The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1886-02-12
A POWERFUL PLEA FOR THE TREATY.
(Alta California;

the treaty with the Kingdom of Ha-
waii. From certain points of view
such abrogation may seem justifiable.
Especially in the interior States is
there u lack of sympathy, due to
lack OF knowledge, with our exterior
commerce and the conditions upon
which it depends. We are CONNER
cially rival of England, but we are
under certain disadvantages which
are unknown to that country. Mil
lions of our people have never seen
either ocean, have never felt the in
SEPARATION of maritime commerce, have
never seen ships under sail or steam.
Their ideas are formed around wholly
interior interests, and it is easy to
convince them that the country needs
no exterior commercial policy or
alliance. England is in very differ
ent situation. In more than one great
storm the water of the sea has been
blown clear across that island. Dane
and Norman, King and Viking, who
came to the conquest OF her abort
ginal people, came from the sea, and
there is no English home, from the
Grampian Hills to Cornwall, in which
hearts do not swell at thoughts of the
sea. So it falls out that all England
stands fast together upon maritime
policy, upon the issue OF trade cx-
tension by the sea, while here millions
of our people will either actively en-
dorse or inditlerently permit any
policy that looks to the ensmalling
of our exterior commerce. From the
interior point of view, then, which is
onesided strictly, Mr.. Morrison's pro-
position is justitiable. But Mr.. Nor
rson does not intend to cater to the
sentiment which justiiics, for he is II
statesman and as capable as any we
have of comprehending the ensem-
BILE of a commercial policy and max
ing it homogeneous in all its parts.
No man in Congress knows better
the methods by which exterior trade
may be strengthened, nor more clearly
comprchends the relation it bears to
interior commerce. And with this
clearncss of vision he knows that
when measure in the interest of
foreign trade proves helpful to intc-
TlDT COHllntTCc, IL ls lNltc Jistlhtu,
and when its effect is neutral merely,
when it neither weakens nor strength
ems, speeds nor impcdes domestic
commerce, but is sclf-helpful and
self-strengthening it is justified for
its own sake.
From commercial point of view
the Hawaiian Treaty should be judg-
lx- 20 of nh inf A
treaty stands upon two legs and not
upon one. Our foreign trade depends
upon something besides ships and
sailors. We must have American
influence We sent fleet to open
the ports of Japan, and their seal was
first broken to our commerce, and
had we treated those people with
commercial fairness their trade would
have been ours, because we first inn
pressed them with our power. But
the first ship we built for them, the
"Fusiyama", nearly fell to pieces
under the kick of her own guns when
they fired n light salute in Yokohama
Bay Our trade policy and our
politics did not 60 hand-in-hand, and
the canned goods and fabrics which
we sent to them soon fell below
standard. Then came keen Sir
Harry Parkes, the British Minister,
backed by the Oriental Bank, and
ready to enlarge British influence as
ours ensmalled. In the war between
the Tycoon and Mikado, he sided
with the Mikado, furnished him arms
and money, and, when the fight was
over and the Mikado had won, British
influence was paramount and has
remained so, to the exclusion of our
trade.
BY legitimate methods, without
going to the lengths justified by Eng
lands foreign policy, which widely
differs from ours, we might have
retained what we have lost in Japan
These methods, which were availabl,
in Japan, have been operative in the
Sandwich Islands since the treaty o
reciprocity with that kingdom
Through strictly commercial contacts
our influence is dominant there, anC
with what result? In 1874 our tota
trade with Hawaii was only 81 $40,
452. In 1884 our trade had swollen
to $ll ,449,3lS, or nearly as much in
one month as in the twelve months
ten years ago!
Our trade with Japan for 1884 was
only $l3,SO3,Ol4, and Japan has
thirty millions of people, while the
kingdom of Hawaii has less than a
hundred thousand! So much fol
making and keeping American in
tluence dominant in those islands
1t could not have been done withou
the treaty. We are perfectly wei
aware that an objection to the treat,
has been made because its opportuni
ties were seen and improved by al
American merchant in this city
Well, it was made for that purpose
to give American merchants an nd
vantage, The trade has swollen S
that this San Francisco merchan
hoo hnnuht and had hililt IN his N,