Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 270, 1 September 1891 — A Stunted Statesman. [ARTICLE]

A Stunted Statesman.

In the San Francisco Evening BuUetin ©f Aug. 20, under the heading of u Pele's Islands," — appears what purports to be an interview witk Mr. L. A. Thurston, whoaa* pired to be the liead of the G&binet, | (in fact, the whole Cabinet) of the -i late ?evolutionary regime. —- While the article bears ali the Thurstonian earmarks, it is apparently not an u interview," in the ordmary serise of the term, but an essay pn the Hawaiian situation, wntten out by Mr. Thurston and handed in for publication.

The prospects of the planters as might have been expected, form the chief topic of his discourse, and therein he states, with probable aeeuracy, that the revenue of the barons will shrink from the $13,000,000 figure whieh was realized from the last crop. to $8,000,000 for the erep soon to be harvested, —- thus showing a decline in the profits of the barons, of $5,000,000, upop one year's operations under the McKinley bill, as compared with the preceding year, when the Ameriean tax payer was paying them a clear bonus of forty odd dollars per ton upon their product.

It is hard to work up any sympathy for the Yankee, English, Scotch Irish and Dutch BUgar magnates who, with less than a half-do-zen of Hawaiian blood, (mostly rengades to their race and country) constitute the so-called planting interest of these Islands. They have, for fifteen years past fattened upon the charity of Unele Sam, — and have repaid the generdsity of America by purchasing every possible pound of produce and pieee of machinery in British and German markets, except when the American market offered greater advantages. We will cite the instance of the purchase, in Germany of his «ntire milling plant, (worth in the jieighborhood of $150,000) by that Tampant, spread-eagle, fourth-of-July American patriot, Col. Z. S. Spaiding, of the Makee Sugar Go., Kauai. The plant for the yet uncompleted mill at Makaweli, in whieh missionary Boldwin is the gaiding star, is to eome, or has eome from great Britain. Plenty more eueh instancesj bnt ne space for citation.

It is evident to the residents of tho Tslands that Mr. ThurstonVreview of the sugar prospects, as eontained in the Bau Francisco paper, is more hopeful and sanguine tlian the conditions v.iH \varrant, — and that, while a majorityof tlu? plantations will go deeply into debt. as a resu!{ of iheir operations in 1891'2. fow or iu:nc of l'neni wiil pay respoetable dividends, atid many a will be obli<;ed to sus]>etHi entirely when ! i ;e eane now growing is harvcsted. Mr. Thurston admits that fully 20 percent of Ihe plantatious will be frozen out if present eonditions eonlinup.—an estmvatc mueh Iwlow what is warranted by facts. But the aniusing foature ofour

great Btate6man's int£rview, is the remedy whieh he proposes for the losses resulting to our industries from the MeKinley bill. He doee tiot unfeld his colossal and dazzling scherae wi th tion, but holds back the most sublime and stupendous feature of the remedy until all other probable and possible schemes have been disciis2ed and discarded, — been weighed in the halanee and fotind wanting,—Thus, before finally unmasking his awful bāttery of political and industrial expedients, he review's the hopes to be founded upon the Presidential power'to soon reimpose the sugar du.ties upon the product of such countries as do nōt promptly eome into the reciprocity net so cleverly spread for them by Mr. Blaine. But fehe darling and dazzling genius of Haleakala, in this, as in other particulars wherein oitr interests are boundup in the course of Amcriean politics, has shown himself unable to read the open book of accoiaplished facts,—not to mention the half-open scroll of probabilities. With a treachery of mernory for whieh he niade hiniself famous, (or the reverse) while in office here, our great political luminary forgets or ignores the fact that the sugar product of the countries with whieh Unele Sam has already concluded reciprocity treaties, under the McKinley act-probably Brazil andCuba, is more than sufficient, in conjunction with the Hawaiian and home product, to supply the American market.

