The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-06-29
TUESDAY, JUNE 80, 1869.
THE CHINESE QUESTION.

the subject is gradually looming up into
national importance. Years ago small bodies
of the almond-eyed Orientals began to emil
CRATE to California. They. have since received
SO many accessions to their ranks that they
now form a large proportion of the popula-
ton of that State. single vessel recently
brought more than thousand Cinnamon to
San Francisco; various plans for the speedy
introduction of tens and even hundreds of
thousands more have been devised, and it is
quite possible that the influx may be swelled
from small stream into mighty
tide, until the United States shall receive
larger accessions of population from the teem-
ing shores of Asia than have ever been OBJ
tained on the Atlantic coast, from Africa or
Europe.
Heretofore the uniform course of emigra-
tion has been from the East, westward to the
West. This country and this age seem des-
tined to witness, for the first time, the strange
spectacle of counter waves meeting and break
ing against each other Over-crowded Asia,
the cradle Of the human race, at last finds in
the settlements on the Pacific coast, and the
facilities which steamships afford for reaching
them, short and easy road to a country
where land is cheap and labor dear, and where
an illimitable area and vast variety of
natural resources offer magnificent rewards to
steady and intelligent exertion.
The question at issue is whether this move
ment should be encouraged or impeded. 1t
has been the uniform policy of this country to
welcome and facilitate immigration from Eu-
rope, but men on the Pacific coast are de-
hat 10 oh
in regard to John .Chinaman; and the Demo-
Gratis of that region seem especially hostile,
and they are apparently anxious to organize a
sort of Irish-Native-Am American Anti Chinese
party.
The early Chinese immigrants sought liveli-
hood mainly in working abandoned placers,
and they attracted little attention from any
other class than the white miners, who uni
formly despised and occasionally oppressed
and maltreated them. But as industry be-
came diversified their value as cheap and relia-
BILE laborers wus speedily recognized, and
many new avenues of employment were
opened The Chinaman, if slow to invent,
is quick to learn and to initiate. In his native
land he is not only Injured to toll, but en-
dowed with an education and training which,
however inferior they may be to the
highest European standard, are still
very useful and instructive. In the Flowery
Kingdom he sees agriculture brought to a
high state of perfection; and if the learning
of his countFymen is of comparatively low
grade, he can at least boast that it is infinitely
more ancient and more universally diffused
than our own. Popular education, which is
new to the white race, has long prevailed
among the Chinese. The debasement of the
lower classes of that country is caused rather
by ages of oppression, and by the depressing
influences inseparably connected with re-
dundant population, than by ignorance, idle
ness, or intemperance. Nobody denies that
in his new field the Chinaman is an effec-
tive and industrious worker. AS a rule,
he gives full satisfaction to his employer.
Whether on the rancho, ON the railroad, in
the factory, or in the kitchen, he does his
work promptly and thoroughly, and his imi-
tative powers enable him to learn new arts
with astonishing celebrity. He will not, like
the Yankee, improve on the lessons of his
master, but he will quickly understand and
faithfully obey his instructions.
The root of the difficulty on the Pacific
coast is that the Chinaman suits his new en-
ployers too WELL He renders more and better
service for a given amount of money than the
men of other nationalities who are seeking
market for their labor, and the most earnest
advocates of his prescription are those who
deem him dangerous rival.
AS the Chinese gradually work their way
eastward, this antagonism pursues them. Ii
Nevada they are as bitterly assailed as in Cali
fornia; and it may, perhaps, depend upo1
decisive action Of the people or the Govern
ment whether they viii gradually spread owe
the whole country, from the Pacific coast t.
the Rocky Mountain regions, then to the Mis-
sissippi valley, then to the South, and finall,
to the Atlantic seaboard, or whether tn
Chinese influx shall be arrested and fnall
stopped altogether.
The Chinese merchants of San Francisc
recently called the attention of the sub-Com
mittee of Ways and Means to the oppression
to which their countrymen are subjected i
California. They complained that the spirit
if not the letter, of the late treaty with Chin
was violated by these prosecutions the
alleged that if Cinnamon felt sure of proteC
tion, Chinese capital as well as labor would b
attracted to the Pacific coast; and they recon
mended, as practical measure of immediat
Importance, that the subsidies of the Pacifi
Mail Steamship Company should be increased
so that the number of its trips would b
doubled, andthe intercourse between Americi
China, and Japan be proportionately enlarged