iscontinuance of the system.
Next, the employers of labor must either by persuasion or legal
coercion be led to induce the native laborers by the offer of better
wages to remain at home.

With reference to the first it has been discovered that the government
supports the fiction that the importation of East Indians is
necessary. In a report dated October 1, 1908, the Acting Protector of
Immigrants, with the apparent approval of the Governor, wrote: "As a
result of having a nucleus of reliable labor in the shape of
indentured coolies owners of estates have felt themselves justified in
spending large sums of money in extending their cultivations, and in
installing expensive machinery. This has had the effect of providing
employment for a much larger number of creole laborers than formerly,
and of putting a great deal more money in circulation. I think that
instead of the coolie being cursed by the native laborer for taking
away his work he should be blessed for having been the means of
providing employment for him."

The substance of the statement given above is incorporated by Sir
Sydney Olivier, K.C.M.G., in a chapter of his book entitled _White
Capital and Colored Labor_, in which there occurs this remarkable
assertion: "In Jamaica wages are higher in those districts where
indentured coolies are employed on banana plantations." Coolies who
receive a maximum wage of one shilling or 24 cents a day are
introduced to the world as the wage-raising factor in Jamaica!

Just prior to the World War the labor question was a very live one in
Jamaica. The weekly exodus of hundreds of laborers to the neighboring
island of Cuba, the murmuring of dissatisfaction among the immigrants,
friction in the working of the Immigration Department,--all have
served to bring this labor problem prominently to public notice. At a
meeting held in the interest of the sugar industry in January, 1917,
there was adopted a suggestive resolution moved by Mr. A. W.
Farquharson, a prominent and successful legal practitioner, and a man
who, though the descendant of an old family of planters, is deeply
interested in the improvement of the laborers. The resolution was:
"That this committee is convinced that the continuous and increasing
exodus of laborers from the colony to seek work in foreign countries
is impeding the development of the resources of the island, and that
it is of urgent importance that early measures should be adopted to
arrest such exod