The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1869-07-02
The New Labor B.ovcmeat-T'.s Chinese In
tho South.

4
out all the ramifcations OF society in the Oh
World and the New. In peace and war, IL
sunshine and storm, in the midst Of physical
political and religious commissions, progress il
the irresistible law of civilization. 1t is q
once the motive and the object of the strange
restlessness which is sgitatlng vast population
in Europe and in Asia and driving them &
seek in the two Americas, that now form the
new centre of the world, incalculable resource;
of sustenance, wealth and power for at leas
thirty-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, 50
| at these epochs the spirit of man has moved
| over the face Of the earth. Ii has
| impeled numerous tribes and whole
nations across plains mountains, rivers and
even oceans, and deposited them in regions
| far remote from their original birth place. We
lately referred to the extraordinary statistics
of European immigration to the United States
| during the past fifty years. and particularly to
the recent startling increase Of Swedish emf
grafton to this country as forcibIy illustrating
this point.
It is likely to be Illustrated sill more forcibly
| and on grander scale by Chinese immigra-
ton, which within a 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
next place by the absurd and cruel legislation
of California-this immigration is daily increas-
ing. An intelligent writer in the July number
Of the Gotary says that, with an emigration
from China standing in the same ratio to the
home population that the drain from Germany
holds to the population of that country, we
should have an influx of more than one million
Chinese yearly. ''Ten years of this rate would
place upon our soil preponderance of male
adults Of Mong olan blood over those of all the
surely an astounding prospect.
Aside from all other problems suggested by
it, Chinese immigration is manitestly inaugu-
rating a new labor movement of immense
importance. The single fact that the Pacific
Railroad has been built by Asatic labor is
pregnant with significance. By this fact the
Chinese have earned their title to recognition
as necessary element for the development of
the resources of the far West. California is
beginning to repent Of her suicidal policy
towards them. AS this policy is gradually
modified her material prosperity is advanced.
The Chinese, we are informed, are found now
in woollen, paper and powder mills in the
borax works, in the hop plantations, fruit
orchards and vineyards following the reaping
machines on farms and working the salt pits
cooking, and engaged in hundreds of branches
Of industry that would be impossible without
their cheap labor.
But even if California should persistently
enforce her inhuman laws against the Chinese,
what would be her inevitable loss might prove
great gain to the rest of the country
Asiatic labor might extend more rapidly along
the line Of the Pacific Railroad until by its
unsurpassed perseverance, ingenuity and thrift
it should irrigate and fertlize even our great
American desert, make our mountain wilder
nesses blossom like the rose, drain malarous
districts, build up such dykes to prevent the
overflow of the Mississippi as their earliest
ancestors built to control their own more
unmanageable Yellow river; develop to a
degree now undreamed of the productiveness
Of the entire valley Of the Mississippi find
| their way into every branch of industry and
| trade, even in our Middle and Northern States :;
| and especially solve the problem of elevating
| the Southern States to higher prosperity than
| was ever attained before the war.
The Chinese alone retain their innate en-
| ergy beneath tropical suns. Their ultimate
| destiny may be to reclaim all the vast areas of
| tropical lands, insular and continental, which
have hitherto been, comparatively speaking, a
| closed world. Meanwhile plenty of land and
| Southern States. We hail, therefore, with sat
| isfaction the welcome which the Southern
| planters are about to offer to Chinese mm-
grants. A convention has been called, to meet
| at Memphis on the 18th Of July, for the special
encouragement of Chinese immigration. 1t
will DO composed Of delegates from all parts of
the South, particularly from Georgia, Ala
bama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and
| Tennessee. IL is expected, moreover. that
,Koopmanshaaf one of the principal Chinese
contractors at San Francisco who has already
brought fifty thousand OF his countrymen to
America, will be present at the convention,
and will unfold his plans for organizing a
mighty scheme of direct immigration TO the
South. We shall look upon the presence Of
Koopmanshaaf at such convention as an
event Of historical moment. If Sambo will in
sist on turning ofiice-seeker, and will moi