Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-10-03
THE CHINESE QUESTION.
ASIATIG CHEAP LABOR CURsING
THE STATE.
Views OF the E.on. s. II. Gage Upon
the Subject A Practical Re-
view Of the Situation.

A correspondent of the Cincinnati En-
qlsar writes the following letter from San
Francisco TO his journal, and which viii be
of interest as a very clear statement of the
objections to the presence OF the Chinese
among US
Stephen T. Gage, native Of Northern
Ohio, has lived in California thirty eight
years. For the past fifteen years he has
been connected with the Central and South
ern Pacific Railroads, and is now assistant
to EF. Stanford, President of the whole Pa
citic system OF this coast. Brought up on
farm, MIR. Gage has 8 good practical knowl-
edge Of agricultural matters, and especially
of farming on this coast, and is now man
aging a farm of 5000 acres. His railroad
duties have forced upon him knowledge
of nearly every business or industry con
Quoted on the Pacific slope, including min
ing for he was actively engaged in that for
years. But, above q Mr.. Gage is an hon
est man, and, whether right or wrong, be-
heves IN all things which he advocates.
Being man of good sense, his conclusions
on matters outside his railroad affairs are
accepted by those who know him as sound
and worthy OF consideration. Such q man.
with his wide experience. cannot but have
sound opinions on the Chinese question,
the one subject which is of more import
ance to the people of the Pacific coast than
all other economic questions. The other
day driited his talk to that subject. when
he said:
81 am opposed to Chinese immigration.
because on an even keel the white man can
not compete with him in any of the pur-
suits requiring physical labor. l do not
discuss him in any of the commercial aYo-
cations, but merely as an element of labor.
l have made comparative study of the
white and Chinese working people in every
avocation. Perhaps their civilization is
higher than ours, for IL is certainly much
older, and it has taught them how to sup
port the maximum population a. the mini
mum cost. The fact that g population of
over four hundred million live upon the
products of the territory embraced within
the limits Of the Kingdom of China proves
this proposition. l have never seen Chi
namSn who could not read and write in
his own language. They are the most do
Gle people up TO 8 certain point in their
employment, and that point is where they
believe they have acquired sufficient knowf-
edge of the business at which they were en-
ployed to carry it on themselves. They
are an initiative race, but they originate
nothing, as is shown by the fact that their
"44OAC cAdAllS v ileIE IL certainty
was 900 years ago, barring the innoYa-
tons forced upon them by other nations.
The degradation of white labor is there
fore natural sequence of competition with
this class of persons, and l think any OBJ
server will soon see that the introduction
OF Chinese in California has established in
thirty years as distinct a line OF demarka-
ton between labor and capital as slavery
did in the 240 years OF its existence in the
old States, with the disadvantage here of
there being fever restraints of all kinds on
the aIistocratic element. Less than five
hundred men own fully one-half the prop
erty Of this great State, and they are able 10
retain their VSst estates because Of the pres
ence Of the Chinese labor, and at the same
time pay less than half the taxes. The man
who Goes not own sufficient property to al
low him To employ Chinese labor and make
9 profit on it falls to the grade of the poor
white trash" of the South, though he may
work every day. In thirty years we have
made this vast gulf between the two classes,
and, while the products Of oil the rest of
the country are based upon the labor of
property consuming white men. the prod
ucis of California represent the low wages
of the Chinese, for every white producer
who employs only his own labor must
compete with them in the yarious markets.
The employer of the Chinese labor starts
with an advantage over the person whose
marketable products are the results Of his
own labor.
Practical Illustrations of this fact are
visible on every hand. Take gardening,
for instance, and the sale of vegetables.
The large gardener, paying sixty cents per
day to the Chinese Iaborer, who boards
himself, can afford to sell TO the peddier for
less than the ordinary white man can az.
ford To oh ]
seem 10 give the poor white man a chance
to monopoiize the retailing of vegetables,
in case the Chinese-employing gardener
did not choose to do it himself. But if you
look out of the window you will notice
more than G dozen Chinese vegetable ped
dleTs, whose outfit consists of two baskets
and light stick. Al one time we weighed
all of these baskets on cur ferries, and we
found that the average weight of vegetables
which one Chinaman carries is $50 pounds
a white man could not move this quantity
of vegetables without horse and wagon.
A horse and wagon Of the worst sort repre-
sents an expenditure Of not less than SiOO.
To this must be added the feed of the
horse shoeing, stable rent, and repairs to
wagon and harness. To make cost, the
owner of the horse and wagon must make
at least 81 per day of profit. If be lives.
or has any family, he must make at least
81 per day of gross profit. The Chinaman
can sell at q less price and make the same
net profit that the white man can. If he
makes but fifty cents per day profit he has
at least thirty cents 10 lay by. I have
known Chinaman with only SO capital
to carry whole square. Of customers &C.
counts for month, and at the end Of that
time each of them would owe him more
than the whole Of his original capital.
The Restriction Act was a godsend TO
the resident Chinese, if it had been carried
out as Congress intended it. Last year,
when the current seemed to be going from
us, the Chinese harvest hand advanced his
wages from 81 to ST. 90. and in some cases
s. But this year, with the tide flowing
this way again, the wages went down to the
point a. which no white man could earn
enough to pay for bread and decent
clothes. And this is true in every line of
labor. This leads me TO the question which
has for some years prevented immigration
to this State, and viii continue 10 prevent
it so long as the stream Of Chinese labor
pours into US. Except the railroad land
grants and the little Government land now
subject to entry IS I said before, five hun
dred men own one-half the agricultural
lands Of the State. So long IS these men
can compete with the other half of the
landowners, with this cheap labor, they
VIII never buOulFlue tnelr immense tracts
of land, or part with them at price which
would allow the ordinary farmer to make o
living off of them by his own labor. It is
a settled principle of political economy
that a community which is a consumer is
also producer. A Chinese population is
not q consuming population. In ether
words, if the hundred thousand Chinese
laborers were whites, they would consume
at least three times as much as the Chinese
do, and thus create a local demand for
three times greater production. At least
two-thirds of the clothing and personal
effects of the Chinese are brought from
China, so that we can say that practically
they add nothing TO the wealth OF the State
by their consumption, and all the wages
paid them for their labor is sent out of the
country
g The Asiatie civilization may be higher