The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-03-14

| Frye-Littlefield bill have urged in it's
| behalf that the freight rates to Ha-
wall constituted a telling argument.
| The coastwise shipping laws were ex-
tended to Hawaii and yet freight rates
| from Honolulu are lower now then they
We're 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
a 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 it was that freight
rates from Honolulu are seventy-five
cents cheaper now than they We're some
years ago. nevertheless the rate from
Honolulu to San Francisco is $3.50 high
er than the rate for a similar distance
elsewhere on the Pacific. They also
made it plain by statistics and other
wise that freight rates by water have
decreased greatly everywhere in the
last decade.
Supporters of the Frye-Littlefield bill
have also made a great deal before the
Senate and House Committees out of
the fact that great many ships are
lying idle. They have prepared a 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-
waii. Mr.. Hale had inserted in the
Congressional Record as a part of the
Senate proceedings, a long list of these
ships as prepared for him. Mr.. Alexan-
n II. cfa faI fn l1a
mfttees 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 caPgoes, the diff
culties about the sweating of sugar in
transit, and the fact that such dam
age is not covered by insurance We're
emphasized. The recent withdrawal of
the big freighter Nera0an from the Pa
cif1c service, at least partly on that ac-
count, was called to the attention of
the Congressman. 1t was also stated
that while many of the ships on the
Pacific could carry sugar from Homo
lulu to San Francisco they We're total
ly untitled for voyages around the Horn
and that the ships now available for
carrying sugar cargoes around the
Horn would fall short by 100000 tons of
the present Hawaiian crop.
That meant an extra freight rate of 81
a ton for carrying this sugar across the
continent by rail, in days when small
determinations in rates often represent
all the profits there are in business.
The cordage firms in the eastern
States, all opposed to the bill, are to be
given further hearing. Everything
is being done to show the committee OF
Senate and House the danger there is
that the bill will give England again
the advantage in the hemp trade and
that all hemp cargoes from the Philip
pines will again go to England, as was
the case until few years ago.
HAWAIIANS IN WASHINGTON.
Mr. Smith and Mr. Gartley are both
still at the Shoreham hotel. Mr.. Smith
stated goday that he was well satisfied
with the amendments made to the
Light bill, which amendments
were described in my letter of two days
ago. Mr. Smiths chief concern is that
Congress accept the bill and all the
as prepared by the sub
committee. If some of these amend
ments are adopted and others rejected,
the bill will not be altogether satis-
factory. The protest made by Mr..
oe Honolulu, for the Oahu
Railroad, has been withdrawn and, at
present, everything looks well for the
measure.
Mr.. G. B. Mcclellan of Honolulu, who
came here recently, has been quite Ill
With the grip, which has been preva-
ent all winter in washington and es-
Decially so during the past week. He
has been confined to his bed at the
Riggs House.
Mr.. D. L, Wilmington of Honolulu.
Continued on page 3D.