Year: 1876

There are no bills now before Con-
gress of more Importance to this coast
than the Hawaiian treaty and the sill
yer currency bill. Both these meas.
ures were under consideration on the
11th instant, the treaty before the
House, and the other before the Sem
ate. The treaty having passed through
the Senate by large majority and
gone to the House for concurrence and
the silver currency bill, having receiv-
ed large majority in the House is
now before the Senate. Neither one
of those bodies seems to be quite sat
isfied with the action of the other,
consequently they have come to a
hitch. The Senate finance committee
added several amendments to the
House silver currency bill. But the
urgent necessity for resuming the work
of printing the legal tender and ma
tional bank notes, and desire to see
the resumption of fractional currency
by silver coin, caused the most of the
amendments to be withdrawn, leaving
only one important amendment, to
which it is believed the House will
acquiesce, that is, to strike out the
provision for making the trade dollar
a legal tender for fifty dollars. The
Senate adjourned without coming to
q final vote. 1t was their favorable
consideration of this subject that
caused the rapid rise in silver yester-
day. But the senate Hawaiian Treaty
measure seems to have met with q
worse fate in the House. The House
had been in session more than five
hours when this measure came up.
The opponents of the treaty took ad-
vantage of the WEAKNESS of the House
and in the absence of many of the
friends fthe treaty carried an adjourn
ment without setting any time for fur
ther consideration of the measure. 1t
will now require a two thirds vote to
take up this bill out of its regular or
der. and it is not likely to be reached
again for some time to come. The
New York Herald is the leader of a fac
ton who are exceeding anxious to have
the treaty cons umated and the stong-
est argument it makes in its favor is
to give the Pacific coast cheap sugar.
This,to use California phrase, lis too
thin" California wants no special IA
vors of this kind, nor has she asked
any treaty favors that will give her
the advantage of any of her sister
States. True the Burlin-game treaty
with China, has imposed heavy bur-
dens on her from which she would
gladly be relieved. but no special
treaty stipulations will compensate
her. All she asks is fair play. But
the idea of giving us cheap sugar is
laughable, and such a thought never
entered any body's head but the edi-
tors of the Herald. To suppose the
Hawaiians would give US sugar for a
less price than we could get
the same quality from other countries
is preposterous. They do not control
the sugar market of this country, and
If they did they would squeeze the
last cent out of US they could. II is
more than likely they would reduce
the price of fruit on the Pacific coast,
and this is just what we don't want, as
it would cripple one of the most prom
ising Industries we have. But suppose
We could get sugar cheaper on this
coast by making this treaty, how long
would 1t be before our Eastern breth-
rem would ask to have the duties ta-
ken off ofFrench wines to compensa te
them for our cheap sugar-and then
the South would ask something, and
West something and there would be
no end to it. We want no more spec
ial legislation.