The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-06-29
PRICE FIVE CENTS.

shall receive benefits within the gift
of these people.
The article SAYS: 81 notice a state
| ment in one of the local papers that
| our commerce with Hawaii was
great factor in giving employment to
American vessels. and that the
American shipping engaged in this
traffic has a valuation of 5000, ,00O
Any one who will take the trouble to
look over the Custom House records
can learn for himself that the value of
all vessels carrying between this port
| and Hawaii will not exceed 50, ,000. .000."
To this we make answer that the
advocates of reciprocity have never
claimed that the value of shipping en-
gagged in Hawaiian trade exceeds So
1876 900, and yet it is fact that the
Oceanic Steamship Company, in which
it is presumed that Mr.. Spreckels has
a considerable interest, has a capital
of 50, 500, 900, of which the major por-
tion has been paid in. To this must be
added the large number of Pacific
Coast vessels, and ships owned on the
Atlantic Coast, which participate in
transportation benefits, and the aggre-
cation will largely exceed the figures
quoted.
To correctly ascertain the total value
Oh t0e tonnage SHSdSeU III tue f1dWdl-
ian trade it would be necessary to
search the records of nearly all the
seaport Custom Houses of the United
States.
The article further states that the
Watsonville refinery is turning out
10000 tons of sugar annually, and that
the Salinas refinery will have ca
pacity of 60, 900 tons (when completely.
The argument, SO far as bears on
the Watsonville refinery, we will not
dispute, although we desire to call par
ticular attention to the possibility of
poor crops or total failures, as has al
ready been experienced at this refinery
but as to the Salinas refinery, which
as yet has not been built, is it unrea-
sonable to assume that it will be time
enough to take up matters bearing on
the abrogation of the Hawaiian treaty
when the Salinas factory and the vari-
Gus other factories no longer are mere
possibilities, but have matured into es-
tablished facts?
1t is within recollection that for the
past twenty years there have been re-
peated promises of huge factories and
immense investments in the beet
sugar industry on the Coast, and yet,
after firteen years or more, of persist
ency in this direction, we have reached
a total output for the entire country
of less than 10000 tons, and it requires
but a research of the American press
yes, of the California presto show
promises of beet-sugar refineries,
which, had they matured, would to-day
supply the total demands of the Coast.
Therefore, under such circumstances,
it is hardly proper for us to consider
the possibilities of the future, but we
ch D1Ii o1r Co.
selves to what really does exist, and
we can hardly satisfy ourselves that
it is proper to tax the American people,
and to disturb our friendly business
relations, leaving aside the political
situation, and the great Importance of
the Hawaiian Islands, if they not al
ready are-or at any moment may be-
come-to the United States, for an in
dustry as prospective only as is the
beet-sugar industry to California to-
day.
We cannot lose sight of the fact that
there exists in this country another
beet-sugar refinery not mentioned in
the Call" article of April 9th, which
is, SO far as our knowledge goes, the
only Independent refinery existing on
the Coast, or, if we may use language
better understood, as the only refinery
whose output is retained in the pos
session of such refinery until it reaches
the hands of the consumer, to w.t. the
Alameda Sugar Refinery OF Alvarado,
and let us not overlook the fact that
these people have not to the present
date, Notwithstanding that they have
brought the standard of their goods
up to an equality with the very finest
of German sugars imported into this
country, been able to overcome the
prejudices of the people against beet
sugar, and that at no time have they
been able to command-as they prop
erly should command-the full value of
their product in competition with Ha-
waiian cane sugar; and surely it can
not reflect with credit upon the West
ern Sugar Refining Company that in