The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-12-18

farmers, laborerS and mecnanlcS.
The transmississippi territory is the
natural place in which to erect the 800
additional factories necessary to pro-
duce this product, and the question
today is as to whether we shall build
| up 800 new and prosperous valleys in
; this western country shall we allow
our heritage to slip away from US and
be turned into the hands of a few
would-be exploiters of the Philippine
islands.
PARTIES ARE DIVIDED.
Both political parties are divided on
this subject, which is an economic and
not a political one. In the Senate COM
mittee on the Philippines 60 per cent of
the Democrats and 81 IL per cent of
the Republicans voted against the
pending Philippine bill and to main
tain our home industry. A perusal of
the printed testimony will show you
that this majority in each party felt
that neither we nor the native Fill
pinoS had anything to gain but every
thing to lose by sacrificing this great
and growing industry in order to en-
rich a handful of American, British
and Chinese carpet bag exploiters.
They pointed out that We had al
ready spent over 500 million dollars on
the Philippines and were continuing
to spend over % millions a year on
those islands with no hope of getting
any portion of it back. Senator Hale
of Maine developed the fact that while
the Philippines purchased enormous
quantities of goods from foreign coun-
tries their purchase from US amounted
in value to less than was paid to the
farmers of one county in this state for
tIai-- to h.
Secretary of War to admit that what
ever changes be made in our tariff rela-
tons with those islands there was no
prospect of greatly increasing the sale
of our goods, as the goods they i'm
port can be purchased in other markets
for less money than it costs US to pro-
duce them.
1t was shown that while we collect
IS per cent of the regular tariff on Phil
ippine products, every dollar of this
money is RENTED to the Philippine
government, instead of being covered
into our treasury, and allow them to
issue a 50-cent dollar with which to
pay their laborers, and thus cut the
already phenomenally low wage rate
in half. 1t was shown that largely
owing to this wage rate of II cents per
day, the average cost of sugar pro-
duction in those islands is but "a cents
per 100 pounds, while our farmers aver
age to receive 1921 per hundred for the
sugar in their beets before ever the
factory touches them, or just three
times much as the total cost of pro-
duction in the Philippine islands.
CABINET ALSO IS SPLIT.
1t was shown that the freight rate
from Manila to New York is "a cents
per 100 pounds. or one cent per hundred
less than the freight rate on the same
commodity from Omaha to Chicago, IL
cents less than from Denver to Chica-
go, and 81 cents less than from Utah
to Chicago. Even the cabinet is split
up on this important question, and the
President has so far failed to WELD
the proverbial big stick in either di-
rection. The Secretary of Agriculture
stands firmly by the home sugar in
dustry, which in nine years he has been
instrumental in building up from 10000
to nearly 400, 600 tons, thereby enriching
our farmers to the extent of some
twenty to thirty million dollars an
nually.
On the other hand, the Secretary of
War SENS utterly Indifferent to the in
terests of the American farmer and
laborer and pooh poohs the question as
to the islands causing us any possible
injury under any conditions. Some
public men are like Congressman Lacey
of Iowa. who announced himself as a
stand-patter of -pattersville, and
was a stand-patter on all else except )
sugar and tobacco. | notice that after
almost a lifetime in congress, Iowa has
just elected Mr.. Lacey to stay at home.
Many members would seem to hail
from this state, for they need to be
shown. The fact of the matter is, it's
a sort of general miXup with both
parties. In both there seems to be a I
sentiment that we should get .
rid of this national vermiform appen-
dix, which performs no function is be-
coming painful, may become serious,
and ought to be cut out. Members of
both parties see that the sure way to
the islands to us for all time is
to divert few hundred millions from
the home sugar industry to that of the
by fostering their sugar
at the expense of fours. They
have also dicovered that with the sole
exception of slight discount made by
France, no European country makes
any reduction on the sugar coming
from it's colonies; that last year Hol-
land, which owns the island of Java
which produces a million tons of sugar
a year, took but twelve tons out of that
million, that each pound of it paid full
tariff duty. and that the mother coun-
try not only supplied its own people
with all the sugar they consumed, but
exported 500 million pounds to other
nations.
EXPERIENCE WITH HAWAII.
The best teacher in the world is ex-
perience, and the best way 10 Judge
thing is by comparison. Some years
ago we entered into a reciprocity
treaty with Hawaii. which then pro 3
duced 90CO tons of sugar annually. At =
that time the very maximum capacity :
Of those islands was placed at 1900 =