The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1892-11-18
Free Trade and Pearl Harbor-
A Mechanics Opinions.


A Mechanics Opinions.
Mr.. EDITOR: Some days ago Mr..
Theo. H. Davies made public his
views on free trade, the occupation
of Pearl Harbor and annexation. It
is to be regretted that the gentleman
did not take the opportunity to point
out how our present foreign policy
could be improved upon, so as to
permit the extension of enterprises
into which we have been forced by a
changed condition of the sugar in
dustry, without some concession as
consideration for the benefits we
would hope to derive from the free
expectation of our own products. To
the proposition that Gree trade with
the United States is required for Ha-
waiian prosperity" Mr.. Davies op-
poses the unique proposition: "There
has been no crash in sugar, and we
are even now suffering from too
much free trade on the part of the
United States" I am afraid that
personal interests rather than the
general welfare prompted the gentle
man to such vapid conclusions.
Writing from the standpoint of a
mechanic endeavoring to prosper
himself by his handicraft, I fear the
possible competition resulting from
free trade with the United States far
less than I do the encroachments of
those in our midst, who, having
Slapped the profits on sugar through
"agents, commissions" etc, drop it
as soon as it proves unremunerative,
and attempt to paralyze the smaller
business and mechanical interests
of the community by importing ff-
teen to twenty different lines of
manufactured wares, collecting them
under one roof, and selling the same
under a single license, to the mani
fest disadvantage of the merchant or
mechanic paying a like license fee
for his one line of wares or manu-
| features.
While Mr.. Davies was rusticating
in old England some of his less for
tunate fellow-Hawaiians have been
employed in the commendable effort
of propagating untried fruit plants
or developing those of an indigenous
nature, with view to redeeming our
commercial prosperity. A number
of these ventures have already passed
from the experimental stage to that
of absolute certainty SO far as culture
and fruiting is concerned, and are
now virtually at a standstill for the
want of market. Some, again, are
marketable in the fresh state, but if
produced in quantities the necessity
for artificial preservation of a con-
siderable portion of the product has
to be met, and here, again, our infant
industries receive a setback by rea-
son of the heavy duty on preserved
fruits in entering the only market
which could be otherwise proitably
catered to from these islands.
Mr.. Davies proposition is mani
testify false so far as the necessity for
a free market for our products is con-
cerned. With such a market there
would be development of agricul.
tural enterprises and fruit preserving
ventures as are undreamed of to-day
by those who have not given the
matter serious thought. Without
such a market, nearly every industry
now developing must languish, and
the inequalities of our business
methods, as outlined above, will find
common level in "hard times"
As to the ceding of Pearl Harbor,
instead of question of practical
politics, as Mr.. Davies naively puts
it, assume it to be measurable re-
turn for the vast benefits to be de
rived commercially by the Hawaiian
Government and people in the event
of our products passing into the
United States free of duty. I fail te
see any harm to ensue from the
occupation of Pearl Harbor by the
United States, perpetually or for a
shorter term, so long as the benefits
we are to derive are CO existent with
such occupation. As to the improb
able conditions conjured up for the
sake of argument, it is an unwar
ranted slur on the foreign policy o.
the United States to assert that il
the event of the ceding of Pear
; Harbor the coded territory would be
come the harboring place for thieves
and freebooters. The United State!
is not built that way. I would sim
, ply say that should Uncle Sam
create a snug harbor at the lagoon
for his navy, we as a nation can i'm
plicitly rely on just considerable,