The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1897-12-28
A HARD PROBLEM.

There can be no doubt about the
difficulty of making people, born and
bred at a distance, understand the
position of people who are separated
from them by thousands of miles of
sea and land. 1t is therefore nothing
surprising that, after the reams that
have been written, the situation out
here is not fully understood by per-
fectly honest and true statesmen in
the Senate. To champion a cause is
no child's play. People will look af
ter their own affairs, and who can
blame them? Affairs at home are
more interesting than those abroad,
and this naturally makes people, re-
moved by distance of three thous-
and miles, timid of dealing with dis
tant affairs.
The United States are great, but
the centers of United States interest
are largely east of the Pacific slope.
The gentlemen who represent the
eastern side, where the bulk of pop
ulation still lies, know by reading,
something of the Pacific, but it is
hard for them to understand what an
Empire the United States has in that
direction and what possibilities it
presents to their successors if they
will only now make the first step
themselves.
There was a day when the spot
where Chicago is now was wrapped in
a holo of romance, bears and Indians
1t is really not so far distant. Then
New Mexico and that frontier took up
the battered halo and placed it upon
its brow, and then it went over to
California, and there are people who
still believe that the California of to-
day is very much the California of
the forties and tifties.
All these reflections come from let
ter received from a friend in WASH
ington, who has stayed by the old ira
ditions and who writes that "oppos1-
ton is based on the broad principle
of the danger of extending our sys-
tenn and fears that "a democratic
government cannot survive when it
becomes bulky and unwieldy." WHAT
this conservative gentleman with TO-
100000 of people under a satisfactory
government means, one does not read
lily guess. He might mean that the
htr,, 1rn1 ha n~t1 Il hat
it is not pleasant to rub shoulders
with or legislate for the 69,999,6OO.
However the odd siXty-nine millions
are there, and if there were talk Of
taking in another million or two,
there might be trepidation, but it is
only the tenth of million that is
asked for. There is sort of over
A hanging fear that the annexation of
4 the Islands might increase 1.-The diver
gent local interests The phrase is
amusing when we consider the already
divergent local interests of New Eng
land, of New Orleans, of Arizona and
of San Francisco. The addition of
another New England civilization,
mixed with a dash of these, ought
to be factor in the argument to the
New England Senators, and can only
render us the more truly American.
But where the argument of the let
ter breaks down utterly is in the COM
mercial view. The eastern side cannot
and does not realize the greatness of
the Pacific. 1t does not realize that as
the Star of Empire has gone west
steadily, so the Star of Empire stands
in the midst of the Pacific Ocean. The
commercial supremacy of this Ocean
is eventually going to give the supre-
macy of the world. Up to the pres
ent the world has been playing with
fancy toys, when the forces around
the Pacific come into play, the work
will be that of the giants of the fu-
ture not of the pigmies of the pres
ent.
OF this future, the United States,
from her wealth, her numerical force,
and above all, her intellect, is of ma
ture, the leader. those VINO 1--we over
on the eastern coast but vaguely re-
alize it. Those who live on the west
coast realize it, in part.
But in writing upon the question OF
annexation or no annexation, the cor
respondent after summing up says,
"the sentiments of the inhabitants,
whether opposed or not, cuts no ice
whatever" This is true summing
ND of the question. The annexation of
the Hawaiian Islands is based on no
sentimental grounds. What people
East want to be convinced about is
the stragetic advantage and the com
mercial advantage. Once convinced of
that a dozen Liliuokalani's and Kaiu-
Il L