Saturday press. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1880-1885, 1882-02-25
The Reciprocity Treaty
What its Opponents Propose to In.
sure its AbrOgation.
CLAUS spatCEEls AND THE EASTERN Rtflrtas.
From The Special Correspondent Of he Saturday
Press.

'h' puot lew uHlh' no luItH'i "''i'" ''"'
been taken in Congress in reference to the
Reciprocity The presence of Claus
Spreckels in New York and Washington,
however. has created fresh agitation
among the Eastern sugar chqucs, and on
Monday a New York special had the fol.
lowing in connection with his arrival
few days previous, all of which will I'M
doubtedly interest the people of the
Islands:
CLAUS Sprcckcls, the California sugar
refiner, is now at the Windsor Hotel. Be
sides being the principal owner in the
Az San Francisco Sugar Refinery, the
capital Of which is Sl4,000,0OO, Sprcckels
is engaged in putting up new refinery
in San Francisco which will cost about
two millions. Twenty-seven thousand
acres of land under cultivation in the
Hawaiian Islands pour their production
of raw sugar, free of duty, under the
Hawaiian Reciprocity Treaty, into the
San Francisco market. Spreckels has
been able to undersell all other retiners,
but some merchants out West have begun
to buy sugar from Eastern reiineries, and
it il understood that Sprcckels refused to
sell any more sugar to them. The East
ern refiners then commenced an orgi nlzed
attack upon Spreckels and his business
interest through the San Francisco Chron-
icic. Hence Mr.. Spreckels trip East,
which, it is stated, is for the purpose of
fighting the Eastern retineis on their own
ground. In order to do this successfully
1t is said that he intends to purchase the
Brooklyn Sugar Refinery, and to expend
100000 in enlarging and improving it, or
else he will build Il new refinery, which
will surpass in size anything in the coun-
try. BY his patents and other advantages
it is claimed that Mr.. Spreckels can pro
luce refined sugar at a rate which will en-
able him to sell mt Il profit and for less
money than it costs Eastern retiners to
manufacture the same article. AT the
office of the Brooklyn Sugar Refinery, 80
Wall street, yesterday, it was ascertained
that the firm are old friends of Mr..
Sprockels. When he went to San Fran
cisco years ago, they sent him materials
when he was starting in business there.
One of the members of the firm stated
that Mr.. Spreckels had called to see them
a number of times since he had arrived in
the city, but they had considered his visits
as almost entirely social. He had, how
ever, spoken of his intention of starting n
sugar refinery in the East. He had not
made bid for the Brooklyn refinery, but
some of his remarks might be construed as
indicating that he would purchase the re-
finery If he could obtain it at reason
able figure. The idea that MIR. Spreckels
intended war against the Eastern Tetiners
was not avowed by him during his visits at
--she office. A prominent sugar retiner said,
that MIR. Spreckels- could not undertake to
undersell the Eastern retiners with any
likelihood of success. The various large
sugar retineries in New York, Brooklyn,
Philadelphia, Boston and elsewhere
were backed by an aggregate capital of
over S75,0OOOOO, and could easily fight
him on his own ground. Moreover, the
statement that Mr.. Spreckels has machin
cry and appliances for making sugar at
less cost than the Eastern retiners was
ridiculous, when it was considered that
the plan of the new refinery which he is
putting up in San Francisco is an exact
adoption of the methods employed by the
Brooklyn Sugar Refinery"
The Chronicle of Monday published a
Washington special to the following effect,
which had evidently been doctored to n
considerable extent as in customary with
that enterprising journal;
Tho House Committee on Foreign
Affairs has appointed day next week
when it will hear arguments upon the
different resolutions before 1t which call
for the abrogation of the Hawaiian Reel
procity Treaty. The movement in favor
of the abrogation of this treaty Is very
much stronger in this Congress than it
was in the last. 1t proceeds, as it did
then, from those engaged in the produc-
ton and refining of sugar and in the cult
walton of rice in this country. Represen-
tatives of the sugar interest are the most
active in the matter. The opponents Of
the treaty may be classified as follows:
First, representatives of the sugar-planting
interest in Louisiana; second, New York
and Eastern sugar retiners; third, the peo-
pie of the Pacific coast States, as repre-
scented in Congress by two Republicans,
and the people of the whole Pacific coast
generally, so far ms they are not repre-
scented by Claus Spreckels, the great
sugar retiner and dealer of the Pacific
coast, at whose insugaticn and in whose
interest it is charged that the Hawaiian
treaty was negotiated, 1t was urged at
the time OF the ratification of this treaty,
in 1875, that the whole scheme was in the
nature of plan to deplete the Treasury.
sugar is the only important product of
the Hawaiian Islands, and the natural
conditions there are eminently favorable
for its production ut low cost. 1t was
argued at the time, by David A. Wells
and others, that to admit the product free
of duty, with tariff of at least two cents
per pound continued on hundreds of
millions OF pounds Of other imported
sugars, would be equivalent to voting an
annual subsidy out Of the Treasury to
some twenty five American gentlemen who
live upon the Islands and own plantations,
of at least S5O00OO annually, with pros
pect that, with the continuance of the
treaty To the expiration of seven years,
the profits would amount to very much
more than that sum, while the price OF
sugar to the American consumer would
not be reduced. The sugar passes into
the hands Of one rehncr, Claus Spreckels,
who owns large portion OF the sugar
plantations in the Sandwich Islands HIM
self. and has loasc-hold interest in the
most of those which he does not own.
The effect of the treaty has been to give
10 that one sugarreiining monopolist so
much raw material at z cents per pound
less than other sugars, and has, IN effect
been donating to him from the United
States Treasury the amount OF the duties.
The same sugar refining monopoly, by