The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1879-03-15
LETTER FROM NEW YORK.
New York, Feb. 5. /;

New YORK, Feb. 5, 1879.
The other day l asked for the gold on a bank
check. The paying teller said, " We have none;
We kept it for u while, but NO one called for it,
and so we sent it away, as it only bothered u.s.
1t looks as if the chasm of eighteen years stand
ing between gold and paper had closed up. But
We are not sure of it. We have paper, gold and
silver in circulation, and these three elements
must hold exact and definite relations to each
other, or trouble comes. We are now like the
man who walked the tight-rope and at the same
time kept three balls flying in the air. If lie
fails to catch, the trick is up. A very slight
pressure for gold by those who are timid will
take it out of the market. L walked over two
hundred tons of silver at the Sub-treasury, and
there will be soon over a thousand tons coined
and put on the market. You, the Islands people.
know as well and rather better than we do what
all that means. We have been suffering for 20
years from a complication of financial diseases,
and as our doctors are all quacks, VIC must fall
back on the 90 course of nature" as q cure. This
city is without trained fnanciers. With it's vast
wealth, it has no men of large means who are
students of the laws of political economy. At no
time during the last twenty years have the
moueyed men shown any more insight into finan-
cial matters than the laymen. Not long since
the Secretary of the Treasury called our bank
presidents together. and asked them to take the
new -four per cent. loan. These men talked and
argued, hesitated, made rambling speeches, con-
duICl CuCI OlnCl onu uIl ICiueSu " ldhc
the loan. The Secretary went out into the
90 street and put it into the hands of a syndi-
cate Of bankers, who took it and have made a
handsome profit. The United States Treasurer
told me this, and added, 8 Those bank presidents
know how to find out about q mans credit, but
they don't understand much about finance" 1t
is quite probable that we shall see trouble before
we are through with the three mediums Of e-
change-gold, silver and paper.
Of course you have heard of the great electri-
nTnn E1sCn His aN~1 ,-lnf 40. h.
done by judicious advertising. A more over
estimated man does not live. He is utterly pro-
life in inventions. He has taken out about one
hundred and seventy patents. and not more than
two of them are of any use. For many years he
has been q frequenter of telegraph offices, always
with q new invention on hand. Every man inte-
rested in electrical matters knew him and did not
estimate him highly. The Western Union en-
ployed him and then quarreled with him. Other
telegraph companies employed him and then
shook him off. His reputation for veracity was
not much above that of Ananias. The news
papers got hold of him, rather as a joke, aud
wrote him up. If his deeds are examined it will
be seen that not one of his inventions is in gene
raj use. L saw recently a letter from q distin-
guished French electrician, which said that
Edison had really done nothing which the French
electricians believed to be useful, but that he had
really done some brilliant experimenting. He is
now engaged in solving the problem of electric
light. There has been much flourish of trum-
pSlc, liz uOh U BlOuuNC tLC iSul. bCAOl III
electric light, economical and possible for public
and private use, is obtained, there are several
serious mechanical difficulties to be overcome. 1t
is the light of the future, no doubt. The " gray
dawn is breaking" but the sun has not risen.
Scores of men are now inventing these lights, but
no one has yet made a bull's-eye.
In a recent report made by the Commissi oner
of Agriculture to the President, there is some
interesting information on the question of the
sugar supply. The conclusions reached Will not
be a very sweet morsel to your sugar planters.
Sorghum has been extensively raised in this
country. but the syrup had a peculiar and dis
agreeable taste, and sugar will not c~rystalize cut
Of it. a large number OF experiments have been
made, in the Department, and the conclusion
reached is that there is now no difficulty, with
proper treatment, in extracting sugar from sor-
ghum in quality fully equal to that of the sugar
cane Juice. The Commissioner is quite wild on
the subject. Professor Ben. Silliman has also
endorsed his We've. However, Silliman's opin-
ions on practical matters are not worth much.
1t is also claimed that the amount of sugar from
sorghum is equal per acre to the product of
Louisiana. You Will probably publish the re-
port in full. 1t is hardly possible that We shall
see a new, great and valuable industry spring
into existence here. 1t is safe to say, however,
that so long as sugar is so important an article of
ommere and consumption, the restless people of
this country will not fail to sift, examine and ex-
pertinent, and in the end discern some way of
extracting good sugar from sorghum, or even from
corn juice. lhls symptom OF coming discovery
should make the leading men of the Islands quite
serious. Certainly, a community is in a danger
GUS condition where the industries are all one,
and that one hanging by the slender thread of a
brief treaty of reciprocity. No maxim in politi-
cal economy is better established than this, that
diversified industries are the only safe basis of o
prosperous community. ireland with her potato
crop and famine; Madeira with her wine crop and
famine show it. In the hour of prosperity when
the terrible grind of hard times is over, is the
best opportunity for determining the question as
to what the resources of the Islands are. 1t can
not be done in a day. 1t requires the highest Or
der of intelligence and some expenditure of money.
| hardly think any one would dare to say what
can or cannot be produced at the Islands. Dusul-
finally settled. In Massachusetts,, Connecticut.
New Jersey and in several other States, ~aericul-
tural stations have been established. Careful.
exhaustive trials are made with different crops
and with different fertilizers, and remarkable re-
suits have been reached. Even the quality of
tobacco is changed by a Change Of manure. The
most remarkable result is, that it is now estab-
lished, beyond dispute, That the poor lands of New
England in the hands of intelligent farmers, are
more valuable than the pnirie lands of the West.
Corn is worth 10 cents pc bushel in Kansas. In
Massachusetts it is worth City cents. By a Judi
cous use of fertilizers, the New England farmer
can afford to pay largeF for manures, and his
market is at his own doc. At the Sturtevant
farm in South Farminghn, Mass, the profit on
corn raising upon twenty-five acres is much larger