The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-06-10

| advertiser Correspondence Copyright
by Frederic J. Haskin.)
Los ANGELES, May 26.-without
having met an enemy, without having
fired a shot in anger, without having
encountered anything more dangerous
than salutes and dinner parties, the
| fleet under the command of Rear Adj
niraI Evans came to the ports Of the
| Pacific Coast States to receive a well
| come more enthusiastic in spirit and
more catholic in extent than ever fleet
| received before. If it had returned
| unScathed from a victorious sea battle.
| the million throats could not have
swelled the volume of cheers that
| greeted it. The cities from san Diego
to Seattle could not have increased
the show Of bunting, the myrlads of
flowers, the multiplicity of entertain
ments for officers and men. Why did
this peaceful cruise create such Won
derfui interest?
1t was because the people of the Pa
cific slope had feared the coming of
another navy flying the flag of the
Rising Sun. The fact that the great
fleet had come from the waters of the
Atlantic to the Pacific seaboard and
had arrived in better fighting condi-
ton than when it set out, seemed to
these people to be a guarantee of peace
and protection. With every cheer there
was a deep breath of relief. If the
people who live to the east of the
Hudson river fail to understand why
the Pacific Coast feared the aggres-
sion of an Asiatic power, the people
who live to the west of the Great Di-
vide are equally unable to understand
why the Pacific Ocean should be look
ed upon as foreign waters"
But the influence of the cruise of the
great fleet does not end with its relief
of fears of attack. 1t has given the
people of the Pacific Coast States a
sense of sharing in the destinies of
the future of this great nation which
they did not possess. 1t has been well
coined IS the first act of the long-pre-
dicted campaign for the supremacy of
the United States in the Pacific Ocean.
1t is looked upon as an earnest for the
future that the Pacific fleet of the
American Navy Will be treated with
as much consideration as the Atlantic
fleet, that the Pacific Coast will be
considered as much part of the
United States as the Atlantic seal
board. The influence of the feet, think
these Western patriots, will more than
overcome the influence of Eastern
statesmen and editors who seem to
look upon San Francisco Bay as a
foreign port.
The half million dollars spent by the |
people of the Pacific cities in enter !
tanning the officers and men of the
people of the interior who came to
the port cities to join in the welcome. |
the many thousands of dollars spent
in private entertainments, aggregate
a princely fortune. But dollars and |
cents can not measure the real extent |
of good accomplished by the cruise of |
the fleet in aIlaying the apprehensions |
OF the people of the Golden West.
a little more than a month from now /
the great fleet will sail from san Fran
cisco to visit the ports on the other
side of the Pacific. 1t will be wei
coined with even greater enthusiasm
by the people of Hawaii and the Phil
ippines, whose safety and protection it
guarantees. Honolulu already looks
to its coming as the greatest
event since annexation of the islands
by the Hawaiians as evidence that at
last the United States has come to
realization of the Importance of the
Pacific, and that Hawaii is the key to
the supremacy of that great ocean.
But the full measure of the active
influence of the cruise of the fleet Will
be noted in the foreign ports at which
the great ships will call. That infu-
ence reached those ports long ago,
in advance of the coming of
the ships. 1t will remain, potent for
American welfare, long after the
echoes of the saluting guns have died
from the ears of man.
In Japan the fleet probably will re-
ceive a welcome which will equal, if
1t does not surpaSs, any of the official
of the whole cruise. The
polished and cosmopolitan diplomatists,
ministers and military officers of the
Empire will employ every art of a
people trained for two thousand years
in courtesy to make the stay of the
American seamen pleasant. And, what
IS more important, the japanese for
aign office win carefully abstain from
writing any notes to the American
Government in the arrogant tone which
was employed in discussing the san
Francisco incident The influence of
The fleet has already manifested itself
IN the diplomatic communications of
the MikadO's ministry. Its full force
viii be felt later on.
In China the influence OF the fleet
will be wholly different. Already the .
Chinese look upon the coming feet as
4 physical guarantee of that terrific
rial integrity which John Hay pre-
served eight years ago. Then China
feared European nations whose mutual
jealousy prevented war. Mckinley
Secretary OF state saved China by di-
olomacy. Now China fears the insid-
Gus encroachments of Japan. The
Chinese believe that the demonstra-
ion of force made by the presence OF
he American fleet viii operate to ,
letter Japan from carrying out its de- :
signs The Chinese newspaper press,
which has come into existence since
he Boxer trouble OF 1900, has told the
people all over the Empire that the
American Emperor has sent his great !