Under the contract system, the worker is subject to laws that compel him to work, and prevent him from leaving the estate until the contract period expires. Under the free-labor system, the laborer works as his whims dictate. This forces the estate manager to cater to his workers, and to build up an organization that will hold together.
As an example of the working of the latter system, this outline—by John A. Fowler, United States trade commissioner—of the organization of a leading estate in Java will indicate the general practise in vogue:
The manager of this estate has had full control for twenty years and knows the "adat" (tribal customs) of his people and the individual peculiarities of the leaders. This estate has been described as having one of the most perfect estate organizations in Java. It consists of two divisions of 3,449 bouws (about 6,048 acres in all), of which 2,500 bouws are in rubber and coffee and 550 in sisal; the remainder includes rice fields, timber, nurseries, bamboo, teak, pastures, villages, roads, canals, etc.
The foreign staff is under the supervision of a general manager, and consists of the following personnel: A chief garden assistant of section 1, who has under him four section assistants and a native staff; a chief garden assistant of section 2, who has under him three section assistants, an apprentice assistant, and a native staff; a chief factory assistant, who has under him an assistant machinist, an apprentice assistant, and a native staff; and, finally, a bookkeeper. The term "garden" means the area under cultivation.
The bookkeeper, a man of mixed blood, handles all the general accounting, accumulating the reports sent in by the various assistants. The two chief garden assistants are responsible to the manager for all work outside the factory except the construction of new buildings, which is in charge of the chief factory assistant. The two divisions of the estate are subdivided into seven agricultural sections, each section being in full charge of an assistant. A section may include coffee, rubber, sisal, teak, bamboo, a coagulation station and nurseries. The assistant's duties include the supervision of road building and repairs, building repairs, transportation, paying the labor, and the supervision of section accounts.
Open-air Drying Grounds on a West Java Estate
The beans are being turned by native Sudanese men and women
