Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-03-28
CHINESE MONOPOLY.
Business Entirely Absorbed by Theme
Their Imperial DEGREES.

San Francisco Chronicle.l
The Chinese are an initiative people.
The statement is not original, but
those resident among us are furnishing
some original proofs of its truth. They
are learning the advantages of monop-
olies, and taking steps to secure to
themselves some of its benefits, in
imitation of the railroad company, the
water company and the gas company.
They are gradually getting certain
lines Of business entirely in their own
hands. Their incursions on the do
mains of the boot, shoe and slipper
makers, the cigar-makers, and the
various branches of unskilled labor
have been frequently remarked. Not
content with making our garments and
crowding our laborers from all but the
higher branches of labor, they aspire
to become Our purveycrs. They have
secured complete control of the pork
trade here. The hog slaughterers of
South San Francisco make, with few
exceptions, no attempt at selling direct
to white consumers. They run nc de-
livery wagons t oany but Chinese houses.
Theytaket their orders from the Chinese
jobbers almost exclusively - sixty,
eighty, one hundred or more hogs from
each house, as directed. The hogs
are slaughtered with every accessory
of nastiness. thrown, with the animal
warmth still in them, promiscuously
into filthy wagons and drawn of to the
Chinatown jobbers' houses, where they
are cut up for retail among Chinese
and for .jobbing lots to retail butchers
of the city. Nearly all the pork found
in the retail stalls of the city comes
from these Chinese jobbing houses, as
well as much of that used in advertised
sausage houses. The Chinese jobbers
are banded together in some sort of
mutual operating association, and
have in several instances shown their
power over the hog s~laughterers by
making and enforcing the most arbi-
trary DEGREES. Some months ago Mr..
Johnson, one Of the oldest and most
extensive hog slaughterers on the
coast, took .umbrage at one of the
Chinese employed in a mental capaci-
ty about the slaughter house in South
San Francisco, and resolved that 'the
Chinese must go in this particular
instance. He put the motion with his
fist between the Chinaman's eyes. and
it was carried with such yigor
that the Chinaman did go-down
and over a pile of meat on the
floor, Then he got up and went out
Of the house on the toe of Mr.. John
sons boot. When he gathered his
dazed wits together he went off inn
mediately and reported the practical
assertion of the sand-lot war cry ia
the Chinese pork jobbers' monopoly
association. They met and discussed
the matter, and the result was a die
tum that Johnson should pay to the
association a fine of $500 and take the
Chinaman into his employ again, and
if he refused he should sell them nc
more pork. The arbitrary dictum
was obeyed. More recently a butcher
in the employ of Arnold, another large
hog-slaughterer Of South San Fran.
cisco, became enraged at Chinaman
employed about the slaughter-hous
and struck him. Another Chinaman
took up the quarrel, when the butcher
gave them both a sound thrashing
and ended the performance by kick
ing them out of doors. This was re.
ported to the Jobbers' association in
Chinatown, which decreed that Ar
mold should pay them a fine of $lOC
and discharge the butcher. The de-
mand has not been acceded to, but
will probably be, as Arnold's business
will be ruined if he refuses.