Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-03-12
BOOK REVIEW.
CHINESE INH6RAlIoS, IN IT'S SOCIAL AND EcoSoAI-
CAL ASPECTS By GEORGE F. SEWARD, LATE U. S.
MINISTER TO CHINA. New York Charles Serb
ner's Sons


CAL ASPECTS. By GEORGE F. SEWARD LATE U. S.
MINISTER TO CHINA. New York Charles Serb
ners Sons.
This is an ambitious book, and it has been
planned in rational way. Hitherto nearly
all that has been written about the Chinese
immigration has been declamatory and
rhetorical with little or no attention to facts,
and usually with very patent contempt for
such sordid considerations. Mr.. Seward
has proceeded quite differently. He has be-
gun by setting down the staple arguments
on this coast, and he has undertaken to meet
each of these positions in its turn with per-
tinent statistics and testimony refuting it.
It is only necessary to give the outline of his
method to make it apparent that it is one
which cannot be met in the old way, and that
if he has brought any competence to
his work he must have produced very
formidable brief against the ordinary Cali
fornia anti. Chinese position.
/ And it must be admitted that the con-
illusions of his book are such as must almost
inevitably convince the mind which is
unfamiliar with the question. 1t is not
profound inquiry in any sense. Mr..
Seward has obtained some knowledge of
the Chinese character by his long residence
in China, but he has not studied the Chinese
| in California personally, and nearly all his
| ideas on that problem are derived from the
reports of Congressional and legislative com
mittees which have taken testimony on the
| subject at various times He sets out TO
| prove that the Chinese are industrious, tenn
perate, steady, faithful; that they built our
railroads, supported our infant manufactures,
assisted our farmers, supplied places which
there was no other element to FILL and in
short served great variety of highly useful
purposes that they have been i'll treated by
the people of California, whose politicians
and leaders and representatives have dis
cussed the question with a shameful disregard
| of truth and discreditable indifference to
facts that they are neither more vicious,
more dirty, more Objectionable in any way
than any other class of immigrants and,
finally, that the objections on the ground of
the danger of an overwhelming food of these
people, are absurdly in conflict with all that
! is probable, and in fact mere result of ignor-
ance and demagogism combined.
It will be perceived that Mr.. Seward takes
issue with every one of the positions which
have come to be regarded on this coast as a
sort of creed. This is aggravating enough,
but the worst of it is that he manages to
bring such series of acknowledging facts
and statements in support of his averments
! that his arguments are very apt to produce
conviction. In fact more exasperatiHg and
bewildering volume for the anti Chinese
demagogues of the average type it would be
impossible to conceive, and it must be stated
at once that though it has been shown easy
enough to dismiss it with slurring epithets,
it cannot be answered in any serious way by
those who hold to the vulgar view of the
Chinese question. It is indeed a proof of
the wisdom and soundness of the position
long sincs assumed by the RECORD UNION
on this subject that all attempts to demon
strate the economic disadvantages of Chinese
immigration must fail, and that the only
really tenable ground for the opponents of
that immigration was to be sought outside the
domain of political economy. For it must be
admitted that as regards his main poin s
Mr. Seward has had no difficulty in proving
his case, and in fact no special ability or
insight were needed for this, since the facts,
whenever they can be got at. are almost all
one way.
He does then demonstrate that the Chi.
nese have been very helpful to California
that they have done a great deal of work
which would not have been done at all in
their absence that they have rendered pos
sible the establishment of industries which
could not otherwise have been set on foot ;
that they have excelled in steadiness, fidelity,
temperance and thrift that they are more
reliable than white laboTers; that they will
do work which white laborers are too lazy or
more vicious or unclean than other foreign
ers, and in fact that they are less dirty than
some other foreigners. These propositions
may be said to be fairly borne out by the
| evidence. There are some false conclusions,
as for instance in regard to the value of the
Chinese in domestic service. There was a
| period when the evidence adduced by Mr..
Seward in this respect was true, but time
has brought change. The Chinese of the
| present day are in no respect better servants
than the white women whose places they
took They have become insolent, greedy,
indolent, tickle and careless. They have
learned to demand the highest wages, and to
give the poorest service in return, and in SO
far have shown some power Of assimila-
st ton" They are rapidly becoming as bad
servants as their predecessors, and their
| faithfulness and constsney in this class Of
occupations are attributes no longer known.
In their other relations, however, Mr. Sew
ards evidence is no doubt accurate enough,
and he has succeeded in disproving almost
everything that has been alleged against the
Cinnamon by the Sand-lot type of dema-
gogue.
Ali this must be conceded, and it must also
be conceded that the record of California leg
slation upon the Chinese is most discredita-
bic to the State. For thirty years continued
efforts have been made, and not seldom sue
cessfully, to harass and plumber and damage
the patient Chinese miner. Statutes have
been enacted which enabled the very scum of
the white mining camps to tyrannize over, to
rnaltreat and to rob, these defenseless crea-
lures and though every one of these cow
ardly statutes was fagrantly unconstitutional
on its face, there was not manliness nor cour-
age enough anywhere in the community to
bring the matter to test in the Courts. The
mob-voice was for many years the only one
which had any chance of being heard. The
Chinese policy was dictated by border
ruffanism, and it was cruel and base. 1t is
not to be wondered at that our neighbors at
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