The San Francisco call., 1898-07-24

menC Tn the Islands. There was rear or the Japanese. Very recently business men there have been uneasy at the consequences of the aid which the re- public has given to us, or rather which We have taken from it during our war with Spain. Since war began an Amer lcan cruiser has been lying in Homo luIu harbor Our ships went to the capital of those islands on the way to Manila and coaled as though they had a right there. And you must remem- Der that the law which makes a nation responsible for damage inflicted on another nation through aid given to it's enemy is largely of our own making.
 When the treaty of 1Si1 was nego- tiated at Washington it was the United States which proposed that a nation giving aid to one belligerent should be held responsible for any damage in- Incted on the property of the other belligerent by that means. Out of that grew the Alabama claims. for which we received $15,000.OO England hesitated at this provision, but We in sisted on 1t as international law, and It was agreed to and we invited other nations to join US in 1t. All that ap- prehension by business men in Hawaii disappears with annexation.
 James G. Blaine gave notice to the world that If Hawaii was threatened it would be Americanized But we have d distinct sovereignty, to preserve 1t from claims for damages arising from it's acts. By assuming the right to use, not Pearl harbor-which was ceded to us a long time ago-but the harbor of Honolulu, we placed Hawaii in a posi- tion to be the subject of a claim for heavy damages at the hands of Spain when this war should be over
 ny did We not use Pearl harbor? Because the mouth of that harbor is still closed by a reef It Is one of the most remarkable harbors in the world pouch miles inland, like the harbor at Santiago, of which everybody is talk ing now. The approach to it is through narrow, irregular channel, with con Verging activities on each side the channel opening into a broad harbCr or lagoon of ample depth. The hllly in- tervening country protects this harbor from the fire of an enemy's ships with out.
 The reef which lies across the mouth of this channel is a coral formation, but the borings made by Admiral Walker show that part of 1t. rift or Assure 500 feet wide, is coral sand, which could be drawn out with the use of a suction dredge It was estimated that a small opening of 200 feet in this reef could be made by an expenditure of $S5 GOO, and a channel of 250 feet wide for $1O5, 1000. I once tried to get Congress to make an appropriation for this purpose so as to make the harbor available, and I had the hope that then We should build fortihcations to pro- tect it and that the American flag should float over it. That undoubtedly will be done now"
 l asked MT. Hit if the missionaries and their descendants would not profit largely by the increase in property values through annexation.
 Possibly" he said. But the white man has made the land what 1t is If the Kanaka had remained in sole pos session of it what would 1t be worth to- day? 1 have little sympathy with the sentimentalism which some good peo- pie waste on the Indian. The worth of land is what man makes of it. Give to an Indian to-day four city squares on F street in Washington, some of 1t property worth $40 a square foot, but with the provision that none but an In- dian was to be permitted to set foot on it, what would it be worth? Let the Indian as an Indian occupy it and what could he do and what did he do before white men came but shoot squirrels on It? The land which we took from the Indian was worth very little so long as 1t remained Indian land. So the propo- sition that we have robbed the Indian of this great precious property is ab- Surd. In the same way the land of Ha- waii would have been worth little if the Kanaka alone had remained in pos session of it-it would require big lot of it now, as was once the actual case, to be worth an old suit of clothes"
 One of the difficult problems which the Hawaiian Commissioners will have to solve is the Chinese problem. It has been one of the bugaboos of the Ha- waiian question from the beginning I asked MT. Hit if he believed it would be complicating problem.
 T trust not insoluble," he said. My understanding is that most of the Chinamen and Japanese are there un- der contract, and that they wJll steadily tend to go back to their hon.es when the contract expires. They cALnot be- come citizens, Of course, because Of the laws. They have not the right to vote. The annexation resolution lor5idS fur ther Chinese immigration. The statis- ties for ten years past show the de- partures of returning Chinese and Jap anese is about half as large as the ar rivals, and now the arrivals will cease.
 The Ch1naman has q great CeSire to get back to his home as soon as he can accomplish his mission Of making money enough to keep him ln afhuence for the remainder of his oays, and it takes very little to do that in China. One of the reasons is the mattsr of his bones, which, according to his superstl- tions, must be buried in Chinese soil. Another is the desire to be an affiuent parsonage in his native village with a fortune of $500.
 T think the Chinese labor question is not giving the people of the United States as much concern as formerly. It was once the favorite topic for speeches in industrial cities, for news paper editorials and magazine articles and we heard about the hordes and myriads of Chinamen who were to overrun this country. But the eXClu- sion law is really very effective. A Chinaman squeeZes in here and there. but the number who are smuggled in is inconsiderable.
 "The Chinese question gave less con- cern to the Chinese Government at the time we were first exercised about 1t than most of us thought. At the time the exclusion law was under consider ation the Chinese Minister was at my house one afternoon and the subiscr came up. 1 had said on the floor of the House that while 1 was opposed to the competition of Chinese labor with our own, was equally opposed to the violation by this nation of it's treaty with China, and we ought to make a n,N