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typical diseases of tropical countries are found there, and the diseases of the temperate zone are usually of a mild character.

The climate is so balmy and natural conditions so delightful that, by common acceptance, Hawaii is known as "The Paradise of the Pacific." Although spoken of as a "tropical country" it is barely on the edge of the tropics, and the same Arctic current that cools San Francisco gives Hawaii a climate many degrees cooler than in the same latitude in the Atlantic. It is a climate well suited to the physical and mental development of the Anglo Saxon. Products. The principal products are sugar, rice, coffee, bananas, pine apples, guavas and other tropical fruits, many of which grow wild.

Sugar. The area cultivated with sugar cane is approximately 80,000 acres. The export of sugar in 1896 amounted to 221,000 tons. The output of sugar cannot be much increased, as most of the sugar lands are already occupied. Coffee. The cultivation of coffee is rapidly increasing. It will soon rival sugar in amount and value, as there are large areas of rich but yet uncultivated land, not available for sugar but peculiarly adapted to coffee. This product is the hope of the country, as it can be produced profitably by farmers with small capital.

Bananas and Pine Apples. The principal supply of these fruits consumed on the Pacific Coast is from Hawaii. It is a growing trade.

The Rainfall varies greatly, ranging from fifty inches in some districts to 175 inches in others. Irrigation supplements the rainfall in the dryer section. Two-thirds of the sugar is produced by irrigation.

Education. There is a highly organized system of free public schools, modeled on that of the United States, in which the English language is taught. There are also a number of private boarding schools, and schools ranking with high schools in the United States.

The public school year is eight months, and all children between six and fourteen years of age are compelled, if physically able, to attend school.

All the Hawaiian born population of all nationalities can read and write English. The number of schools in 1896 was 187; number of teachers 426; number of scholars 12,616.

The schools are under the control of an unpaid board of five persons, appointed by the President.

The constitution prohibits the appropriation of public funds for sectarian or private schools.

The question is frequently asked, how the possession of Hawaii, 2000 miles distant from the continent, will secure control of the North Pacific, and why Hawaii is more necessary to the Pacific Coast than are the Azores, which are about the same distance off the Atlantic Coast, necessary to the protection of the United States on the Atlantic side?

The reasons why Hawaii is essential to the protection of the Pacific Coast, and why the Azores are not necessary to the protection of the Atlantic, are as follows:

In the first place, the distance across the Atlantic is approximately 3000 miles.

The distance across the Pacific is from 7000 to 9500 miles.

Second: All of the Great Powers of Europe lie, or have coaling stations, within steaming distance of the Atlantic Coast of the United States. On the other hand no nation, European or Asiatic, lies, or possesses a coaling station, near enough to the Pacific Coast to be practicably available, as a base of hostile naval operation against that Coast or its commerce.

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British Columbia is not a material factor in this connection; for, in case of hostilities between England and the United States, all Canadian territory would be so speedily overhelmed by invasion from the United States that its ports would not cut any material figure as hostile bases of operation for any considerable length of time.

Third: On the Atlantic there are scores of islands which can be used as bases of naval supply and repair. There are not only the Azores, Madeira, Canary, Cape Verde, Bermuda, Newfoundland, and the Bahamas, but the vast number of West India Islands.

On the other hand; in the whole Pacific Ocean from the Equator on the South, to Alaska on the North; from the Coast of China and Japan on the West, to the American Continent on the East, there is but one spot where a ton of coal, a pound of bread, or a gallon of water can be obtained by a passing vessel, and that spot is Hawaii.

The immensity of this area of the earth's surface is comprehended by but few.

The distance from Hong Kong, through Hawaii to Panama, is 9580 miles. This distance is as far as from San Francisco eastward across the continent, across the Atlantic, across the Mediterranean, and across Turkey to the boundary of Persia.

The first supply station north of Hawait is at Unalaska in the Aleution Islands, and the first similar station on the south is Tahiti, a French Colony. The distance between Unalaska and Tahiti is 4400 miles; as far as from the southern point of Greenland to the mouth of the Amazon river.

