The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-05-09
A TERRITORY OF THE UNA ED
STATES.

STATES.
The long time of trial and hope and
contest Is over, and We are in America
at last, or will be next month. For al
most a decade we have been working
for complete annexation to the United
States, and now it is achieved; and Oh
the whole We may well congratulate
ourselves that the form which it has
taken in the Territorial Bill is, on the
whole. liberal and enlightened, and that
1t reasonably safeguards our interests
and gives us a fair chance to develop
Hawaii and make of it prosperous and
we'll governed community. Details are
lacking as to the precise final form of
the bill; but enough is known to assure
us that the future is entirely in our own
hands. We start on a new career of
prosperity unhampered by foolish,
vicious or unwise restrictions on our
local self-government, and also free
from the domination of the sort of sa-
loon politics which makes local self
government in many parts of the
United States so corrupt thing.
America has faults and failings, but
this country of which we are now a
part is beyond question the most lib
eral, enlightened and progressive on
earun. Like ourselves, it has remark
able past, but Its eyes are turned away
from this towards a much more glori-
GUS future. 1t is the country of the
young man, of the rising generation,
whose voice is beginning to be heard
and its influence to be felt in the coun-
CHS of its elders, and whose opinions
and preferences are growing in weight
with every year. 1t is the country of
the future, and as such the one most in
touch and sympathy with our progress
sive spirit. 1t IS the country of tree
manhood, and its faults are chiefly
those not yet outgrown in the course of
establishing the equality OF manhood
as living, working principle.
1t is a great point in our favor that
we have reached an equal state of civ
tunate traits which have developed in
the large mainland ci.les-snobbishness
among the rich, criminality among the
poor, the lavish and vulgar display of
wealth by those who can and those
who cannot afford it, artificiality and
conventionality in all strata of society
We have kept ourselves simple and nat
ural, as the best people in the States are
now trying to become. We have moth
Ing in the shape of official corrup. on
or bureaucracy to rail at or to wink at
We have no sensational papers, no pub
hc for any, and few stories of vice,
crime ana moral degradation to nil
them with IL We had them We are In
line with the most advanced ideas of
liberal students and thinkers on mu-
nicipal and social problems and We ex-
anime them as to their practically for
use. not as Utopian theories for aimless
discussion.
The United States as whole has dis
covered that the Pacific is the ocean of
the future, and is taking an increasing
interest in the Oriental trade. Unless
the signs fail, we are in the path of the
greatest potential development of COM
merce in the near future, and that fu-
ture shall be exactly what we choose to
make 1t. Canada, the United States.
the Colonies, the Philippines, China
and Japan-we occupy approximately
the central Joint of the great ocean
across which their trade must be borne.
Revenues will come from this source in
Increasing quantities, and we have al
ready an unrivalied repute as a resort
for tourists and seekers of what is
beautiful and alluring in nature. Inc
protection of the united States tariff is
forever thrown around our products
And let us not forget that the bargain
was fair one; the Unitea States is as
much better off for owning us as we are
by becoming a part of the great Repub-
lie.