The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-02-23
ANNEXATION IS HIT HARD
JOHNSON, INDIANA, POURS BROAD
 SIDE INTO HAWAIIAN TREATY.

Calls Attention to Passage of Rin Pro-
 hibiting Ignorant People of Europe from
 Entering This Country and to the Present
 Proposition to Annex Lot of Chinese
 RidIcules "Key to Pacific" Theory.
 Washington, Feb. 22.-The first gun in opposition to the Hawaiian treaty was fired in the house to-day when MT. Johnson, republican of Indiana, deliv- cred a speech that electrified the legis- lators and the spectators in the galler- ies and caused most pronounced inter- est. His remarks were met by many demonstrations of approval from the democratic side. Whether the present government of Hawaii was a de facto or de jure government, he declared that it misrepresented the people of Hawaii, whose rights it was ready to proffer away. The persistency with which the treaty of annexation was being pressed, he said, gave color to the accusation made in 1893 that the revo- lution in Hawaii was aided by the in- deposition of American citizens.
 MT. Johnson gave some of the req sons which impelled him to opposition of annexation. One was the ignorance of the population of Hawaii. He said only a short time ago we passed a bill prohibiting ignorant people of Europe from entering this country, now we proposed to annex a lot of Chinese. It was urged that the Sandwich Islands were the key to the Pacific as if guns mounted there could command the Mi caraguan canal and the Pacific coast thousands of miles away. The annex ation of Hawaii would establish bad precedent which we would be urged to follow at an early day. To-day the cry was "Give us Hawaii" Tomorrow it would be Give us Cuba," and the next day Give us Samoa"
 He did not deny, he said, that the acquisition of foreign territory has added to the prosperity of nations. But history showed it to have been ulti- mately a source of weakness. Cupidity bred oppression, 1t piled up taxes, it stirred up strife, it shed human blood, it was the first step toward dismember-
 ment. Let the nations of the old world pursue this policy of aggrandizement to their hearts content; let them sad dle their people with debt, equip ar mics and navies and shed oceans of blood Let England boast, if she pleas ed, that the sun never set upon her ter ritory but let us remember it never
 went down upon the misery her policy had created. Let wars and rumors of ySvor h,,iy, q tv fn fa f,f 11a colonists, but let the flower of her col | onies which broke away from her dom ination one hundred years ago and which by pursuing the opposite policy,
 had oustripped her, continue to stand
 as an example to the civilized world.
 While others sought war and it's hor- TOTS, cit us soothe our people with en- during peace. The internal reforms which our country demands presented 1 a field broad enough to enlist our best efforts. Let us not be known and exc | crated as the "roistering bullies of the western hemisphere"
 While I am proud of our navy" continued Mir. Johnson, impressively | T sometimes think that the powerful battleships we have built have bred l feelings of intolerance and insolence | Let our equipment insure peace rather | than provoke war. (Applause). My | information is that the treaty will fail 1 in the senate, but it will be supplanted | by a joint resolution providing for the
 annexation of the islands. I do not
 doubt it's passage by the senate and l that it will come here. If the senate | fails to do it's duty, let us, fresh from 1 the people, exercise our high preroga- tive and send it to its doom. (Ap- plause). I trust God it will not be
 made a party measure. If we turn
 from this temptation now and adhere
 to the right twenty-five years of peace will vindicate our patriotism and pos- ! terity will bless our memories. Let us
 have the moral courage to say No tc
 a policy which will lead, God alone knows where" The demonstration
 which greeted the conclusion of Mir
 Johnson's speech was one of the great
 est and most spontaneous witnessed in
 this congress. Many of the republicans 1 joined it and the galleries which were
 crowded gave evidences of approval
 Members thronged about the Indiana
 member when he took his seat and
 warmly congratulated him. The re-
 mainder of the day was consumed in | special measures.
 I