Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1882-04-05
Aa1irastsl fmtelHqencer.
The Presidents Veto.

WEDNESDAY EvEN'o. APRIL S. 1882.
The Presidents Veto.
The question of the exclusion Of
Chinese laborers from the advantages of
immigration which it is our boast that
we offer to the people of every race and
cline, is a very difficult one to under
stand at this distacce from the COM
munity and the interests most directly
affected by their coming. In the abstract,
such an exclusion seems to be wholly at
variance with our institutions and with
the instincts of common humanity, and
when we are told that our total Chinese
population does not reach 4 quarter of a
million, that they are not coming in one
tenth such numbers as people of other
nationalities pour in through our East
ern gates, that they neither attain nor
seek after any political influence, and
that, as a class, they are orderly and
thrifty, the wonder increases that this
small number of foreigners cannot
be scattered over our great West
and applied to the development
Of its vast resources without in
curing hostility, persecution and final
ly prohibitory and exclusive legislation.
On the other hand, we find the people of
the Pacific coast-not only the hoodlums,
but the representatives of all that 60 to
make up good citizenship-arrayed al
most solidly against them, representing
that their presence is obnoxious, their
practices vile, their community lep-
rous plague spot, and their competition
with our workingmen adverse to
sound public policy, because
they have no purpose to become
citizens, establish domestic relations or
leave their savings here for tire general
developmentro the country. ike many
other important public quest 'ons-nOne
more conspicuously so than that of
the tariff-the theoretical and practical
views of the Chinese question will not
accord, and their variance is another H.
lustration of the forcible saying that
each Of the three great problems submit
ted to this government in its relations
with the black, red and yellow man, it
has thus far signally failed to solve sat
isfactorily.
So intense is this feeling against the
Chinese, that upon the attitude of pub
lie men and parties to it depends the vote
Of the Pacific states, which in the pres
ent even balance of power may control
Congress and presidential elections. Mr..
Garfield lost the votes of California and
Nevada because of the sentiments of the
Morey letter. which he and his friends
pronounced forgery, but the sentiments
of which were not at violence with his
theories. And, by the way, the g hunt -
for tie - rascal - who forged that letter
was suddenly abandoned after the elec.
tion, and the publisher who gave it to
the world has recently been admitted
into fellowship in one of the New York
city Republican associations.
However wise and good men may differ
on this Chinese question, the politician
hopes and seeks to straddls it., but the
demagogism and insincerity with which
it is treated ia Congress are no proof
that patriotic and correct settlement
Of it can he reached without difficulty
The bill which the president has vetoed
was supported by such conservative
leaders of their respective parties in the
Senate as Edmunds and Bayard, in
whose judgment and honesty their par
ties have Il good deal of confidence. 1t
isvetOed on technical rather than funda
mental grounds. The president is
politician of rare skill, whose sagacity
as politician rises nearly to the
level of craftsmanship. Without
graphing with the great underlying
question Of whether we should
under any circumstances slam our
gates in the face of immigrants, except
they come red-handed from scenes of
crime or carrying the seeds of pestilence,
Mr.. Arthur finds Justification for his
veto in the fact that this particular mode
of regulating Chinese emigration con-
fiicts with a treaty which we have
solemnly entered into, and by which we
are in honor firmly bound. He is con-
vinced that neither contracting party
in concluding the treaty of 1880 con-
templated the passage of an act pro-
hibiting immigration for 20 years, which
is nearly a generation, or thought that
such period would be a reasonable sus-
pension or limitation, or intended to
change the provisions of the Burlingame
treaty to that extent" Hence his veto :;
and if his view of the treaty is correct,
his veto is right.
Just how far the president would 60
in excluding Chinese immigrants he does
not say. He is prudent man, who does
not cross bridge until he comes to it.
When Congress shall have passed some
other bill he may decide whether he will
sign or veto it and if this one is passed
over his veto he will be rid of the ques-
tion. He extols the advantages of our
commercial relations with China, and
says what must he admitted to be true,
that the future prosperity and great de.
velopment of California will largely de-
pend on the maintenance and extension
of trade and commerce with the Orient.
He has a good word for what Chinese
labor has done in developing the West
and he thus, with the adroitness of the
politician, if not with the courage and
fOreSightedness of statesman, intimates