The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1879-01-23
HUH NAN VERMIN,
The Threntened SeOurge Of he PacTHe
Coast.

the time when the Norwegian rat was
not known on this soil. The great rush
hither from sill quarters OF the globe, in
the early years OF the gold hunt, brought
the intolerable pest. They infested ships
and were thence landed here. They soon
oveTran the country, and "rattsge" was
the devouring, disastrous item in many
an account OF sales of merchandise con-
signed to this port, which brought dis
may, loss and ruin to the shipper abroad.
Still nobody haeded very much the up.
pearance OF the first Norway rat seen
here. In tact, the pesti'erous vermiu
was regarded much as s curiosity or as
reminder of the ''OId home" land. Quite
as the Norwegian rats have overspresd
the coast, also have the Chinese. And it
is only by those who are in places where
they are most numerous that the evil of
Chinese immigration can be seen snd
telt. They are as destructive and ruin
GUS TO labOriDg interests ard to the solid
prosperity of the state as the gnawing
yermin are to every perishable commodN
ity on which they iasten. Immeasugably
wore will coolies become if ever adj
mitted to citizenship. For nearly thirty
years they have aocked here, to reap the
golden product Tor which alone they
come, and this gained, to hasten back 10
enjoy there a life of sff1uence among
their co0lie caste which here would
barely be q remove from poverty. But
to give them citizenship and suffraqe
will cause them literally TO swarm here.
They have hitherto come by hundreds;
they will, if admitted to naturalization,
pour here in thousands and tens of thou
sands. They will spread and march,
and devasIate and devour like the YER
min and lOcusts of Egypt. Overland
they will push their way across the des-
erts and the plains, and thence crawl and
threng to every portion Of the union,
but mainly throughout the north and on
the Atlantic seaboard.
Speaking no language but their own,
with just enough pigeon" English to
hold the little conversation required
with our own people; b und by their
own associations and the secret orders of
their Chinese masters; intent only upon
the gain of gold fattening and growing
rich upon subsistence snd wages on
which the white labOEer can not live !;
paying no pOll~tax; exempt from military
service in time of war, because of their
utter wOrthlessness as soldiers; scorning
our schools; scofing or despising Christi
anity or the worship of God, and stub,
born in their heathenism; practically
regardless of and defying our laws, and
governed mostly By the laws of their own
country as administered here by their
acknowledged rulers; and enjoying all
these benefits of the protection Of the
constituted authorities without contIlS
buting to the maintenance of our instItu-
tions, the cOolie hordes would prevade
the country like pestilence and reduce
it as q famine. Free white labor would
be crowded from shops and fields, and
the working class driven to poverty, des-
Leration, and the lawlessness of raVeping
wolves. Something more terrible than
communism would then surely ravsge
the land. Men and women will not starve
in the midst of plenty. and when work is
refused them, and their appeals for the
means of subsistence, to earn their bread
by the sweat of their brew, are UNDECIDED
n refused, they will by force and violence
relieve their necessities in whatever
manner they can, without ever stopping
to consider consequences. Conscience is
dumb in the delirium of wretchedness
wrought by the foreclosures of starVs
ton and the agony of de spsir, and crime
becomes chronic. Property would depre'
ciate in value, business would decay, in
dustries be parslyzed, and securities be-
come everywhere precariOus.
To allow suffrage to the coolies would
be the certain downfall and destruction
of the Republic. The votes Of the COO
lie gangs, the same as their services and
their persons, would be at the disposal
and under the control of their Chinese
masters, who would farm them out to
the political party or the candidate on
the same terms their labor is now had
to those who paid the highest price.
Thus the coolie creeper, if allowed
grow from the root of the tree of Amer
lean liberty, will in time become the
deathly parasite to exhaust and destroy
the trunk on which it subsists. II the
ignorance, the superstition, the pagan
ism, the barely civilized despOtism--
with much of ancient barbarism main
tained--of Cnina is to have sway in this
country, by means OF the ballot, the
peril and war which the introduction of
Africans as slaves in the iODg~goue colo
Nal days finally wrought, will be as a
gale in comparison to the hurricane of
desolation which must at last come IS a
consequence Of the further and fatal ex-
tension of the suarage-.he admission
Of the coolies to citizenship, Il will not
then be a war Of sections II viii be the
conflict Of rac=s; aud, should it ever be
tell, woe TO the varquianed. They woul1