The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1881-01-04

'r pOI ClJ 49,
For clothing. ............ 3 w
Total. ........... ...... $65 90
The workman can lay up only $l3 a year,
and to do this he must work every day.
We have no form of Chinese life n Amer
lea that corresponds exactly to that in their
own country. There are but few Chinese
families this side of the Pacific. Nearly all
of them are male adults without any family
ties or connections, at least in this country
They therefore generally manage to live as
cheap here as they do there. Generally a
Chinaman's whole inventory of personal
property consists of his sack of clothing and
his bedding swung on a pole over his Shout
All. He is always prepared to start off in
sHSHt u marching order at a moments notice.
But the common laborer in China, whether
III the field or kitchen, gets only from 10 to
% cents a day besides his meals, or from 70
GEMS to ST O5 per week. He can be hired::by
he monti for from ST. so to So.
ii is can get permanent work he is willing
biabor fos $l2 a year with board and lodg-
ing II he. works by the day Or week he can
l5dgafoi Sc cents a month and clothe him
SELF fer 81 b year. Bat there is a grade be-
low thes fFee laborers known as the coolies,
who are oftsn glad to work for five cents a
day. Most Ut this coolie labor in China is
contrcil5d BIZ certain houses or companies.
These coolies are a sh- ftless, idle class, and
the lEge houses and companies manage to
Keep them Indebted to their houses by occa-
sionally advancing small sums of money to
them while they are out of employment.
Thus 1t is this class of labor is nearly always
controls them. In this way there exists a
great deal of forced or really slave labor.
There is little doubt but we have in this
state of things a revelation of the real char
acter OF what is known as the Six Companies
at San Francisco. The bulk of the Chinese
arriving here are mortgaged to them for
money advanced for payment of their pass
age or for money loaned them when they
were idle in China. There is little or no risk
of being cheated by bringing them to this
country. The Six Companies have a COM
plete system of espionage over these coolies,
by which they know every move or change
they make. They cannot escape their clutch,
neither do they try to escape. They find they
can readily pay off the mortgages resting on
them by working for the lowest wages paid
for labor. They work no harder for $500 or
$500 a year here than they did in China fol-
SIP a year. By their manner of subsisting
themselves, as far as their lodgings and pro.
visions are concerned, it costs them but little
more to live in this country than in China
They generally huddle together, and thus re.
duce their living expenses. Their food is Of
the simplest and cheapest kind, and is pur
chased at the lowest figures.
1t is with men brought up in this punching
poverty that our white laborers have beer
pitted. of course they are forced to yield t.
the advances of the Chinese horde. The maj
with wife and children depending upon hin
for support can make no Roadway toward
supplying their wants while faced with TIL
class of laborers.
Gradually the Chinese are reproducing tn
same condition of things that surrounded
them at China. They are a non-progressiv
race. The same habits and customs tina
prevailed centuries ago in China are the hab
its and customs Of to-day, They are a rae
of people that never forget, and their religion
binds them to observe the forms and ceremo
MES of their fathers even to the continue,
use of the traditional chop stick and blouse
They are a peculiar people, and a most unde
sirable class for America. Amy state or ter
ritory that is infested with them possesses
barrier against which the most desirable class
Of Immigrants care not to throw themselves
May Montana escape their further encroach
ments.