Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-07-01
WHAT KIND OF CIVILIZATION :


WHAT KIND OF CIVILIZATIONS
A Chinese employer testified before the
United States District Court in San Fran
cisco, the other day, that Chinese en-
pIoye received for his labor SIS per month.
That out of this sum he boarded and
clothed himself, and saved enough in two
and half years time to pay for passage
back to China, where he went to take
years holiday, and having now returned
asks to be landed to resume labor for
his old employer. Assuming this to be
true, ii furnishes world of argument
against the further introduction of Chinese
labor into the United States to compete
with white labor. Here is man who
displaced white laborer to Just the ex-
tent that he filled need for labor at all,
and who received for each years work in
making shoes the munificent sum of S216.
Out of this he paid for his board, clothing,
washing and room rent, and yet in two and
a half wears time had balance sufficient
to warrant 4 trip and return across the
Pacific ocean and years. holiday in China.
That is to say, he earned in two and half
years $40. He lived upon, we will say,
$500, or $3.50 per year, or about Sl3 SO per
month, thus saving 800 for his passage
money $50 each way, and $40 in addition
for outfit and other expenses. What kind
of civilization would the American la
borer represent employed in manufacturing
shoes at such wage? Must it not be
upon Just the plane of civilization repre-
scented by his Chinese competitor? Upon
such wage how many newspapers would
he take and read? How many books would
he purchase? What sort of home would
he maintain? How many children
would he raise, and how cothe feed and
shelter them? What contribution would
he make to the common veal, common in
telligence and common wealth? In what
way would he aid the development of the
country or the material strengthening of
this people and the institutions Of the
| country? How far would the home of such
a workman he the patron of the common
industries of the country? Where indeed
in all the land could such a wage-winner
procure home for the whole wage earned,
and live as American civilization demands
of its representatives
The Chinese witness probably swore to
the truth. The slavery of the motherland
still held the workman in its grasp. He
had TO ambition beyond bare subsistence.
He could live upon few cents day, and
| did. One of the results of the horrible
and but family revealed system of patri-
archism in China, which is the head and
front of the most cruel and absolute slavery
known upon the globe to-day, this man has
been trained upon the slave level, and
knows and cares for no other. Possibly his
is state of conditional slavery, from which
partial freedom may be obtained, but from
even which absolute escape is impossible
The case of the eighteen-dollar shoemaker
should carry home conviction OF error to
Eastern sentimentalists, who assume to see
nothing more in the Chinese incursion than
the influx of patient, economical toiIers,
who will fiji the need for cheap labor
THE testimony taken and read By coun-
sci on argument in the Spreclels case in
San Francisco shows out Of how little
matter an INSCRIPTIONS sensational news
paper ike the Chronicle can manufacture
great deal Without at all taking into
account any consideration of the guilt or
innocence of young Spreckels, the testi-
mony presented to the jury iustifes the
statement that the much-mouthed and it
Grated stories of the Chronicle about Hawai-.
ian slavery, the despotism and cruelty of
Claus Spreckels and the outrageous crimes
and frauds in which it has been so indus
triously published that he has engaged,
have failed to retain vitality under the
rigor of judicial examination. The testi-
mony certainly appears to have blown
them away, or, at least, to have 50 reduced
such reality as they possessed as to render
them of not sufficient account for public
consideration. 1t is impossible to repro
duce these testimonies in support of this
conclusion, but whoever has read them
must conclude that here is another instance
of great cry and little wool much smoke
and small fire. And this, wholly out
side of and distinct from the
commercial questions involved in the
Hawaiian treaty, and upon which the
Chronicle has been upon the wrong side
constantly, and steadily opposed to the
business interests of the country.