The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1897-12-03
''h @SsS 1 a en-" \ n So ,ss' , ,a 'es'ss ', r,,,, of BY tie ca, rs so"ps. wsitn

- q" Il yer NSNHthlS l"lSi ny Sil SIHNlhi" h"H
appeared in a recent number of IarpcrS Weekly.
Mr. S"bur2 takes up strong ground against the annexation Of the
Hawaiian Island. He contends that instead of the ownership of the island
being bca.ht to Ibis country in time Of war with a foreign country, it
will in truth afford Vulnerable point" This is the way he reasons
about It,
Thus u war with the United States must under present circumstances ap
pear to foreign powers as one in which quick decisions cannot be achieved aye
in which not even advantages Of great consequence can quickly be won; in
other words as u war of resources in men, material and money, a long and eS
haesiye war in which the power capable of holding ont the longest will have
by far he best chance Of final success And during suh a long a nt Only
would the cnemys maritime commerce suffer its share too, but he would also be
be exposed to the probability of unfrhndly neighbors Selling the opportunity
presented Ivy his embarassments to knde a lire III his rear IN cooperation with
u-a consideration which the jealouses existing between European nations
make a very cogent ne. Iii no wonder that under such circumstances, Euro
ren powers not only do OF seek qnarres with tl5r republic but rather go to the
extreme Of public forbearance to avoid them; aud nothing could be more prepos
ferrous than the hysteial outcres of our Jingoes that foreign enemies are con
stanty lurking in ambush to msnit u nag Or to deprive us OF onr rights or to
interfere with our commerce, and that we can battle them only by standing
seeple@iy on guard, armed to the teeth
How would tie annexation of Hawaii affect this ituatonY 1t could not
make lis more secure than we are now, 1t would rather be apt 'o present to hos
tile powers a vulnerable point which we do not now present, and the absence of
which is 60 dis,ourauing to the foreigner who nay wish i'll to u The Hawai-
liam Islands are . oOOmles distant from our nearest coast If we acquire them
we cannot let them go again without great humiliation, for after all that has
hornoTp1 thrv viii appear as a especial object of on desire to be held At nm
cost In their present mforiiod condition they would be an easy prey to any
hostile mower superior to u in naval force. But even if we'll fortified, their de
fence wnId oblige us to fight on a field of operations where the superiority of
Hand forces would be of no avail unless we had a navy strong enough to pro.
feet the communication between our western coast and Hawaii against any inter
rntS,n omr situation would be somewhat like that of Russia durnr fa
Crineap war. The allied armies woold have had little if any, chance of final
success had they attempted to invade the interior of, Russia But forcing Rus.
81, to 4, crposed point the communications OF which with the interior Of the
Icmpte were at that time $50 imperfect as seriously impede the use of Russia
vast resources they succeeded in forcing Russia to submit to a humilatng
,o,co For similar reasons the possession of the Hawaiian Islands by the J1ni.
rod States would not serve to deter Il foreign power from attacking us,b but rather
he calculated to invite attack, for it would offer to foreign enemy the rossibf-
liv not uow existing. of forcing II to a fight on ground on which we cannot
hiring he superiority of our resources into play, and of gaining by a rapid stroke
nj the beginning of the war a advantage extremely embarrassing to us In this
resnect we shall by annexing Hawaii simply acquire a vulnerable point
ruav indeed, be said that, if annexed, Hawaii would not remain ina an I'M.
fortified state. That is true, But. as the history of our habor and coast dc.
fences shows, it will require years to put those distant islands into a reasonably
secur, condition. And then it will require a big war feet to make these forif.
cations rally tenatle, and to keep the communication between Hawaii and on,
continent safely open in case of war Such a big fleet we can build, too. We
ram do all these things. If the people arc.wiling to pay the bills and to endur,
u. aNsrts of that sort Of policy W an do this and much more But it is not
the really important question whether as a sensible people we'~houid do It'll
s,opld So adopt q policy ciaing us TO do it, instead of maintaining the safe
ground OF which we sands
\ sma+ deal can be said on either side Of this question. The fricnds ~
| or,oxo.icn maintain that the country that owns the Hawaiian Islands um
he able to control the northern Pacific, and that unless the United States
t lakes hold of them oe other country will inevitably do it, Indeed. they
cortcnd MAT the United States must own these islands in self defense
Tho Commonwealth does not take very kindly to annexation. 1t means -
enormous outlay fol a navy, the maintainance OF a larger standing army
besides bringing into the citizenship Of this country a class of people Who
al, ,osJply do 4 no good. hut who will be . positive detriment 10 ~
Bu, whether good Il bad II seems now quite likely that congress will annex