The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-07-24
Investigate the Matter.
From the san FRANCISCO Chronicle.


upon Henry Offerman's reputation
of an alleged conversation with Claus
Spreckels, in which he, Oferman,
was charged by Spreckels with hav-
ing stated that he had contributed to
fund to lobby against the Reciprocity
treaty with the Sandwich Islands,
and that he knew of sum of money
raised in New York to hire a paper in
San Francisco to blackmail Spreekels.
This conversation Spreckels swOre
occurred in Offerman's office in
Wall street, New York City, in Sep
TENDER, 1881.
1t is not our intention in this article
to show that such conversation
could not have taken place in Sep
TENDER, 1881. 1t has already been
indisputably proved that Claus
Spreckels could have had no reason
for saying to Henry Offerman, in
September, 1881, "Why do you do
such dirty thing as to get paper to
blackmail me, or go after me?" Why
should Spreckels have made such an
indignant inquiry in such insulting
language when no paper was abusing
him ? Examination of the files of
the "Chronicle" will show that up to
October II, 1881, no adverse comment
had been made in these columns
either en- Spreckels or the Reciprocity
treaty. Besides this, Spreckels was
forced to admit, on cross-examina-
ton, that Offerman had not men
toned the name of the "Chronicle."
He was the accuser, and not Offer
man.
What we propose doing now is to
call attention to a statement made by
the ADVERTISER to the effect that
Offerman 'distinctly stated to Col
onel Spreckels, when in New York,
that he had been called upon to con-
tribute sum, in conjunction with
the other Eastern refiners, to lobby
at Washington" The ADVERTISER
adds: eve understand that the
amount of the assessment was fixed
at $4,000 each refinery" Now, there
is large number of refneries at the
East, and if they each contributed
$4,000 to lobbying fund, the work of
corrupting Congressman must have
prospered braveIy.
We have no acquaintance with Mr..
Oferman; our only knowledge of
him is gained from Claus Spreckels'
testimony, in which he asserted that
Oferman was good friend to him.
We are not going to question the bad
taste of a man charging a good friend
with an act of scoundrelism, for that
is what the accusation against Mr..
Offerman amounted to. ANY man
who knowingly contributes to a fund
to corrupt Congress is rascal and an
enemy to his country. He is assist
ing to sap the foundations of good
government, and is therefore more to
be feared than a mere robber or MUIR
derer. The man who steals sum of
money or kills a man is a trif1ing
criminal by the side of him who as
sists in the assassination of a nation.
Under the circumstances, if Mr..
Spreckels made a false accusation
against Offerman, he did the latter a
most heinous wrong. Mr.. Offerman
has made an unequivocal denial.
Mr.. Spreckels should make good his
charge or promptly retract.
So far as the "ChronicleD is con-
cerned, it does not propose to drop
the matter. Mr.. Spreckels wantonly
made charge against the probity of
this journal which he cannot prove.
But we mean to give him every |
chance to do SO. We shall endeavor |
to force the issue by bringing the |
subject to the attention of Congress. |
There will be several members at the |
next session whose honor this cha rge
will touch, and we shall earnestly try
% persuade them to take up the mat
er and probe it to the bottom. There
las been plenty of corruption about
his Hawaiian reciprocity business,
We have no doubt. Mr.. Spreckels
to know something about it,
'AANA a. nv 10 OL4C gnu ClSAAGh NC CIdlIuS |
o be, he will assist in the effort to in
'estigate and bring the guilty to JUS
ice. There are worse offenses than
aking advantage of an ill-considered
reciprocity treaty and charging two
ents pound more for free sugar
han is charged at the East for sugar
which hes paid duty, and one of them
s bribing the National Legislature.
Nothing would please the "Chroni-
leu better than to engage in warfare
n the bribers of Senators and Repre-
except, perhaps, the con- {
enial work of putting in the pillory
he corrupted Congressman.
Cahill, the pugilistic prisoner, has been