The San Francisco call., 1898-01-12
OPPOSITION IS GAINING
 IN STRENGTH The Treaty Lacks Five or Six Votes
 Yet. There Is No Prospect That These Will Be
 Gained. Too Many Foreign Complica- tiOns Will Come In With
 the Islands.
DAVIS MAKES HIS TALK.
Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee Assumes Leadership
 for the Land Pirates.
Special Dispatch to The Call.
Call" Office, Riggs House.


 Washington, D. C., Jan. Il.
 This was a field day for the anti annexationists. They are in an exul- tant mood tonight, and those who are inclined to be little bit sporty" of fer odds of two to one that the treaty will not be ratified. This confidence is not based upon the poll of the Sen ators which they have made them selves, but they take the poll made by the opposition papers this morning, which showed that the anneXatiOnists were two or three votes short of the necessary sixty.
 To-day's developments show that J three or four Senators who were count ed for annexation have expressed themselves as being opposed to it.. These Senators are: Spooner of Wis consin, Gear of Iowa ThurstOn of Ne braska and Mantle of Montana. Sen ators SpOoner and Gear said to a newspaper correspondent to-day that their disposition was to vote against the treaty. Mantle of Montana said the same, while Thurston of Nebraska announced his position to another Sen ator T cannot vote for the treaty, said he.
 Thus it seems that the treaty will lack five or six votes of the necessary two-thirds It is generally conceded that if the treaty fails the bill or the joint project" providing for annex ation will not be taken up. It is. therefore. safe to assume that the an- nexafion of Hawaii will not be accom- plished at this session of Congress.
 Except for few minutes given to a controversy over some minor pOstofffce combinations, the entire time of the executive session of the Senate was consumed by Senator Davis of Mime sota in a speech in support of Hawaii an annexation. MT. Davis is chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and his speech was generally accepted as the semi-Official utterance of the majority of the committee. He spoke about two hours and when the Senate adjourned he had not finished The speech was the first on the merits of the treaty, and on this account and because of the known fact that Sen atOr Davis had made a very careful in- vestigation of the subject, he received the undivided attention of the members 4 If the Senate, regardless of individual = views. As the speech was delivered be- hind closed doors, a verbatim report could not be secured. The portion Ot the speech delivered to-day consisted of a review of the relations between this country and Hawaii during the history of these islands, and was in tended to show that the United States had exercised a fostering and protect ing care over them from the beginning with many evidences of the intention of ultimately making them an integral portion of the American domain.
 T approach this question:" the Sen ator began, with, I hope, due sense of the responsibility imposed upon me in beginning a debate, the result of which may be of momentous conse- quenees to the future dwellers of both this country and the Hawaiian Isl ands.
 The question: he continued. "is one of importance so vast that one must of necessity approach it with a certain degree of timidity," because it was. he said. very difficult to present all the points involved as they should proper ly be presented, however much care and attention one might have given to the subject
 The Senator, without further apolo- gy, then launched into the presentation Of the subject before the Senate. He consumed considerable time in a gen. efal presentation of the resolutions for annexation, saying that these were both commercial and strategic.
 Referring to the commercial reasons for controlling the islands in the in- A terest of this country he called atten- ton to the location, midway in the Pa cific Ocean, and said that anyone with half an eye to the importance of the trade of the Orient could discern the fact that they must cut a very import.