Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1886-08-20
OLYMPIA TERkTORY FRIDAY EVENING" AUGUST 20

SillCl tIldt OluS ldlI W COtuc. .f
When British cannon first opened
Chinese ports, California was known
to us mainly as a land fruitful in pro-
ducts and winsome in climate: abroad
territory, coveted by Great Britain and
by our own country, and held with an
unsteady hand by, Mexico. Ten years
later it belonged 70 the United States,
and its gold mines made it the Ell Dor
ado Of The restless of all nations.
With the others came the Chinese.
As individuals they came and returned
to their own country, a constant ebb
and flow. AS people they came to
stay. Their number has constantly
increased in spite of all obstacles, until
in commerce and industries their in
f1uence is dominant through all the
Pacific coast, and their advance scouts
have extended to the Atlantic sea-
board. 1t is in California, however,
that the problems springing from their
presence have most forcibly arisen,
and it is from California that facts
conclusive in the solution of these
problems must be derived.
California has population, Chinese
included, Of about seven hundred and
fifty thousand, or somewhat less than
four individuals to the square mile.
The land, at the date of its annexa.
ton, was held in large grants, some
from the Mexican, others primarily
from the Spanish Government, and
all, so far as they were bona fide, pro-
tected by the treaty of Guadalouge
HidalgO. Although these lands have
in measure passed to new owners,
they have seldom been divided into
smaller holdings, and are now pos
sessed by a comparatively small per-
centage OF the entire population of the
State. The influx of Chinese labor al
most simultaneous with the new settle.
ment OF the country, provideda a means
by which these lands could be worked
at little cost, and obviated the neces-
sity, which otherwise would have ex-
listed, of dividing the immense ranches
into farms. Chinese immigration,
therefore, buttressed the almost feudal
control of the land. In their turn the
great landowners lent the power of
their wealth, their political influence,
and their own power was maintained
From this it has followed that the
social economy of California agricul-
ture has throughout been different
from that of any other country pro-
fessedly governed by Republican insti-
tutions or assuming to be controlled
by Republican traditions.
The great crops which form the
staple productions of the soil are such
as require no tillage between seed-time
and harvest, which thus become the
only active seasons of the year. East
of the Sierras the conditions of farm
ing are such that there is opportunity
for continuous labor from early Spring
to later Autumn, and even in some
degree throughout the Winter months
and the farm laborer has opportunity
for constant occupation. Forming, as
he does, part of homogeneous COM
munity he has, if man of family,
fixed abode, however rude, and has
within his reach many at least of the
ordinary comforts of life. If single, he
commonly resides in the family of his
employer. Under such circumstances
the existence of the farm hand is rem
dered tolerable, neither undignifed
nor unworthy; and there is nothing in
his condition which need impair his
self-respect or deny to his industry or
skill their legitimate reward of pecun-
iary or social success. But nothing of
this exists in California farming. The
laborer is hired during few weeks
of the heavy Spring work and of the
harvest. He receives his wages and
his rations, and is expected to lodge
himself. Wrapped in his blanket, he
sleeps in an outhouse or on the
threshed straw under the rainless sky.
When the season of driving work is
over he goes away, whittier no one
knows and no one cares. Thus periods
of long idleness intervene between sea-
sons of severe labor. Such system is
possible only in country composed
of estates of immense proportions,
titled by labor of the cheapest and
most servile kind.
The discovery of gold, the reported
fertility of the soil, and the beauty
of the climate led at the outset
to a large immigration from the East
ern States; to the organization of a
commonwealth based on their political
traditions and social usages. These
traditions and usages were and still
are directly counter to those which, in
all ages, have resulted from the con-
troll of the land by the few, and to
those represented by the cheap labor
of the Chinese. The civilization rep
resented by the masses of the white
settlers on the Pacific coast had, as an
inherent necessity, remuneration OF
labor adequate to the comfortable
maintenance of families, their educa.
ton, their refinement in manners,
mind and morals, which can only OBJ
tain where the physical being is sus-
tanned by sufficient nutrition, and the
intellect and emotional nature suffered
to expand by fair degree Of leisure,