The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1884-05-02

personal matter.
We do not hold ourselves responsible
for the opinions expressed Ivy our cor
respondents.-ED
STRAIGHT IN THE FACE"
EDITOR BULLET1N:-As you have
done me the honor to give place in
your paper to my two former UNI
sophisticated communications have
the impudence to trouble you again.
do not incline to the belief that
the country is clean "gone up the
spout" or that there is immediate
danger of its going up the spout, or
that it ever win reach right to the top
of the spout and be carried out of
sight by a typhoon. A treaty of
reciprocity with the United States,
combined with our fertile lands
and high prices for our products,
made us prosperous, prosperity and
short-sightedness induced extrava-
gance, extravaganza robbed us of the
fruits of our prosperity. Now that
hard times-that is, cheap sugar
confront us, we are in q stew; but
we are not clean gone yet. The
country did exist without the treaty
before, and some of the planters who
were economical even became rich,
and the country may continue to
exist and thrive if the treaty be
withdrawn. 1t IS certainly much
better for all concerned to retain the
treaty, but the country is not totally
smashed without it. l see no reason
to think that these islands will run
their course and be ultimately reduced
TO the financial and commercial level
of Jamaica and other islands of the
Atlantic. Not exactly because of
any superior internal resources pos
sessed by us, but on account Of our
geographical position. Treaty or no
treaty, sugar or no sugar, high prices
or low prices, the next six or eight
years will see the completion of the
Panama Canal, which event will
revolutionize ocean travel, and we
cannot altogether get out of its track
if we tried our best.
The real difference between present
and prospective times and the flush
times of the past, rs far as the COM
mercial and general public of Honolulu
are concerned, is not actually so great
as it looks. Imitation has played a
leading character and captivated the
crowd. Dazzled by visions of new
silver dollars, without gold basis,
the unwary have rented shops at
monstrous prices and rushed head
long into business ventures, until
everything in the line of business has
become overdone. The g furnishers"
certainly are out of all pro-
e"portion to the consumers. There
are entirely too many dry-goods
establishments, too many grocery
shops, too many shops of every kind,
too many newspapers, too many
middle men, too much going into
debt, too much giving of credit, too
much of everything except hard cash
and economy. All this grows out OF
imitation and exaggerated conceptions
of the country's capacity. Compes
tition is good, but too much of q
good thing is not good. We have
plenty of room for producers ano
consumers to increase, but furnishers
must diminish, ere long. SOMEBODY
must 90 under, or shut up, or retire,
or something. No man can for eyel
maintain business ON q hundred
dollars q month rent basis when his
sales do not equal that amount. VIZ
shall see the ''survival of the fittest.
This predicted, and to my mine
inevitable, result, does not NEAR
smash, or ruin, Or extinction of the
country. 1t rather means a bringing
of people to their proper senses
reducing of things to their proper
level, lessening of rents and living
irresistible insistance upon private
and public economy, and the placing
oon,noaro;oI and AGRICULTURAL matter.