Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1876-04-19
THE CHINESE QUESTION.

THE CHINESE QUESTION.
We believe the time has arrived
whom proper representations and ex-
erti0ns on the part Of the press and
people Of the Pacific coast will result
in q satisfactory solution of the ques-
tion OF Chinese immigration. In the
first place, the approaching presiden-
tisl campaign promises to be a close
contest in which the voices of Califor-
mia, Oregon and Nevada may have a
determining influence. Both the great
parties will seek to secure the vote of
the Pacific, and it a not be doubted
that, apart from the silver question,
there is no subject within the domain
Of politics 90 fraught with vital impor-
lance to the people Of this coast. That
party which shall pledge itself to use
every endeavor to bar forever Chinese
immigration from our shores will al
most beyond doubt secure the eleven
electoral votes OF the Pacific States. In
order to cur such action it is neces-
sary that the facts concerning the mat
ter should be impressed upon the peo-
pie ofthe East. Theret the facts are not
known and the merits of the question
not appreciated. There is a prevailing
idea among our Atlantic cous:ls that
the Chinaman is simply a patient, in
genious laborer. whose work is a bless
ing to the and, land that the opposi-
ton manifested to him is q factious one
based upon the jealousy of the white
laborer, whom "Jobn's" ~frugality
and industry enable him to underbid.
This sentiment is partly the result of
the very proper feeling that labor
should be open to competition and is
partly based upon the sentimentalism
made fashionable a few years ago by
Bret Harte. 1t has become a custom
to look upon the heather Chinee as a
child-like Alb Sin, and upon Bill Nye
as the essence and truth Of the opposi-
ton to him.
They do not understand in the older
States that we in the far West are
threatened by a vast and growing evil;
an evil which, should it assume its full
proportions, will overthrow the free
labor system Of the United States and
obstruct the march of Anglo-Saxon
civilization. We have recently,
through years of internecine strife, at
an expense of hundreds of thousands
of lives, Of billions of treasure and of a
sectional luminosity which bids fair to
outlast the century, rid ourselves Of
the ulcer Of African slavery, and the
negro yet remains, and the question,
What shall we do with him 2" is al
most as far rs ever from solution; and
yet the negro question fades into insig-
nificancs compared with the gigantic
ills that must Of necessity flow from
unrestricted Chinese immigration. The
negro, though differing from us in race
and color ever to a greater extent than
the Monaghan, Is yet more readily as
simulated to our civilization. His i'm
mediate ancestors were savages AMI
his only ideas of right and wrong, ro-
fnement and culture, are derived from
the whites. He looks up to us aud in
his efforts to improve seeks only to ell
evate himself to III level. The China
man, on the other hand, through I'M
numbered centuries has been develop
ing . civilization in some respects
more complete than ours, the effect OF
which has been to remove him men,
tally and morally as distant from the
Anglo-Saxon IS are the gates of hell
from the confines Of heaven. He can
not unite with us; he cannot sympa.
thize with our progress, with our sys-
tenn OF free thought, free speech. free
labor; and he does not want to. He
despises it all equally. He regards his
plane As higher than ours. Any as
similation Is and for generations will
prove impossible.
Again. as we have said, we have
Just rid ourselves OF one system of
slavery. The people OF the East must
b brought to understand, what we
to Be the truth, that coolieism--
and all Chinese immigration is
coolieism-is slavery, and slavery
Of . far more debasing kind than
The household slavery formerly pre-
at the South. We have just got
quit Of the nightmare Of African slav-
Dry, and are threatened with an Old
Man of the Sea in the person of an in
elfproducing Chinaman; for
he numbers of this race are an import
ant factor in the estimate. There were
but four million negroes for us to deal
with. and at the present ratio Of in
,rease it will be but twenty five years
theirs will be five millions Of
and they being reinforced by
y annual influx Of five hundred thou.
and more; and the Empire OF China
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