The Opelousas courier., 1869-07-24
MIsCELLA
The Wew Labor 16ovement-Yhe
Chinese in the South.

Chinese in the South
Progress is the watchword of the grand
movements which are now spreading
throughout all the ramifcations of soci-
ETY. in the Old World and the New. In
peace and war. in sunshine and storm,
in the midst of physical, political and
religious commissions, progress is the ir
resistible law OF civilization. 1t is ut
once the motive and the object of the
strange restlessness which is agitating
vast populations in Europe and in Asia
and driving them to seek in the two Amer
icas, that now form the centre Of the
world, incalculable resources of susie
nance, wealth and power for at least thir-
ty-six hundred million inhabitants.
We seem to have reached period in
many respects similar to those diverse
epochs in the history of the distribution
of human races over the surface of the
globe when great migrations have taken
place and the inhabitants of one climate
have been visited, if not overwhelmed,
by mysterious influx of inhabitants of
some other climate. As at the creation
the spirit Of God moved over the face of
the waters, SO ut these epochs the spirit
of man has moved over the face OF the
earth. 1t has impelled numerous tribes
and whole nations across plains, noun
tains, rivers aud even oceans, and depos-
tied them in regions far remote from
their original birth place. We lately re-
ferred to the extraordinary statistics of
European immigration to the United
States during the past fifty years, and
particularly to the recent startling in
crease of Swedish immigration to this
country, as forcibly illustrating this
point.
1t is likely to he illustrated still more
forcibly and on a granHer scale by Chi
nesc immigration, which within q very
few years has brought to our shores at
least two hundred thousand Mongolians.
Notwithstanding the restraints to which
it has been subjected-in the first place
by the Chinese government, and in the
next place by an absurd and cruel legls-
lation of California-thi immigration is
daily increasing. An Intelligent writer
in the July number of the Gafary says
that, with an immigration from China
standing in the same ratio to the home
populatioH that the drain from Germa-
ny holds to the population of that coan
try, we shodld have an influx of one mil
lion Chinese yearly. Ten years Of this
.lcrance of male adults of Mongolian
blood over those of all the other families
OF man among u.s." This Is surely an
astounding prospect.
Aside from all other problems suggest
ed by it, Chinese immigration is mani
festly inaugurating new labor move
ment Of immense Importance. The sin
gle fact that the Pacific Railroad has
been built by Asiatic labor is pregnant
with significance. By this fact the Chi
nese have earned their title to recogn;-
tion as a necessary element for the de.
velopment of the resources of the West.
California is beginning to repent of her
suieidai policy towards them. As this
policy 10 gradually msdifed her material
prosperity 10 advanced. The Chinese,
we are informed, are found now in wool
len, paper and powder mills in the bo-
rax works. in the hop plantations, fruit
orchards and vineyards; following the
seaping machines on farms and working
the salt pits on the coast doing almost
universally the cooking, and engaged in
hundreds of branches of industry that
wonld be impossible without their cheap
labor.
But even If California should persist-
emily enforce her inhuman laws against
the Chiuese, what would be her ineyita-
bic less taight prove d great gain to the
rest of the country. Asiatic labor might
extend rapidly aleng the line of the Pa
cific Railroad until by it's unsurpassed
perseverance,, Ingenuity and thrift it
should irrigate and fertilize even our
great Americas desert, make cur noun
tain wildernesses hlOssom like the rose,
drain malarions diakricts. build mn such