No. 250.
Mr. Comly
to Mr. Evarts
.
Honolulu , December 28, 1877. (Received January 19, 1878.)
Sir: The desire of the present head of the State Department that diplomatic and consular officers of the United States shall diligently watch the commercial and industrial interests of the country, and communicate any useful facts they may be able to gather bearing upon those interests, is a matter that cannot have escaped the knowledge of any representative of the United States abroad. The treaty of reciprocity between the United States and the Hawaiian Kingdom has established such intimate relations between the principals to that treaty as to specially emphasize the desire of the head of the State Department for a vigilant oversight of American interests.
In my dispatch No. 13, December 3, 1877, I have endeavored to set forth the reciprocal advantages of the treaty, and have presented statistics to show the increase of trade resulting from it.
I desire now to call the attention of the Department to the classes of American commerce, products, and manufactures which have an opportunity for profit from the treaty which has been neglected by some.
[Page 380]1. The carrying trade is so directly responsive to any increased demand that I need hardly do more than refer to it. The Pacific Mail Steamship Company has already so far recognized an increased demand as to double its service, by placing an intermediate steamer in this trade to ply alternately with the regular Australian line in giving the islands a fortnightly service instead of the monthly service lately allowed. This company, it is true, has a small subvention, and in consequence of a dispute between the company and the Hawaiian Government, the August steamer from San Francisco to Australia did not touch at Honolulu; but an agent of the company has since compromised the disputes by doubling the service.
In addition to this there is a large independent carrying trade done by schooners between San Francisco and the islands. The large indirect advantage which has resulted to the United States in the building and sale of vessels for Hawaiian owners is duly set forth in my dispatch above mentioned with its inclosures.
2. The advantages to the commerce of the United States need no special exhibit. The demands upon commerce are as direct and responsive as those upon the carrying trade. San Francisco will naturally reap the greater share of advantages from these demands, yet New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and other commercial centers have profited directly by the increase.
3. The agricultural interest has its point of contact through the commercial demand. The merchant who handles the products of agriculture is in most sensitive rapport with the centers of demand, and will respond promptly to the requisitions of the market. The agricultural producer in the United States has no more direct relations with the foreign purchaser of his products than the puddler of the founderies or the operative of the cotton factory. Hence our agricultural interests have been protected by the demands of commerce.
4. With the manufacturing interest it is different. The wood and iron manufacturers of such interior States as Ohio sell their wares direct to the consumers in almost every civilized country on the globe; so also of cotton manufacturers in the East, and others of all points. It is of supreme importance to all such to know that they have neglected opportunities of great value in the Hawaiian Islands. The impetus given to the sugar and rice trade by the reciprocity treaty has brought not only agents but principals from British manufactories to the islands to extend their trade by furnishing machinery for sugar and rice plantations; but I have yet to learn of one American agent or principal who has made his appearance here to take advantage of our benefits through the reciprocity treaty. Let it be remembered, also, that all kinds of business sympathize with the increased prosperity of the rice and sugar trade.
By the schedule of Article II of the treaty, the following, among other articles, are admitted from the United States free of duty: Agricultural implements, boots and shoes, nails and bolts, cotton and manufactures of cotton, bleached and unbleached, and whether or not colored, stained, painted, or printed; hardware, hoop-iron and rivets, nails, spikes and bolts, tacks, brads, or springs; iron and steel, and manufactures thereof; lumber and timber of all kinds, round, hewed, sawed, and manufactured in whole or in part; machinery of all kinds; engines and parts thereof; books and all manufactures of paper; petroleum and all oils; salt, soap, shooks, staves, and headings; wool and manufactures of wool other than ready-made clothing; wagons and carts; wood and manufactures of wood, or of wood and metal, except furniture, either upholstered or carved, and carriages; textile manufactures, made of a combination of [Page 381] wool, cotton, silk, or linen, or of any two or more of them, other than when ready-made clothing; harness and all manufactures of leather; starch; and tobacco, whether in leaf or manufactured, &c.
I omit many articles of agriculture and commerce. Leaving out of the account many articles of which our manufacturers should have full knowledge from the treaty itself, I venture to say that our manufactures of agricultural implements and machinery are unexcelled in the world; and yet with an unprecedented demand for these articles, growing out of and favored by the reciprocity treaty, and with the advantages of freedom from tariff, superiority of products, and convenience of carriage, our manufacturers seem to have abandoned the field to British manufacturers, with a tariff to pay and the inconvenience and expense of thousands of miles of additional carriage.
5. Ship-building seems about the only trade that has fully occupied the field opened to American enterprise through the treaty. Since the treaty went into effect, twelve or fourteen vessels have been added to the Hawaiian merchant marine from American builders.
6. The Hawaiian sugar-crop is eagerly snapped up by San Francisco refiners, although most of the advantages resulting from the treaty in this respect remain with the planters or factors on the islands. The price of sugar in San Francisco is not affected by the treaty; the sugar-grower is simply relieved from contributing the amount of tariff for the United States Government. He keeps the money in his own pocket instead. The San Francisco refiner, on the other hand, for some reason incomprehensible to me, does not seem to create or demand a market here for the refined sugars he produces from the island growth. On the contrary, I am assured by Honolulu merchants in that trade that the island planter, after selling his sugar to a San Francisco refinery, takes of that very money and purchases for his own use German-refined sugar, or some other, according to the representations made to him.
7. The Hawaiian rice-crop is sold almost entire to the United States. The Hawaiians buy for home consumption, direct from China, Japan, or the East Indies, a cheap rice or paddy of inferior quality, but equally satisfactory to the Chinese plantation laborers, who are the chief consumers here. I state this simply as one of a series of facts offering no special opportunity to American interests.
I have, &c.,