The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-05-04

| believed. too, that annexation would
! follow the cable Some of the men who
profess favor TO annexation have so
| little foresight that they could not see
any connection between the two
did.
while l was working in Washing
| ton TO have my bill passed. my rivals
the Scrymser Company-were in con-
slant receipt of letters and press clip
pings at the hands of the opposition.
and used them against me. They SEEM
ed TO take particular delight in getting
possession of these letters and show
ing them TO members of the Senate
Committee When | came down here
this time | found the opposition as
strong as the letters received in Wash
ington and the actions of the people
there indicated. I felt that to hold the
Government to the agreement meant
it's injury, and decided to withdraw and
leave the Hawaiian Government free
to act as it pleased, and make contracts
with whom it pleased. There was
nothing unusual in my having an eX-
elusive franchise. Who in the world
wants to put his money into a prOpO-
sition and when he is comfortably set
tied, have some one else start in Op-
position? I would not put my own
money into it, nor would I ask my
friends to do so. Do you think it
would be right for this Government to
give franchises to three other COM
panies to build lines to Waianae, when
there is not more than enough business
for one That's the way they do in the
United States, a company builds a line
running on one side of a half-acre lot
Nd Tr-bo hn
some other company constructs q line
on the other side of the lot. The re-
suit is that very few railways in the
United States are doing paying bust
ness. Tt is the way the cable business
is cut up on the Atlantic side. Thirteen
cable companies are doing what three
wires can accomplish without being
overworked.
Some of the people here thought it
was a dreadful thing to give me an
exclusive franchise. but believed it
would be the proper thing to give It
to Mr.. Scrymser. who is really George
Gould, of the Western Union Tele-
graph system. Any one who lives in
the United States knows what a nice
clean octopus Western Union is The
Hawaiian Government knew the in
terests l have in this country, and was
willing to give me a franchise Some
people thought that I would go to New
York or London and peddle it out, as
man would peanuts. But I am not
that kind of man. T have been of
fered many thousand dollars to sell
out. but / cannot afford to jeopardize
my interests here or show so little an
probation of the Governments conf
dence in me to do anything of the
kind. I went so far in this matter
that 7 actually made contracts for the
building of the lines. The best proof
YOU can have of that is to see the doc
uments. Here they aTe-one for an in
ter-island cable. one between the Unit
ed States and Hawaii one between Ha-
wall and Japan, and another between
Hawaii and Australasia. I have no
fault to find with the Government Tt
is the best you can get. and it has my
moral financial support
Asked if he would abandon hopes of
building a cable, Colonel Spalding said
he would not say. He had his bills in
and friends to work for
them, and he hoped they would go
through, but he had no opinion to of
fer.
81 could have built the line and had |
it finished by this time, but the Gov |
preferred that I go to the |
United States and see what was to be |
done there. Some one will build !
whether they get a subsidy here or
not, but do not think any one will be |
foolish enough to take it up without |
first getting an exclusive franchise |
My contracts with the cable construc- |
ion company do not go into effect IN
Ill l make the first payment, and I am
'eady to do that any time