Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-03-04
TIE CHINESE BILL.
SPEECH IN IT'S ADVOCACY BY SEN
ATOR MILLER.
immigration Of Chinese Should
be Restricted.

came up in the Senate Tuesday, General
Miller took the floor and said that sub
stantially the same provisions contained in
this bill had been before the Senate more
than once, had passed both houses of Con-
gress, and but for Presidential veto would
have been the law. They were agsin pre-
scented under circumstances equally impera.
tive, but in an uuobjectionable form. Our
request ia for modification Of the Burlin.
game treaty to permit restriction upon Chi
nese immigration. The sending out of our
Commission, the negotiations of the new
treaty and its ratification, had fully commit.
ted our Government to this pitch of restric-
ton.
THE GOVERNMENT COMMITTED TO A RE-
sTRICTIvE POLICY.
| A great nation, he continued, could not
afford inconsistency In action, could not
| afford TO betray vaceillatiDg, staggering,
| inconstaht policy in its intercourse with other
nations. No really great people should pre-
sent themselves before the world through
their Government as nation, irresolute,
f;kle feeble or petulant-one day eagerly
demanding of its neighbors an agree
nent or concession, which on the next it
nervously repudiates or casts aside. Can we
make solemn request Of China through the
pomp of an extraordinary Embassy, the
ceremonial of diplomatic negotiators, whom
the President had dispatched, and exchange
Publications of treaty granting our request,
and within lees than half year after such an
exchange is made cast aside the concession
and with entire irresolution ignore the whole
proceedings? We cannot afford to make
such confession of American imbecility to
an Orieutll power. The adoption OF this or
some such measure becomes necessary. 1t
seems to ne the intelligent and consistent
NnA I,yt
ment under the sanction Of a treaty with
another great nation. II in the negotiation
and ratification Of a new treaty by the Ex-
ecutive and the Senate, and in the passage of
the Fifteen Passenger bill, the Congress of
the United States had the faintest conception
OF what they were doing, and we know they
had. then the policy of this Government in
respect TO the so-called Chinese immigration
subject has been authoritatively settled.
RECORD OF THE POLITICAL PARTIES AND OF
GARFIELD.
Referring to the declaration of the two
great political parties and their candidates in
1880 in favor of restricting Chinese immigra.
ton, and as showing the unanimity of public
sentiment on this question, Senator Miller
quoted from Garheld's letter Of acceptance
that the movement of the Chinese to our
Pacific coast is one partakirg but little of the
=
poses or results, and Is too much like an iTn-
portation TO be welcomed without restriction,
and too much like an invasion TO be looked
upon without solicitude. When it was re-
membered that by the publication of clever
forgery, intended to create suspicion as to the
sincerity of the EXPIRE sions just quoted, he Of
blessed memory came near being defeated for
the Presidency, the strength and uGiversslity
of the public opinion which he so foreioly
expressed became the more manifest.
Miller next argued that the eff cts OF an
adverse vote on the. bill would be an invita-
ton to the coolies to come; a shout Of well
come across the Pacific to the myriad hosts
of the strange people a commission for
spectators in human blood, and to the traf-
fckers in human flesh, to ply their infamous
trade without impediment under the protec-
ton Of the American fl lg, and to empty the
teeming slave-pens OF China upon the soil of
California.
UNANIMITY OF THE PEOPLE OF THE PACIFIC
COAST.
He alphabetically denied that the advocates
of restriction were to be found only among
the vicious and illiterate elements of Califor-
MIA society. He cited the vote of that State
in 1872 when there were only 6S3 votes in
favor of Chinese immigration, to 1546 3S
against. In Nevada there were 1873 votes for
81
face with it, and who know what it is, are
practically unanimous against it.
He argued for The practical common sense
view as against the sentimental or emotional
treatment of the subject, and sketched the
origin and development Of the radically an
tagcnistc elements of the diverse Anglo
Saxon and Oriental civilization, which, encir-
cling the globe from opposite directions, lad
finally met in California, on the shores of the
Pacific. ard existed there to-day as distinct
and hostile force.
He next brought into full view the impos-
sibility Of their assimilation and the ultimate
displacement Of the one by the other, which
history had shown to be the result OF all at
tempts to merge the two. Wherever the
Chinaman had been placed he had retained
every peculiarly Of the habits and modes of
his life and of his ancestors for fifty centuries
unimpressible. The etfspring born on Amer
lean soil and reared up under American infiu.
ence have grown up Chinese in mind, feature,
form, character and method, the same as
their parents There was an irrepressible
conflict between the civilization of the East
and that of the West.
BLIGRTING EFFECT on AMERICAN LABOR.
The effect of the presence of this persistent
race upon the more impressible American
should be considered. Already, in California,
Tue WnltS lGtui ID iOiSSu iltO
competition with them, adopt Their nomadic
habits, and has no home in the family he
serves, but is blanket man who works in
the fields during planting and harvest seasons,
and roams the remainder of Il g year in search
of other employment. His shelter is the
straw stack and his food is anything that he
can get. The great wheat-growers, in their
immense operations, are thus relieved from
employing continuous labor, and the result is
large farming TO the exclusion of small Ameri-
can homes In the manufacturing districts
the result is hoodlumism, which drives the
young of both classes to idleness in the
street. Coming and going as individuals, the
Chinese, SIS people, remain here, and their
number is constantly increasing. They have
ultimately conquered every territory that
they have invaded. They hid invaded Mon
golis, Mantchuria, Thibet, Turcosia and the
Philippine Islands Indeed they had overiun
these countries, notwithstanding an occa-
sional massacre and their being frequently
driven out.
THE IMPENDING INvAsToN-LvILs FELT IN
CALIFORNIA.
The exodus from the province of Kwang
Tung to the United States had been in pro-
gress for many years, aud this hegira, in the
same ratio to the population, would have
been general in all the provinces of China if
The same. Then there would have been
already in the United States more than thir-
teen million of able bodied Cinnamon. The
millions of half.starved Chinese of tie north
ern PROVINCES we're eager to come. During
the lase business depression. while thousands
Of white mea and women were walking the
streets Of San Francisco begging for work,
cargoes Of Chinese regularly arrived by great
steamers and were conveyed TO the distribut-
ing dens of the Six Companies, and within
three or four days thereafter every Chinaman
was in his place at work, while the white I'M
employed were still walking the streets.
Since business has revived, the excess of these
arrivals aud departures has averaged about
thousand per month in San Francisco alone,
and with cheapened transportation to the
East, the importers will extend their opera
tions into the Middle and Eastern States, un-
less prevented by law.
NON AssIMILATIvE AND ALIEN.
Unlike European immigrants, the Chinese
are not free and independent men. They do
not come here TO become citizens. Until it
can be shown that they are fit to take part
in free government they should not be al
lowed to supersede the Caucasian race.
"Cheap labor" said Miller, lis not the
cause Of national wealth, hut of national
poverty. Temporarily, and under peculiar
conditions chsan labor MIGHT he an adyan-