The Hawaiian gazette., 1906-08-17

| ing t. IfnHfy iecAs j. H. Ihit, Ntu
W fsmith. r. +. Paxton and w. 4
Rowen. when he had made the en-
rounceinent Mr.. Lowfey withdrew an
introduced his successor. Mr. oinard
who. an assuming the Office, thanked
the members for the honor conferred
upon him and promised TO bend his
Efforts toward Increased membership
aud increased good lie hoped to see
more Interest taken In the affairs Of
the chamber and that the members
would assist IN continuing the work
that had been undertaken by his pre-
decessor.
WANTS OPEN MEETINGS.
Mr.. Tenney referred to the executive
session and said he opposed them for
obvious reasons. The only way for the
members TO know what Is going on in
the chamber In through the press and
he hoped the trustees would see their
way clear to have open sessions. He
referred to the courtesy shown by the
reporters in not publishing matters
that would be injurious to interests II
they were made public before the time
| was ripe The proceedings Of the
chamber are interesting, he thought,
and the rank and file could not keep
| in touch except with what Is In the
| PAPERS If the papers do not fully re-
port, or do so incorrectly, the secre-
tary will be able to rectify that.
Mr.. Lowrey said the trustees had
| decided upon D. m. as the hour for
| holding the meetings. The morning
paper was never represented and the
afternoon papers did not fully or cor
Icctly report the proceedings owing to
! a lack of time. 1t was decided then
| to exclude the press and have the Sec
| letary supply the newspapers with
such of the minutes as it was thought
| advisable.
| In response TO Mr.. Giffards request
| for the expression of opinion. Mr..
Tenney said he could appreciate the
| feelings of the trustees in having the
| reports garbled, but that Is matter
that may be easily corrected and from
| which they should be protected. AS
member representing a business here
he was anxious to know what Is going
on. He realized fully that there are
at times matters that should not be
published and when something of d
really particular nature is to be dis
cussed the trustees can attend to them
| in executive session.
At the close of Mr.. Tenney's re-
| marks the president said this phase of
the affairs of the chamber would have
attention at the next meeting of the
| trustees.
MR.. MEARS OF PORTLAND.
Mr. Lowrey read letter accredit-
| ing Mr. Mears, a business man OF
Portland, to this chamber, and added
that the gentleman was present. He
would like the members to meet him
and thought it might be advisable to
arrange meeting of the Merchants
Association and the chamber and have
him address the members of both Or
ganizations. Mr. Mears was called upon
to say something. He manifested a
great interest in the affairs of the
BODY and said he appreciated the re-
marks of Mr.. Tenney. 1T is a difficult
matter for us to get satisfactory re
ports" he said. because it is almost
impossible to get full meetings on ac-
count of many of the members being
engaged in business from which they
can not get away. We have IN our
Chamber of Commerce a thousand
members and at one time we had open
meetings. But our legal friends mo-
nopolized the time and the merchants
began to sift out. That didn't seem
to work, so we shut out our members
who were of the legal fraternity, ana
, even that did not work. so we reor-
ganized and placed the affairs of the
chamber in the hands of committee.
Even this does not always work, ana
/ will give you an instance that oc-
Cured this spring.
THE BOARD OF PORTLAND.
"You will understand that our rivers
and harbors are under the control of
an organization known as the Board or
Portland. Last spring there was a
railroad trying to get into Portland
along the north bank of the Columbia
but the company failed to get what
they wanted. The committee of the
Chamber of Commerce was against
them and the Board had gone against
the wishes of the railway company so
we called a meeting of the whole
Chamber because there was lot of
talk going on and we wanted to see
where the trouble was. The result of
that meeting was that the action of
the committee was overridden and the
Board of Portland was obliged to let
that railway company put its bridge
about where 1t wanted to. We have
Commercial Club in Portland with a
membership of 1000 and the men in all
lines of business meet there during the
day and have luncheon. In that club
are representatives of every line of
business. Our secretary exploits Port
land at every opportunity. 1t would not
be possible for Honolulu to, have so
large club as you have not the popu-
lation but you could have similar
organization. perhaps, out of which
would come good.
Your attendance here is unusual. I
heard your secretary say you have
sixty-nine members and find here to-
day about one-third? That is better
than we have in Portland except on
special occasions like the one / referred
to when we had four hundred present.
| am sent here to try and reestablish
trade relations with Honolulu. A gem
tleman over there is staring at me
pretty hard so / had better explain by
saying that sixty years ago Portland
received supplies from Hawaii. In our
State CaDitOl we have a printing press