Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1870-07-19

lation on the Pacific Coast. which is
already sufficiently unpopular. We
have scattered attempts at the intro
duction of Chinese labor on Southern
plantations and railroads. And now
we have the Chine shoemakers
brought in to conquer strike of the
Crispins at North Adams, Massachu-
sets. There is already the bitterest
opposition to the Acknowledged, mild
hammered creature hostility to them
has become test of political ortho-
doxy in California, and the antago-
nism here makes an even bitterer
beginning than there. What is to
come of it all lis
1. We may be sure the immigta-
ton is hardly begun. 1t is an enor-
nous fact that, by the change from
sail to steam transportation, Hong
Kong is to-day as near Now York as
Liverpool was twenty years ago
The Irish famine gave an impulse to
an emigration to this country already
fairly begun and see to what, in
twenty years, it has grown. Yet for
every lrishman able and ready to
emigrate, there is a score of China
men; great famines sweep over China
by the side of which the Irish famine
can hardly be mentioned, and there
are not wanting other causes to slim
ulate the growing movement toward
the United States. Within two
years more than five thousand Chi
namen have returned from San Fran
cisco, as our Canton correspondent
lately informed us, every one telling
wonderful tales of wealth in this
golden land, and of the marvellous
liberty here enjoyed. The workman
in the rice mill listens to the tale Of
hundred cents a day wages, and
contrasts it with his own beggarly
five or six. Throughout the empire
they are thus looking with longing
eyes to the land of the Gold Noun
tains. Any slight propelling force
may suddenly precipitate them upon
us by thousands for every score now
coming.
2. We cannot escape the flood if
we would. We have too long extend
ed hospitable welcome to immi-
grants from every cline to reverse
now the policy that has led TO ma
tional greatness. We can absolutely
prohibit their coming only by re-
sort to nativism pure and simple !;
and we take it the day is far distant
when that will be a thing SO near
possibility as to require serious con-
sideration.
B. We can undoubtedly discour-
age the immigration-are doing it
already, in fact, by law which pre-
vents their being brought over under
contract to work out their passage
money after their arrival. Yet so
great is the desire to come that in
hundreds of cases whole families
mortgage themselves to be sold into
slavery if the head Of the house does
not return within q specified time to
repay the passage money loaned by
native dealers in this security. How
long will any discouragements keep
back an immigration thus determin-
ed?
4. After all, can we afford to dis
courage them? These men are most
patient, faithful and valuable labor
ers. We have an enormous demand
for labor throughout continent not
yet half subdued to the uses Of man.
Our recuperation from the depletion
OF the late war, our success in peo-
ping and cultivating the vast tracts
partially opened by the continental
railroads, the development of the
country, the growth of its agriculture
and manufactures-all depend upon
an abundant supply Of intelligent la
Dor. This is all the South needs to
double its present cotton crop. tbs
all the West needs TO carry the from
tier lines across the boundless plains
now untouched. No nation, so stu
ated, has ever yet prospered by the
rejection of such labor when it was
offered. Should we?
B. And yet we confess that we
by no means contemplate the present
aspect of this immigration with I'M
mixed satisfaction. If these Coolies
are to be thrust upon us, merely
because they have fewer wants
than most civilized beings,
if they are to remain among us an
educated, unassimilated, mere excres-
ences upon our communities, and
never taking root in our soil, then
will their cheap labor prove in the
end to have been purchased at rate
far dearer than we can afford to pay.
We have lately taken into the body
polite four millions of recent slaves.
We are receiving a steadily increas-
ing accession from many parts of
Europe of people unaccustomed to
liberty and ill-trained for democratic
Institutions. We are threatened
with tropical accessions, with more
of Mexico, with Canada. What fur
Their strain TIE. elastic republican
government may bear we know not !;
but it is certainly prudent to apply
the strain as gradually as possible.
Above all, we should avoid degrading
our suffrage. A government of the
people can only rest safely on popu-
lar education and national morality.
If we cannot assimilate the Chinese,
they had better not come at all if
we can, we ought at least to have q
better opportunity for it than now.
.. Some of these are dangers from
which no present escape is apparent,
over which, some way or other,
to good or ill fortune, we must make
our way. But there is a remedy for
the conflict between the Coolies and
Crispins in North Adams. 1t does
not lie in prescribing the men who
" ork for cheap wages-in efforts to
blow up the factories-in threats
against the lives of their employers.
All these are the devices of bar
barous era, when people supposed
there was necessary conflict be-