The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-05-05
BY ATHERToN BRowNELL.

telephones and railroads had been for
feited and, in each case, had been
financed by japanese capitalists, who,
in turn, had secured their capital in
Great Britain and the United States.
A pro-Japanese party quietly had come
into being in China and the new dynas-
ty might as we'll have been Japanese
in name. But even previous to the
fall Of the Mancfu dynasty, Manchuria
had been governed by the Chinese
troops under japanese officers and its
rich wheat fields had been worked by
Japanese coolies
1t is necessary to go back another
step fully to appreciate the causes of
the disaster that has overwhelmed us,
and among our sins must be reckoned
those of omission. Even when We
awoke to the fact that our maritime
supremacy on the Atlantic had been
lost, and that we possessed no mer~
chant marine worthy of the name, ade-
! quate measures were not taken to re-
store US to our original position. True,
bills were introduced into Congress pro-
viding for the granting of subsidies to
merchant ships, in weak imitation Of
our rivals. But subsidy has always
been an offensive word to our people
Legislation directly looking to the Gre
alton of a naval auxiliary of merchant
ships to be at the call of the Govern
ment in case of need seemed not to oc-
cur to our Congressman.
Our traditional policy of old, which
built up our merchant marine in the
beginning by discriminating in favor of
American ships in the matter of the
n de- r1erk1S fhn,, 10
not revived. Instead, direct subsidy
legislation was urged, but was SO OPP
posed that no legislation of an effective
character was possible. It was half
hearted and practically valueless in the
matter of really bringing into existence
merchant fleet that could cooperate
with our navy in time of need. Fur
thermore, because of the hostility of GER
tain interests, the Philippine tariff bill
failed of enactment, and this stimulus
to our overseas trade on the Pacific
was allowed to anguish.
The first direct result of this action
followed in 1908, when the Great North
ern Railroad Co., disguised and with
patience at an end, listened to the per-
suasion of japanese emissaries and sold
it's entire steamship holdings TO the
Nippon Yusen Kaisha, that company
having received an enormous subsidy
from the Japanese Government to make
the transaction possible. Then began
rate war such as no ocean had seen
before. Manned by Chinese sailors and
partly aided by the inadequate marine
bill, the Pacific Mail undertook to meet
this new competition. But for years,
largely because of sentiment, 1T had
maintained line Of steamers down the
west coast to Panama which, because
: of the postal contract with the united
States. had made schedule sailings diff
ficult and had eaten heavily into the
Trans-Pacific profits to maintain 1t. The
new Japanese lines, running with
American ships and manned with Jap
anese sailors, now cut freight rates to
point which made competition with
out heavy subsidy impossible.
Mr.. Hartman had previously refused
to sell the ships of the Pacific Mail to
the Japanese lines and there ensued a
struggle that was titanic-Harriman
alone against all of Japan. To meet this,
Japan increased the already great tax