Inventory of Government property under the control of the police department, etc.-Cont'd.

8.

Recapitulation, from official reports, of the valuation of imports into Hawaii, the duties
collected thereon, and the duties which would have been collected under the Dingley
tariff law.

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON CABLES AND TELEGRAPHS.

The committee on cables and telegraphs have investigated the subject of telegraphic cable communication between Hawaii and the Continent, and between the islands, and respectfully submit the following report: JNO. T. MORGAN. W. F. FREAR.

REPORT.

No calculation that is approximately accurate can now be safely made of the income of a postal-telegraph line to the Hawaiian Islands from the continent or between the islands.

It can be safely assumed, however, that the necessity for such a cable line is indispensable and that its cost will bear only a slight relation to the commercial and military advantages that must result from its construction.

In many other instances the income of our postal system has been quite below the cost of the transmission of the mails between certain distant commercial or strategic points, and such deficit has been supplied from the general Treasury, with the cheerful approbation of the country.

If the demand for a postal telegraph line to Hawaii is sufficient, on the general grounds of national policy, the question of the duty to take national control of the line can not be met by the suggestion that this is a new departure in furnishing the vehicles, or conduits, for the transmission of postal matter. It is not, in fact, a new thing for the United States to construct lines of telegraph, or conduits, for the purposes of the Army, or the Weather and Life-Saving Service, or for the distribution of mails in large cities.

But the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands has created a new situation, which requires new provisions for the quick dispatch of intelligence such as is ordinarily sent by the mails.

There is, indeed, no feature of the postal service that is more necessary, in peace or war, for the benefit of commerce, navigation, markets, and exchanges, or in conveying personal intelligence between the people, or in giving them protection against the ravages of infectious diseases, than a cable between the Pacific States and the Hawaiian Islands under the impartial and exclusive control of the Government of the United States.

In the outset of the new policy that we must inaugurate to meet the remarkable events of the year 1898 it is a fortunate situation that places these islands and others under the exclusive legislative control of Congress.

Congress can rightfully and successfully adjust the public institutions of a State in its formative period so as to prepare it for the highest usefulness to the Union when it shall acquire the sovereign rights and dignity of statehood.

Without attempting to state the many instances in which Congress should employ these powers, it is very clear that in matters relating to interstate and foreign commerce, to navigation, bays, harbors, wharves, and docks, and to postal facilities and post roads and lines of telegraphic communication, the power is clear and the duty is manifest.

An indispensable factor in all commercial, military, and diplomatic relations with countries that are beyond the seas is the telegraph cables that convey information with immediate dispatch.

This fact is too obvious and is too vital to the safety of every maritime country to admit of discussion.

It may be safely stated that at no point in the world is there greater need for a central cable station than at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, nor is there any point in either of the great oceans where the control of lines of telegraphic cables will give greater influence to the power that directs the use of them, either in commerce or war.

A central cable station in Hawaii will ultimately form a plexus of telegraphic lines in which the cables will meet from all ports of the great circuit of our coasts, and from the Asiatic coasts as far south as Hongkong; and from Hawaii lines will radiate through the islands of the South Pacific to the Philippines, to Australia, and the coast of South America.

In these advantages the Hawaiian group has no competitor, and they could scarcely have been more advantageously placed as a point for the concentration of lines of telegraph cables. Through a long period of years these benefits will necessarily increase, and will furnish to the people facilities of cheap correspondence that no lines of steamers can afford.

In dispensing with the slow and costly methods of mail transmission for business correspondence, the rates will be reduced and the speed increased until it will attract the universal patronage of business men. A single line of cable from the coast to Hawaii, exclusively authorized to convey messages as postal matter, would soon become a "trunk line," and would gather business from Asia and the islands of the South Pacific in such volume as to pay the interest on the cost and all expenditures for repairs and operation. It could have no competitor in business and could afford this facility to business at a rate of tolls that would be a great economy.

The five larger islands of the Hawaiian group are separated by three channels that aggregate about 118 miles in width. To maintain a rapid communication across these channels, which are rough water, not less than six vessels would need to be constantly employed, with a reserve of two or three vessels to meet emergencies. The crews for these vessels, and the fuel, to be supplied from the coast, would justify a heavy expenditure for mail service which could not probably be reduced by competition.

The conformation of these islands is such that a plateau connects all of them, on which a cable can be laid in water of shallow depths as compared with those of the adjacent seas.

The trend of the islands from Kaui Island on the northwest to the southern part of Hawaii virtually presents a frontage of about 350 miles to the Pacific Ocean on each side of the group, along the whole length of which the cable stations on the islands would be so many outlooks upon the sea.

If this cable system is extended to Samoa, and to the Carolines and Manila, the security it would afford our coasts against sudden attack and the ravages of approaching storms and the visitations of epidemic diseases is a matter that is worthy of serious consideration.

The experience of European countries in the use of electric telegraphs as vehicles of the postal service demonstrates their importance and the wise economy of their use both to the people and the Governments that employ them.

With the distinctive power conferred upon Congress in the Constitution to establish post-offices and post-roads, and the exclusive power to provide for and regulate all mail communications, there can be no question of the power of Congress to select the best and most economical means for this work, or that the conveyance of mails may be extended into any part of the world, or that Congress may use a cable line under the seas as well as a post-road on the land.

This is the propitious time for the initiation of this service in the Pacific Ocean, and Hawaii is the central point in the great arc of the circle that describes the coast of North America.

At this central point all cable lines through the Pacific Ocean to points north of the equator must unite. Under the present state of the art in the construction and operation of transoceanic cable lines, this

DIAGRAM AND ROUTES OF MR. PRITCHETT, CHIEF OF THE UNITED STATES COAST

SURVEY.

group of islands is the only place where a line can be successfully operated in the North Pacific Ocean. This fact, while it remains unchanged, gives to a cable connecting Hawaii with the continent an immense volume of work, which must yield a great revenue, if no other cable is constructed.

The annexed rough draft of the relative location of the islands (not including Neckar Island), prepared by a gentleman of much ability, shows the distances between them and the depth of water on the connecting plateaus, with an estimate of the cost of the cable to connect them.

The eagerness of private investors to lay cables to Hawaii and to connect the islands, under contracts with the Government for supplying cable service for official messages, is a convincing proof that under such conditions they would be valuable property.

Aside from the fact that in a few years the Government business would refund the cost of the cables, if paid for at ordinary rates, it is of supreme importance that the Government should have the absolute military control of the line that does its work.

To be able to control the working of the cable only through the enforcement of legal penalties for crimes incident to this responsible branch of the public service would be a serious defect that might result in much trouble and a dangerous exposure to treachery.