Morning journal and courier., 1880-03-11
THE OTHER sxDE.

l l April7.
 New Hampshire Republican Convention, Concord
 Msy6
 THE OTHER SIDE.
 It is not at all strange that a bitter preju
 dice against the Chinese exists in this coun
 try. An equally bitter prejudice against th'
 people of the United States has been felt il
 China, and has not yet entirely died out there
 If large number of our workingmen should
 emigrate to China and come into competition with the workingmen of that country, it ii more than possible that formidable body o Chinese hoodlums would spring up, and that the immigrants would have great deal laid at their doors that did not really belong there | Some of their customs would be as obnoxious to the Chinese as theirs are to us they might be charged with dreadful immortality, with importing very undesirable diseases into the | country, and it is probable that occasionally some of them would be stoned or even killed. It would take long time for the Chinese to get over their prejudice against the Ameri- cans and to judge them fairly, notwithstand- l ing the immense and universally admitted su- | periority of the Americans of all classes to the Chinese of all classes.
 We do not mean to intimate that there is | no ground for the hostility to the Chinese in this country, but simply to call attention to the fact that some of that hostility is due to prejudice, and that the question has two sides. Unfortunately for fair understanding the other being lost sight of except at very long intervals, when some one, moved by Q spirit of fairness, presents it. The side that has usually been 50 carefully concealed has been presented to the public twice this week, and it is worth the attention of those who do not wish to do even the ''Heathen Chine e injustice One of the chief objections against the Chinese has been and is that they work much cheaper than others A New York Chi naman said few days ago: "There never was greater lie uttered. Why, the 25o Chi namen in the Belleville (N. J.) steam laundry, and the 30 in the Yonkers establishment earn from $1o to SIP week, and will not work for less. In the Maiden Lane and John street cigar factories, our men demand and get $15 and $16 per thousand, where Germans will take $8 and $9. In the cigar line our people have actually increased the rate of wages. Employers are willing to pay them higher, because they work more carefully and steadi- ly. Chinese cooks in boarding houses get from $50 to $50 month, and as house wants from $1s to $25 and $50. They usual ly ask from 20 to 25 per cent. more than Irish or German girls, and if the landlords see fit to pay them higher price the girls cannot com plain. Our people live we'll and dress as well as the foreign immigrants of the same class from Europe. Three-fourths of them, after they have been here a few months, get rid of their pig tails and blouses and put sMeli- can clothes. Their great ambition-that is, of the majority of them-is to be American citizens. and to enjoy the protection of the laws as such. They make their money here and are willing to in- vest it here if the people will only let them. But there is class of owners who will not sell or lease to us, and another class who are willing to, but fear the result with their for eign (European) tenants. The consequence is that we have to locate in the poorest aud most uninviting parts of the city, where we pay the biggest rents and highest prices for every thing we get, and then are not safe from mo- lestation. You can say this, however, that Mott street is cleaner and heater than Baxter street or any part of the Italian quarter, or many of the streets on the east side." These statements were printed in 8 prominent New York daily. We have not seen any of them denied, which goes to show that if the work ers whom the Chinese spoken of compete with are really cut under by them they (the workers) do not care much about it, or that the statements are true.
 Other testimony needed to help form cor rect judgment of the csseis given by a reliable correspondent of the New York Evening Post, who has himself studied the question in San Francisco. Contrary to the accepted belief, he says it is not true that the Chinese who come here are the refuse of their native land He is satisfied that those who come to Cali fornia, be they laborers or merchants, are equal to any of the rest in responsibility, in- dustry and sobriety. He agrees with the in telligent Chinaman above quoted that the Chinese in their worst estate are as clean as the lower classes in. New York city. and live quite as decently. On this point he says: s'The worst of San Francisco did not compare in crowded dormitories, filth and obscenity with what once saw in company with dis pensary physician in New York" He also combats as an error the idea that the Chi nese work much cheaper than anybody else. Says he: q made diligent inquiry at the in telligence offices with these results: Average wages for domestic servants-Irish, $21. Chinese, $22.5O. At hotels, Irish wait CTS, $35 to $40. Chambermaids, $25 to $50 8 month. In the trades, Chinese $25. 50 and find themselves. Chinese on farm lands, $50 and found. Whites, $35 and found" One of the office men made this remark to him: "When the Chinese work by contract they earn more than whites, because they work earlier and later, and do not drink whiskey." He further says on this point: ''The Chinese are em- ployed in preference to other laborers because they are quiet, inofensive, obedient neat and generally trustworthy. I know this from those who have employed them and because have employed them myself" It is but fair that the defenders of the Chi 1 nese should have 8 patient hearing. They I are but few, apparently. but facts are facts.
 EDITORIAL NOTES.