The San Francisco call., 1897-06-13
Republican Senators in
Caucus Fail to
Agree.
Thurston, Nelson and Perkins
Call for a New Deal
With Hawaii.
Others Urge That Present Condi-
tions Be Continued-To Meet
Again Monday.

WASHINGTON, D. c.. June 12-After
three and a half hours caucusing to-day
the Republican Senators hnally decided
to refer TO the Finance Committee and its
three assistant members" appointed for
service during the tariff bill campaign
only, ali questions relating to the Ha-
waiian reciprocity treaty.
There were only two sessions of the
caucus-one before the Senate met, the
other after it adjourned. They were in a
large measure duplicate performances
The two general propositions under con-
sideration were the abrogatiou of the
treaty and its continuance under present
conditions. The fight favora bic to the
abrogation of the treaty was made by
Knute Nelson of Minnesota and seconded
by Perkins of California and Thurston of
Nebraska.
Nelson has been a consistent advoca ate
| OF this policy from the beginning OF the
agitation Of the question, when the bill
was under consideration in the Commit
tee on Ways and Means. Perkins has
been regarded as a friend of the treaty
and its maintenance until within the past
few days. while Thurston's position was
! unknown. His speech in the caucus,
however, was the principal one for abro-
CATION, although Nelson made a speech
full of personal matters and showed con-
siderable feeling.
Thurston said that, while in favor of the
abrogation OF the treaty, he would favor
annexation when that question came be-
fore the Senate. He SAID that the present
attitude of the Republican party toward
/ the qnhahuIo dafa fapaihIa anH
that he could not indorse the action of
the Senate yesterday in the adoption of
the caucus sched ule-which was in the
nature of voting a Rratuity of $1,000, 900
to the trust-and especially if the present
arrangement by which 50 100000 year
was contributed to the Hawaiian sugar
! trust was continued
de was particularly interested In the
4 development of the beet-sugar industry
and con ended that the free Importation
/ oil Hawaiian sugars tended to impede the
progress OF beet-sugar manufacture IN the
Mississippi Valley.
Nelson's speech contained the demand
| that the Government should deaf with
/ the Hawaiian question on purely busI-
/ ness basis, asserting that IL was rldlcu-
| lous to continue the payment OF nine
millions year to Hawaiian sugar pro-
| ducers for which the United States re-
1 SSifSN hO lCAuIH. III Va his pAOp-
| ositlon he presented many figures show
/ ing that the imports from Hawaii to this
country were much greater than the ex-
! ports to Hawaii and be claimed the recip-
rocity was in favor of the Hawaiians.
! He took the last report of the Minister
OF Finance for the year ending Decem Der
81, 1896 and said that the business of
American vessels with Hawaii was about
! one-thlrd as much as that done at tue
port OF Duluth in Minnesota.
Nelson declared that the whole treaty
was very one-sided bargain for the
/ United States. Taxing the sugar i'm
/ ported from Hawaii in 1896 he said that
under the Wilson law the exemptions
/ from duty bv reason Of the treaty would
/ be ST 535. .249; under the House bill,
/ IS, 16S, ,962, and if the new Senate schedule
was equivalent to IS per cent ad yalorem
| land il was possibly so per cent) the ex-
emption would be S6. 504, ,023.
| This, said the Minnesota Senator, was a