The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1898-05-10
PERSONAL INFLUENCE.

Since Mr.. J. o. Carter returned from
Washington, where he has made some
efforts to defeat the annexation plan,
the natives, we are told. are led to be-
lieye that his efforts defeated it, up to
the present time. The reasoning is
simple enough and often has much
force. Mr.. Carter is sent to Washing
to to defeat the ratification of the
treaty Action on it is suspended.
Therefore Mr.. Carter defeated it. The
German peasants reasoned in the same
way about railways. Before rails were
used the potatoes did not rot. After
the rails were used, potatoes did rot
Therefore the rails rOtted the potatoes
So the Chinese reason also. A man is
sick, give him a dose of bugs pounded
up. He gets we'll Then the bug dose
did it.
Mr.. Carter counts for little in the
annexation movement. So does Mr.
Dole, aside from his official duties The
men who believe that the great nation
al policy of the American Republic can
be pushed or retarded by the efforts of
one or two men, or even host of men,
do not understand political evolution.
If annexation had followed the visit Of
Mr.. Dole TO Washington, it would have
been said that he secured it by his
presence, and the wisdom of sending
him there would have been very short
1y proclaimed.
A new policy however just and
broad, regarding territorial expansion,
and involving 100000 of people, can
not be DETECTED one way or the other
by Mr. Dole or Mr.. Carter. To say that
it could, would be to make them
greater statesmen than now exist on
this earth
Those who believed that Mr.. Carter
could defeat annexation, and those
who believed that Mr.. Dole could Sc
cure it, belong to the same type of
men. They believe in the haphazard
rule of the earth and it's people.
The quiet, sincere, annexationists
may see in the events now transpiring
in the United States, steady evolu-
ton towards annexation. OF course
the jingoes do not see it. They never
see anything unless it is put with
thousand candle power light right be-
fore their eyes Their chief blunder is
in expecting things to happen at once,
because they wish them to happen
L, !
easy matter to persuade a great nation
to abandon the advice of Washington
regarding political isolation, at short
notice The very men here who refuse
TO handle the labor question because it
is too complicated, are the men who
get frantic because the American peo-
pie do not handle at once the novel
and complicated question of anneXing
territory beyond the sea.
At the same time events which fin
ally bring annexation are slowly COM
ing into existence. The American ma
tiOn slowly Outgrows the maXims of
Washington. The intervention in
Cuba is the first decided, firm, and adj
FanC0U SISp III the new pdIu. L hS
present war is a notice to the world,
that the United States now adopts an
active and not passive policy. 1t is
an education of the people to sense
of the real position of the United
States in the worlds affairs. Every
act, everything, that breaks down the
Isolation of the States. is a move on
the lines of annexation.
We are speaking entirely from the
American standpoint. Very many able
Americans do not believe in territorial
expansion, because they do not see
practically the benefit of it. The Far
East and Cuba are breaking down
slowly the wall of isolation which Gen
eraI Washington honestly and rightly
for those days, recommended. At no
time within five years have the ele-
ments which control commercial AID
political policies been more active than
they are at the present moment. The
annexation cause is not buried. 1t
may not be showing outward signs of
life. But like the sugar cane in the
dark, it is growing and maturing.
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