The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1898-01-27
MR. l[.Rl. LODGES VIEW.
HE BELIEVES IN ANNEXATION
OF HAWAII.
Of Right the Islands Belong to This
Country-Every !. Political Party Has
Favored Their Protection from For
eiEn Foes. S.5f,; 4

To the Editor: American mission
eTies christianized and civilized Ha-s
wall. American enterprise developed
the islands and created their wealth.
For sixty years the United States has
guarded and protected them, and dur
ing that period it has repeatedly mott
fed other nations that it should regard
any interference in the Sandwich ISL
ands as an act of hostility, and other
nations have accepted this declaration
and recognized it's force That ultimate
annexation would be the result of this
policy long continued has been we'll
known, and the treaty now before the
Senate is the third one which we have
made. A policy so steady and so long
settled, observed equally by all politi-
cal parties, was not lightly undertaken
nor carelessly sustained, and it brings
with it the responsibility of final full
.fillment. The time of that fulfillment
has now come.
The islands are of enormous import
ance to the United States from a mill
tary point of view. Examine the map
and you will see that they are about
equi-distant from every point of the
great circle of coast reaching from the
farthest Aleutian island to San Diego,
and yet the objection is seriously made
that in case of war the Sandwich ISL
ands would be to US source of weak
ness, because an enemy could probably
take them. So the people who make
this objection propose to hand the ISL
ands over to a foreign power before
war occurs. With Hawaii in the hands
OF another nation a hostile fleet would
be in striking distance of all our Pa
cific coast. In our hands no enemy
could attack the Pacific coast and leave
Hawaii as a menace in their rear. They
would have to take the islands first,
and it is better to fight from at Honolu-
lu than at San Francisco.
The commercial Importance of the
islands equals their military import
ance. They form the only large group
north of the equator. They are the key
of the Pacific as important to our Pa
cific trade as Gibraltar or Malta to
England's eastern commerce. With the
powers of Europe dividing the coast of
China among them, to refuse to annex
Hawaiian islands would be the aban-
donment Of all hope of sharing in the
commerce of the Pacific, and would also
bring European powers, our rivals in
trade, fifteen hundred miles nearer to
our shores. While the advantages of
annexation to us are so Unreasonable
they are not less to the people of the
islands. Excluding the Chinese and
| Japanese, who are contract laborers,
and have no right in a voice in the dis
position Of Hawaii, a majority of all
the other people favor annexation. Ad-
hitting that the 10000 doubtful sigma
lures of the so-cailed native petition
represent that number Of signers and
voters, there still remains a decisive
majority. including nearly one-half the
natives and all the whites are in favor
of annexation. Moreover, the duly
elected and recognized government has
ratified the treaty, and we have never
gone behind the action of the govern
ment in any annexation we have made.
We took no note of the people in Flor
ida, or Louisiana, or California when
swe annexed those great regions to the
national. domain. Finally, it should
be remembered that under the flag Of
the United States the people Of the
Sandwich Islands would have a freer
and more stable government than they
have ever enjoyed or than any other
| nation could give them.
From the military and commercial
point of view, for the protection of our
coast and the very existence of our
trade in the Pacific the position of
those islands is of vital Importance,
but there is one other consideration
even stronger than these. The men
who have made those islands what they
are and have given them all the value
which they possess are Americans.