The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1869-04-07


TO take their places. If this improvement ID
made those ships viii not be obliged to load
themselves down with coal at San Francisco,
or at Panama, or at Acapulco, but they can
run otto these Midway Islands, and there
supply themselves. In time OF peace this
will be very useful in time of war II will be
indispensable. | therefore ask the favorable
consideration of the Senate, in q national
point of view, to this small expenditure for
the improvement of this almost accidental
island that seems to have sprung up Just in
the right time TO give our growing com
merce resting place between the Pacific
coast and the Indies
Mr.. Cole. / can add but little to what has
been said by the Senator from Nevada upon
this subject; but it strikes me that this is
one of the most becoming applications for an
appropriation that can be considered by the
Senate. We have now line of steamers
plying between our Pacific coast and the
coast OF China and Japan, which need pre-
cisely the accommodation which this harbor
on the Midway Islands afford them if the
harbor is available by being improved in the
way suggested by the Senator from Nevada
1t appears TO me that this appropriation is
asked for with propriety upon the ground of
economy and revenue. II is well understood
that the steamships that traverse the Pacific
are required in order to make the complete
voyage TO take q very large amount of fuel,
and in fact small steamships cannot make
the trip across the Pacific al all. If a coal
depot can be established midway on this
passage they will be enabled to make the
passage across the Pacific ocean with much
less amount of fuel, half the amount perhaps,
and the rest of the capacity of the ship may
| be devoted to freight and passengers.
| Mr.. Patterson, OF New Hampshire
should like TO ask the Senator the size of this
island-the number of acres it contains:
Mr.. Drake. Thirteen miles.
| Mr.. Cole. 1t is several miles in circumfer-
ence-not thirteen miles, l take it, in length,
but in eircumference-and is in the form of a
crater Of volcano, which probably it may
! have been at some time in the history of the
world, geolOgically speaking. The COM
merce that is carried on across the Pacific in
| these steamships must, Of course, be greatly
increased if this depot is established midway
! on the passage, and in that way il must be an
advantage to the Government of the United
! States to an amount several fold greater than
/ the amount that is now asked in the form of
! an appropriation, and this benefit will be
/ yielded each year. ! hope, therefore, that
! this appropriation will be granted at this
| time, for the reason that if it is put off from
| year to year the commerce Of the Pacific will
only be retarded in greater degree by the
delay.
| Mr. Conkling. Mr. President, this propo-
| sition is not only 4 new one, but peculiar
one. / do not know why the amendment
pertains to this bill necessarily rather than to
| the miscellaneous appropriation bill. The
Committee on Appropriations mad no knowl-
edge of this amendment. They have had no
! opportunity of knowing about it; for al
though doubtless the rule was satisfied in
the ordinary way by proposing the amend
ment in writing, it must have been done
| after the bill was reported to the Senate, so
that no consideration of this amendment has
been had.
Mr.. Nye. After what bill was reported?
Mr.. Conkling. This bill The appropria-
ton bill.
Mr.. Nye. l beg your pardon; it was re-
ported before.
Mr. COnkling. When was this amend
ment introduced?
Mr.. Nye. Some days ago; gave notice
of il to the Chair.
Mr. Conckling. | should like to inquire
of the honorable chair of the Committee on
Appropriations, the Senator from Maine,
how it was that this amendment never
reached that committee? The Senator from
Nevada thinks it was introduced before the
bill was reported.
Mr.. Morrill, of Maine No. My reccollec-
ton is that it did not reach the committee
until after the bill was reported but the
rule does not require that it should.
Mr.. Conckling. No. Mr.. President, did
not mean to intimate, | was careful, indeed
not to say that the rule required it should
reach the committee before; but of course
the spirit of the rule requiring notice to be
given of an amendment, is that the committee
having charge OF the bill TO which it is pro-
posed may consider it.
Mr.. Morrill,, of Maine. If the Senator will
allow me, / find that the amendment was
referred yesterday.
Mr.. COnkling. Then 1 was right in my
81. NJ. L. &. Z.
the bill was reported, but il was not referred
until yesterday, as the chairman of the com
mittee now states. Mr.. President, the OBJ |
vious purpose of the rule is to add to the |
security of the general consideration of these |
amendments the consideration of the com !
mittee responsible for the bill. In this case,
in fact, of course | did not mean to impute |
any blame TO anybody about il, but by the |
action of time this amendment never has /
been considered by them. Therefore, as one |
member of the committee, | have no knowl- |
edge in regard to it upon the merits because !
from want of information | should not be /
warranted in doing that.
This suggestion, however, occurs to me
no Senator seems to know that $50, 600 will /
answer the purpose, and by consequence no
Senator can know that 5000 will be
needed 1t seems to me that as there are
papers relating TO this subject which have
not been before the Committee on Appro-
priations, it might be well, and perhaps be !
entirely satisfactory to Senators supporting
the amendment, to allow it to stand and be
considered in connection with the mIscella-
neOus appropriation bill or any other bill to
which perhaps just as appropriately as to
this it might be annexed.
| suppose from the statement made thus
we may safely assume that the United States
does own and will own these islands but
even that question is to be determined upon
facts which only in a very general way now
can be conveyed to the Senate. Without
therefore, meaning to interpOse against this
amendment upon its merits, which have no
information to warrant my doing, l suggest
that it is of importance in itself and in future
appropriations to which it may possibly
point and therefore, inasmuch as the Com
mittee on Appropriations has not considered
it, and has had no opportunity to consider it,
there being other bills behind which must
come here presently, it possibly may be the
pleasure of the Senate, and not objection
able to the Senators supporting it, TO allow
il to stand, that it may be considered and an
nexed to another bill, if it is to be adopted
at ALL
Mr.. Grimes. Mr.. President, think can
answer the inquiry as to how this question
comes before the Senate, from the Commit
tee of Naval Affairs. 1t was simply because
the Senate, in the exercise of its own Judge
ment, saw III 10 lntrust the examination of
this subject to the Naval Committee A
was introduced by some Sena-
tor, l do not know who, referring this sub
ject to the Naval Committee, and instructing
them to make such inquiries as they could as
to the feasibility, the necessity, and the pro-
prety of such an improvement, and of what
value it would probably be to the Govern
ment. l suppose the reason why that reso-
luton was introduced and thus referred was
because Admiral Hatcher, who recently was
in command of the North Pacific squadron,
had particular survey made of these islands
and the harbor completely planned out, re-