Litchfield enquirer., 1869-07-01

&hsusuSG Uueic was du aItiCie SiSoeStiuS sue employment of Chinamen in our domestic service. In the July Galasy appears an article which gives so clear and intelligent 9 resume of the question:, and represents the Celestial in so new and favorablea light, that we shall reprint it entire in this and in our next issue = ~ -'. '.-'-z' s < f0 aa@ ~4ret IL .l..a. l l-a iY..z1A.
 THE CHINAMAN ABROAD. ..5.I, j.
 If we turn from the splendid sunrise of our national morning to the misty veil that eashrouds the future. We shall see giant spectre slowly defining its sha'lowy form against the Western heavens. -n rs $ e....;
 Let LIS look and reflect; for 1t is the mi rage of distant empire, q looming of one third of the human race. It is the fore shadowing of a problem which only time can solve; but which Is none the less one of the most important in the worlds histo- ry. Let us examine the elements of this problem: On the Western shore of the Pacific there is a country, not much larger than the United States east of the Missis sippi, in which 2 population of more than four hundred millions treads closely upon the capacity of the soil for supporting ex. istence So true Is this, that those years in which the productiveness of the earth falls be ow the average, witness widespread famine and all the horrors that follow in its train.
 By untiring patience and industry, by intelligence and the skill attained through ages of experience, by uniting all these qualities in wrestling from Nature the last atom she can yield, and, finally. by return ing to Mother Earth, with scrupulous care, all that has been taken from her, with in terest drawn from sea and river, this race maintains its vitality unimpaired. But it Is a struggle for life. So long as the throes of this tremendous struggle were confined to China by strong natural and political barriers, they found a remedy in decima. tion by famine and pestilence. But the past twenty years have effected as great breaches in the political barrier which the Chinese had raised about them, as twenty centuries have made in their ancient wall of brick and stone. The social and polit- cal restraints which have opposed emigra- tion are disappearing, and the first con sciousness of an expansive power is begln- ningto show itself in the maritime pro- vinces of the empire. ...-.,.
 A few years since, the confines of Asia and it's archipelagoes were the horizon of the world to every Chinaman. The small fields therein opened 10 a peaceful race, s.. a.ssAAr were tne opsnIngs iargs aaongh. nor the facilities for reaching them great enough 10 initiate any very important movement. The discovery of gold in Gal ifornia anl Australia and the demand for labor on the distant shores of the Pacific Ocean, gave the needed impulse. Timid- ly, at first, small numbers went abroad; then tens of thousands, until now there must be nearly two hundred thousand Chi nannen on the American continent alone. During these years there has been, also, 9 continuous stream returning to Asia, and carrying home, in the aggregate, large amount of money and information. Thus, the number of Chinamen who have seen the outside world cannot be far from one per cent. of the whole male population of the empire These act as leaven on ev- er-growing circles at home, spreading among hundreds of millions those stories of adventure in distant lands, of wonders, of boundless demand for labor and of high wages, which make individuals think and become restless. Thoughts arise, which, when they become common to numbers. are intensified to degree proportionate to the size of the masses swayed by them, ,un- til the sympathetic attraction of remote countries produces the tidal wave and cur rents of emigration. The measure of this movement is the exact resultant of all the social and physical forces which operate in its action. These are, of course, intricate and obscure beyond computation; but they are resolved, in general terms, into one set of favorable and opposing forces in China, and other sets, with different resultants, for each country outside of China. na4d3 ,t.I In China we have one-third of the hu- man race, suffering from an excessive death rate and all the misery of an incessant struggle for life, with no remedy but the ability to. overflow into other lands, until the population at home shall stand in 8 proper ratio to the means of support =
 Leaving out all other questions, the ca pacity o1 America for receiving emigration !s as present boundless, as compared with sne capacity of all the world to supply it. An eminent English geographer has care Iuily calculated that the two Americas are capaoie Of supporting thirty six hundred millions of inhabitants. Room and sub s!stence are not wanting. The capacity for absorption of labor is scarcely more limit ca. The end of the long g-continued exo- dus from Europe cannot be far off; to, think otherwise is to believe uniustifably in a rapidly y-approaching decay of the nations beyond the Atlantic. Social and political reforms raising the condition of the people, especially that of the women of the lowest classes. the increase in industrial prosperi- ty, and the continued drain of skilled labor to foreign countries, seem to be- silently working throughout Europe toward the .es- tablishment of a proper balance between population and means of support.
 The Chinaman in this country was for years excluded from all participation in the developsn1ent of the national prosperi- ty, and was grudgingly allowed to work only in those gold diggings which were considered worthless by the American i; but when . pressing necessity arose for la Dor on the public works of CaliforEia and Nevada. tho Chinaman was found to an- swer every need; and now. having become identified with onr internal Improvements,
 he has obtained recognition as necessary -eiemcntaoft population --thei execution of great enterprises is based on his co, o,operal ton. For veal or woe, the Pacific rail. road IS uniting more dlstant extremes than the two shores of our continent. aAesfdaE. EIs The facilities for crossing the Pacific are yearly increasing; and so, is also,. the knowledge of America in China. Unless obstacles be placed in the way, isntnieration will increase rapidly; with additional vsn.