Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-11-07
The Reciprocity Treaty With the
Sandwich Islands.

always held on the question OF protection
VS.. free trade. We have ever opposed
high protective tariff on the ground that
such a tariff is unjust and oppressive to
the people at large. inasmuch as it en-
courages monopolies and shuts out from
import into the country many articles OF
prime necessity, thus depriving the gov
eminent of all revenue from that source.
In this way the people are doubly taxed
First, to pay a tribute to the monopolist
who, by means Of high protection, IS
able to control the market; and, second
to make up to the government the deficit
lost through the shutting out Of imports.
The justice of this position is so manifest
that it cannot, in our opinion, be sue.
cessfuIly controverted, and for this reason
we strongly favor a tariff for revenue
only, with what incidental protection
such tariff affords.
While we have always held, and al
ways expect to hold, this opinion, still
when the reciproc ty treaty between the
United States and the Sandwich Islands
wa first contemplated we opposed it on
the ground that it was unfair to the rest
Of the country that a protective tariff
should exist everywhere except on the
Pacific coast, and that this state of affairs
must prove injurious to the trade and
commerce of the East, without benefit
ing the West. The result has proven
the correctness of. our representations,
for the San Francisco papers are COM
planning bitterly that, although free
trade has been established with the Sand
witch Islands, STILL so far from working
advantage TO the people of the Pacific
coast, it has tended to Cypress them. and
to create, rather than crush out, monopoly.
This anomalous condition of affairs is
thus explained. 1t seems that one Clause
SpTeckels, of San Francisco, who is IN
dOubtedly the representative Of New
England syndicate, and who boasts that
he will in a few years become the "bOss
millionaire" of the Pacific coast, has man
aged to obtain absolute and complete
control of the sugar trade of the Sand
wich Islands. How he has done this is
not stated, but such is a fact, and the
result is that he has entered
into an arrangement with the Central
Pacific Railroad, by which the freight
charges on sugars from the East have
been placed at so high a figure as to
shut them out entirely from the Western
market. In this way he is placed
as completely in control Of that market
as is the Eastern mOnOpOlist of this
through high protective tariff, and so,
although he imports his sugars from
the Sandwich Islands duty free, he is
enabled to force buyers and refners to
pay him what price he sees fit to ask.
Consequently, sugars on the Pacific
coast are about two cents per pound
higher than in the East, where importers
are required to pay customs duty of
from % to ) cents per pound.
Nor is this the only way in which the
South and East suffer by this treaty, but
what concerns us in this section more
particularly is that not only is the West
ern rice market also injuriously affected
thereby. but the treaty opens the door
wide for fragrant frauds. 1t seems
that the rice produced in the Sandwich
Islands is principally produced by Chi
nese labor. The duty on Chinese rice
imported into those islands is very
light, and, it is stated, that under
pretense of a great demand for rice
to feed these Chinese laborers-of
which there are eight thousand
on the Islands, very large amount of
that cereal is exported and struggled
from China to the islands, and from there
sent, duty free, into the United States
Then a similar arrangement as that which
exists in the sugar trade is made with the
Pacific Railroad, and although in this
section our rice growers have the benefit
of a small protection, they are not only
entirely excluded from the trade of the
Pacific coast, but the government is like
wise defrauded of the duties which
Chinese rice should pay into the Treas
ury.
1t will be seen then that under the pc
culiar circumstances which govern this
case, the reciprocity treaty with the
| Sandwich Islands is not at all a fair test
of the benefits which tariff for revenue
only would confer upon the country,
but its effect is in every way I'M
just and injurious. 1t places it
in the power of one man to control both
the rice and sugar markets, and, so far
| from giving consumers the benefit of
cheap prices, forces them to pay even
higher tribute to monopoly than is the
case in this section where protection ex-
lists. Such a condition of affairs is, 'as
we have said, anomalous, and ought not
to be permitted, and, while there is no
doubt that a tariff for revenue only
would be highly beneficial TO the whole
country, still discrimination against all
other sections for the benefit of one, and
which places markets in the control of
one man, is itself double monopoly. and
is wrong. For these reasons the Sand.
witch Islands treaty is unjust and contra
~ to the public welfare, and should be
promptly abrogated.
The Cotton Crop.
Ellison's annual report states that the