The Atlantic is, comparatively, so narrow, that way stations are not absolutely essential; while the islands in the Atlantic north of the Equator, capable of use as way stations are so numerous that it is practically impossible for the United States to absorb them all.

On the other hand, the width and size of the North Pacific is so great that no naval vessel in existence can carry coal enough to cross the Pacific from any of the existing or possible foreign naval stations, to the Pacific coast of the United States, operate there and return, without recoaling. A modern battleship without coal is like a caged lion-magnificent but harmless.

One of the first principles in naval warfare is, that an operating fleet must have a base of supply and repair.

Any country in possession of Hawaii would possess a base of operations within four or five days steaming distance of any part of the Pacific Coast. Without the possession of Hawaii, all of the principal countries possessing interest in the Pacific, are so far away that the distance is practically probibitory of hostile operations against the Pacific Coast. For instance, the nearest English station is forty-six hundred miles distant from San Francisco. The nearest French station is thirty six hundred miles distant. The nearest Spanish station is forty-seven hundred miles distant. Russia is forty-seven hundred miles away; Japan forty-five hundred miles, and China fifty-five hundred miles.

The United States, in possession and control of Hawaii, will thereby, by simply keeping other nations out, afford almost absolute protection on her Pacific Coast and commerce from hostile naval attack. On the other hand, Hawaii, in possession of any foreign country, will be a standing menace against, not only the Pacific Coast, but against all of the Ocean-bound commerce to and from that Coast, and all American commerce on or across the North Pacific.

The Importance of the relation of Hawaii to the commerce of the Pacific is demonstrated by the fact that of the seven trans-Pacific steamship lines plying between the North American Continent and Japan, China and Australia, all but one make Honolulu a way station.

It is for the reasons above set forth that Hawaii has for the last fifty years been currently known to Statesmen and Naval Authorities as "The Key of the North Pacific," and that American Statesmen, regardless of party, have consistently and persistently maintained the policy that the United States could not allow any foreign government or people to colonize or control Hawaii.

Upon the opening of the Nicaragua or Panama Canal, practically all of the shipping bound for Asia, making use thereof, will stop at Honolulu for coal and supplies.

Hawaii is today, the main stay of the American merchant marine engaged in deep-sea-foreign trade.

The number of American vessels entering American ports during the year June 30, 1896, were:

From the United Kingdom

From Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and Oceanica combined
From Hawaii.

88

. 210

.. 191

Or, in other words, Hawaii furnished cargo for 191 American ships, and all the world besides, outside of the American continent, furnished cargo for only 298 American ships.

It is the habit of those who oppose the annexation of Hawaii, to ridicule the possibility of any foreign government taking any action in or towards Hawaii inimical to the interests of the United States.

One of the best methods of judging the future is to examine the past. Within the past eighty-five years, Hawaii has been taken possession of: Once by Russia.

Once by England.

Twice by France.

And by reason of hostile demonstrations by foreign governments, creating the fear of foreign conquest, an absolute cession of the sovereignty of the country to the United States was executed and delivered in 1851, and a treaty of annexation negotiated in 1854.

Since 1874, on four separate occasions, internal disturbances have required the landing of foreign troops from war ships, for the protection of the interests of the several nations there represented.

During the past few years there has not seemed to be any likelihood of conflict between the United States and any other foreign powers, and many persons have concluded that there is no possibility of conflict in the future.

While the tendency of the age is undoubtedly in favor of arbitration and against war, the existing conditions in the world are not such as to guarantee that the millennium is near at hand, and more particularly are the developments in the Pacific such as to render it unsafe for any country possessing interests therein to act upon the supposition that there will be no conflict of interests in that locality.

Russia has heretofore been a European country, with but a nominal interest in the Pacific. Within the past five years it has developed Pacific wards, until it fills the northwestern horizon, and with the now rapidly progressing development of its vast empire on the Pacific coast of Siberia; the construction of its transcontinental railway from St. Petersburg to the Pacific, and the Journal 14.

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