The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1898-01-26
Kidding COL. BERRY.

been copied into the Louisiana Planter
where it is spoken of as exposing "the |
fallacy of the arguments and the dis
ingenuousness of the anneXationist,"
while the Courier-Journal says the let
ter riddles the arguments of Con
gresham Berry and other annexation |
lists at single broadside."
Seeing that the battle between an
nexationist and anti-anneXationist has
ragged for some years, and that able
men on both sides have cast them
selves into the fray, from Senator Nor
gan on one side to Carl Schurz on the
other, and that the "fallacy of the ar
guments has not yet been shown, but
that these arguments are believed in
at this moment by majority of the
Senate and House of Representatives
this letter of December 20, "riddlng
arguments at "A single broadside," is
indeed an important one, and merits
careful study.
TO start out the merchant says
81 think annexation would be mis-
take for the United States and a mis-
fortune for Hawaii" OF course every
man has a right to his opinion, and to
such bald statement the answer
might be made that others do not
think it a mistake, and that far from
a misfortune, it is Hawaii's only
safety.
Howeyr, the next step in the rid
manding the Pacific Coast from dis
lance of 2100 miles has been so street
ched in length and width as to be quite
thin enough to see through. OF couse
Capt Mahan may be all wrong, but
his words on the point may perhaps
have as much weight as those of the
letter under review. In his Sea Pow
er in History" Captain Mahan says:
shut out from the Sandwich Is
lands as a coal base, an enemy is
thrown back for supplies of fuel to II
distance of $500 to 1000 miIes-or be-
tween 1000 and 5000 miles going and
coming-an impeachment to sustained
maritime operations well nigh prohib-
tive. 1t is rarely that so important
a factor in the attack or defense of
centrated in single position, and the
circumstance renders it doubly imper-
ative upon us to secure it,"
Then the statement is made that
there is no coal. This is very true
but one fails to see the riddling argu-
ment. There is no coal at Malta. at
Alden, at Hong Kong. at Gibraltar. at
the Bermudas, at Nassau and so on
But all are regarded as important
points and would not be lightly yield
ed by Great Britain. SO from the pre-
cedent of England there is no obiec-
ton to coaling stations having no coal
mines. As to blockading, every one
of the places mentioned could be
blockaded, and hardly one of them
possesses the natural resources of
these Islands. As far as blockadlng
goes, someone was a few months ago
calculating how long England could
stand a blockade, and made it out to
be IA very short time; but the infor-
nation hasn't caused any great shift
ing of population.
Next the writer makes the state
ment that Hawaii is not in the field
of politics. She has been very much
in the field of politics with Japan up
on the labor question, and the Naniwa
appeared in our waters as sort of
threat. She is very much in the field
OF politics when Japan made formed
protest against the annexation of the
Islands, part of the reason for that ac-
ton being based upon the argument
that it would disturb the status quo
in the North Pacific Ocean. Instead
of riddling Col. Berry, there does not
seem much standing ground for the
guns to be fired from. So far the
letter deals with the mistakes of the
United States. Now for the misfor-
tunes of Hawaii.
These terrible misfortunes are sum
med up under one head-the difficulty
of getting cheap labor for the sugar
plantations. The writer says without
Il large percentage of contract labor
it is impracticahle to work any plan
tation successfully, In this many plan
ters do not agree with him. There
are planters here, and successful ones,
too, who would hail with joy the alb
clifton of the contract labor system,