The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-04-29
CHINESE IMMIGRATION TO THE STATES

The Chinese question is perpetual
source Of trouble and annoyance to
the Administration of the United
States, for the simple reason that
heretofore the practice has been to
ignore or nullify the laws of Congress.
If the Administration had Loyalty
carried out the Restriction act there
would have been comparatively little
trouble, but each succeeding Secre-
tary of the Treasury issued orders to
the Customs officers in direct conflict
with the law. These orders were in
variably in the interest of the Chinese
labor companies, and it would be an
interesting line of inquiry to find out
exactly how much they paid for their
Illegal privileges, because upon no
other hypothesis than that of corrupt
influence can the uniform disloyalty
of the Treasury Department to the
laws and policy of Congress be ex-
planned.
The citizens of the Pacific Coast did
not submit quietly to these acts of the
Administration, although they have
been compelled to suffer for them.
They fought the Chinese labor agents
in the United States Courts, but found
in the Federal judges and officials
only half-hearted support. The law
was strained to ridiculous extent by
the District and Circuit Court Judges
in favor of Chinese immigration,
while the Office of District Attorney
at San Francisco was in notorious
sympathy with the Chinese Consul
and his man-dealing gang in China
town. Despite the Restriction act,
original and amended, the Chinese
kept pouring into California, until
at length they began to look upon the
law as rather a good joke.
But with the change of parties has
come change of purpose, and Presi-
dent Cleveland has expressed himself
as being in sympathy with the peO-
pie of California in their struggle
against industrial ruin and social
degradation at the hands of Chinese
aliens. Mr.. Budd, lately Congress-
man from the Second California dis
trict, called upon the President re-
Gently, and elected full expression
of his views. Instructions will be
given to the Secretary of the Treas
ury and the Acknowledgement to re-
view the instructions of their predeces-
sors and make them conform to the
requirements of the law. This is all
that citizens of California ask for.
They think the law gives them ade-
quate protection, and want it fairly
tested. Should it not do so in fact
~ Luay NC Skuenueui DuU meantime II
has not been honestly applied. If the
Democratic Administration does this
honestly and persistentIy, they will
capture the Pacific Slope in the next
campaign to certainty.
These events in the States are not
without significance here. They
show that the conflict between Chi
nese and Western ideas and methods
is an irrepressible one. The two civil
lizations cannot live side by side.
One must be supreme. And in a
country where success in business de-
ponds upon cheapness in production
the victory must inevitably fall to
the Chinese, as opposed to Anglo
Saxons or others of theaAryan stock,
when the conditions of labor COM
bination and facilities for execution
are equal. The Chinese work for less
money, work longer hours and more
days in the year, than white men.
They can live on a fraction of what is
needed to support white men. They
have few domestic ties, no social
responsibility, and may be regarded,
for industrial purposes, as self-gearing
labor machines, which can always
be relied upon by employer or owner.
It is manifest, therefore, that indus
trial methods like these will always
get the better of the stronger, but
more wasteful race.