The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1897-05-19
COUNTER ARGUMENTS.

The Argonaut spits fire against the
Reciprocity Treaty and it's style of
argument is so unlike its usual man
ner of dealing with questions, that one
is tempted to wonder how much that
paper charges for it's space. Out of
thirteen leading articles in the issue
of May 10, no less than six are direct
ed against Hawaii. The Argonaut
neither believes in the Treaty, nor in
Pearl harbor. nor in anneXation-and
yet, if one dips into the files of the
past, one finds that the Argonaut adj
vocated all these things, and the two
latter it was especially strong in push
ing forward; indeed, it considered
them as vital to the interests of Cali
fornia.
In its list of objections to Reciproc-
ity, the Argonaut says: 1T is but the
stalking horse of annexation. Within
the belly of this Trojan horse are hid
the Greeks, whom we fear" Now,
there is nothing hidden about the mat
ter. The Reciprocity Treaty was made
with the object of increasing Ameri-
can influence upon these islands. 1t
was made with a view of building up
American interests and American in
situations. 1t has succeeded in its OBJ
ject. 1t is absurd to talk of Hawaii
as foreign country. Its laws, its
institutions, its tone of thought, are
all American. What the Reciprocity
Treaty was mainly planned to carry
last experimentation.
The argument is also brought for
ward that in case of annexation the
Chinese and Japanese would claim to
be Hawaiian citizens; but the argu
ment is fallacious. Under the Mon
archy, there were Chinese and few
as such We're of course voters; but
under the Republic neither of these
races can naturalize and neither of
them can become voters. If the isl
anuS were annexed tomorrow they
would not carry single Chinese or
japanese as citizen upon their regis
tiers. So, there would be no race
problem" which it would take "a CEN
tury to solve"
Lastly, the Argonaut does not like
the idea of annexation because "A large
fleet would be required to protect the
Islands. Apparently the Argonaut has
no aloha for the American Navy. The
creation of the White Squadron must
have been gall and NORWOOD to its
writer's. That the American flag should
be carried about the world in vessels
worthy of its great traditions is not
pleasing to it. What are wanted, ac-
cording to the argument, are few
floating castles to protect the mouths
of harbors, but anything like a cruiser
which shall venture to sea, is to be
deprecated. Moreover, in time of war,
according to the Argonaut, the Ameri-
can fleet is to be kept inside Pearl
harbor, and any foe might then lock it
up for good and all by the simple eX-
pedient of sinking one of its vessels at
the entrance. This kind of balder-
dash may go down with people whose
only idea of ship is a prairie schoon-
er, but il won't wash with any one
acquainted with seafaring matters or
with the American Navy.
The arguments of the Argonaut are
un-American and unpatriotic, and are,
like all arguments made to order,
tiimsy and eX parte. One is sorry to
see a paper which has for years held
a position on the Coast, and even in
the East, renowned for its fairness, go
so blindly into a cause that it cannot
see anything but its own side of the
shield.