The Hawaiian gazette., 1904-03-15

WASHINGTON, D. c., Feb. 29.-The
Philippine Shipping bill has been earn
! estly opposed here, from the Hawaiian
standpoint, during the last four or five
days. Hon. w. o. Smith, of Honolulu,
who took the matter up soon after ar
irving in Washington. as stated in a
previous letter, was reinforced early
last week by the arrival of Mr.. w. NJ.
Alexander, of the firm of Alexander &
Baldwin, of San Francisco ana Homo
lulu. They have had consultations
anew with Secretary of War Taft and
have had hearings before the Senate
Committee on the Philippines and also
before the House Committee on Mer-
chant Marine and Fisheries. The hear
ings before the latter committee occu-
pied two days, Friday and Saturday.
The subject was gone into very thor
oughly. The friends of the Frye-Little-
field bill, which requires all the car
rying trade between the United States
and the Philippines to be in American
bottoms, have compiled several tables
and gathered other statistics, calculat-
ed to further their side of the case. As
Mr.. Alexander was very familiar with
all the details of shipping on the Fa-
cific he proved valuable ally to Mr..
Smith. Together they have been able
to strongly support Secretary Taft in
his contentious against the bill.
And right at this point it might be
said that suggestions of compromise
have been thrown out to the supporters
of the Frye-Littlefield bill These are
supposed to emanate from Secretary
Taft, who is enthusiastically for free
trade with the Philippines. He has
recommended 1t in years gone by aud
has strong hopes that Congress IN the
course of a year or two will enact a
free trade bill. The supporters IF the
Frye Littlefield bill have been given to
understand that as soon as such free
trade law with the Philippines can be
enacted no objections will come from
the War Department to restricting the
carrying trade with the Philippines TO
American vessels. There are some Isa-
I sons for believing that this suggestion
will go far towards defeating the pend
ing bill at this session of Congress and
that the present law, affecting the car
rying trade to the islands, may be con-
tinued for couple of years. AS con-
ditions are it is claimed there must be
legislation of some kind at this ses-
sion.
SEWALLS OPPOSED HAWAIIANS.
The Sewalls, of Bath, connected with
the big shipbuilding firm there, have
been in Washington during the hear
ings. One of them was Hon. Harold
Sewall, formerly Minister to Hawaii.
The Sewalls made a determined attack
on the Hawaiians in urging the com
mittees of Congress to pass the pend
ing bill. They declared that the Ha-
waiians We're in reality fighting freer
trade with the Philippines for the pur-
pose of preventing sugar from the Phil
ippnes coming into competition with
the sugar from Hawaii.
Mr. Smith and Mr.. Alexander for
chilly repealed that kind of an argument.
They told the House Committee that
the argument advanced by the Sewalls
was both irrelevant and impairment at
this time. When the question of re-
moving all tariff on products from the
Philippines comes up, added these gen.
tlemen from Hawaii, it is one to be
met by the beet sugar interests and to-
bacco growers of the States.
Regarding the question of freight
rates from Hawaii, as affected by the
Philippine bill, some very important
facts We're presented Supporters of the
FIye-Llllltlitlu Dlll nave uTSeu III It's
behalf that the freight rates to Ha-
wall constituted telling argument.
The coastwise shipping laws were ex-
tended to Hawaii and yet freight rates
from Honolulu are lower now then they
were ten years ago. Mr.. Hale, of Maine,
in the Senate the other day called at
tention to that phase of the situation
as an argument in behalf of the bill
to require government stores to be ship
ped in American vessels and further
predicted that, although there might be
slightly higher rate at first than is
now being paid, the rate would event |
ually be lower than the present rate.
But Mr.. Smith and Mr.. Alexander |
before the House Committee pointed
out that, true as 1t was that freight |
rates from Honolulu are seventy-fv |
cents cheaper now than they We're some !
years ago, nevertheless the rate from |
Honolulu to San Francisco is S1.50 high
er than the rate for a similar distance |
elsewhere on the Pacific. They also
made 1t plain by statistics and other
wise that freight rates by water have
decreased greatly everywhere in the
last decade.
Supporters of the Frye Littlefield bin
have also made great deal before the
Senate and House Committees out of
the fact that great many ships are
lying idle. They have prepared list
of these vessels and of their carrying
capacity to show that there is ample
tonnage to handle the cargoes on the
Pacific, including all cargoes from Ha-
wall. Mr.. Hale had inserted in the
Record as part of the
Senate proceedings a long list of these
ships as prepared for him. Mr.. Alexan-
der and Mr.. Smith stated to the Com
mittees that the showing by those lists
was not complete as regarded Hawaii
They declared that most of those ships
could not handle sugar cargoes around
Cape Horn to New York. The peculiar
character OF sugar cargoes. the diff
culties about the sweating of sugar in
transit. and the fact that such dam