The Hawaiian gazette., 1913-04-08
HONOLULU WILL SHUT
UP SHOP LONG ENOUGH
TO FILE PROTEST AGAINST
ANY FREE SUGAR FOLLY
(From Monday Advertiser.)

tomorrow morning on the roof garden
of the Alexander Young Hotel. The
banks of Honolulu will suspend business
for this gathering, the stock exchange
will close, trust companies have decid-
ed to cease operations, wholesale houses
of all kinds will pause in the midst of
their work and the big retail establish
ments will interrupt business too, as
far as possible, to allow all Honolulu
to join in the mass meeting. 1t is to be
a general public demonstration to back
Ex-Governor Carter as Washington dele
gate from Hawaii in carrying on the
sugar protection committees campaign
against free sugar and, more than that,
it is to give public voice to Hawaii's
protest against being the victim of a
national policy fraught with even more
hurtful possibilities, in the opinions of
the leaders of the campaign, than those
involved in realization of the, picture
painted by the late Claus Spreckels
when he declared he would live to see
"grass growing in the streets of Homo.
lulu.'
As the campaign has progressed it has
taken a broader scope, and the commit
tee has constantly been receiving and
evolving new arguments, and new evi.
dences Of the public awakening to the
danger that confronts the Islands.
Chairman Carter has figured out, as a
sample of what might be expected for
Honolulu under free sugar, what would
have been the result last year IL Ha.
wall hau been treated the same as Cuba,
which, under preferential agreement,
has an advantage in the American mar
ket. "For once we had coincidence
Of high prices and very large crop"
said Carter and the figures show divi-
dends of $9,400,000. If we had had to
compete with Cuba, on her basis, com.
peting with the other foreign crops and
paying the. tariff she pays we should
lhaNe been over three millions in a hole
in, this most favorable of years. This
| is as it would have happened in the ban
ner year, with Hawaii getting all the
benefit of the tariff of $1.6s5 against
the European crop"
s What Is Being Done.
The mass meeting will be in part for
the purpose of reporting upon the work
done by and through the protection COM
mittee. The volume of work has in
creased from day to day, as the local
press has reported proceedings and
given discussions which have been a
great education to many people. In
public meetings and by correspondence
| also, public sentiment has been aroused,
until offers of aid began coming in from
many unexpected sources. Before the
matter was agitated, not many people
seemed to realize that legislation was
threatened which might bring ruin to
| the whole community for years. As the
retail merchants and others not directly
| interested in sugar began to see a pros
pect of Fort and King streets decorated
with ''.TO Let" signs, they woke UP to
some real hustling. Their clerks and
employees followed suit, and the hustling
took the form of letter writing.
Statistics and "S. o. 81
- The thousands of letters that have
been sent out are of great variety in
style and appeal. From the big firms
have gone thousands of carefully pre-.
pared statements Of the case, backed
by, statistics. From organizations, such
as the civic federation, have gone APP
peals based more upon civic and pat
riotic. grounds, while hundreds Of ind.
vidnals have made their pleas in pei
sonal style. The number of the latter
is hard to estimate, as many writers
do not inform the committee about their
letters. Some of their possible eff.
cheney is thus lost, irf the opinion of the
committee, for in the personal campaign
which Mr.. Carter is to make, it will be
a great aid to him to know as much as
possible about what letters may have
been received by men with whom he
may be talking He will have big
job keeping track Of them, but is pre-
pairing systematized card index plan
and giving so much study to the mat.
| ter that he will have head full of per,
sonal material, as well as sugar argu
ments, when he goes.
New York Leads Now.
During the past week New York pass
ed California rs the State to which the
largest number of letters was sent. In
each State, most of the letters were to
the metropolis. From the present ap,
pearanees OF the indexes, it appears
that more than thousand letters have
gone to New York City alone. a ina,
iority, of course, are the letters of bust
ness men to the firms from whom they
buy merchandise. They are based to 4
large extent on Hawaii Is right to be
heard rs a community which buys 500,
100000 worth of material year from
the mainland. This explains why Sar
Francisco comes next to New York II
the number of letters. Between the
two metropolis of the East and West
scarcely 2 city Of Importance is left out
of the list to receive letters from here
about the sugar tariff.
Washington, d. c., is the fhirt
on the list A majority of the missivei
sent there are to members of the sen
ate and house. These are of very in
1uential character in many cases. Let
tiers have gone from Honolulu to mem
hers of the cabinet and TO members o.
both the senate and house, from mel
lwho were their college classmates, room