Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1882-06-09


Chinese Labor Servile, Not Free
California Injured, not Benefited. by
the Chinese.
Comparative Insi-niiicrnce of our Trade
with China.
Profits Inure TO Chinese Firms.
| Chinese Labor i'm California compeets
directly with the Producing Classes.
The Cinnamon, it is claimed, and
| apparently with truth, will learn any
! given mechanical operation III one
third of the time required by white
! workman. H has no family; he
| lives IN th" moss frugni manner; he
| lodges upon a wooden bench; he
has been used at nome to wages that
would har,ily more than sustain life.
His sole ambition is to accumulate
from two hundred to four hundred
dollars, which is to him fortune,
and which enables him to return as
Il rich man to his own county. He
is obedient aud servilc. Bv means
of all this he is enabled to live as 10
white man could live, even if the
white man were not burlened with
the support of wife and children.
The result has been to prevent the
immigration of a strong and healthy
iahoriny class of kindred and easily
affiliated race from the Eastern States
ami from Europe. Thus there has
been almost who'll wanting in Cali
fornia, the element that contributed
SO largely to build up the prosperity
of the whole country east Of the
Rocky Mountains.
The evil of this has been twofold.
Not only has the sum total OF Il
large Caucasian immigration been
lost, but there has been none of the
natural ana legitimate increase of
population that would have resulted
therefrom. In the Eastern States
the Swedish, Irish, or German maid
en- finds ready employment i'll do
|
marries and children are born, and
families surrounded by the safe
guards of Christian communities
grow up to careers of usefulness and
often of honor. In the second or
third generation the descendants OF
the European immigrant are so CON-
pletely merged with our people that
no difference is perceptible. In Cal
ifornia anything of the kind is i'm
, possible. To certain extent it
: existed before Chinese cheap labCl
had become SO overpowering as ii
now is; but it has diminished in the
same ratio that the latter grew to be
the dominant feature of the Califor.
MIA industrial system. California
has thus been shut off from the leg
, itimate elements of growth which
would have made her, in all the
L essentials of material and mora
prosperity, tenfold stronger than
she is to-day. Chinese labor has
= operated not only to prevent, but tC
destroy the normal development Of
the State, and to throw upon the
people unwonted burdens. In every
community there are many who
through adversely, are thrown sud
denly upon their own resources
= children, and tender women who
4 must seek sustenance in humble
!. employments. Where access t
these is closed, as it is by Chinese
labor, the alternative is fearful ant
i plain. Tue woman who, in Califor
MIA, without friends or money seek.
i to earn livelihood by any of thu
occupations commonly open to hel
r. class in even the most crowded
> cities of Europe or of the Eastern
l. States, is met at every turn by Chi
y nese who will work for less than i.
necessary to support life and healtl
" in person of Caucasian descent anC
(. tanning. There is for her the sim
d pie alternative of shame or starva
II ton. The man who is dependen
upon his handiwork for daily bread
If finds his children dwarfed for neet
g of mere physical nutrition, becaus'
: bis income, beaten down by Chimes
c competition, is inadequate to thei
II support; and beggary and crime ART
the natural results.
l. The same cause has produced an
a other evil of no slight social masni
tude. Where young men find til,
prospect of supporting families t.
be insecure, they do not marry
From such a condition of society til,
j. political economist deduces will
certainty that the normal increase o
the population will be slow; tn,
: student of moral science deduce.
with equal positiveness that TIT
standard of public and private NOR
: ais will be debased.
Q 1t is an axiom, that where servil,
Q labor is brought in contact with tina
5. of q higher social character, tn,
o latter is brought down to the leve
II of the former. 1t was an argumen
is used with effect against the institu
ton of negro slavery, that it was NO
o the colored man alone, but the free
white laborer also, who bore th,
~ stigma associated with manual toll
q The same rule of association hold
1t true between the Chinese and the
white workingman in California. In
the city of San Francisco, sixty
: thousand of the Chinese are crowded
4 into six or seven blocks of building
A single story measuring twelve feet
from floor to ceiling is sometimes divi
ded by two intermediate floors, max
J. ing three stories in one, all occupied
!, by Chinese. The streets i'll that por-
;. ton of the city are connected from
one side to the other by subterranear
> passages, SO that the occupants CT
J. the houses pass under ground from
). building to building. Sometimes