The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-10-08
OCTOBER s.
THE SALT LAKE CONGRESS-.

a.
"official proceedings of the Trans
Mississippi Commercial Conven-
tion," held in Salt Lake City on
July 14th, of this year.
Not the least prominent portions
of the proceedings were the speech
es of Mr.. w. A. Kinney and Mr..
i. A. Thurston, on behalf of the
annexation of Hawaii. The texts
of the speeches appear in full, and
contain what we knew they would
contain, very clear, comprehen-
sive statement of the advantages of
annexation, in its bearings, on the
foreign and domestic relations of
the United States. Mr.. Kinney,
after sketching historically the
origin and growth of the movement,
finally put before the Congress,
the final proposition, that ''the
parting of the ways between Ha-
wall and the United States has
come, and the United States must
make her choice for now and for all
time" This is bold statement,
and it is, perhaps, ''the wisdom of
the hour"
The course of events in the Pa
cific is subject to SO many UNI
known and unreasonable inf1u
ences, it is quite impossible to IN
dictate what it will be. Under
present conditions, it seems as il
Mr.. Kinney were correct, and it IS
the argument for immediate action
which has the most telling force in
Washington. But we have some
belief that there cannot be any
parting of the ways. Behind the
present policy of American states
men is force, which will control,
and dictate to them. A majority
of these statesmen may reject an
nexation, for the time being. But
behind them are the growing com
mercial forces, which after sleeping
deep sleep in America, have now
awakened and will, we believe,
allow no parting of the ways. This
view, however, does not detract
from the force and eloquence OF
Mr.. Kinney's speech.
Mr.. Thurston's speech was an
other statement of the eighteen
directions raised against anneXa-
ton, and the answers to them. All
of the objections are met boldly,
seriously and effectively.
The attitude of the Congress
was favorable to the Hawaiian
delegates. Mr.. Varian of Utah
made a brief speech in opposition
to the resolution endorsing annex
alton. He objected to the granting
of citizenship to the natives, and
wanted to know how the Islands
would be governed as a territory,
and closed by asking what the end
would be, if the American Govern
ment began to add more distant
territory. No other of the mem
bers of the Congress seemed to
share his apprehensions, or seem
ed to think there was such awful
peril in taking handful of earth
some few miles away from the
Coast.
The Congress itself is another
evidence of the growing separation
of sentiment between the Eastern
and Western sections of America.
The Eastern men were not invited
to attend its meetings. 1t drew
the line at the Mississippi valley.
1t seemed to regard the vast people
to the Eastward as either indiffer-
ent or lukewarm. 1t created in a
certain sense, sectional lines. The
irrigation question, the Transports
ton question, the Nicaragua canal
project are questions of the pocket
in the West. The active men of
that section are not engaged in
philanthropy. It is the material
West they hope to develop, and
fbov ,,ropoca fo do II oro,, ;f tho