Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1870-08-18
CHINAAIEN.
Who Employs Them-HoW They are Do
ing in California.

Chinese immigration has ceased to be
Californian, and has become national;
and it will evidently be of interest from
pOlitico-econOmical, if not from par
tisan, standpoint for many years. One
of the minor points connected with the
question relates to persons who employ
the Cinnamon already here 1t has been
asserted that they are slaves, and the
falsehood of.that impudent statement
having been exposed, the enemies of the
Chinese have asserted that they are
brought here and employed by capital
lists for the purpose of injuring white
labor.
We have already shown, in previous
articles, that there is no contest between
capital and labor in the State; that the
wages are higher here than in any other
part of the world, and that thej journey
men mechanics possess more property
here, on an average, than in any other
country; and that the fewness of factories
and the lack of employment for laborers
of labor, rent and interest on goods man.
ufactured here is less than the freight
and insurance or manufactures import
ed from the Atlantic. In the coarser
articles, such as blankets, soleleather,
castings and heavy furniture, which re-
quire little labor, relatively, We can
compete with New York; but not in
fine merinOS, morocco, miscellaneous
cutlery, cut glass. and so on. Our man.
ufacturing industry suffers because
Eastern factories can undersell US in
many branches, and the result is that
our capitalists and laborers are both alike
losers. The former cannot make any
profit by opening new manufacturing
establishments. The capitalists and la
borers in California, as classes, have the
same interest, and that is that our in
dustry should be put into such condition
that work should be furnished toall
classes at the highest prices that would
leave fair profit. If the price oflabor
is too low, poor men will stay away; if
too high, employments cannot be OBJ
tanned.
The Cinnamon are not slaves, nor sre
they as the Stockton Republican says,
"thralls of capital. Many of them are
working on their own account, as wash
ermen, gardeners, miners, fisherman,
peddlers, storekeepers and mechanics.
These, we presume, are nearly, If not
quite, one-third ofall in the State. The
Chinese laundrymen depend fortheir
support chiefly upon the poor class
of white people, and it is in the pooere
streets that the Chinese peddlers to fish
and vegetables are usually seen. Proba-
bly, one-third of the Mongolians in Cali
fornia are employed as domestic ser
wants, and as laborers in agriculture,
mining and road building. Here, too,
the employers are usually poor. In the
vineyards, the orchards, the strawberry
patches, the wheat, field the Chinaman
are found. Wherever anything is being
done to improve the State, by opening
new wagon roads or railroads there they
do most of the labor. The companies
which undertake the enterprises, are
poor, and have barely means
enough to secure the completion of the
work which is done through tho agency
of contractors. These poor men,
employ Cinnamon simply because they
could not make q profit fer themselves
with any other labor. The Chinese
house servants are mostly in the houses
of people who are not wealthy. Poor
women dislike to have servants who
will tell every little event that happens
about the house, and for that reason, as
we'll as for the greater cheapness and
of the Chinese, prefer them. In
the first-elass hotels, and merchants
houses the servants are usually Caucas-
ians.
VI NhC SAA1CSS
in the State are employed in factories
or by their countrymen. Most ofthe
in which they are engaged
could not be produced here without their
help. If they were expelled, the busi-
ness would be driven to the Atlantic.
Several of our railroads would not have
been built if their laborer had not been
procurable.
There is nothing in the facts to justify
the assertion that the Cinnamon in
California are the thrall of capital, or
that they are employed and kept here
mostly by rich men. The poor women
who want cheap washing, cheap vege-
tables, and cheap domestic service, do
far more than the. bankers and i'm
porters to keep the Celestials among
us.-[A Alta California.
Henry Ward Beecher says he once
saw a young lady "slap man in the face
and throw his cigar down his throat"
because he insisted upon smoking in her
presence.
Since Queen Victoria took her place
o,, tba EpoliSh fhrnna 22 yeara apO