1 - American Memory

219
Mr. TAMIHIA. My name is Fred I. Tamura. I am in business. I am
vice president of Meadow Gold Dairy, a subsidiary of Beatrice Foods,
Inc. I am a citizen of the United States of America, residing in the
State of Hawaii.
I would like to thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and members of
the subcommittee, for holding this hearing at this time of the year. As
stated earlier, I represent this group and this group basically is made
up of all nationalities, small businessmen as characterized earlier, a
small business group representing 83.6 percent of the business that is
conducted in the State of Hawaii nmning an average of 1 to 7
employees.
Mr. Chairman, speaking for the group, I ask your favorable con-
sideration of a reasonable bill, H.R. 7189, introduced by your fellow
Congress Members, Representatives Mink and Matsunaga.
For Hawaii—and I believe I express the sentiments of all Hawaii,
no legislation in the U.S. Congress has received interest and support
from all segments of the citizenry as H.R. 7189 since the enactment of
statehood for Hawaii 15 years ago.
Hawaii being an island State, our only mode of transportation is
via ocean carriers and limited air cargo. Our point of entry to the
State is limited to the harbors, basically Honolulu. There are trans-
shipments to the island and two airports, one in Honolulu and the
other one in Hilo. We have no interstate highways, no trains, trucks,
buses nor automobiles as a means of transportation with other States.
When Hawaii is caught in the grip of a mainland waterfront strike,
the only contact with the rest of our sister States would be by the trunk
air carriers that would originate at the least from San Francisco or
Los Angeles, 2,400 miles away. Obviously a similar situation can
hardly ever come to exist with any of the other 40 States.
Because of the frequency and unpredictable length, the general pub-
lic in Hawaii has a knee-jerk reaction to the news that a west coast
strike might occur—and they react only a little less so if one is threat-
ened on the east or gulf coasts.
Panic buying occurs, as in the case of toilet paper, salt, flour and rice
in 1971 and 1972 when a series of strikes cut Hawaii's supply line for
a total of 175 days in 18 months. The shelves were left bare of these
and other items for weeks and unavailable to those who did not hoard,
mostly the poor.
Hawaii's wholesalers and retailers maintain inventories of non-
perishable commodities far beyond the volume and duration elsewhere
in the Nation—as a hedge against unexpected strikes. When one is
anticipated, supply houses and merchants expand a normal 4-month
inventory to a 5- or 6-month supply. With warehousing costs at 30
cents to 40 cents a square foot per month, plus the high financing costs
incurred during this holding period, there is a high added cost of
doing business that is passed on to the consumer.
The effects on small businesses are severe. They can't finance usually
large inventories, can't get aircraft space during a strike and are
unable to withstand loss of business for any length of time.
Construction is hard hit within a few weeks—^there is no way to air-
lift lumber, pipe, steel beams or bathtubs. Even when we don't foresee a
strike our supply houses have to play it safe by carrying large inven-