Daily Kennebec journal., 1898-08-04
hawaii and Our Commerce.

j.
hoisting of the American flag over
Hawaii. the friends of the American
ship and of the American sailor have
especially good cause to exult. 1t
means much to them; it is long step
ahead in the rehabilitation of the
American merchant marine and the
commercial mastery of the Pacific.
The moment that annexation is for
mally proclaimed, and Honolulu be-
comes an American port, foreign ships,
with their cheap wages, WILL as a mat
ter of course, be shut out of the
Hawaiian carrying trade by the same
navigation laws which reserve to
American bottoms the coastwise traffic
between Boston and New York or New
York and San Francisco or San Fran
cisco, Skaguay and st. Michaels. A
ment forbids foreign ships to trans
port either passengers or freight from
one American port to another.
This wise stipulation has given the
United States the greatest and finest
fleet of coastwise tonnage in the world
three times the size of that of the
United Kingdom and five times that
of any other nation. While our un-
protected shipping in the foreign trade
has steadily dwindled this protected
domestic shipping has multiplied three
fold in tonnage efficiency since 1860.
and is now the envy of all our mari
time competitors.
More than half of the present trade
of Hawaii is conducted in American
vessels In 1896 no fewer than 1892
American ships, of total tonnage of
1,265.129, entered Hawaiian ports. as
compared with 1872 Hawaiian vessels
of l52, $50 tons, and 467 foreign vessels,
of S06.S25 tons. Our laws permit for
ign vessels to trade between American
ports and foreign countries, so that
foreign ships can continue to engage
in traffic between Honolulu and Liver
pool, for instance, or Honolulu and
Victoria or Honolulu and Hong Kong
But every pound of freight and every
and either the eastern or western coast
of the United States must be carried
by an American merchantmen.
This will create an immediate de-
mand for new American tonnage to
replace the European tonnage crowd
ed out. 1t will give a further i'm
pulse to the boom in shipbuilding on
the Pacific coast which has arisen out
of the rush to the Kiondike gold fields.
Moreover. it will encourage the great
American steam lines engaged in over
seas trade to Japan. China and Aus
pacific lines make Honolulu a regular
port of call Hitherto both American
and foreign companies have shared in
the Hawaiian way business" but un-
der annexation this must now be
monopolized by the American steam
crs. 1t will he a partial offset to the
huge government subsidies enjoyed by
their British, Canadian and japanese
rivals.
As trade between Hawaii and our
Pacific coast increases--as it inevitably
Will-this advantage will become more
and more important to American ship
owners. The political foes of Ameri-
can shipping interests followed an un-
erring instinct when they Historically
fought the annexation Of Hawaii.
These fellows are as badly whipped rs
the Spanish Were in the sea fight off
Santiago. The acquisition of the key
of the Pacific" is the grandest victory
which has been Won for the American
merchant marine since the passage of
the postal aid law of 1891, that has Civ
en- us our splendid fleet of merchant
cruisers to reinforce the navy in this
war with Spain.