The San Francisco call., 1898-10-01
READY ID FIX
 ON THE FATE
 OF HAWAII Commissioners Home From the Islands. NO WORD OF FUTURE PLANS WILL PROBABLY BE MADE A
 TERRITORY. Another Session Will Be Held, and Then the Bill Will Go to
 Congress.

The hawaiian COEnrn1SS1Ont or those members who were appointed from this country, arrived from the islands on the Gaelic yesterday morning. The commission has completed it's work at Honolulu and it has new to prepare a form of government for the islands that will fit the needs of the people and the situation of the country. Senator Shelby M. Cullom, chairman of the commission, Senator John T. Morgan and Congressman Robert R. Hit formed the delegation which ar rived yesterday. They will proceed to Washington with as little delay as pos sible, and there they will be joined by Judge Frear of the Hawaiian Supreme Court and probably by President Dole, the two island members, and a confer ence will be held. It Is hoped to be able to submit a bill to Congress as soon es it opens, and for that reason the commissioners are losing no time in their work.
 Of what they have seen and heard the commissioners are not ayerse to talking, but about what plans they have discussed for the future govern ment of the islands they remain dis creetly silent. They are in favor of a Territorial form of government; but there are many details which must be provided for to suit the conditions ex- isting, and 1t Is these which are most interesting and these that the commiS- sioners will not discuss.
 We have done a great deal of work in the short time we were in the is- lands," said Senator Cullom yeSter day, but when we got there we found that the two island commissioners had arranged for everything and they were for~ i1.Y rxyif hn of Q question and with the conditions exist ing at the islands that the work went along rapidly. We were anxious to get through and sometimes sat all the evening after being in session all day. We hope to have our report ready to present to Congress as soon as 1t meets in December next, and we have no time to lose.
 we visited all the islands of the group and made ourselves thoroughly familiar with the whole situation. We received the most courteous treatment from every one, and so we managed to do all that was necessary in the month we stayed there. The natives do not yet realize that annexation is a permanent thing. They expect that with the changing of the administra- tion the flag will be pulled down again and the, old order of things will rule once more. They say 1t was so once when the flag was first raised over the islands, and they are living in the hope that the same thing will happen again.
 '"The island Government is running smoothly just now, and 1t will do very we'll until Congress shall have enacted new laws to fit the conditions of the islands. We will have to consider a great many things, and there will have to be many special statutes. AS a Territory, Congress can enact such laws for the new possession as 1t C I0 -inrl~& 1E government that belongs to a State, and so we may make such local laws as we please and as the situation de- mands."
 The commissioners found the labor question as grave a one as any, but they do not seem to think there Is much danger to the laboring classes here from the competition of the coolies of the islands. The Chinese the com- missionerS found second to the Japan csc question, but In either case they say the laws of the United States will keep coelie and contract labor out of the islands, and so 1t cannot harm this country. As to the Chinese and Ja- panese already there on contract, Con- gressman Hit says they must all go home as soon as their contracts ex- pire.
 "It Is part of the contract" said Mir. Hit, that they leave the country as
 
 they make another contract. They must deposit money with the Govern ment to take them back, too, and the law can easily be enforced. If they are under contract they cannot leave their, work on the islands, and if they must go back to China when their con- tract expires I do not see how they can get to this country. They are trying now to restrict the immigration of Ja- panese by rigidly enforcing the pauper law. Every Japanese must have at least $50 to show when he comes to land. Recently there were 700 shipped back to Japan, not because they had not the $50, but because it was found that each man had been given the necessary amount to show the officials of the Government"
 The sentiment at the islands was di- vided on the subject of shipping laws | and so a good part of the time of the commission was spent in Investigating | that phase of the situation. The iS- flanders think less of the shipping in- terests than they do here, however, for already the commissioners have re- ceived from the Chamber of Commerce l of this city a petition asking that Ha- waii be brought under the shipping laws of the United States. The peti- tion was presented tot Senator Gull lom yesterday.
 It Is expected that there will be a long and heated discussion over the question when 1t finally comes up be- fore Congress, for the creating of new governments is something Congress is not used to, and there are so many points to furnish food for debate.
 "But it is not as If it were a strange people," said Congressman Hitt "These people are Americans and their Government is modelled after ours and their desire IS to join the Union of States. It will be much harder when 1t comes to governing other territory