in Hawaii is new — absolutely 

 so. One of the consequences of this fact "is 

 that every one who is even remotely con- 

 nected with any of the various businesses on 

 which a mill has to depend, considers it his 

 chance to either work his little graft, or else 

 harass the operations in some way in order 

 to bring himself into prominence. It is 

 a fact that in this sleepy tropical island the 

 chances of notoriety are so limited that peo- 

 ple take all sorts of ways to bring them- 

 selves into prominence, the personal vanity 

 of human nature being abnormally developed. 



This is particularly true of the people 

 who furnish the transportation facilities, the 



railroad men here being of a sort that failed 

 to make good on the mainland; but here 

 they ' ' swell up " a good deal. It will take 

 a long time, but some day the people will be 

 in a position to make the roads feel the ef 

 fects of drastic legislation to cure evils be- 

 yond other remedy. 



The lumber or tie venture in which the 

 writer is engaged is in a remote section, with 

 two trains a week, and no facilities other 

 than the trains. So the little railroad offi- 

 cials of a toy railroad are constantly on the 

 alert to see how many ways they can de- 

 vise to hamper the interests of the lumber 

 company, possibly from the fact that there 

 is fio chance of a graft, as the financial end 

 is remote from here. The only other way 

 for these officials, who would be station por- 

 ters or crossing watchmen in the States, to 

 make themselves known, is to be very ob- 

 noxious in their application of the rules of 



XO. :; -lilHDS-XEST KKKN. 



the road. It puts one a good deal in 

 mind of Venezuela, from the accounts of 

 that Castro-ridden country, and is account- 

 able only from the fact that in this part of 

 American territory, any old sort of a na- 

 tionality but American is given all pref- 

 erences. The papers here have lately been 

 having a journalistic feast over the visit 

 of Secretary Ciarficld, and as a result of his 

 endorsement are urging rhe need of more 

 F.uropean (?) labor. By that is meant more 

 Asiatic labor, a class that is now cursing 

 this land to the fullest extent. 



There is a plethora of this sort of labor 

 here now. What these islands need is some 

 American labor, not of the sort who will 

 work for $1 a day, but who can give value 

 received for what they get. Taking it on 

 the basis of a day's work, any ordinary 

 laborer in the States at $1.50 a day is worth 



Aw 



half a regiment of these brainless brutes 

 from congested Oriental countries. One of 

 the conditions that make these laborers de- 

 sirable to certain persons is the fact that 

 they will sign away their pay in advance, 

 and some one in Honolulu will bo living 

 on easy street from the proceeds of a rake- 

 off on labor, while the man or company who 

 is paying for the work is simply not getting 

 what they pay for. In one particular in- 

 stance Uncle Sam is paying the bill where 

 Chinese labor was hired against American 

 or Hawaiian, because the Chinese would pay 

 the rake-off. The matte- is now under in- 

 vestigation by the grand jury. But in this 

 island country that doesn't spell anything. 

 In fact, in a country- which has emerged from 

 savagery within the last fifty years, a state 

 of graft is bound to exist, and the more 

 ignorant the people can be kept the better 

 the graft is worked by those of both high 

 and low degree. 



That these things are so is deplorable. 

 On the occasion of the visit of Mr. Taft the 



