The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-01-22
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VI. VI. MURDOCH. Editor.
OF THE GREATEST MOMENT.

In the first half of the present cen
fury Lieutenant Wilkes of the q. 5.
navy was sent to the scene Of the death
of Captain Cook, in the Sandwich
Islands, after a very thorough examin-
alton of which he made a very thor
ough and exhaustive official report to
this country. The record, or, rather,
narrative descriptive Of his cruise was
published, if we remember Alright, in
1S4S. Speaking of the Hawaiian system
he used the identical arguments now
employed by the advocates Of annexa-
ton. He pointed out their value, es-
pecially from naval point of view,
declaring that with the expansion of
this country to the Pacific coast the
proprietorship Of that midway oceanic
station, between the occident and ORR
ent, would be found not only advant-
ageous but a necessity. California,
with its gold, was undreamed of as a
possible future state of the Union, I'M
less it was so estimated by Lieutenant
Charles Wilkes. Westward from the
Missouri river to the ocean was terra
incognito. Today we are face to face
with the conditions which Wilkes fore
saw, and at this moment the United
states senate is debating the wisdom of
that which was seen and appreciated
when all west Of the Allegheny noun
tains was our western frontier. Upon
the votes of three or four men in the
u. S. senate hang immense interests
Those formerly cannibalistic islands
have long since come under the sway
of civilization, and later have risen to
be a republic whose president is now
on his way to Washington to offer the
land of his people a free gift to Amer
lea What viii the decision be? The
New York Mail and Express in ventur-
ing an answer says it viii be annexa-
ton or otherwise swiftly become an
English possession. That paper urges
that the answer to this question is
awaited with absorbing interest in
many foreign courts, and in none with
st. James. Great Britain's protesta-
tions that she regards the annexation
of the islands by the United States
with the utmost non-concern will con-
tinue just SO long as the treaty of an
nexation is pending. If the treaty is
rejected, and the policy of annexation
definitely abandoned, then will come
her time to act, and she will act quick
ly. The moment this country decides to
repel Hawaii there will te a race for
Hawaii, and Great Britain viii win.
Does not England want Hawaii? Did
she not want Necl1ar, a single rocky
islet of that group, so badly that after
President Cleveland had been baked in
his design to put her in peaceable pos
session of it, she put to sea her fastest
vessel in Pacific waters in order to
seize it? If Great Britain was so eager
to grasp a barren rock in the Hawaiian
group will she not bend every energy
to secure Hawaii itself, with its mag
nificent harbor and coaling station, the
moment our negotiations close?
Only a few years ago the King Of the
Gilbert Islands came to the United
States to negotiate for the inclusion of
these islands under an American pro-
tectorate. But, arriving at San Fran
cisco, he learned that the administra-
ton was not friendly to annexation or
q protectorate, and returned without
formally presenting the scheme at
Washington. Within few years after
ward the Gilbert Islands were safely in
Great Britains Pacific net
That is where Mr.. Dole's islands will
be unless these three or four senator's
realize their own responsibility and the
manifest destiny of this republic. The
present opportunity viii never present
itself again. Mr.. Cleveland's pig-headed
laundering postponed four years, but
did not defeat the project. Whether or
not the Cleveland policy of British ag-
grandizement shall succeed under a
Republican administration depends
upon the final attitude which will be
assumed on the Hawaiian treaty by the
three or four senators who are said to
be hesitating as to where their duty
lies