, 1882-06-09

| ltleS, OF WHICH, Culud piopVl 10 i0"A
ly times as large as the other three.
China proper contains 1,3DO,OOO
square miles, and 3SS,000,000 inhabi-
tants. The remaining principalities
contain an aggregate OF something
like 4O000,00O, For purposes of
government, China proper is divided
into eighteen departments The
average population is about 300 to
the square mile, though some of the
more populous districts sustain 800
and 900 to the square mile. Belgium,
the most thickly settled nation of
Europe, sustains population of
410 to the square mile; England 372;
France, 172. Compared to these,
China is q vast reservoir of human
ity, from which population us large
as that of Franceor the British Isles
would scarcely be missed.
Peculiar as it may seem, the very
qualities which we esteem as virtues
among our own people are those
which make the Chinese, so far as
they possess them, Objectionable to
us. Were they vicious and dissipated,
as a rule, we would not find them
particularly obnoxious, because they
could not then successfully compete
with us in the avenues of manual la
Dor. Their history as connected
with the Pacific coast, is compare
lively brief. The first Chinese immi
grants to California arrived in the
brig Eagle, from Hong Kong. in the
month of February, 1S4S-two men
and one woman-but four arrived
during the succeeding month. On
the first of February, 1Sl9, there
were but fifty-four men Cinnamon
and one Chinese woman in Califor-
MIA. In May, 1852, the Placer Times
and Transcript said: 1T is believed
that the number of Chinese in Cali
fornia is now about 10000 Prior to
this Governor Bigler had issued
message calling attention to the
increasing numbers of Chinese in
the state, and urging Legislation to
correct the evil The principal result
of the message was legislation com
pelling the Chinese who went to the
mines to pay a license tax. This pol
icy was commended by the leading
journals of that period. Immigration
was checked temporarily, but the in
ducements to emigrate We're so great,
and spectators could make money so
rapidly on cheap Mongolian labor,
that after year or two the volume
increased, and has continued to do so
until the present time, there being
now not far from 100000 within the
state, mostly in San Francisco. In
1868, when the Burlingame treaty was
ratified, it was estimated that eighty
thousand Chinese had already landed
in San Francisco.
The agency by which nearly all the
Chinese laborers are brought to our
shores is the association of mercan-
tile firms known as the Chinese six
companies. These companies are the
outgrowth of the conditions attend
ing Chinese immigration. Mr.. Thos.
H. King, a merchant of San Francis
co, gave the following testimony be-
fore the Joint Special Committee of
Congress in 1915: Originally they
Cthe six companies) were the agents
of Chinese firms of Hong Kong. The
principal of these were Wo Hang and
Hing Wa, both portrait painters, of
Hong Kong, in 1901, and conducted
it many years afterwards. They were
the principals in opening this passen-
ger trade and sending men here to be
hired out. Afterwards other Chinese
merchants were added, and they re-
qiiring that some agents should be
here to collect the advance and con-
tracts, these agents banded together
for mutual protection against the
coolies evading their contracts, and
to keep other parties out OF the busi-
ness, as also to insure that the coolie
should be returned dead or alive, at
the termination of the contract HAY
ing these Chinese to supply, they be-
came importers OF all the goods that
Chinese used, and kindred commodi-
ties that they could sell to Americans,
and their business growing with their
wealth, they became power to hire
immigrants, and would intimidate,
overawe and punish secretly, the ig-
norant, for any infraction OF their
contracts; also to prevent, except in
few cases, any Chinese coming here
except through them" Mr.. King had
been for ten years a resident of Chi
ma, in the Consul'5 Office at Hong
Kong, and the Committee had re-
ouested him to testify, as the best in
| formed man on the subject in San
Francisco.
Here comes in one of the most OBJ
iectionable features of Chinese immi-
grafton to the United States. These
companies referred to administer JUS
! tice among their countrymen without