The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1897-10-06
CONSTANT CHANGE.

1t is very hard to drive common
sense into some peoples heads, and
one of the hardest things is to make
some people realize that things will
not go on as they are if we do not
get annexation. To use diplomatic
phrase the status que will cease to
exist.
AS things are now there is every
sign of prosperity, but that pros
perity will go out like fash if the
Senate, in December refuses to
ratify the treaty. When things are
prosperous one always is apt to
think that they will remain so. To
imagine a change in Our affairs is
hard. 1t has ever been difficult to
realize that what is good will fade
away. Could any Spaniard of the
time of Charles V imagine that his
country would become the bank
rupt and worthless State it is today.
In Charles VS. time it appeared as
if the power and greatness of Spain
never could be shaken. To the
courtiers of Louis the Sixteenth it
seemed as if the life they led and
the pensions they drew, and the
whirl of empty pleasure they existed
in would last forever, and that
generations would go on as they had
done, but the end came sudden and
swift and in the course of a year or
so the house of cards fell and the
giddy throng was in exile or in the
grave.
Fine wharves. and handsome
business blocks make place LOOK
prosperous, but they are not neces-
sarily the nucleus of prosperity.
We look at our signs of prosperity,
the fine machinery on Our planta-
tions, our railway enterprise, our
feet of inter-island steamers, our
warehouses and our pretty homes,
and we think nothing can harm
them, What do they depend upon
Our sugar industry. Dislike the
men WIN have made sugar as much
as some people do here and yet the
fact remains that the prosperity oil
every one on these Islands depends
directly or Indirectly upon the pros
perity of he sugar industry. 1t is
sugar that has built the warehouses
and stores, sugar that maintains the
inter-islard fleet of steamers. sugar
that enab es us to have comfortable
homes, and good roads.
Let annexation be refused and
the sugar industry will receive a
tremendous blow. Not all the
plantations will be ruined, but many
will, and what plantations remain
will pay no such dividends as they
are now doing. Busy as the Islands
are now, the hum of work will cease,
for there will be no great work to
carry on. People will have to get
along as best they can, there will be
no improvements for the future.
There are people here who oppose
annexation, whose whole income
depends upon the dividends rec lived
from sugar stocks. They are well
to do today, they can afford many
luXuries, but where will they be il
there is no annexation in Deem
Der? They live in a sort of fools
paradise, in which reciprocity plays
the part of the Fairy Bountiful,
But reciprocity has gone. 1t is
annexation or nothing 1t was the
Annexation Treaty that saved the
reciprocity clause in the Dingley
Bill. If the Annexation Treaty
fails, The Reciprocity Treaty wi
follow.
Annexation is to the personal
interest of every one here. 1t is tc
the interest of the laboring man, tc
the store keeper and trader, and tc
those who have sugar investments
or who own houses and land. 1t is
of as much interest to the Royals,
as to the Republican. 1t is of more
than vital interest to the Hawaiian
for without it he will be crushed
and completely thrust aside.
Whatever light we may look al
the annexation question from. poll
teal, commercial, social, there car
be only one reply. 1t is our oaly
hope of prosperity in any one o.
these lines.