New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-08-11
SOME IMPARTIAL VIEWS.

IABoRRRs UNWILLING TO woRK-PATIENCE, IN
DusrRY. AND TRUSTwoRTHINESS OF The CHINESE
THE SIX COMPANIES
,voox AK OCCASIONAL CORRESPONDENT THE TRIBUNE.I
SAN FRANCIsCo. July 15.-As ] crossed from Oak
land TO this city on recent Sunday afternoon, there
were on the ferry boat a number of Chinese. They
were decently clad quiet clean, sat apart in their
nlaces in the lower part of the boat conversng to
gether. and finally walked off the boat when she
came 10 land as orderly as though they had been
Massachusetts, Christians. There were also on the
boat q number of half grown and fullgroWn "h'e
bows. some of whom had been fishing, aud carried
their long rods with them. These were slouchy'
dirty, loud-voiced rude; and. as they passed OH the
boat / noticed that with their long rods lhey
Knocked the hats of the Chinese OIL their heads, OF
punched them in the back, every effort OF TINS khu
being rewarded with bosterous laughter from thelr
companions. Nor did they confne their annoyance
entirely to the Chinese for they ostled and pushed
their way out through the crowd of men aud women
very much as a gang of pickpockets on Third-ave
car conducts itself when its members mean to steal
a watch OF two.
These rowdies were Hoodlums;' and it is the
Hoodlums chiefly who clamor about the chinese,
aud who are ruined by Chinese cheap labor" The
anti-C Chinese agitation here has led me TO look
little closely into this matter and declare TO you
nv belief that there are not hundred decent men,
who work for living. engaged in this crusade
against the Chinese. If you could to-day assemble
in this city, all who join in this persecution and if
then YOU took from tins assemblage all the Hood
lums all the bar-room loafers, and all the political
demaeogues. / don't believe you would have
hundred men left on the ground. That is to say,
the people who actually earn the bread they eat do
not persecute the Chinese.
TIE TENEMENT-HOUsE LAWS ENFORCED AGAINST
THE CHINESE.
II Won say that il argues lack of public spirit
that the decent part of the community allow the
roughs TO rule in this matter take leave to remind
YOU of the time, not very long ago, when the same
combination of Hoodlum and demagogue mobbed
negroes in New York, and threatened vengeance If
colored people allowed to ride in the street
cars Here, as with you then, there are unfortu-
nately newspapers which ignorantly pander to tins
vile class and help to swell the cry of persecution.
And here. as in New-YOrk few years ago. it results
that the prescribed race is hardly dealt with not
only by the roughs, but in the courts, and
gets seant and hard justice dealt out to it.
The courageous and upright action of Mayor
Alvord in vetoing the inhuman and silly acts of the
City Supervisors, which by the way has made him
one of the most popular men here, has for the mo-
ment shamed the demagoGues and silenced the
rowdies: but there are means of annoying the Chi
nese within the law which are st1ll used. For in
stance, there is ordinance declaring line for
overcrowding tenement-houses and requiring that
in every room there shall be 800 cubic feet of air for
each occupant and for violating this fine of $40 is
imposed But this ordinance is enforced only against
the Chinese-so / am assured on the best authority
and they only are fined. But justice would seem
10 demand not only that the law should be enforced
against all alike but that the owner of the property
should be made liable for its MISUSE as well as the
unfortunate and ignorant occupants
The Chinese quarter in San Francisco consists for
the most part Of q lQ. Of decayea EQokeries which
would put 6tif own Five Points to the blush. The
Chinese live here very much the Five Points pop
ulaton lives in New-York. And here, as there, re-
spectacle people-Or people at any rate who would
think themselves insulted if you called their re-
spectability in questiOn-Own these filthy and de-
cayed teDements; live in comfort on the rent paid
them by the Chinese perhaps 90 to church on Sun
day. and no doubt thank God that they are not as
other people 1t is very good to fine poor devil of
a Chinaman because he lives in an overcrowded
tenement; but what a stir there would be if some
enterprisng San Francisco journal should give de-
scrpton OF these holes and the different they
are put to- and add the names and residences Of the
owners.
LACK OF WHITE LABOR.
California has according to Cronise n good
authority, 100000 acres of arabic land 1t has,
according TO the last census 56O27 people, of whom
149473 live in San Francisco. And yet nowhere in
the United States have heard so much complaint
of nothing TO do as here in San Francisco. One
of the leading cries of the demagogues here is that
the Chinese are crOwdiDg white men out of employ
ment But one of the complaints most frequently
heard from men who need to get work done, is that
they can get nobody TO do it, A hundred times and
more, in my travels through the State, have found
Chinese serving not only as laborers, but holding
positions where great skill and faithfulness were re-
quired; and almost every time the employer has
said 10 me, Il would rather, of course, employ q
white man, but cannot get one whom can trust
and who will stick TO his work" In some cases this
was not said. but the employer spoke straight out,
that he had tried white men, aud preferred the Chi
nese as more faithful and painstakng, more accur-
ate, and less eye servants.
gentleman told me that he had once advertised
in the San Francisco papers for 100 laborers; his
office was besieged for three days. Three hundred
and fifty offered themselves, all presumably ruined
by Chinese cheap labor but all but dozen refused TO
accept work when they heard that they were re-
quired TO go out Of the CITY," The charge that the
Chinese underbid the whites in the labor market Is
bosh. When they first come over, and are ignorant
of our language habits, customs, and manner of
work. they no doubt work cheaply; but they know
very accurately the current rate of wages and the
condition Of the labor market, and they manage to
get a. much as anybody, or if not this in some cases.
1t is because they cannot do full days work. 1t is
. fact however, that they do a great deal of work
which white men will not do out here they do not
stand idle but take the first job that is offered them
And the result IL that they are used all the
State more and more, because they chiefly. Of the
laboring population, will work steadily and keep
their engagements.