Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1879-04-12

] i IlERNDON, Oupl.
The ChInese-Must They Go?
NJ. C. Briggs in n. Y. Christian Advocate.
We are sharply selfaccused. We
are humbled and ashamed. The
men of substance, weight, worth,
the men who make and preserve
States, sat still and let Congress
cover the nation with infamy. 1t
appeared to us so preposterous and
unjust to assume, or even fear, that
local and class clamor would influ-
ence legislation at Washington, that
we would not entertain the thought.
1t puzzles US beyond measure, even
now that the anti-Chinese bill has
passed, to account for a proceeding
so unstatesmanlike, so anti-Ameri-
can, so cOwardly, so trucking, so
intensely time-serving, on any prin-
clple which does not postulate a
purblindness or a rravenness most
disheartening tocontemplate. When
one of our representatives in the
Lower House of Congress, in advO-
eating the wretched and clumsy
bill, hurled at the opposition the
loud accusation that they believed
in the fatherhOod of God and the
brotherhood of men, we were simple
enough to suppose that such pathOs
launched at the Declaration Of indie
pendence, the stable religious faith
of the enlightened world, and the
accredited anthropOlOgy of thinkers,
would arouse something like just
resentment in the minds of intelIi-
gent politicians, and help to make
the defeat of the measure more de-
servedly overwhelming. But it
happened that both parties were
playing for the same stake, hence
each WED with the other in smirch-
ing the central and vital principle
of the American system.
The Chinese are not patrons of the
newspaper press, and there has been
no organized remonstrance against
their cruel and cowardly persecu-
ton, hence the public discussion Of
their case has been ec Ddrte. 1t Is
always perilous to base measures of
State on Il set of misstatements and
fallacies. Such proceedings react
with damaging, if not disastrous,
effect. Acts of the National Legis-
lature, certainly, should rest on
reasons which court scrutiny. That
such was not the case in the recent
instance could be made apparent, if
it were not already so to all thought
full men, by bold citation of facts.
The transaction was what your best
Eastern papers interpret it to have
been-an eager, hungry, conscience
less clutch after political victory
in California. From the strong eX-
pressions OF establishment, mortifi-
cation and disgust which reach me
from influential quarters on every
side, infer that neither party has
gained aught save dishOnor and
distrust by the senseless iniquity.
FACTS AND FABLES.
Thus far this one-sided contest has
been waged on a basis of perverted
truth and exaggerated falsehood. A
free people cannot afford to be I'M
candid. In the final result there is
nothing to be gained by the conceal
ment or distortion. If the present
hostility to the Chinese is rational
and just, why all this incorporate
heat and indecent haste? In my
boyhoOd a similar feeling existed
against the Irish; and in a less de
gree against "the Dutch" as Ger
mans were called; and had the
composition of society been the
same as now, had there been as
large a mob element, and that
arrayed against the strangers, the
soAoa, Of 70 dax, xvyD,,II bo.ya haas,
but a repetition of the scenes of
those earlier years. As ii was, our
good name received some ugly
blOtches. IT is curious to hear re-
peated the very same arguments
with which nay .boyhOod was fa-
miliar. There is no addition except
the term Pagan" and that Is little
mere than substitute for "Papist."
My first polemic fisticuff was in de-
Tense of the right of the Irishman to
plant his loved potatoes in Ameri-
can soil, and eat them without mo-
lestatiOn. These foreigners were
Papists; they were inassimilabIe;
they owed foreign allegiance they
were filthy; they lived on nothing,
and sent their earnings home to
ireland; they reduced the price Of
labor; they were taking the bread
out of our children's mouths they
made work dishonOrable they
would overwhelm the country they
would drive American women to
destruction they would fill the
land, and leave no room for our
children. These accusations sound
to us now like far-of echoes of the
sand-lots.
''The Chinese degrade labor"
How? BY being the most tire
Iessly industrious people among us?
"They reduce wages below living
rates"
Wages for all kinds Of labor,
especially for domestic service, are
higher in California than in any
other State in the Union. The low
est price for an average person in
the kitchen is $l5 per month, usu-
ally with the washing done out.
"They establish ruinOus compe-
tition."
There can scarcely be said to be
any competition in domestic service
or i'm laundry work. DO the men
of the sand-lots propose to set up
wash-houses, or turn cooks and
chambermaids?
"But they drive hundreds Of re-
spectacle young women to lives Of
shame"
Some months ago man repeated
that stale indictment in my ears,
adding that he knew two hundred
respectable American girls who
would be glad to do homework IN