The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1888-04-24

safe,
This was not the reasoning of wise |
men, but it was the reasoning of !
men counted wise or otherwise in
Honolulu. Did they imagine that
Searles, and the ex
ceedingly keen Eastern spectators
who organized the Trust, would un-
dcrtake to guarantee them against
loss out Of "pure love and affec-
tion?' Are they not satisfied that
the Trust gains more than it loses
by this transaction? Among the ad-
vantages are these: 1t secures CON
troll of about $4,000 tons of Hawai-
ian sugar this year and seeks to fix
its own price for raws at New York,
and therefore the price at which the
American refinery will handle lIa-
waiian sugar and then it uses this
very sugar as a club to belabor
Hawaiian trade and industry.
If the Trust had failed to secure
this sugar it must have collapsed,
because it had taken no precaution
to control supplies at points of pro-
duction, relying upon its established
monopoly to compel importers to
sell 10 it at London rates. And the
planters in question who have en-
tered into this conspiracy against
Hawaiian interests, and also to
cinch the American people as well,
through the manipulation of the
Trust, would to-day be simply re-
ceiving London rates for their su-
gar if it were not for the stand Col
oncl Spreckels took against the
Trust. He had only to hold up his
hand, and the thing would have
been accomplished. He has only
to say the word to-day, and down
goes the price of raws to London
quotations, less exchange. That
was the policy of the Trust. Just
as Mark-Lane regulates the price OF
wheat at San Francisco and Chicago,
so the Eastern Sugar Trust wants
to make the London quotations the
standard of value for sugar at New
York and San Francisco.
Colonel Spreckels stood in the
breach, however, and saved the
planters who placed themselves in
opposition to him from the conse-
quences of their own folly. If,
therefore, for the time being the
Trust bears the loss of competition
at San francisco, its; management is
not without the hope of being able
10 recoup itself, by reducing the
price of Hawaiian raws to cover this
loss and leave margin of profit be-
sides. In that case, the planters
would hear the loss, and it will go
extremely hard with the Trust if
this is not the outcome.
There is this further danger, how
ever, that those who opposed the
Treaty on principle may now point
to the planters alliance with the
Trust, and demand some form of re-
lief as q protection to American
consumers, who give bonus of &c
per pound on Hawaiian sugar. They
will hardly submit to double i'm
position as it were. And this point
! is likely to become feature in the
next campaign, if indeed, it is not
brought out in the Tariff debates,
and leads to a reduction of the su-
gar duty. Should either contin,
gency happen certain Hawaiian
planters and merchants may thank
their own laundering for it.
That Colonel Spreckels will wiz
the fight every disinterested mar
admits. He has public sentiment
with him. lie has the consumer:
to man; l should rather say to ;
woman and child, for sugar is
commodity of domestic consump
ton much more largely uset
by women and children thar
men. He has ample capital of hi
own, and there is abundance o
capitol standing back OF him. Th
importers are all with him; and for
eign producers are in full sympathy
With such forces, marshaled as Col
onel Spreckels knows so well hoy
TO marshal them, there can be bu
one issue, even if Congress does no
abolish Trusts and monopolies b
statute. Indeed, this is extremel
| probable in any case, more espe
cially in view of the presidentia
campaign. And when the Trust
broken down OF dissolved, as broke
down or dissolved, it will be, wha
will the Hawaiian tail TO the Have
meyer kite do? How will it fl
alone? And if it cannot do that, an
if it cannot find q market for its su
gar on the Pacific Coast, where is
going to get one? If the good an
true men who hate monopoly, but pu
their trust in their avowed enemies
and become partners in the thin
they hate have not thought out thi
problem, l would advise them TO be
gin thinking forthwith. 1t will b
healthy mental effort and may de
yelop some sensible ideas.
At present, as | take it, the pros
pect ahead is not Il pleasant one
The public interests of the Hawai-
ian kingdom have been jeopardize'
by the short-sighted policy of me
who thought that by acting as the,
have done they would be able +
shift their own self-made burdeI
upon other shoulders. If Hawaiian
interests are to be concerned in tn
future, as they have been promoted