Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1915-08-19
RILEY H. ALLEN
THE NEXT STEP.

.rf-sT
Honolulu wflIsnnt be stampeded into eryin.
for suspension or modification of the coastwis,
law, but neither will Honolulu be lulled into in
action in the face of q real emergency
The territory demands expansion in. steam
ship passenger service to take the place of the
Pacific Mail liners soon to be withdrawn, and
10 care for a steadily-growing tourist traffic.
The American companies operating herr
must furnish the new facilities or Hawaii vii
seek them elsewhere Thepeople of this city
and this territory believe in standing by theil
friends and business associates, in working oui
their problems with the men who have helped
and are helping to promote the substantial in
dustfies of Hawaii-and in return the people
expect these men to meet them halfway in al
emergency such as has arisen.
The Chamber of Commerce went on record
Yesterday, by an overwhelming vote of large
and representative attendance, as follows:
Resolved. That committee of Is be appointed
TO take up with the Matson Navigation Company, the
Pacific Mail Steamship Company, the Oceanic Steam
ship Company and the Observation-Disclosures Steam
ship Company. the question of the alleged conges
tion OF passenger traffic ships plying between
the mainland and these islands and report back as
soon convenient to this chamber to such rem
edes as may be offered.
With this action the Star Bulletin is heartily
in accord From the time few months age
when advocates of coastwise suspension began
their vigorous propaganda, this paper has
maintained that Hawaii should first put the sit
nation squarely up to the American steamship
companies and seek to work out with them a
solution of the problem that vitality concerns
the future of the territory.
The Chamber of Commerce proposes to dc
just this, It proposes to investigate the facts
and the prospects through a committee of
fifteen.
The investigation should be begun without
the losssof single day-a single hour 1t is Of
paramount Importance that Hawaii get to
work at once upon the passenger Transports
ton emergency. Delay will not only be disas-
trous to the development of the tourist bust
hess, but will, in effect, betray the good faith
of the chamber in standing by the American
companies
We have confidence that there are fifteen
men i'm the Chamber of Commerce who will
Tickle this serious situation and stay with their
task until in three or four weeks at the outside
they can submit to the chamber report that
Willie all Hawaii know exactly where this ter
ritory stands in relation to passenger traffic
and exactly what may be expected Of the Mat
SON Navigation, Oceanic, Pacific Mail and
american Hawaiian companies. Even three or
four weeks is long time when the Pacific
Mail is going out of business in an alarmingly
short time.
The Star Bulletin regrets that the chamber
did not take some action on the Great Northern
matter The big steamship company which
rms thisAueen of Pacific liners is ready to send
its traffic manager to- Hawaii If he is assured
The ajf-machine war is now getting down to
a nice exchange of amenities. German Zeppe-
Inns lombard the English coast towns killing
nine women four children and one man and
wounding in about the same proportion. The
Allies saereplanes raid .unfortified Bavarian
towns ia retaliation, killing eight persons,
probablya non-combatants Meanwhile inter
national8aw might as well be nonresident
The "empty berth > argument on behalf of
the steamship companies does not strike us as
fair argument The statistics as to the mum
Der of empty berths year may be entirely
true and we have no reason to question them
land vet entirely beside the point Passen-
gers can't be heterogeneously slowed away.
Mr.. Thurston' letter put this argument where
1t belonged.
While we are watchfully waiting we are also
mobilizing considerable part of the brains of