166 



The Dawn of a Nejv Constructive Era 



Early Diffi- 

 culties of Ha- 

 waiian Sugar 

 Industry 

 Solved by Co- 

 operative 

 Association 



One Cent an 

 Acre Means 

 $750,000 



solved that if they couldn't get any information regarding their 

 own industry in their own Islands, they must get it at their 

 own expense. and in their own way; and after conferring and 

 consulting for quite a while, they decided they would establish 

 it on a thoroughly business principle, which would hold good 

 as long as they chose to perpetuate it, and which would give 

 certain returns; and the system agreed upon was that every 

 manufacturer of sugar in the Hawaiian Islands, who chose to 

 become a member of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association, 

 should ship his sugar or report his sugar through the Associa- 

 tion, in Honolulu; and that he should pay into the treasury of 

 this Association the sum of 25 cents on every ton of sugar which 

 he turned out from his factory. This sum of money was con- 

 solidated and used by their agricultural board for the establish- 

 ment, maintenance and operation of the Experiment Station, 

 which was to send out information regarding the sugar industry 

 in the Hawaiian Islands. This fund, in a few years, had reached 

 fifty and then ninety thousand dollars, and now it is a hundred 

 thousand dollars. They have one of the best sugar experiment 

 stations in the world and they are doing splendid work. In 

 later years they have correlated it, more or less, with the Gov- 

 ernment work, and thus, to some extent, the information which 

 they are developing there is available to other people; but, in 

 the main, the facts developed have gone, in published form, and 

 in letters, circulars and otherwise to the members of this Asso- 

 ciation; and to this day, whenever they have anything which 

 they think might be used by the other fellow to their disadvan- 

 tage, they give it only to their members. 



Now, if these gentlemen who own these lands, desire to 

 institute a system which will work for the common good of the 

 cut-over pine lands, and to use this same idea— which is entirely 

 practicable— the raising of the necessary funds by a very small 

 assessment against the lands, they can do it. You can soon see 

 what 1 cent an acre would mean on this 75 million acres — $750,- 

 000. One-tenth of a cent an acre would give you $75,000, if all 

 the land were included. I don't know how much you might w^nt 

 to raise, but if you could raise any such sums as that, some work 

 could be developed which would give you much of the informa- 

 tion you seek, and which is so badly needed; at least, the con- 

 solidation of existing facts and their application to your par- 

 ticular problems. 



