Litchfield enquirer., 1877-03-01

CraSC IS eSp6c1ally drawn between the aC- tualcoolie trade and the authorized meth cd of assisting emigrants. ''It is we'll understood in all that region" wrote Dr. Williams, secretary of legation in China, 'that enatgrGnts go from Hong Kong and co0lies from Macao" In one of the last attempts made to entrap coolies wrong- fully into an American ship, far back be- -fore 1861, Mir. Ward. who was then Amer ican minister, ascertained the design, and had the poor fellows taken from the vessel and examined at the Chinese magistrates office in Canton. There all of them-more than 33O -deposed that they were unwill- ing to emigrate; and all were released to return to their homes. If the same thing IS now done secretly, why, it may fairly be asked, does no Chinaman now dare to fol. low the example of those three hundred and tell the facts? Why do not Chinese in San Francisco do it? They are too shrewd people not to know that whoever did 1t now would gain not only protection but favor. And how comes tito ask a question, by the way-that those Chinese who are sad to come practically slaves, their earnings due to the men to whom they have sold themselves, can still keep up the reprehensible practice of sending
 
 home?ss That they do so is not only point strongly urged against them by. the anti Chinese party in California. but it is also a fact for which any Fone one will youch Who knows the arrangement of banks and com. panies in San Francisco for facilitating such remittances. ..-..
 The labor of the Chinese in California, then, is in no sense servile. It is servile in Peru and the West Indies, regions supplied through the real coole trade of Macao. or others places. That emigration, it Is worth while to note, 'has been pro- noted by foreigners, and attended with horrors scarcely second to those of the African slave trade 't Some of the hor- TOTS of that traffic have been transferred by the excited imaginations of Pacific coast residents Qargely aided by clamor- ous demagogues whom their better judg-, ment would reJect) to an organized plan for assisting poor emigrants from an over populated country to one where they may be self-supporting. That the emi- grant does agree to repay expenses from the cost of his labor is as true as it often IS in emigration schemes of other nation alitles; that the emigrant's family give security of property, or substitute, in such case, is also true in it's right sense; it is not true that there is anything in the arrangement that makes the emigraat ap- proximate to slave, or anything in which he sees injustice.
 But, to take up the second point of Californian complaint-the' fear for the safety of white labor, and the dread of an "Asiatic invasion" before which the "Cau- casian" will be driven helplessly. This part of the subject has afforded so rich a field for the demagogues that it is almost necessary to put aside from the mind what they have said before one can get even an unobstructed glance at the real question. The less intelligent among the white laborers of California naturally enough lend willing ear to denuncia- tlons of men who are underbidding them in the market; naturally enough help to elect the political leaders whose talk &C., cords with that which comes of thelr own restricted knowledge. In justice to the intelligent and thoughtful people of Cali fornia, the bluster of unscrupuIous poli- tlclans who speak to such a sympathizing audience should not be taken into serious discussion; it should be sent to the limbo of other truculent generalities, 'spoken for buncombe" in the heat of a mass meeting.
 What. however, do the Californians who should form the really liberal and thoughtful class say to this aspect of the matter? Even they do not speak with quite the care or moderation one might expect. At the great meeting held in San Francisco last April to consider the Ques- tion, words were spoken which excite considerable surprise in the mind of the reader. Perhaps, some day, they may produce like effects in the minds of their authors; for did not the extravaganza of the "Know- nothings" sometimes come home inconveniently, in later years? .e
 At this meeting, Governor Irwin, of California. presided. In the opening of his speech IS this passage: 'You will &C., cord me sincerity, y,-your minds will rec ognize Tn what l say a fundamental truth, when 1 declare that in the continued emigration of the Chinese to this country, IS involved suppression of everything that characterizes distinctly Anglo-Saxon aye, more, everything that characterizes distinctly European-civilization."+ Ex- Senator Casserly wrote: ''We should all rejoice that the cry of cheap labor,'- equally senseless and mischievous, which has mlsled so many, has had it's day among us. Who does not know. that cheap labor means degraded labor ?" There were many speeches of men whose positions should have made them conser- vative and thoughtful in weighing words. yet whose phrases sound like the talk of the old battles of races let loose again.
 The address drawn up at this meeting certainly should have embodied the ideas of California upon th1s matter; and we are justified in turning to 1t for a full expla- nation of the Californian case. "West of the Sierras," it says, ''there are, in round one million of white people. In California our population is, say, eight hundred thousand; in San Francisco, say. two hundredAnd fifty thousand. It is es- timated that Tn California there are some. thing over two hundred thousand Chi. nese. In San Francisco, about seventy five thousand. So that. at the present time, the Chinese number the one.fourth part of our people," Hence, the address goes on, the people "feel justified in call ing the nations attention to an evil of vast proportion, which is now threatening to outnnmber our Pacific coast popula. ton, and imperil the best interests of this side of our continent" < "With- out wives or houses, and by reason of their ability to live upon rice, tea, dried fish, and desiccated vegetables, they [the Chinese] can subsist more cheaply than white labOrers who have families to snp. port, children to educate, houses to main tain, taxes to pay. and public duties to perform. Hence in the labor. market the I Chinese can underbid the white man or woman. The contest is altogether un- equal, and wherever it has been waged, the Chinese have conquered and the \ whites have been driven from employ nent Parts referring to other than the labor question. and that of the lover immigration, have been omit ted here, tosbe taken up farther on; but for the moment consider the sentences above quoted. On what are these conf.
 Tn his article "China," in Appletons American Cyciopeda, new edition.
 Minister Seward, in the article before quoted
 TThe quotations from speeches, letters, etc. are from the San Francisco Bulletins reports of the proceedings of this meeting which was held April g.