The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-05-28
JOHN HUGHES ON PRESSING
NEEDS OF THIS TERRITORY

Editor Advertiser: Kindly permit me
through the columns of your paper to
| place before our Representatives, the
visiting Congressman, some few of our
pressing needs that the writer feels
are vital to the best interests of this
territory and which can only be
granted by the gentlemen who are
amongst US at the present time.
| That this Territory may advance
| steadily along progressive American
lines, we want enacted by Congress a
law Substituting the American mer-
chant marine, We want enacted a law
giving to the local Legislature power
to amend our land laws. We want
permission and help to bring to the
Territory four thousand European i'm
migrants per year for the next ten
years. And we want a voice, no mat
ter how small, in the choice of our
| judges and Governor. A law subsi-
dizing the American merchant marine
| is one of grave import, and one of the
| most important that could occupy the
minds OF American statesmen. With
such law on our statute books every
seaport on the Atlantic and Pacific
would be q hive of industry in the
building Of ships, loading and unload
ing Of them; and as it was fifty years
ago, our clipper ships would again sail
over every sea and carry our flag to
every port. In the interior our fac
tories, foundries and rolling mills
would be taxed to supply the demand
for material. Where this Territory
has now three steamers a month. then
We would have six, in times of peace
our merchant marine would supply us
with men for our ships of war, and in
time Of war we would have ready at
hand troop ships. dispatch boats, and
auxiliary cruisers.
Our commercial supremacy on the
Pacific would be assured, a supremacy
that carries a higher prestige than that
of war.
Without ship subsidy Japan will
control the Pacific trade and the mar
kets of the East
The land laws Of this Territory in
their operation and application are
nugatory of results and sadly need
mending. We want Congress to
amend those laws or give US the power
to amend them; a law that on the one
hand sells at public auction small par
GELS of land and on the other sells to
one man an island, can never bring
American farmers here, and yet we |
want American farmers You cannot |
raise a superstructure without a foun- I
dafion- You cannot build up American |
civilization without Americans. The !
foundation Is here but it is neither |
broad nor strong enough for addition
al burdens.
If this Territory is to become Amerf-
can in fact, as well as in name, then
we must have European laborers for
Dur canefelds: men who can and will I
grasp at the honor of American citi-
zenship, who will observe and respect Il
our laws, and will aid US to build up
n this outpost Christian civilization.
4, however, present conditions are to
prevail, then / submit the door should /;
De thrown open to all of Asia. Give
hem an equal show, rather than have ;
me power take all.
Notifications are needed here. we |
want them: also the money that viii !
,e spent in their construction. Yet ]
me American farmer with his family
ettled on our lands would be more
beneficial to the country at large than
ne hundred guns.
The refunding bill, If passed, would
lelp little. but the benefits TO be
erived from it would dwindle into
compared to the bene-
its we would receive from a steady
influx of European immigration. s
Appropriations for improving and
aaneniue~ o41r harhOrs is money spent .