The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-09-27
TIE WYOMING MASSACRE.
Views of Californian on Its Causes
Chinese Competition VS.. White Labor.
The Cost of Living on the Pacific SIope-The
Future of California-The Effect of the
Climate on the Peoples Morals.
Of the IndianapolIs Journal.

event which has occurred since the hoodlum
reign under Denis Kearney. But it is due to
the people of this coast to say that the Wyoming
method of redress against the universally admit
ted evil is condemned in the strongest terms by
all classes Without doubt the people of Cali
fornia know more of the evil effects of Chinese
immigration than do those of any other sec
ton of the Union Like slavery in the South, it
is viewed with complacency by those at dis
tance and will be until its evil effects are felt
by all the country.
Stephen T. Gage, assistant to President Stan
ford of the Southern Pacific railway, has lived
i'll California since 1852, and for the past fifteen
years has been connected with the Pacific rail-
way. In addition to his other business, he man
ages farm of 80, 900 acres. and has had the very
widest experience with the Chinese. He is not
only honest outspoken man, but is of
the brainiest men in the State. Yesterday,
while talking with him about the Wyoming mas
sacre, l said:
81 see ii is reported that the Chinese were paid
as much as the white miners in Wyoming
THAT is not fair statement of the situation"
he answered. IF the explanation was that the
white men were paid as little as the Chinese it
would express the fact. Any man who knows
anything of the two races and who is not fool
a liar, will admit that Chinaman can
subsist on one-fourth what it costs for
the plainest living for white man.
If, then, the rate paid for mining is 81 per ton.
and an expert miner can get out three tons per
day. the difference between the profits on the
labor depends on the cost of living. If the white
miner, without family, pays 81 per day for his
living land it costs more in the Territories) the
Chinaman can live on twenty five cents per day,
difference in favor of the Chinaman of seventy
five cents per day. know that ten Cinnamon
will live in a room which would be too small for
two white men to even sleep in. Every man of
sense who knows anything of Chinese habits
will admit this without argument. I do not be-
lieve in murder means of Fighting wrongs.
but when government fails to protect a class of
people, though there is sufficient law on the sub
ject, we cannot be much surprised that suffering
and indignant human nature will revolt and go
to excesses."
But what will you do on this coast to get
reasonable labor if you do not employ Chinesea"
[ asked
''The high cost of living must be reduced be-
of that in the older communities, where the
prices of the necessaries have reached bedrock.
Now, let me show you some of the ways in which
the laboring classes are taxed You go into
store to buy eight yards of muslin The shop
keeper will tell you that the price is II cents per
yard. When you have your goods you give him
dollar, and he drops it in the money-drawer,
and the transaction is at an end. You have paid
him a per cent on the price he has asked for
his goods. This is the universal rule this coast
Pennies are not in use here, except at the
postofice Tradesmen of all classes say "Oh,
this thing evens up between u.s." which may be
true as between those who have something else
than their daily labor to SELL The working
people buy in small quantities, and have to pay
this enormous penalty all of their purchases,
which will average 10 per cent. off of the wages
paid them. Their all commodities are much
more expensive here than in the East Sugar,
which should be cheaper here than anywhere
else in the world always costs two cents more
per pound. Wheat sells at 60 cents per bushel,
but flour retais for not less than Sc per barrel
Rents are double what they are anywhere east
of the mountains. and the lowest grades of coal
retail at SO to $40 per ton, and as there is wood
in this country all cooking and laundry work as
we'll as heating, must be done with COAL Com
pared with the East the rates of railway freights
are high. Our company, with over three thou
sand miles Of railway to keep, have to cover a
Missouri or larger than all of New England,
with New York added, and yet we have popu-
lation of less than million and half of people
in all the territory covered by lines; that is,
the States of California and Nevada and the Terri
tories of Arizona and New Mexico and little
strip on the west side of Utah.. OF this popula-
ton not more than one-third are dependent upon
the railway for anything, the ocean furnishing
more than two-thirds of the supplies brought
into the territory. The road supplies about one
Vnfla ThA
hundred and thirty three for ora each mile
of track. On the same basis, therefore.
freight and passenger rates should be
three and one-third times higher on this side Of
the Rocky mountains than they are in Indiana
or the central States when they are less than
double that amount. 1 speak of this only to
make comparison as to the cost of living to
working people,"
''But what is the remedy for this conditon2"I
asked.
Chinese exclusion and white Immigration
alone can bring the desired result. White inn
migration will force the division of the immense
landed estates, which cannot be worked by their
present owners without Chinese contract labor:
and a division of the estates means
such competition in production
that prices must go down, and
with them the price of labor But
this will take time, and until it has worked ouS
in this way there ought not to be effort to force
white working people to the leve! of the Chinese.
On even keel the white man cannot compete
with the Asiatic, and as white man / am OPP
posed to forcing such condition. even if it
could be done"
But your railway employs Chinese as track
laborers." said.
Eyes we do, out on the deserts, and in locali-
ties where white men do not want to work and
we pay them much less In every department.
than we do white men for the same service But
all other employees of our roads are paid moro
than on any other railway in the United States.
We have no strikes or troubles with our people
on account Of wages, and never have had any,"
California climate seems not only to be enti-
tied to the credit for all the physical advantages.
but also the moral disadvantages from which
they suffer. Recently, when woman swore in
court here that the only reason she could assign
for her disloyaty to her husband was the eli
mate, thought it was laying little too much
on the climate. but subsequent observation has
caused me to believe that the woman told the
truth. In each year there are not less than