The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1882-04-05
VETO OF rnE ANrr.CnINEsE BILL.

ton in the mind of any unbiased thinker
and citizen that many member of Con
gress cast his vote for the measure, not that
his reason approved ii, not that national
necessity required it, but that dema
sogical policy decrced it. The really
representative men of California could
scarcely have wished that the Chinese
should go, for themselves were there en-
ployors, the landhodcrs, the growers OF
wheat and the grape, the fruit producer,
the railway builder, must all have desired
the cheap labor. Merchants, pub
fishers, housekeepers, and indeed all
the industries would seriously miss
them. The Pacific states need
population, labor, development, and
how they could have been induced to drive
all from them for the time being, 1t is all
impossible to conceive. 1t is true the vote
shows extensive and intense antagonIsm,
since out of $4,000 voters of the Golden
State, only some 900 urged their protest
against the propositions contained IN the
bill. So too, in Nevada, out of vote OF
1900, only 200 persons opposed it, Ger
tainly the vote was emphatic. So, the
hostile feeling against Acknowledged John
was evident. But how sounl lawyers and
honest statesmen in congress from other
sections of the country could have so fully
endorsed the measure, we never have
understood. For the bill changed essen
italy our condition AS nation,
before the world Ii opened up the gate
way for flood of all such exclusive legisla-
ton, IL was the first break in the loyee by
which the waters of race prejudice threat
ened to inundate by crevasse in all direc-
tons. 1t was the old cry of nearly
80 years ago that shouted put
none but Americans on guard, y
that set good housewives on the anxiou,
seat lest "Catholic hired girls should poison
the wells and the sausages." Again Our
Chinese treaty stipulated that 1.-THE limita-
ton or suspension should be reasonable,
and yet the bill proposes prohibition fol
twenty years. Twenty years is indeed q
long period in human life, and Is
an outrageous construction OF the
I term reasonable" 1t virtually sci
up Chinese wall against any immi
grafton from the land of the sun.
1t was an extraordinary departure from all
precedent, from the long.iixed policy Of
this democratic government, a sudden and
radical change, without the shadow of ne
cessity for it, that required that mo state
or court of the United States shall admit
Chinese to citizenship" 1t permitted Cali
iornia and Nevada to determine the price
of labor in Texas, New York and tn,
balance of the country, as well as PLACED
them on record as members of a union thai
stultilied its doctrines and that infringet
upon humanitarian rights. II allowed
the capricious and violent inclinations o
the Pacific slope citizens with their head
long humor to read the riot act to the At
lantc, the gulf and the interior states
and thus compel permanent concession
to the fractions feeling of factious element
This bill passed, and who knows when, TO
temporary convenience, disailection, or po
litical cxpediency, n similar one shall b'
preferred as against the Germans, or TIN
Irish. or any other nationality. PHEsIpEN'
ARTHUR has risen equal to tn'
emergency as statesman, a
II humanitarian, and he knows that in les
than the Twenty years yea, in less thar
five years, the people of this country an,
the world will look upon the determination
OF bill" as the equal in the craze and TIL,
wrong that came nigh sweeping the coun
try in 1851, and would have been bio
upon our national record had not thu
gallant HENRY A. WISE scotched and killed
the serrcnt of "knownothinglsm." He ha
thus stayed the tidal wave from the nov
turbulent Pacific, and there will thus b,
time and opportunity and excus,
to reflect that while the iniqulty pro
hibited Chinese immigration it wa
in itself worse invasion of our institu
tons and promises and proclamations thar
ever came from the Mongolan's shores Il
this boosted Gland of the free" Let tn,
wave of common sense and common hon
esty now hold its sway and cut its pathway
from east to west until the last and best re
suit of wisdom shall be recognized in tn,
presidents position,
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