The Idaho world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1864-1918, 1869-08-12
IDAHO WORLD.
THE COOLIE IMPORTATION QUESTION.

We copy the following article from the Bal
timore Gazette of July Oath. 1t says:
The New York Erening Post, in It's bitter
hatred of the South, opposes the introduction
of Chinese labor there, and villihes the South
ern people in language that is dlsgracetul to a
public Journal The Post insists that the I'M
portatiOn of Chinese, under contract to work
out their passage money, sis merely a revival
of slavery under another NAME" When sixty
thousand Chinese labOrers were imported ex-
pressly for the purpose of constructing the
Western half of the Pacific Railroad the VIZ
tuous indignation of the Post slept serenely.
But now that Convention has been held at
Memphis and q Company organized for the
purpose of obtaining Cinnamon to work on the
cotton, and sugar, and rice plantations of the
South, the Post is stricken with horror at the
enormity of the scheme. 1t charges that the
purpose of the Southern planters is to bring
over thousands of the most ignorant and bru-
tai Chinese, the scum of the Chinese cities, as
bond slaves" The resolutions adopted by the
Convention look, on the contrary, to the selec-
ton of the Chinese laborers from rural dis
tricts of the interior. Not to "the scum of the
Chinese Cities" as is asserted but to that dense
industrial population, which draws its subsst-
ence from agricultural pursuits, and is already
perfect in the knowledge of the best methods
of cultiyating cotton, and rice, and sugar cane.
And wherein lies the difference between con
tracing for the labor of European immigrants
at Castle Garden, and that OF Chinese lmml-
grants at San Francisco or Memphis The
latter do not themselves pay their own passage
money, we are told, and, having to reimburse
from the proceeds of their labor these who
agreed to pay it for them they are therefore
nothing else than coolies, and to be q cOOlle is
to be a bond slave
Is this so! There are thousands of poor
but Industrious people in Europe who are anx-
ious to come to this country, but are prevented
from doing so by reason of their poverty, and
who would gladly enter into al engagement
with responsible agents to work out their pas
sage money in any pursuit to which they have
been trained, if the opportunity were offered
them Would the Post stigmatiZe these peO-
pie as coolies, and those who expended their
means in bringing them over rs endeavoring to
revive the slave trade During the war, Mas
saehusetts, having q prudeHt regard for the
precious lives of her Puritan sons, imported
vast numbers of foreigners on a contract that
they should serve in the army for three years
paid their passage over, and sent them, forth
with, as a part of her quota, to the slaughter
fields of Virginia. These men bound them
Selves if not killed, or otherwise incapactated,
to serve for three years or during the war.
They had no quarrel with the South. They
could not even speak the English tongue, and
most of them were utterly ignorant of the
causes of the war. They were simply hire
lings who had entered into a contract of sery-
ice and labor for a term of years; that service |
being to shoot and be shot at, and that labor,
the building of earthworks, or any other man.
ual duties they We're ordered to perform. IfI
they were mutinOus or insubordnate, they
were punished If they deserted, and were
caught, the penalty was death. And they were |!
r.gidly held to their contract. Which is the
worst to contemplate, these " indentured scrv-
ants" OF Massachusetts, hired to spill the blood |
of Southern men, or Chinese labOrers, hired to
till the soil of Southern plantations Did the
Post denOunce Massachusetts for contracting
with these 'Hessians" to spill human blood !
No! neither in that atroCiOus case nor the
more recent and perfectly detensible one of the
Importation of Cinnamon under contract 10
work on the Pacific Railroad, did the Post ut
Ter one word of rebuke. But now, when the
Southern people enter upon a project which
promises to bring once more under cultivation
heir ruined and depopulated plantations, and
which by increasing the annual product Of cot
on. and sugar, and rice, would also add largely
% the prosperity of that section, and to the ag-
,regate wealth of the country the Post de-
lOunces their pralseworthy efforts, and says,
With sheer:
1t is pitiful to who pretend to lead and in
orm their neighbors still dwelling about new ways
develop" their States, and catching eagerly at
means of revving that system of slavelabor which
las been the curse of the Southern States and the
ause the only cause that they are less populous.
nd that their people are less wealthy and prosperous
han the region further North"
The Post well knows that, in many districts
t the South, plantations cannot be cultivated
y white labor that the climate forbids it, and
hat this is the reason why white immigrants,
apable of doing service as field hands, will
OF 60 South, but seek employment at the
Vest. This, also, is the reason why the South |
rn States care less populous, and their people
'ss wealthy and prosperous than the region
lrther North" The only races capable of ,
the tropical heat, and the subtle :
,alaria of the South, are the African and the !
static Where the European immigrant, la, I
orlng, day after day, on plantations, would q
peedily die, they keep in vigorous health. The q
egro, as freeman, can no longer be held to q
teady, persistent work, and, as an evidence of {
!, statistics show that the cotton crop is now =
nly One-half what it was before the war. and y
ne sugar and rice crops have fallen off still :
lore largely. On the other hand, the China :
Ian, suffering deeply from that extreme pov. !,
rty, which is the inevitable result of dense e
OpulaEOn and an overstocked labor market. ;,
anxious to better his condition by migrating