the Occident. Of all cities, Honolulu will and it is doubtful if many of them anticibe benefited the most. She will become pate the growth of industry in the varithe stopping place of steamers bound

ous islands of the group. from New York to the Orient and the The islands are destined to occupy Antipodes, and she will also come for a relatively just as commanding a position much larger share of the business neces- as the city of Honolulu itself, and Hilo, sitated by the establishment of additional the second city of importance on

the lines from Japan, China and the Philip- larger island of Hawaii is to be a close pines to New York, Europe and Califor- second in the race for supremacy in comnia. It is not outside the realm of pos- mercial and especially in manufacturing sibility to suggest that all around the development in the islands. Hawaii is world carrier lines will be established, the key to the Pacific. Without it, comand Honolulu must be a stopping point merce may not move. Without it, in a en route, imperatively demanded by the measure, the benefits accruing from the exigencies of the case. Honolulu is bound construction of the Panama Canal are to become one of the greatest coaling and nullified. With it as a possession of the revictualing stations the world has ever United States, an integral unit in the galknown, and, when it is taken into con- axy, war is impossible to any nation, and sideration that the products of these we command the Pacific. islands will in five years have more than It may be assumed that the United trebled, the importance of the city hold- States will in the coming years enact ing the key to the islands cannot be over- national legislation that will provide a estimated. The people of Honolulu do ship subsidy system that will sweep not not know it; few of them have even a only the Pacific but the Atlantic seas of glimmering idea of the importance of the all opposition. place or of its future metropolitan size, It has been shown in these columns by

far abler writers than myself that the nation must meet other nations, not on theory and practice of subsidies is an in- an equal footing, but with all the advanjurious one. It is, however, to paraphrase tages in its own hands. from one of our great men, not a theory It is easily conceivable that the theory but a condition that confronts us, and the that a subsidy system is like the pouring

Puunene Sugar Mill. The largest sugar mill in the world.

the manager

II. A. Baldwin is

It

а

of water into a tub which
is leaking at the bottom al-
most as fast as it is being
poured into at the top, and
that the maintenance of a
continual and comprehen-
sive subsidy system depends
entirely upon the ability of
the nation to continue the
pouring in process at the
top. It has, therefore, been
argued in the Overland
Monthly that the United
States with its magnificent
and unexcelled resources, is
more able to maintain that
kind of ruinous warfare
than any other nation.
is more than likely that the
continuance of every form
of subsidy by England,
France and Germany will
force us into the position of
a subsidy nation if we do
not wish the American flag
eliminated absolutely as a
factor on the seas of the
world.

It may be taken, therefore, as a foregone conclusion that the day is not far distant when we too will begin the process, and when we do, the end is not far, for in this kind of a struggle all other nations must give way before the power of dollars exerted intelligently toward the elimination of a rival in business. It is simply a question of time when a scientifically applied subsidy will give the American flag the commerce of all the seas, and incidentally the commerce of the entire world.

Hawaii, more than any other country, and its ports of Honolulu and Hilo and other ports yet unborn, will benefit more than any other in the regular routes of cargo travel.

With the opening of the Panama Canal will come a

lively and ever increasing competition by San Francisco or any other American the transcontinental railroads of the main- port, except in vessels carrying our flag. land and California will be linked still It has been urged by the able men who more strongly with Hawaii than in any are members of the Chamber of Commerce of the years of the past.

that a bill be "passed by Congress” exHawaii is destined to rival Malta as a cepting the islands from a ruling for military and naval station.

a period of years at least until there were This is the story of the Honolulu and enough vessels flying the American flag the Hawaii of tomorrow sketched in the plying on the Pacific to readily and at all broad strokes of the prophet who may an- times care for the passenger traffic benounce his findings to the world as certi- tween Hawaii and the Mainland. tudes, and with the omniscient knowledge There can be no doubt that had the adthat future events will not belie his fore- vice of Mr. Morgan and his far-seeing telling.

and broad-minded associates been fol. The Honolulu of today is a metropolis lowed and some relief measure of this in the embryo. It is in many ways a kind had been adopted by the law-makers most marvelous place. It has scarcely of the nation that the commerce of the struck its pace and the immensity of its islands would have received a splendid and possibilities is foreshadowed by its pres- well deserved forward impetus. Congress ent business. The fact that the naviga- did nothing. tion laws have been so construed as to The most important work undertaken prevent the development of business has and carried on unremittingly by the Fedbeen a great handicap to Honolulu and eral authorities is that being done at Pearl the islands in general. Hawaii ought not. Harbor, the naval station. Honolulu harto be subject to the construction of bor has not been overlooked in these matthe law that passengers or freight ters of appropriation, and the breakwater cannot be carried between Honolulu and at Hilo has received a deserved atten

re

tion in appropriation and actual work 1907, Hawaii's resources were equal to all done.

demands, business and financial transacHawaii today is making shipments to tions being in no way disturbed. Hawaii the East via the Tehuantepec route, and presents the phenomenal condition of a in the future the traffic to and from will country fully able to subsist for an untax the carrying capacity of the vessels limited period of time on its own plying between San Francisco, the Mexi- sources, something the powerful nations, can coast and Hawaii as well as those be- such as England and Germany, may not tween Hawaii and Puget Sound points. do. Honolulu is a port of call of the line be- The Territory of Hawaii is never between British Columbia, New Zealand hind in any great public movement, and and Australia. The

The transport service in the matter of the Alaska Yukon Expoand the carrying of freight supplies and sition the appropriation by Congress of a machinery for the Government, besides sufficient amount of money to put up an the occasional animal transport, tends to Hawaiian building was supplemented by increase the tonnage making the port of a local provision of $25,000 to meet exHonolulu the busy scene it always is, in- penses cropping up and for advertising creasing with every month that passes. and maintenance. Many a State and ter

Honolulu civic bodies and commercial ritory of the Mainland has not done as organizations are represented at Wash- much for itself. ington by competent agents, and the ter- The Territorial Federal appropriations ritorial delegates have always been able for Hawaii in the year 1908 amounted to men.

$5,190,000, and were disbursed as follows: One of the remarkable instances of the Pearl Harbor, $3,100,000; Honolulu Fedprosperity of Hawaii was shown in the eral Building, $850,000; Kauai Lightfact that when the mainland was visited house, $75,000: Fortifications, $1,165,000. with panic, beginning October-November, The above does not include about two