Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1885-09-23
Tw0 SIDES To THE CHINESE
QUESTION.
SkarrIK. Sept. q. 1856.

rive SIDES To THG CHINESE
QUESTION.
SKarrLK, Sept. q, 1885.
EDrroR PosT-INTEL-IGESCKR
No doubt some Of your readers will
cry Hold, enoaehr on reading the
heading Of this article, as they did on
seeing so muck obseqaieus hsttery and
hero worship lavished on Mrs. Hamp-
son. Bat there is such a question, and,
like all questions. il has two sides. All
your correspondents have written on
one side only.
Tell me, nov, in what sense do the
Chinese in this country differ from or
binary labor saving machinery? The
introduction of such machinery has,
from time imnsmorisl. met With vio-
lent opposition, amounting sometimes
to mot and bloodshed. The spinning
jenny threw thousands of men asd
women cut OF vsrk. The sewing ma
chine and tbs threehinR machine have
done the same. 1t Is but a plain truth
to say that the steam engine is doing
| the work of millions of men. But what
shall We do about Is! Destroy them.
that men and horses may be employed
IN hauling freight and carrying the
| mails? Burn our mills and factories,
that women and children may have
work., Go back to the hand loom and
TO ploving with forked stick?
The Chinaman comes here. He finds
that We will not work unless We get
wages enough in eight hours to olothe
| as IN fine garments and furnish as with
| whisky and tobacco. Our daughters
must have silks and satins. They will
not dip their dsiRty fingers in dishwa
ter. They must read blood and thunder
| novels and pound the piano. The Chi
naman offers to do their vsrk as we'll as
that Of the oal-heaver, and do il for
less price. Those who employ men will
get those Who do the work the cheapest.
They may preach against Cinnamon, but
they practice hiring them, aud they will
hire them in spite of Knights of Labor
or any other Knights. The Chinamap
has his vices. Whether they are equal
TO these of the Christian city of Lon
don, as recently revealed. may we'll be
doubted. In this country his vices are
not expensive. We spend nine dollars
for whisky and tobacco and five cents
for education. He spends nothing for
either. In only one sense does be differ
from any lsbor-savine machine, and net
than II We sand our money out of the
country for tbe machine.
But yield the argument. Admit that
he Ii a nuisance. How are you going
to get rid Of him? Build a wall two
hundred feet high around the natonf
He will get over it. Make laws? He
will evade them. Shoot him on sight?
That is as absurd as the wall business.
Look at these facts. There are four
hundred million of them-eight to our
one. They are prolific and lone-lived.
Our smart" women have no children.
The Yankee race is fast becoming ex-
tinct. Marriages are contracted, as the
cid play says, "only for . winter OF
tvo," and then With the understanding
that no children shall result. Children
are at discount. Houses can be rented
"oheap to parties without children"
OF the Chinese we see only the drees
and foam. Just as We did Of the Irish
fifty years ago. The great body Of the
Chinese nation is as sound and vigorous
az We are. They are ingenious, skiIlful
and psreevering. They are the real dis
coverers Of steam power, printing, the
mariners compass and electricity.
Their writings antedate the Bible by
many centuries.
Bat perhaps these points, whether
true or false, are not essential to the
discussion. Here is the enc inevitable
conclusion. Ii is certain We shall be
swallowed, absorbed, mixed sith Mon
golian and other fsreiQn blood until the
now somewhat Heterogeneous elements
Of our nation will be one uniform homo
gensous mass Of seething. struggling,
tumblin9 humanity.
You know that the Irish built our Ca
mails and railroads. You know that they
cheapened labor and threw our Yankees
out Of work. When Dewitt Clinton
built his big ditch" through New
York, the Irish we're roandly cursed
with eli the vehemence and venom we
nov heap .upon the pigtail invaders.
The Irish lived cheaply, worked hard,
underworked our Yankees, and the Yam
KEGS mobbed and prosecuted them. Il
is the same old story. The var of races
has not ended. IL is the workings of
the Law OF survival of the fittest, and by
that Law our nation and all nations must
survive or perish.
What II the remedy? There is bat one
remedy, and that Is not remedy, for ID
will not be put into execution. Why is
il that Paris, with million and half
population, has enly sixty-four China
men2 Simply because the French do
their own work, and do il 90 well and
ohsaply that there is no indooemsnt for
q Chinaman to 90 there. There you
have the remedy In Q nutshell, but Il will
nos b. adopted. Our young men will
not WORT With the bucksAV, bod. OF on
the farm. Our yoang ladies are too
nice and delicate 10 soil their fingers
with work In the kitchen or at the wash
tub. They are consumers and not pro-
ducers, and gradually. sometimes rap
idly, sink to worse than nothinensss.
No doubt the ChiRsss havs ohespeued
females. To use o common expression,
women are cheap on this ooAse." In
San Francisco hundreds Of women are
supported in concubina9e BY China
men. Girls must have moe dresses and
live in luxury. They can be bought for
a song, but not hired for honest labor.
This il q hard saving. but Who can deny
its truthf OF oouse these expressions
are general and not specific, for vc have
cor sharo Of thoroughly virtuoos girls;
but there 10 no denying that IN thou
sands Of cases the Cinnamon have taken
their places 10 the kitchen and laundry
lost becauss the girls are too proud TO
vork and not proad enough 10 avoid
life Of shame, and they havs Srifted
morally and socially 10 hadea
The Chinese are upou %. To perse-
cute them will be to hasten their tri-
umph. The blood Of the martyrs has
ever been the seed OF the church. We
must not murder nor persecuse them
| The only help for ns 10 to beat them at
their own game and do their WORK.
thereby giving them No encouragement
20 come here. This our people will not
| DO, 60 the re uit 10 inevitable. as ve have
predicted. Yoa laugh as the idea sf Q
Ohvissian nation being subnerged by
the heashsns Of Asia. No, yos do mot
| laueb, for you have read history. and
you know that many proad and power
| fl nations. ancisnt and modern, have
beeu swallowed By ssill more povefful
nations. Egyps, 6reece, Rome, and the
nsdesn nation q Spain. are but the
msuldy skeletons Of what they once
we're. There is nothing in our religion
| or politics that can withstand OO,0O,Ooo
Chimes. iupregnased vith the religion
and fxntticism Of Confueius. Their
rclicioa 10 q unity. We are divided into
4 hundred sects and oontending FAC
tions. Thar blood is . stream OF one
color; ours 10 mostled and mixed With
/ ~ all "A