Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 August 1898 — OUR NEW POSSESSION. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OUR NEW POSSESSION.

Facts About the Hawaiian Islands, Over Which Onr Flag Now Floats. Hawaii is of small area, being less than that of a single Congressional district. But nineteen nations keep representatives at Honolulu to watch their interests in the islands. The only reason for this is that the islands hold the key of the Pacific Ocean, the largest body of water on the globe, and control the defenses of the western coast of the United States. For several years the people of Hawaii have been living under the influence of American civilization, speaking and studying our language, recognizing the stars and stripes as familiarly as their own flag, copying the laws of the

United States and calling to the assistance of their rulers men of American birth or ancestry. Even among their holidays there are those of the Fourfh of July, Memorial Day and Washington’s! birthday. The group has been under the virtual protectorate of the United States for two generations. The influences which have developed its commerce and made it a civlized region have all emanated from this country. The essential public Interest attaching to Hawaii grows out of its central position In the commerce of the Pacific Ocean. Honolulu is in the track of all steamers sailing to Australasia from San Francisco or Puget Sound. Even more precisely is Honolulu in the direct

route of one part of that enormous traffic from Atlantic to Pacific ports which awaits the cutting of the Nicaragua ship canal to flow in a steady tide through the isthmus. All the trade with China and Japan from American ports on the Atlantic must take the Nicaragua route. It is this large movement of ocean commerce impending in the immediate future which lends the most serious importance to the political relations of the Hawaiian islands, ifvery ship from the Atlantic crossing the Pacific to Asia will naturally sight the Hawaiian islands, and every steamer will be likely to replenish her coal bunkers at Honolulu. This fact will render the political condition and international relations of Hatvaii of importance. Honolulu is a convenient port of call for steamers on the route between California and China. This tendency will increase with the coming growth of Honolulu as a general calling and coaling station. It is also a natural port of call and supply for ships to China from Callao and Valparaiso. Honolulu is thus the great crossroads of the Pacific commerce. More than this, Honolulu is the only crossi’oads of the north Pacific. This port is wholly alone in its commanding position. • It has absolutely no competitor. From the Marquesas to the Aleutians Hawaii is the only land in that tremendous ocean expanse west of America where a ship can call within a space of 4,500 miles from San Francesco, and 6,200 miles from Nicaragua. By the geographical necessity of the case everything centers at Honolulu not merely as the most convenient port of call, but as the only one. Honolulu will have to provide for the accommodation of from twenty to thirty latge steamers per month, together with that of the colliers supplying them. This will be a formidable increase of business and must materially affect the commercial, and with them the political, relations of Hawaii. The favorable position of Honolulu will be materially enhanced by the ab solute necessity of using those Islands as the intersecting point for telegraphic cables across the Pacific. It is obvious that all cables between Australia and the North American Pacific coast must make Honolulu their first station.

Eight of the islands in the group are inhabited occupying a line of about 350 miles, beginning at Hawaii and running west northwest to Kauai and Niihau. They receive a cool ocean current from the northeast, with trade winds from east northeast, that temper the climate with a cool breeze but lightly charged with moisture. The population is composed of pure Hawaiian, mixed, foreigners of Hawaiian birth, Americans, British, Germans, Scandinavians, French, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese and others. The total commerce between Hawaii and the United States in 1891 amounted to $19,002,809. Of this sum the Imports into the United States were valued at $13,895,597, while the exports to Hawaii amounted to only $5,107,212.

The census of 1890 shows that the exports of Hawaii “are now and have been for some years past larger in proportion of its population than those of any other country in the world, Australia standing next on the list. In the last ten years we have, with an average population of not more than 8,000, exported produce worth, in round numbers, $90,000,000, or an average of nearly $125 per annum for every man, woman and child in the country.”—Detroit Free Press.

A GLIMPSE OF HAWAII.

ROYAL PALACE AND GROUNDS, HONOLULU.