Weekly Trinity journal., 1873-05-31
THE CHINESE QUESTION.

| In tne prospective eIcctioH Vi OHlbeU
States Senator by tho Legislature to bC
elected in September next, there Is {
question involved which the self-stylec
independent" press has studiously ant
assiduously ignored, but which, in ou
estimation, has far greater bearing up
on the future of the people of the Pacific
States than any of the questions sough
to be made issues in the coming cam
paign. More than seven thousand Chi
nese have landed at San Francisco with
in the past few weeks, and four thousand
more are expected on ships now due al
the same port, total Of more thar
twelve thousand of this class of people
in period of about two months Is
not the irruption Of such horde Of semi
barbarians, the advance guard of the
overwhelming millions of the Chinese
Empire who stand ready to follow, q suf
! fcient cause for great alarm Nine-t -tenth'
of these arrivals are adult males, hired in
China for term of years at sic dotia19
a month, (as appears from the develop
ments of recent police trial in San Fran
CISCO, and ready, at the bidding of their
masters, owners, we should say, to enter
into competition with white labor in ev-
cry field in which unskilled labor is in
demand +; eat out the substance of the
land like swarm of locusts, and then
return to their own country, while the
places they have left will be filled by
fresh importations of their own race
Even when kept back by the denial o.
civil rights and by the hostile Legislation
Of past years, the number of Chinese il
the State increased to 10000 what then
may we now expect when that number il
already doubled since 1870, and thous
ands are added every month To the
people of the Pacific Coast this question
Of Chinese immigration is the most mo.
mentous of the hour, and one which calls
at once for prompt and energetic action
AS early as in 1854 the presence here
Of SO large proportion of Chinese in the
State, began to be looked upon with dis
favor. Various measures were proposed
to check the influx, but none proved ef-
fcctual, and from that time to the present
this Chinese question became more or
less prominent. Unfortunately for the
people, the Democratic demagogues saw,
in the Anti Chinese feeling of the people
an opportunity to make the question q
party one, and by appealing to the preju-
dice against Cinnamon, secure the return
Of their party to power. The defeat OF
Mr.. Gorham and the Republican State
ticket in 1867, and the immense Demo
cratic majority in the Legislature OF
lS60-70, were due solely to the fact that
the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amend
ments were construed by Democratic sa-
ges as giving to Chinese the right of suf-
fragc. Mr.. Gorham's letter, which con-
tained the expression, 1.-THE universal
fatherhood Of God, and brotherhood OF
man." was seized upon as confirmation
ShoIlS "S iiOIJ w nv Vi All IIldI lldtl
been said. The fact that Gorham was
known to have been in favor of railway
subsidies had but little to do with the Re-
publican defeat as the smalInoss of the
vote cast for Caleb Il. Fay gave ample
evidence.
The scnsecss, stupid, blundering ac-
ton Of the Democratic Legislature Of
1869 so far from checking the stream Of
Chinese immigration TO this coast, only
resulted in having the disabilities impos
ed upon that people in former years tax.
en- of, and we see to day tho Legitimate
results. There is but one way in whicl
the evil can be reached and checked, and
that is by abrogation of the treaty with
China, and to this end the people of the
Pacific States must work in unison. The
must be one whose known views are iden.
teal with those Of the people. To have
effective influence he should be of tn,
dominant party; not Il Democratic "kno
on log," rs Casserly has been. Wha
the opinions of Mr.. Booth upon this ques
ton are we are not advised, but we d,
know that his organ, the Sacramento IN
ion, has been for years the champion anC
advocate of Coolie immigration, and tha
its utterances in past years were the grand
source of inspiration for Democratic dem.
agogucs.
We have but to look in our own county
for the proof that something must soor
be done. Already the Cinnamon out
number the adult whites. Trinity rive
seems nearly given up to them, in many
places for miles and miles none but thi
class of miners can be found. And W,
are told that one boss" has one hundreC
more men on the way. Heretofore the
presence in the mines has not been sucl
a stumbling block to laboring whites as il
other sections, as when men were out o
employment the spare time was often pu
in to good advantage prospecting. "
Now that many claims are being located
under the mineral law" and even tn
Chinese are eyading the law and buyini
large tracts of land by having white me-
act as agents, the field for prospecting
narrowed down, and white labor ma
soon have to seek other avenues of EN-
ployment.
We have thrown out the above hint
and they should be acted upon by bot
political parties. The election of Uni
ted States Senator with views in accord
ance with those Of the people, and sue
other sound action as can be taken by th