The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-09-01
THE HAWAIIAN SITUATION.

/ xinciag, and will have great weigh
with all patriotic and intelligent citi
/ zens. who know the standing of tn
writer and the conditions TO which h
| refers. 1t strongly grasps the Hawaiian
situation, and powerfully supports tn
| rising public sentiment. which the Ad
| vertiser has sought to awaken.
There are many who will differ from
| Mr.. Jones on his general views of the
Exclusion laws and on the proposition
| that Hawaii does not need special Con
! gressionaI legislation on the labor ques-
ton and special aid from the Elk
ecutive Department of the Federal Gov
eminent. But these points are only in
cidental to the main argument, which
apparently is irrefragable.
The proposition, sustained by figures,
that the Islands have gained So, 600
and the. rise of their Az per cent. bonds
! to par, by annexation. as against the
loss of nine millions or less withdrawn
by the Federal Government, is trans
parentIy true and, once for ell, refutes
the reiterated statement that al~iexa-
ton has not been commercial success.
The argument against annexation upon
the mainland, when that question was
imminent, was not and could not have
been placed upon the assumption that
incorporation into the national terri
tory would not be commercially profita-
bic to the islands themselves. Such an
absurdity did not occur to statesmen
and citizens representing the substan-
tia1 business of the nation. 1t was APP
parent that the transition from an over
thrown monarchy tnd temporary re-
public, in. the midst of the Pacific, iso-
lated from the progressive world and
with large Asiatic population, to full
identification with the American Union,
in a financial sense at least, could
not fail to be locally advantageous.
1t was from the national and not from
the insular standpoint that the legal
ity and the expediency of anriexation
were doubted. 1t was claimei, first:
that, under the Federal Constitution as
interpreted and applied, the function of
the United States was the establish
ment of commemorative and The de-
veIopment of citizenship or tae con-
tinent; second: that the extension of
national sovereignty to the nid-Pacific
would weaken and perhaps abrogate the
Monroe Doctrine; and, third: that Ia
Dor conditions in Hawaii wollld de-
velop problems essentially different
from those existing on the mainland
and which would require distinct treat
ment
These We're the converging features
one, however, disputed the fact that the
Islands would be benefited by acquiring
a local habitation and a name in the
great American family. The sugar in
terests. upon which Hawaii depended,
were in a precarious state. They had
been = enormously advanced by the
Reciprocity Treaty, to which intense
antagonisnn, within the ranks of the
Republican Party, had been excited
As Mr.. Jones has appositely stated, a
resolution for rescission had been
adopted by a caucus of Republican
senators, and would inevitably have re-
suited in the annulment of the treaty. |
Annexation, therefore. was vital to the
predominant element in the property
interests of the Hawaiian Republic. A
protectorate could not have accom- |
plished the same results.
Mr.. Jones puts his finger on a pro-
minent factor in the recent depression, |
when he attributes it to RECKLESS spe-
culation.'' There We're and are otner
factors, which are not within the scope
of his communication or of this arti-
Gle. In his diseernment of the practical |
benefits already derived from annexa-
ton, he is definite and exact, and in /
his representations for the future he |
displays acute sagacity. But his
strongest proposition in relation to To-
cal necessities is expressed in the fol-
lowing extract, in which he unites with
thousands of his countrymen in endors-
ing the settled policy which the Adver-
tiser has advocated:
The future of these Islands will be
lust what we ourselves make it. We
want to do more than encourage tour
sts to visit US; we want, as your paper
has been advocating, men with famf-
lies to come in and take, up our I'M
lands and settle permanently
N the Islands,
This paragraph is nucleus, to which
the prompt, earnest and decided atten- +
ton of the Territorial and Federal Gov
arnments, and of the people at large.
should be directed. The true interests
a. tla.a- Is1anas l.f a. 49,