Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1876-04-04
THE CHINESE QUESTION.

portions of national importance. We,
on the Pacific Coast, have long suffered
under the infiiction, and it is high
time that such action should be taken
ny the General Government rs will re
lieve the laboring interests Of the conn
try from competition with coolie labor.
We are led to these remarks by man
ifesto published in the San Francisco
Chronicle of the lst inst, aud purport-
ing to be issued by the heads OF the
six great Chinese companies in San
Francisco. This manifesto is address
ed to "The American Public aud is
called forth by the proposed concerted
action alike of the authorities and OF
the citizens of San Francisco to take
such steps as will stop this growing
evil. The companies take the ground
that they have done all that in
them lies to prevent immigration,
and that the Chinese at home re-
fuse to follow their advice, and,
animated by the hope of gain,
flock in thousands to our shores of
their own free will. They say:
Our six companies have, year after
year, sent letters discouraging our peo-
pie from coming to this country, hut
the people have not believed us, and
have continued to come. The neces-
sary OK xpense of these poor newcomers
is constant drain upon the resources
of those already settled here, SO that
the Chinese residents of this country
are also opposed to this rapid Chinese
emigration. But the capitalists of this
honorable country are constantly call
ing for Chinese cheap labor. The white
laboring men of this country are very
angry because the Chinese obtain EN-
ployment which they claim belongs to
white men alone, aud so they hate the
Chinamen, sometimes throw stones at
them, sometimes strike them on the
street. and constantly curse them. The
Chinese people cannot return such
treatment in the same kind, lest other
nations hearing of such things should
ridicu.e the Ia rs of this honorable
country as of no use."
Now the people of California and
Nevada are too long and too we'll in
formed OF all the horrors and mysteries
of Chinese coolieism TO be for a mo-
ment deceived by such sophistries as
the above. But in the East the case is
different. Even well informed people
east of the Rocky Mountains are mis-
informed concerning this new slave
system, whose rapidly growing pro-
portions threaten to revolutionize the
Tree labor system Of the country and
to subject us anew to the disgrace and
expense of an organized slavery, or
worse, to the horrors of servile insur-
rection. The danger is imminent and
calls for prompt and decisive action.
The technicality which protects the
Chinese prostitute or coolie out of ten
derness to the immigrant from civiliz-
ed Europe may of necessity follow
from strict Interpretation of the con-
stitution and of our treaty obligations ;
but If such be the case the constitution
should forthwith be amended and the
Burlingame treaty abrogated. These
Chinese stand ready to occupy by mil
lions our vast unsettled bu. productive
regions, and to overcrowd with all their
native patience and intelligence, our
thousand Industries. They not only
stand ready so to do, but they are to-
day in every city, town and village
west of the Missouri, elbowing aside
the Caucasian laborer, the bone and
sinew of the land. Their industry and
economy are worthy of all praise, and
might to the advantage Of our laborinp
classes be emulated by them; but
neither from their industry nor THEN
economy does any benefit accrue t.
the common veal. They are not fitted
either as statesmen in peace, or az
warriors in battle. or as moralists OF
instructors in private life to advance
our material or moral interests. In
fact those interests they cannot com.
prehend. They are among us but mol
O part of us. They are on our soil
but not of it. Like tho locusts oil
Egypt, or the grasshoppers Of Kansas,
they in their numbers and their greed
devour every green thing in their path,
nothing to the land whence
they derive their sustenance. Since
pro historic ages these people and our
selves have had no common ancestor,
have hardly parlaken of the same
attributes of humanity. For thous-
ands Of years they have been advanc-
ing in one path of civilization; ourselves
n another. We arrogate nothing of
to the white race in this as
,oct, but the fact remains that We are to-
lay, in every mental and moral charac-
sristic, through ages of development
: opposed 70 esrh other a. tue poles.
'heir moral attributes, their idoas OF