Table Of ContentPage iii
Working in Hawaii
A Labour History
Edward D. Beechert
Page iv
(c) 1985 EDWARD D. BEECHERT
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Beechert, Edward D.
Working in Hawaii.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Labor and laboring classesHawaiiHistory.
2. Alien laborHawaiiHistory.
3. TradeunionsHawaiiHistory.
4. Plantation lifeHawaiiHistory.
I. Title.
HD8083.H3B44 1985 331'.09969 858640
ISBN 0824808908
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For Alice
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Contents
Preface ix
1. Ancient Hawaii 1
2. From Communal Member to Laborer 16
3. The Contract Labor System 40
4. The Plantation Worker: 18501876 58
5. The Industrial Plantation: 18761900 79
6. Freedom from Contract 118
7. The Urban Worker 140
8. Labor Unrest 161
9. The Paternalistic Plantation: A New Form of Control 177
10. The Dual Union Strike of 1920 196
11. Ethnic Unionism and the Struggle for Maturity 216
12. The Work Force and Welfare Capitalism 233
13. The Workers Organize 248
14. The End of Isolation 270
15. Creating a Permanent Labor Movement 296
Conclusion 323
Notes 333
Bibliography 375
Index 389
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Preface
The political and social experience of Hawaii's worker has been told from many perspectives, but almost always the viewpoint is that of the movers and shakers of
society. It is often a story that describes the decline and fall of a Pacific Paradise and the dramatic confrontation between Hawaiian culture and western civilization.
Workers appear in these dramas as exotic figures known primarily by racial labels and stereotypes; little is said of their experience in the rapid development of
Hawaii's economic and political system. This study examines the social relations of production as they evolved along with the structure of the sugar industry, the
political structure of Hawaii, and the consciousness of the worker.
The transformation of Hawaiian society by the arrival of western influence and ideas touched every aspect of Hawaiian life. The process began with the conversion of
local rulers to these ideas, and it culminated in the conversion of a communal society into one based upon private property and the accumulation of wealth. American
influence dictated the development of an agricultural economy built to serve an American market. Sugar, a preeminent crop in the nineteenth century, was a logical
choice for development among the many agricultural options considered by eager investors. Hawaii had large expanses of undeveloped land, a benign climate, a
complacent ruling class, and, it was hoped, an American market on the Pacific West Coast.
Planters and politicians had many theories about the attributes of the ideal laborer. When importing workers became an issue, three factors had to be considered: the
planters' economic interests, Hawaiian concerns regarding sovereignty and the dwindling Hawaiian population, and international political views on labor recruitment.
The British Empire was effectively closed to Hawaii as a source of laborers. India, which supplied the farflung British sugar interests, was never available to Hawaiian
planters. For a time, only China could meet Hawaii's needs, yet even here the growing, worldwide protest against the coolie trade hampered this option.
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At only one brief period, 18931898, prior to annexation did the planters have the opportunity to import large numbers from two sources simultaneously. Hence Japan
and the Philippines became principal suppliers, but again under conditions not controlled entirely by the Hawaiian planters. In effect, the Hawaiian importers of labor
took what was available and developed rationalizations to justify that supply. More important, the planters were able to adapt their techniques of production to the
changing ethnic pattern of the labor force.
After 1959, the Hawaiian worker was caught up in national labor trends and institutions and much of the unique quality of Hawaiian labor was lost forever. This story
of labor therefore ends at the point of statehoodthat is, at the point where modernization, mechanization, and the transformation of labor relations by federal statute
became the dominant forces.
Laborers in Hawaii confronted conditions unlike those of agricultural workers elsewhere. They worked under three distinct forms of governmentmonarchy, republic,
and colonial territoryand under labor statutes ranging from indentured penal contract labor to free wage labor protected by the U.S. Constitution. The struggle for
dignity, as important to the workers as the battle for decent wages and working conditions, was long and discouraging but ultimately successful to a degree unmatched
in the sugarproducing world. Yet their responses and the impact of these responses on the industry and the community at large have seldom been the focal point of
examination. This work strives to give the worker a voice.
This book owes debts far beyond my ability to recount. Numerous students have served as the testing ground for ideas and tentative conclusions about Hawaiian
labor. They have contributed far more than they could know. The International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU) offices in Hawaii and San
Francisco generously opened their voluminous history files without restraint. Without their cooperation and the generous assistance of Local 142 librarian Priscilla
Shishido, the modern portion of this work would have been much more difficult to accomplish.
A particular debt is owed to four prominent figures in the trade union movement. These men devoted their lives to the movement. Each has contributed in important
ways to this book.
Sidney Roger, labor journalist, radio commentator, and writer, provided valuable perspectives on the unique qualities of Hawaiian labor. He was largely responsible
for making the introductions to the leadership of the ILWU and the rank and file in both San Francisco and Hawaii.
John Reinecke, labor historian, union activist, linguistics scholar, and gentleman, gave without stint of his archival material on labor history, collected over a lifetime of
intense work and association with the labor
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movement of Hawaii from 1935 until his death in 1981. His gentle criticisms and suggestions were always valuable and consistently accurate. I owe much to John.
David E. Thompson, one of the original organizers and education director of Local 142, never tired of discussing Hawaii's labor history. He urged the completion of
the book, arguing that it was needed for the worker education program and for the young people of Hawaii, his overriding concern. He was a valuable friend.
