, 1886-07-21

The Chinese question is so often dis
cussed merely from the standpoint Of
party or popular prejudice, upon grounds
true and reasonable enough as objections,
but still capable of being met by argu'
ment, that it is encouraging to see the
subject treated more exhaustiyely and
with regard to considerations, not of mere
expediency but of absolute necessity, aris-
ing from industrial, chronological and moral
conditions of the races. This is done by
Professor Gillian in the current number
of the North american Rerieic, and he
does it in a mastery manner, first calling
attention to the wonderful development OF
the migratory instinct among a people
| which forty years ago, was not only wholly
| exclusive but averse to emigration. AS soon
as the barriers were broken down and the
western powers forced an entrance into the
Central Kingdom, the opening served for
an opposite movement which has continu-
ally increased in strength and volume.
At present beside the vast numbers set
tied in Australia. South America and
Cuba, there are $50. 900 in our own coun-
try-"3O, 900 being in San Francisco,
where they constitute one-seventh Of the
population, and one fourth Of the labor
ing class; and in spite Of the prohibitory
laws, they steadily increase in numbers
and influence. finding a way to us through
Mexico and British Columbia. In fact
the tide seems specially setting toward our
shores and will admit of no resistance by
mere regulation. There must be exclu-
sion or sooner or later a disastrous result.
The writer before cited in explaining this
necessity confines himself to a considera-
ton of the Chinaman as a transient i'm
migrant; as n permanent settler he would
be still more heavily a burden and a curse.
The following extract presents a phase Of
the danger worthy of attention
I'm no civilized country are wages so
high and living relatively so cheap, as
IN The United States; in none arc wages
as low as in China. A w%orkingman in
California receives from SO to s. per day;
in China, from ten to sixteen cents. II
we consider, then, that on opposite sides
of the same ocean are two countries, in
one of which wages are at the maximum,
in the other at the minimum; that the
one has a sparse population, the other a
population remarkably dense; that com
petition has reduced the passage as low,
in some instances, as Sl2, and that, under
the contract SYSTEM by which n mort
gage is given upon his future wages, the
poorest Chinaman may cmigrate-we
have the conditions hat naturally stimu-
late the Chinese towards US.
As far as Chinese immigration is tran
silent merely, it may exist to such a de-
gree as to Justify exclusion on this account
alone. If the Chinaman comes only to
accumulate and transfer. We may be dis
%astrously bled. The scale of wages and
living is so low in China, that what we
regard as small sum makes a fortune
there, anil the impulse to go abroad
where wages are high, is powerful. The
Chinese in Australia return annually to
China, in gold dust alone, a quarter mil
lion of dollars A statement appears
that the ronittance from California last
Year was $l5, 900 and the sum total
for twenty-five years has been little short
of 5000, 900, 00Oi Intrinsically, it is the
curse of Irish landlordism; since the pith
of the matter is the expectation OF profits,
and it is immaterial whether the drain be
through lord or larborcr."