The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1901-12-20
FOUR CABLE BILLS.
Three for Governme 1t Ownership and
Ono Private Contract.

WASHINGTON, -. c., Dec. THE
matter of a Pacific cable was not allow
ed to rest long after the Congress met,
for the fifth bill presented to the House
of Representatives was that of Corliss
of Michigan, to provide for "A government
cable between San Francisco and the
Orient by way of Honolulu, Midway ISL
and Guam and Manila. Since that bill
there have been three others, two by
Jones of Washington and one by Sher-
man of New York. the latter being the
only one which provides for private own
ership of the cable.
The Corliss bill Is that which was in
troduccd by the Michigan man in the
Fifty-sixth Congress. 1t provides for the
laying of a cable under the control and
direction of the Postmaster General and
the Secretaries of War and the Navy,
and authorizes the utilization of the per-
sonnet and resources of both the War
| and Navy Departments. The cables
must be capable of transmitting 1870 let
| tiers minute, shall be of American man
ufacture. and be laid by American ships.
The cable shall be under the control of
| the three heads OF departments which
| lay it, and the rates are laid down at %
cents "A word to Honolulu and 80 cents a
word to Manila, with appropriate differ
entails. The initial appropriation is a
half million dollars, and the contracts
must not exceed s1o.o00O00. There Is a
paragraph authorizing the president to
establish cable Communica ton between
Luzon and Formosa and Luzon and a
Chinese port.
The essential features Of this bill are
those of one hill introduced by Mr., Jones
of Washington. In this measure 1t Is
provided that commission composed OF
the Postmaster General, the Chief Signal
officer of the army and three others, one
Ian engineer, shall decide upon g pu...
of the Pacific Coast from which the ca
BILE shall start, and that there shall not
be a citizen of either oregon, Washing
ton or California ON the first commits
sion. While the president may utilize
the army and navy, the work shall be
done by contract, the cable he oil the
same capacity as above, and the rates
are ~ and 81 cents a word TO the lla-
waiian terminus. and sl.00 a word to
Manila. The bill appropriates a hair mil
lion and fixes limit of cost at 5000, 0oO.
The second cable bill of Mr.. Jones is
most comprehensive. 1t provides for a
cable from some point in Washineto
through the Aleutian group to the island
of Attu, whence the commission may
choose a rourc by way of small islands
to Manila, with branches to Japan, or
lines to Siberia and Japan. or any com
bination of the routes. The second para
graph OF the bill provides for a separate
cable to Hawaii. The commission which
Is to build the cable Is to be made up of
the Postmaster General, the Supcrntend-
cnt of the Coast and Geodetic Survey,
officers OF the Army and Navy and IA pri-
vate engineer. The cable to Attu Is to
he of 200 letters capacity, and the
branches of 20 letters capacity. andn the
total cost must not be more than s6,o09,OoO
for the Alaskan and oriental cables, and
s2.0O0,00O for the Hawaiian line.
The Sherman bill provides for the con-
tracing by the government with an
American company for a cable between
IA point near San Francisco and Homo
lulu, Guam, Manila, Japan and Hong
kong and Shanghai. The contract shall
call for the payment of 100000 a year for
twenty years for the transmission of
government business, that sum to be
kept in a private fund for the repair,
maintenance and renewal of cables, and
there is a provision for the forfeit of the
cable to the government under certain
conditions, and its seizure In case of war.
The rates are those of the Jones bill.