The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-01-08
TO WORK
AGAINST
CHANGES
Business Men to
Take Up Two
Fights.
Will Oppose Reports
of the Senate's
Committee.
Land and Leper Questions viii
Be the Subject Of Discussion
and Protests.

Honolulu will not sit idle while Con
| gress considers the report of the sub
committee of the Senate Committee OF
| Pacific Islands and Porto Rico, bu
steps have already been taken looking
to the bringing to the notice of the
friends of the Islands at Washington
the points which bear the approval OF
the investigating Senators, but which
here are believed to make for the worst
possible future of the Territory.
Vice President Cooke yesterday after
noon issued call for special meeting
of the Chamber of Commerce to be held
this morning, at which steps will be
taken to bring to the attention of the
National legislature the many argu-
ments against the carrying out of the
entire program of the subcommittee,
and President Macfarlane, of the Mer-
chants Association will, during the
day. call a meeting of that body to
swing it's influence into line with the
older organization. The cable will be
called into play and the protests of the
business community will be speedily
laid before the men upon whose action
will rest the decision upon subjects
which are considered vital by the peo
pie.
Without exception, almost, the men
who have to do with the business OF
the Territory are amazed by the report
of the committee as outlined in the
cablegrams to the Advertiser. While
many of them will not publicly dis
cuss the subject until they have before
them the whole matter in the form of
the report to the parent committee,
others there are who think the few rec
concentrations of benefits for the Terri
tory are more than overshadowed by
the blows at commerce and industry
concealed in the recommendations as
to lands and lepers.
c. NJ. Cooke said that he considered
that the recommendations as to lands,
if carried into law by Congress, would
paraIyze the industry through which
the Islands thrive. He continued:
There can be no other feeling among
the business men of the Islands than
that the system which has been care
fully evolved here is for the best inter
est of all. The conditions are so differ.
ent here from what they are in the
mainland territories and states, that no
superficial inquiry can determine Gne
best plan for the holding and distribu-
ton eff the land. The system of leases
under which the sugar estates hold the
lands which they make tillable through
bringing water upon them is one which
is of benefit both to the industry and
the Territory, and to wipe it out would
mean the return of much of the land
to the desert.
1T would be an outrage for the Unit
ed States to make this country dump
ing ground for the lepers of the entire
nation. 1t would place a stigma upon
the land which would never be remov-
ed and there would be for all time
fear on the part of the people of the
mainland that if they came here they
would be in danger of contamination.
1t would be disastrous.
''The recommendation of the COM
mittee as to the coffee bounty, if it
should become law, would mean a re-
vival of that industry; and the i'm
provement of the harbors and taking
over of the system of lighthouses
would be an aid to commerce. The
payment of the fire claims is to be Ia
ken as an expression of favor TO the
people here, and, speaking generally,
the other recommendations are good
ones"
President Macfarlane of the Mer-
chants Association was highly indig
nant over the pronouncement of the
relating to the leprosy
matter. He said:
''TO brand Hawaii as the National