The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-07-02
SPIRIT OF rzn PRESS.
Editorial Opinions Of the Leading Journals
upon Current Topics-Compiled Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.
THEORIES AND FACTS ABOUT THE
CHINESE

From ths " r. Times.
The meeting of workingmen Thursday night
in reference to the importation of coolies will
doubtless receive the attention it deserves
The preamble to the resolutions is not very
temperate in its character, and some things
were said at the meeting which we hope
were not meant. The Mayor very properly
observed that the whole subject was an ex-
tremely difficult one, and that 1t was useless
TO heap up objurgations in regard to it. Con-
gresS will undoubtedly have to deal with the
problem and in the meantime the opinions
of the workingmen will necessarily have
great weight-more especially when they are
Invested of extravaganza.
If. however. the "Uhinese- American ques-
tion' is 10 be discussed in an intelligent and
useful manner, it is highly desirable to keep
highly -oolored exsggeration out of it. The
117Jslue on Thursday published long state
ment designed to prove that it is the duty of
Congress to regulate or prohibit the importa-
ton of Chinese coolies, lust it first regu-
lated and prohibited the importation of Afri-
can slaves In these few words the whole
question is misrepresented and confused.
The Chinese shoemakers now at North
Adams are not slaves. The IT6uneS own
correspondence from the village proves that.
The following passage appeared on Thursday,
almost side by side with the statement about
''slaves" in the article referred to-
"These cheerful faces these eager learners, these
faithful workers. these lavish purchasers of shirts
and stockings, carefully charged 20 them by their
own book. keepers have no suggestion of slavery;
this generous manufacturer more bent on making
the strangers feel comfortable and at home in a
strange land than in getting back his large invest
ment is not the man to undertake the business OF
slave master and there Is nothing IN the atmo-
desirable on his part to make sucn barg ain for
forcement here. The only slaves in North Adams
are the men who have sworn fealty and sacrificed
their independence to an arbitrary Union, governed
far away; the manufacturer who has broken the
bonds of the same is emancipated from slavery
more humiliatiDg still and the freest men in the
village are the immigrants who have come from
crowded China to a land whico offers opportunities
for alLp
Congress may doubtless prohibit the intro
duction of slaves into this country, but has
it any right to interpose unnecessary or vexa-
tious obstacles to the importation of free
labor? This question the Star disposes of
by asserting that the coolies slaves But
our contemporary does not seem to be in pos
session of any special information with regard
to the terms of Mr.. Simpsons contract, or
else ii has withheld that information from
the public. Immigrants are welcome" says
the St0T ''slaves are not Exactly But
we cannot legislate against the Chinese as
slaves until we have some positive proof
before us that they are slaves.
The writer in the Tribune objects to the
Chinese on account of their race. The argu-
ments of the Tribune itself when such objec-
tions were made to the negroes are surely
sufficient to meet this point. The Tribune
has been preaching good many years in
vain if these trace" prejudices are now to
prevail. But the writer is also afraid that the
''BIongolians will gradually incorporate them
selves with the blood and being of the coun-
try, and he goes on in strain which will be
rather startling to old readers of the Tribune
to insinuate that there will be at once a
wholesale admixture of races. There is a
vast preponderance of the ''female element
in Massachusetts,, and cit is a suggestive fact
that the first organized bodies of industrial
Cinnamon have been taken to M Massachusetts, !"
The writer 'leaves others to draw such de.
ductions as they please" The deduction we
should draw from it is that the argument is
an insult to American women, who would
have as much to say on the particular ques-
tion involved as the ''Mongolians." We
think they may be trusted in the same viii
lage or State with the Chinese shoemakers.
The writer of this extraordinary article fur
ther objects to the Chinese on the ground that
they sleep in hunks and not in beds, and eat
queer food. 1t is a contest, he says, "of the
bunk against the bed, the roast rat against
the roast beef" This is plainly view die
tated by prejudice. Now let us hear what
the 1ai6aae correspondent, practical man,
writing from North Adams has to say on the
subject
'Ihe Chinese are hearty eaters, requiring new
supplies OF lice and fresh meat for their kitchens in
a way that somewhat encourages the small traders
OF North Adams who had been led to suppose the
chandise but rats and puppy dogs. The ciga stores
and whisky shops must snffer, but their wants will
open new avenues OF profitable trade"
So much for fact against fancy.
The writer goes on to protest against the
Chinese because they are immoral. Any
body would think from this that immortality
was confined to the Chinese whereas there
is good reason to suppose that even the
''Japhetic stock" sometimes have "foul and
mortifying vices" All such arguments as
these, if arguments they can be called, only
serve to make the opposition to the intro
duction of Chinese laborers ridiculous. II
the new tide of immigration is to be turned
back, il must be for better reasons than those
advanced in the Tribune. Is this, for in.
stance, good and valid reason for drawing
Gordon round the United States to keep out
the Chinese? "When we shall have them
arriving in these Northern States by the ter
thousand and hundred thousand, we will un.
doubtedly find politicians playing for theil
votes" Does not the same thing happen
with other naturalized citizens
The whole subject ought to be properly
inquired into, but in fair, impartial anC
business-like spirit. A mere collection Of
crotchets and prejudices ought not to be &C
cepted as the basis of policy. The very
facts about the motive for introducing Chi
nese into Massachusetts, seem to have beer
misrepresented We have been told that tn,
object was to beat down the price of tn,
white mans labor. But the sensible observes
who writes from the spot declares that Mr.
Sampson was forced by the despotism of hi
workmen to employ Chinese. Once more lie
us hear this correspondent, for he seems K
ubaf ha Ic talk oh