Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1885-10-30
Very Good Christian Authority.

Very Good Christian AuthOri ty.
Folluwing ale few extracts from
a very sensible article written by
Rev. w. c. Fslconer, D. D., to
The Interior, the great Presbyterian
paper of Chicago. His remarks are
not only applicable to California,
but to Oregon and Washington Ter
ritory:
1t will not do to confound the op-
position of the Christian ministers
and lsymen Of the Pacific Coast to
the Chinese with the canting COM
munism Of the sandlot orators
1t is bad logic to conclude that be-
cause bad man agrees with a good
man on given point, the good man
is wrong. When good and
competent men protested in the
General Assembly against the reso-
lutions introduced on the subject,
We had difficulty in apprecia.ing
their earnestness. Some went homo
from the assembly to continue their
argument from theory and senti-
ment, regardless of the facts.
Others went home determined to
get the facts and weigh them.
What are the facts The Chinese
constitute one.sixth of the popula-
tion of California and about one
ninth of the population Of San
Francisco, and pay less than one
four hundredth of the taxes. In
twelve blocks of the very best bust
ness parts of the city live, eat, sleep
and do business over 80, 900 Chinese !;
oi these about 1 800 are women, 722
children. OF these women 81 are
wives; OF these children SO are le-
gitimate; the rest are concubines
and prostitutes with their children +;
OF the filth and stencil implied in
this vermin-life I need not speak to
q white man. Tue immortality &C.
companied by loathsome diseases,
fostered by these social conditions is
something appalling-utterly diff
fsrent from and beyond anything
known in our Eastern cities. Were
those results confined to the Chinese
and their offspring, it would be bad
enough; bu. SO open and cheap are
the opportunities for social vice and
crime that alarming numbers of
white boys and men, forgetting the
lessons of Caucasian manhood, are
led to share disease and pagan lmmo.
rality in their most revolving forms.
The Chinese as class, adhere to
their own laws and customs. They
are uninauenced by our ideas of
virtue and decency. The oc.
cupaucy of these Pagans threatens
the domestic, commercial and re.
hgious life and happiness Of the
whole white population. = = The
Chinese control to-day the manu-.
facture Of many leading articles on
our coast; they do the larger part of
the farming. fruit-raising and gar
dening. With a six foot pole and
two baskets one Of them will tramp
for miles with fruit and vegetables
which . white man would require a
horse and wagon to carry.
The Chinaman is q cheap producer
but he is not consumer, and the
manufacturers and fruit raisers are
feeling the result. Tho same labor
performed by white men would
create . demand for home consump-
ton at least threefold what it now
is. The Chinamsn buys in q for
eign market and lives on what would
starve q white man. The Chinaman
has no family to support. Hence
the white man cannot compete with
. Chinaman, unless he buries his
ambition to live as a white man.
He must abandon church privileges,
carpeted homes and we'll filled pam
tries. More: he must abandon the
good that every white man has for
bis children, and consent to adopt
pagan ideas and pagan modes of life.
The Chinaman would not become a
citizen if he could. The question is
not one of sentiment, but life and
ugly facts. = x These people are
aggressive. They have not the edu-
cation we have, nor the religion, but
they have pluck, endurance. executive
ability, the love of money and the
skill to make and keep money, be.
yond any nation on earth. The
Anglo.Saxon and the MongoIian
races will determine, before the
next csntury's close which is su-
pr eme. Christianity will succeed,
but what its ethical setting will be
no one can predict. The good peo-
pie Of the Pacific Coast want the
sympathy and aid of their country
men. Shall they retreat and leave
the coast to tue Asiatics? !? Or, shall
they compete with Chinese on con.
ditions Of Asiatic civilization? Or,
third. shall they. aided by Congress
and by enlightened American senti-
ment, close their Golden Gate"
for awhile against these people, in