Of what adventage to us, then, if President Harrison should exercise his power in that direction, and reimpose thc old rate of duty upon the sugar of every other country under the sun ? The supply from Louisiana, California, Hawaii, Cuba, Brazil and such other states as shall by that time. be induded in the reciprocity fraternity will exceed the American demand, and though America should not thereafter receive a pound of sugar from other lands, the result to us will be the same as now, for we will stillbe in competition with enough of the countries of chaper production than we ean attain, to keep us. for all practical purposes, upon a plane of equality with all the sugar countries of the world.

Having canvaBsed the foregoing ground, and professed to the cxtraction of sorae comfort for our sugar planters therefrom, though not sufficient to satisfy their known insatial)le appetites in that direction, our gifted son uncorkod his real »inwn~pure panaeea for Hawaii's ills. and gave the Ban Francisco journalist a taste of the saccharine compound, and what d'y£ s 7 pose the bottle contained ? Why,— pineapph pr<:x<'ries. and <iuar'i jeUy! Auwe!

This. is how our western Bismarck proposes to lili the ''acliing ! void M now existing in the sugar eaiup. Ile says this governinent i is ~e omniitted" to an attemut to secure ' 4 complete reeiprocity" — tuieaning. of eourse. free trade) ( with tlie United Btates. We will take ttie liberty of asking our romaneina: traveler when, where. bv and before whem, bv what authority and under what cireumstauees Hie "Ilawaiian <»overnment M was so % N)ommitted ?" If the '\mjiimitment v> has beeu made, it was

not done in open court t but must have been the work of S9me missionary c&bāl/ executed in midnight sesslon f —and tbat Mr. Tburston ougbt to be an authority an such matters Y we •cheerfullv admit. If by the term "Hawaiian Government" our reputed statesman means the presejit Gabinet,—there we protest against its being "committed" to anything, — unless to political cblivion. It is illegal to "commit" a nuisance.

And so,. under the benefieient ; provisions of free trade witl». the United States, our myriad-minded economist frōm the wilds of Haleakala proposes to export to the Am-i enean market those two toothsome delicacies, pineapple preserves and g«ava jelly, — and thus to bridge the abyss into whieh the i country has falien through a re-l duction of $5,000,000 in its annual revenue. What a stupendous idea! How eminently worthy of the eolossal brain that gave it birth. How Unele Sam ; s mouth, —if not his eyes — will water, when he beholds that scmtillating star of OGcidental politics, — 8 our own and only Thurston — approaching the American capital with a jar pf pineapple preserves under one arm, — a tumbler of guava jelly under the other, a dried hanana slung round his neek, a luscious tomato in his mouth, and a high and holy purpose in ēither eye, bent upon a career of dip!omatic triumphs* that will not only plaee a sample of eaeh of those succulent sweets upon every table In the land, biit will, at"onebrilliant stroke, retrieve the fallen fortuces of Hawaii nei, and more than atone for our annual loss of five millions, mvolved in the insignificant and picayune sugar trade ! Ye Gods, little fishes, and iittler politicians gaze upon the scene. and weep, that no such sublime ideas of the limtless possibilities of pineapple preserves and guava jelly have ever been vouchsafed to your cramped and dwarfish minds.

So now briog forth the crown of roses, twine the ü blooming'* ehaplet round his dome of thonght, and enthrone this useful marvel on the 01ympian seat, or, if vou are just out of 01ympic seats, what's the matter with a lava crag on the summit of Haleakala, whenae this darling of the young and waterv west, — this idol of the occidental tropics—ean conveniently oversee the operations in his pineapple patch ?

But a sadder thought occurs to i us. Can it be that his lately acquired proprietorv right in the hasb-house on the hill, at Kilauea, has unsettled our friemrs stnpfiKiuuUs mtellect, and dwarfed his ideas, from the measure of .hundreds of thousands of tonsof sugar to that- of pinca])ole preservesand giw ava jelly by the glass? Tk* godg of preserves and politics forbid that tlu> Honorable Guava Jelly Thurston shou!d be so atlVote<L

We will ri>vunv, at a l:itor d:ito. Mr. Thursto:is <Mmplinieiits to the <<rttor nnd po]i<y of this journal, contnuiod m the mtervie\v referr« vl {•>.