The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-10-30
HAWAIIANS AT THE
NATIONAL CAPITAL
Continued from page ID

expects to have considerable business
this winter. He is going back to Ha-
H9aii il few days but expects to larry
in Honolulu bur a little while, when he
will return to Washington ami un6er-
take to secure legislation from Congress
that will enable him to dig bitches
across the public lands in North Ko-
hala. He will also seek other legfsla-
ton for the islands. Secretary Cooper
has already made recommendations in
his annual report to the Secretary OF
the Interior, Mr.. Hitchcock, that no
changes be made in the present land
laws; also that the fisheries OF the ISL
ands be protected.
Although Col. Parker, Mr.. Sewar and
Chief Justice Frear have all seen the
Attorney General nothing definite has
| yet occurred regarding the additional
| judge, save the Attorney Generals
opinion that the act of the territorial
Legislature is valid which fact was an
Dounced in a previous letter to the Ad-
ve"t.ser. AS he was leaving the White
| House October II Mr.. SewaIl said as
| National Committeeman he had endors
| ed Mr.. Edward Caypless for the nomf-
nation as judge and he knew of no other
candidates. Chief Justice Frear stated
| that there were four candidates for the
nomination, only two of whom, how
ever, We're probably known as can
dictates in Hawaii. These candidates,
besides Mr.. Caypless, are Mr. Lyle A.
Diclley, Mr.. w. ]. Robinson and Mr..
| Frank E. Thompson. It is altogether
probable that the candidate with Mr.
| Sewall's endorsement will be nominated
! when the President gets ready to act.
| Secretary Cooper states that he ex-
poets to leave Washington on October
| "a, but does not know which steamer he
will catch from San Francisco Since
his return from Boston he has been in
consultation with Secretary Hitchcock
| and other officials about the printing of
| his report and about affairs in the ISL
| ands generally. He added two chapters
| to this report, after returning from
Boston. The remainder of it is already
| in proof but will not be ready for pub
| lication till sometime next week. Mr.
Cooper is likewise attending the council
| of Scottish Rites Masons, which gather
ing includes a large number of promin-
ent men in the United States, some of
them prominent in public life. He will
submit his report for the Scottish Rite
of Hawaii October 10.
There is keen interest here over the
efforts of New York company to Sc
cure concession to lay cable from
| San Francisco to Hawaii, Guam and
| the Philippines but there are evidently
some severe obstacles ahead. The sit
uation is summed up in an editorial
| from the New York Commercial, of
October Il, which reads:
| An unlocked for and, to some extent,
a peculiar complication has arisen in the
| matter of laying an American cable from
| the California coast to the Philippines
| by way of Hawaii A British corpora
ton on March 80, 1898, secured from the
government of Spain a concession" ex-
| tending to 1t the exclusive privilege of
| landing a cable on any of the Philippine
| Islands for the next forty-two years-or
until the year 1910. Spain reserved the
| right to redeem this privilege by pur-
| chase, and the price for such purchase
was stipulated in the concession at $1,000
per year for each year of the unexpired
concession.
| The Eastern Extension Cable Company,
the British concessionaries, has never
| laid a foot of cable under this privilege
but good lawyers assert that the grant is
perfectly valid. Our government IS thus
confronted with the first paragraph of
article VIII of the treaty of Paris. by
which the Philippines were ceded by
Spain to the United States, and with the
second paragraph, reading as follows:
land it is hereby declared that the re-
linquishment or Cession, as the case may
be, cannot in any respect impair
the property rights which by law belong
to the peaceful possession of property of
all kinds, of provinces or of pri-
i individuals of whatGEer nationality
such individuals may be-
In short, the Eastern Extension Ca
bic Company, Englishmen all, holds an
exclusive privilege from Spain that this
government is manifestly bound to re-
spect, and we must, apparently, either let
| 1t go ahead and lay its wires or else buy
the concessions. An American company
with ample capital and of assured re-
sponsib:lity stands ready to lay a cable
across the Pacific from San Francisco to
! Manila and Guam, seeks no subsidy,
guaranty or concession, and merely asks
| the privilege of landing it's cables at the
termini and way stations. with a pledge
| to fix the tolls at rates from 10 to 90
per cent lower than existing rates-but
| it's application is held up In Washington
pending an examination of Spains con-
cession by Attorney General Knox.
| The San Francisco Chronicle calls at
tention to what appears to be fact
| that this concession applies to cables con-
| Meeting any of the islands in the Phil
| ippine group with each other; and 1t is
| fact that when our War Department be-
gan to lay its military cables from island
to island last year, these watchful Brit
ish concessonaries promptly protested,
| but without avail. because our govern
ment stood on it's rights acquired from
Spain by which the privilege of laying
! inter-islaud cables for strictly govern
ment purposes was reserved, But, ap-
parently, these cables as now completed
are not available for commercial and
social purposes The Chronicle, in view
| of these facts. is moved to offer the fol-
lowing suggestions:
IF the American cable were ready to
land in 1904 there would remain Il period
of thfrty-siX years, involving payment
in round numbers, of 100000, which, very
likely, the company applying will expect
the United States to assume. Whatever
the cost the necessity of an American