The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1876-03-02
THE CHINESE QUESTION.
A Serious Social Problem Johns Way
of Living.

From the Virginia (Ney.) Enterprise.
The learned men who conduct command
ing eastern journals cannot understand
why the people of this coast are opposed to
the influx OF race which all admit possess
patient industry and thrift; who, as a rule,
are peaceable citizens, and ask for nothing
except what they can earn. They think it
is but prejudice of education which makes
us inveigh against the Chinese, something
akin to that spirit which in the old slave
days made the men of the south believe
they were right in possessing property in
man, and in believing in classes. They
can see no faint in the presence of the
Chinese and wonderingly ask why we, in a
country where the cheap labor OF lnnumer-
able hands is needed, oppose the very
means by which our wants can be supplied.
We tell them that white men can not com.
pee with the Chinese, and they sneer at
us, and as much as say "if you strong
Anglo-Sax cannot compete with this
inferior and half barbarous race, then the
sympathy Of the world will never 60 out
to you if you are undone by Cinnamon "
And yet that is the point wherein the
whole trouble lies The Chinese live on
food which the white man could not swal
cribs that would suffocate white laborer;
and with all restrictions taken off there is
not trade of the whiteman's that the
Chinese could not in five years monopolize.
There is no invention in the race but their
faculty for imitation is marvellous. Show
them once how boot is made and they
forever after will make boots as nearly
like their first model as enc birds nest is
lyn In oil ha Go
Islands and on the Indian coast they
have driven every competitor away and
they control the trade there, neither Eng
fish, German, nor Dutch, not even the Jews,
can compete with them. For cur good on
this coast we wish dozen ship loads Of
coolies could be landed in New York,
enough to make a Chinese quarter on
some street in that city 1t would do
some eastern editors good to see how they
live and to find out how one of their dens
smell They would begin then to realize
that if there were a million of them instead
of few hundred, New York City would
be poorer instead of richer for their pre-
sence They would begin to realize that
no newspaper would ever be subscribed
for by even one Of all that million; that
no public work intended for the health,
prosperity OT luIelllgeUce OI the people
would ever be helped by them; they would
see that trades were falling into their
hands, but that the public somehow were
not prospecting, see that from their quarter
of the city the other races were drawing
away as from pestileDce, and would ur
derstand that in case of danger q million
of these half made men would be no de-
Tense. This is simply business look, but
going further they would see that every
woman of the race was both a harlot and a
slave, that they were being bought add
sold daily, and that every effort of courts
and officials could not check the vice for a
moment This might be extended inoe6-
nitely. 1t might be showl that under our
laws they but follow the laws of their own
country in all their relations with each
other, and that there is not power enough
in either police or courts to change this
state of affairs for moment The
European soon merges with our people,
and it is hard to tell after generation or
two whether man is of English, German
or any other European descent. But the
Chinese have not changed for thirty cen
turtles, and all other lands, except China,
are to him and his foreign shores forever.
Their presence here now, and the possibili-
ties OF the evils they may bring to our
people In the future, is a more serious
problem than the American race have vet
been called upon to decide.