Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-04-08
Is IT PRAcTICABLE9

| Chinese question into their own hands, by
refusing to employ them in any way, or to
deal with those who do employ them This
is by no means new idea. In fact it has
been suggested thousands of times before,
and notably by strangers, who have
affected to see in the general employment
of the Chinese here proof that the oppo'
sition to them was insincere. Nor has the
proposition been confined to theory alto
gether. More than one attempt has beer
made to put it in practice. Such an at
tempt was made in San Francisco during
the hight of the Woykingmen's agitation,
and it was then backed by an imposing
show of public opinion. But it failed com.
pletely, and it is evident that unless new
movement of the kind was much better and
more fully organized, nothing would come
of it. 1t has been said that the method
proposed is perfectly simple. This, how,
ever, is a mistake. On the contrary, il
involves the most complex considerations.
For the proposition, when analysed
amounts to this: that the whole white
population Of California shall of its own
free will, and without the pressure or re-
straint of any legal enactment, undertake,
for an indefinite period, to increase its ex
penges, and to decrease its conveniences and
comforts. Now before whole community
can be induced, not only to begin, but to
sustain, such a radical revolution az
is here involved, there must be present
some extremely powerful pressure. Expert
ence shows that the majority of men have
two quite distinct sets of principles the
one being the set they hold to abstractly,
and the other being the set that regulate:
their personal conduct. Thus it is notori
GUS that many of the most vehement op
ponents of Chinese labor have been en-
ployers Of that labor. Thus it is notoriou:
that of the workingmen who are the mos
deeply concerned in resisting Chinese i'm
migration, probably three-fourths have
constant dealings of some kind with the
Chinese. And if it is proposed that al
these shall at once withdraw from business
relations of every kind with the Chinese
it does not seem credible that they would
consent to the inconvenience and depriva
tions involved in the policy. For it must
be realized that the cheapness of Chinese
labor constitutes an attraction which the
majority of men are unable to resist. They
have their sentiments about the matter,
but after all every man feels the impera.
tive necessity of dealing as thrifty as he
can in his own concerns.
1t is very easy to say that if everybody
would agree to cut off all relations with
the Chinese, they would be driven out
but the great difficulty lies in that If. "
The kind Of movement proposed must be
comprehensive and universal, or it cannot
be sustained. And who can suggest any
means of making it comprehensive and
universal? Everyone knows shat there
are thousands OF people who cage more for
money than for principle that there are a
great number Of such people who would
make any promises in public, AID break
them in private /; that such people would
employ the Chinese clandestinely and
the moment any spsh treachery to the COM
mon cause became known, the excuse it
afforded for abanGening the painful ex-
pertinent would be eagerly availed OF by
others. Il is useless to form plans which
do not take the fraibties of human nature
into account, or which, as a mathematician
wonld say, ignore tie personal equation.
1t is more absurd TO do this in cireum.
stances where everything really depends
upon the personal equation. There are
just two questions, the answers to which
appear to determine the value OF the
scheme under discussion. The frat is,
| Can the assent of the whole community
to it be guaranteed? The second is, Can
| the fidelity OF the whole community to
their engagements be guaranteed, We
do not think the most sanguine person can
venture to give an affirmative reply to
either of these questions, and this being SO
we are compelled to conclude that the
scheme is not practicable.
Boycotting the Chinese would be q very
| different thing from Boyeotting the Irish
landlords. In the latter case the people
had strong inducements for keeping up the
state of siege. In the former they would
have strong inducements for abandoning
it. Every mans selfish interests would
prompt him to buy in the cheapest mar
kets, to employ the cheapest labor, to get
his work done at the least cost. Every
man would suspect his neighbor of not
acting fairly, moreover, and as in MANY
instances that suspicion would doubtless
| be well grounded, it would be impossible
to keep up the movement. As regards
pressure, it is evident that while coercion
might be exercised upon some tradesmen
and perhaps some manufacturers, there are
| whole classes who could not be controlled
in that way. Nor is it probable that an
American community would End the sys.
tenn of espionage and bulldozing" neces.
sary to the carrying out of such plan
endurabe. After short experience of the
discomforts and pecuniary losses inseper.
able from its operation, they would be
very apt to conclude that the remedy
was worse than the disease, and then
they would abandon the attempt.
| And it is because in the nature Of
our social arrangements it is prac-
tically impossible to prevent men from
availing themselves of Chinese labor when
il is at hand, that the extrusion of the
Chinese is demanded. While they are
here they literally command all the mar
kets into which they enter, and they
1 r L. a