The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-07-09
THE CHINESE QUESTION.


servers are inclined to turn cold shoulder to
the almond-eyed and pig-tailed Celestials.
Statesmen, however, take broader views and
act from higher motives, and the sober
second thought of the nation, as a whole, will
also prompt it to adopt the policy that is best
calculated to advance the general interests of
oil classes No man who looks back now can
doubt for a moment the immense benefits
that have been conferred upon this country
by the emigrants who have arrived here since
the formation of the present Government.
Without their aid our population would still
be sparse. Countries that had three millions of
people when that was the number of Ameri-
cans have scarcely doubled their population
since, while ours has increased in the ratio of
thirteen to one and if we we're to strike to-
day from the sum-total of our citizenship and
wealth all that is due to the emigrants and
descendants of emigrants who arrived on our
shores since 1897, we should have left but a
beggarly account. Against every form of this
emigration objections have from time to time
been made. The Irishmen, Germans, and
Engiishmen have each in turn been antago-
nized but liberal spirit has nevertheless per-
vaded the body of the people which has been
incorporated in our laws and institutions,
and as practical result not only is emigra-
tion of hundreds of thousands of industrious
men pouring in upon our shores annually
from Europe, but millions of their fellow
countrymen recognize this as the land of
freedom, and live in the hope that they too,
viii eventually become American citizens.
Applied to Europe this system has worked
well for the emigrants and for this nation, and
doubts of its wisdom are suggested only
when the question of extending it to the
natives of Asia comes up for practical consi-
deration. We have not yet seen any good
reason why the gates of the Pacific ports
should not be opened as freely as those of the
Atlantic. The arguments founded on Chinese
pecuIiarities have no real weight. If we ex-
clude them because they are not Christians,
we should also establish religious censor
ship at Castle Garden, and send back to
Europe every emigrant who cannot come up
to an orthodox standard. If we exclude
them because they save their wages and are
economical in their habits we should also
ostracize thousands of our most useful Euro
pean emigrants. If we are to exclude them
on account of the desire cherished by large
portion of their numbers to return to their
native land after they have accumulated
moderate sum, we should, to be con-
sistent, also apply this test to the
Atlantic seaboard. But the cross examina-
ton of the italian organ grinders in regard
to the final disposition of their superhuous
pennies, and laws forbidding Irish servant
girls to send back money to their friends
in the Emerald Isle or to invest in Fenian
funds would lily comport with the dignity or
true duty of an American Congress. Even
the allegation that the Chinese will furnish
cheap labor affords no rational ground for
their exclusion. The same charge has been
made from time to time on the Atlantic coast
against the emigration of Englishmen, Ger
mans, or Irshmen, but it has never been
deemed good ground for their exclusion by
Congress. Workmen of all European ma
tionalities very quickly learn to demand the
highest market rates for their services, and
the Chinese are too intelligent and too
anxious to accumulate wealth to prove
dull scholars in this important
branch of human knowledge. The prolonged
labor contracts under which they are said to
he imported are contrary to the spirit of our
institutions, if not to the letter of existing
laws, and it will be impossible to enforce
them if the Cinnamon feel disposed to re-
volt. The tawny children of Asia will soon
become as free as any other immigrants after
they land upon our shores, despite bargains
they NAV have made in their old homes As
a rule. they are peaceable, Industrious, and
ingenious, possessing abundant capacity to
render great assistance in developing the
resources of this country; and, in view of this
fact, the nation can we'll afford to overlook or
disregard their idiosyncrasies. Even if they
come here in large numbers, and
furnish cheap labor in large quantities,
the workmen who fear their competition will
be benefited by the reduction in the cost of
the neeessaries of life. If they will give us
cheap boots, cheap coal, cheap bread, cheap
fruit, cheap cotton, cheap silk, cheap rail-
roads, and cheap domestic service, we can
well afford to surrender, in whole or part,
some forms of American industry to them,
and transfer the labor and talent now engaged
therein to other pursuits. Much of the clamor
against the Chinese is as nonsensical as the
opposition made from time to time against
labor-saving machinery. 1t proceeds from
substantially similar causes, and does not de-
serve more consideration than the old pro-
tests against saw-mills and locomotives.
THE CENSUS or 1870
IaE citizens of st. Louis seem to be alive to