Louis Goldblatt, secretarytreasurer of the ILWU International, played a major role in bringing the modern labor movement to Hawaii in 1944. His understanding of
the American labor movement and his grasp of the political economy of Hawaii embodied the highest level of scholarship. He generously shared the insights and
information gained in his thirtyfour years (19431977) of unceasing work to build an effective labor movement in Hawaii.
The National Endowment for the Humanities funded the Hawaiian Historical Society's Plantation Manuscript Survey. As project director, I was able to gain access to
significant archival material. Many of the plantations were generous in making available materials from their files. A grant from the Historical Manuscripts Commission,
National Archives, also made available important nineteenthcentury material.
The Hawaii State Archives, the HawaiiPacific Collection of the University of Hawaii, the Grove Farm Plantation Museum, and the Hawaiian Sugar Planters'
Association were vital sources of material and assistance. To Agnes Conrad, David Kittleson, Barnes Riznik, and Mary Matsuoka, directors and librarians of those
establishments, a sincere debt is acknowledged with profound thanks. A special debt is owed to Dr. Ephraim and Barbara Kahn whose generous hospitality and
encouragement was critical to moving this project toward realization.
The editorial staff of the University of Hawaii has brought their considerable resources and skill to this work. Without their painstaking work, the publication would not
have been possible. Equally important as their editorial skills is the friendly, cooperative spirit in rendering their services.
Finally, the most important source of help, advice, and learning has been my wife, Alice. From its earliest inception, the work has been improved and clarified by her
formidable editorial skills. In every respect she has been a coworker on this project.
For whatever merit this work may have, I owe these and many other debts. For the demerits, I must absolve all but myself. They tried; I hope they have succeeded.
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Chapter 1
Ancient Hawaii
Perhaps in the earliest time all the people were ali'i, and it was only after a lapse of several generations that a division was made into commoners and chiefs.
David Malo, Hawaiian Antiquities
An Agrarian Society
Hawaii before the arrival of the European was a complex communal society, one with standards of material wellbeing markedly different from those of the western
world. Although the evidence is scanty, the first settlers arrived in Hawaii in approximately A.D. 124, with successive waves coming until approximately the thirteenth
or fourteenth centuries. Although authorities disagree, the first Hawaiians probably arrived from the Marquesas Islands. Later arrivals came from the Society group,
notably Tahiti. 1 The influence of Tahiti was certainly strong in the language, and some postulate that the Hawaiian society which greeted Captain Cook in 1786 was a
dual society: a class of commoners ruled by an elite derived from the Tahitian experience.2
The first people brought only a few plants and small animals with them. They settled at the ocean's edge. Taro and sweet potatoes, supplemented by fish and
complemented with such items as sugarcane and coconuts, made up the basic diet of the Hawaiian. Pigs, chickens, and dogs were supplementary and often
ceremonial foods rather than items of regular consumption.3
Hawaiian society was organized around a single extended family unit, the 'ohana. These units formed the basis of the land divisions of Hawaii. The land was divided
into segments which gave each kinship group access to resources from the sea to the upland forests. Ideally these ahupua'a extended from the mountain tops to the
offshore reefs. The title to the area was held by the chief of the group.4 Basically ahupua'a followed the watershed where there were streams or were arbitrarily
drawn from mountain to sea, forming a district for levying taxes on produce.5
The major task of the 'ohana was agricultural. One of the Hawaiian accounts of life before the arrival of the European described the basic condition of agriculture. The
farmers
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were not well supplied with proper tools; they had no iron digging implements, no cattle, no horses. Their tools were their hands and their backsthese were their cattle. Their
hands were their lifting implements and their shoulders their carts for hauling rocks, great logs, and all the heavy things. . . .Fire was a man's plow and his clearing implement. With
his hands he softened the earth, weeded, raked, and spaded, with only the help of a wooden digging stick. 6
With this limited technological development, a reasonably systematic agriculture was essential for maintaining an adequate flow of food.7
Furthermore, given that food storage techniques were rudimentary, a smoothly functioning system of work allocation was a basic requirement for survival. Tasks were
apportioned according to spiritual tradition. Taro planting, for example, was essentially a male task. Women, tabooed from participating in this activity, cultivated and
harvested the sweet potato, gathered shellfish and seaweed, and collected fibers.8 Fishing was another major activity. Deep sea fishing was the work of the specialist,
while shallow, inshore fishing was conducted by the family. The result of organizing crop rotation, the harvesting of fish, and the gathering of a variety of plants and
fibers through an integrated system of communal activity was the gradual development of a complex system of agriculture balanced with fishing and other marine
resources that made up the basic Hawaiian economy.9
Taro Planting
Depending on the location of the plot, taro could be grown on either "dry land" or "wet lands." Both systems in fact required a considerable flow of water. Wet taro, in
a land characterized by a limited distribution of water, meant the construction and maintenance of irrigation dams, ditches, and terraces. Where rainfall was abundant,
dry taro was planted in burnedover fields that had been mulched with grass.
Taro planting was a stylized activity carried out only by men. On the day of planting, the men went to fish in the morning, feasting on the catch. Women made leis
(headbands) to be worn by the men while planting. Marking out the field with fishing lines for straight rows, the men lined up with their digging sticks and made holes
for the taro slips. Traditionally the stick was held in the right hand and the taro in the left. Samuel Kamakau likens the row of men to a school of crabs, squatting and
turning, left to right.10 Once the taro took root, the field was burned again and then mulched. The taro grew rapidly. Where conditions were not so favorable, a much
more difficult process had to be followed. Underbrush had to be cut away before burning the field and planting. In some cases, the taro grew slowly, taking more than
a year to mature.11 It
