Letter A.
"17th January, 1913.
No. 787/15568
With reference to the letter from this office No. 13099/15568 dated the 6th November last and to previous correspondence in connection with your suggestion that the Government should raise the wages of their laborers, I am directed by the Governor to inform you that it appears from enquiries made by His Excellency's direction that the average wage now earned by laborers under the Public Works Department is approximately one shilling and eight pence half penny (41 cents) for an average day of ten hours, so that in an average day of ten hours the laborers would at the same rate of pay earn two shillings and one penny half penny" (51 cents).
Letter B.
"8th March, 1913.
No. 2926/3268
The Acting Governor directs me to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 26th ultimo on the subject of the amount of wages paid to native laborers in the employment of the Government, and in reply to say that no acknowledgement of the correctness of your contention that one shilling and sixpence per diem is not a fair living wage for any laborer to receive, and that the minimum he ought reasonably to expect to enable him to meet the ordinary demands of existence is two shillings per diem (48 cents), is to be inferred from the letter from this office, No. 737/15568 dated the 17th of January, 1913.
"2. I am to add that His Excellency is not in a position to comply with your request that steps should be taken to ensure to all laborers working under the Public Works Department a minimum wage of two shillings per diem (48 cents) as from 1st April next."
The problem becomes real and serious when the ruling authorities are unwilling to admit what is absolutely clear to every one who is not hopelessly prejudiced, namely, that eighteen pence or thirty-six cents a day, the amount which was paid to the emancipated slaves in 1838, is not a living wage for his descendants in the year 1913, and when they are either unable or unwilling to set the pace for other employers of labor by paying their own laborers a minimum wage of two shillings or forty-eight cents a day.
With the labor problem of Jamaica the question of East Indian Immigration is intimately connected. While, on the one hand, we have the able-bodied native laborers miserably and cruelly underpaid, and having in consequence to emigrate in large numbers to other countries, on the other hand, we have the importation into the island of indentured immigrants under the conditions which make the economic improvement of the native laborers an impossibility. On the one side, the available records inform us that from April 1, 1905, to March 31, 1908, laborers numbering 39,060 emigrated from this island and deposited with the local Government the sum of £22,217 or $106,641.60 as required by law. The exodus to Cuba is at present a very serious comment upon the existing labor conditions. During the month of December, 1916, 761 persons emigrated from the island, 580 to Cuba and 181 to other places.
The figures, on the other side, reveal the fact that since the introduction of East Indian Immigration in 1845 to the present time 35,933 East Indians have been brought into the island; and it is estimated that there are to-day resident in the island over 20,000 East Indians, 3,000 of whom are indentured and 17,000 have completed their term of indenture. These immigrants are distributed to the several estates by the government at a cost of £20.10.0, or $90.42, paid in installments: £2 or $9.60, paid on allottment, £2.2.0 or $10.08 at the end of the first year, and £4.2.0 or $19.68 at the end of each of the succeeding four years.
For the years 1891-1908 the cost of this system to the colony is officially reported as follows:
| Cost of importation | £129,692.2.2 | $622,522.12 |
| Administrative expenses | £ 37,377.0.2 | 179,409.64 |
| Return passages 1901-8 | £ 27,254.5.11 | 130,820.62 |
| Gross cost | £194,323.83 | £932,752.38 |
| Receipts in hand | £143,171.1.1 | $687,221.06 |
| Net cost to colony | £ 51,152.7.2 | $245,531.32 |
or an average of over £3,000 or $14,400 per annum.
The immigrants are indentured for five years, and are entitled after a continuous residence of ten years in the colony to one half of the value of their passage money in the case of men and of one third in the case of women. For a working day of nine hours the men are paid one shilling or 24 cents and the women nine pence or 18 cents. A deduction of two shillings and sixpence or 60 cents a week is made for rations supplied. They receive free hospital treatment which cost the Government on the average of two pounds or $9.60 each per annum.
The system of immigration is a factor contributing to the present unsatisfactory condition of the labor market in this island. The immigrants are unfair competitors of the natives. They accept lower wages, and they lower the standard of life. They are practically modern slaves. It is not then reasonable with such competitors for the native laborer to expect a favorable response to his appeal for fairer treatment. It is asserted that the importation of East Indians is necessary because the native laborers will not give that reliable and continuous service which is necessary for the profitable working of the estates. The answer to this is that these same laborers emigrate and give their foreign employers the reliable and continuous service which they consistently withhold from the employer at home because they are paid more and treated better abroad.