Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1886-08-27

of quicksilver, and another million OF
~undries. The export of flour, about
which SO much has been said, amounts
to only thirteen or fourteen thousand
barrels per annum; of coal, about tf-
teen thousand tons; and Of lumber,
about two million feet, having value
oi some fifty thousand dollars. There
is not enough i'll this showing to indi-
cate any great or permanent advan-
tage to this country from the continu-
ance of commerce with China.
But the story is not yet fully told.
There are in San Francisco fifteen or
twenty Chinese firms through whom
the great bulk Of this commerce is
transacted, and its profit goes not to
our own people, but t" the Chinese,
whose allegiance is to their own coun-
try, and whose wealth is part OF the
wealth OF China. The wealth that has
been accumulated through Chinese
labor has been amasscd 10y the few,
and has contributed nothing To the
prosperity Of the masses. 1t is not
twenty years since the Pacific Railway
was built with susilics from the Fed
eral and the State Government, and
even of counties along the line. The
cost of building the road was based
upon estimates of the ruling rates OF
labor. Upon these estimates the ap-
Preparations and subscriptions Were
made. When the work was under
taken. instead Of cmplnyin" the work
ingmen of the country. the projectors
through the Six Companies, obtained
ten thousand coolies direct from
China, and with these the road was
built But the profit went, not to the
community, but to the few bold bust
ness men, whose wealth dazzlCs the
eye and inflamcS the imagination.
And lhis wealth. obtained in this man
ncr, and concentrated in mere frac
ton of the population. has been preju
dicial To the best interests Of the State,
for it has been used throughout To per
| pettlate the abnormal conditions
through which it was first obtained
Furthermore, the results OF the
cheap labor oi California has come in
direct competition with the labor of
| tilt IdStCih BVlklpll vi oui NoulllI -
For the laboring man, who is accus-
toned to the standard of life in the
East, cannot work and keep his
strength on the low wages of the Chi
nese. And whenever the products of
labor have come in competition with
those of Chinese labor, they have been
lowered i'll price, and, as an inevitable
| l.. Ln1,, Il
in proportion. Fifteen years ago, Cal
! ifornia sent forty millions Of dollars
annually to the Eastern States i'll pay
ment for manufactured products; to-
day the Californian market is practi-
cally closed To Eastern manufactured
products, because Chinese labor pro-
duces them ut lower prices than is pos
sible on the Atlantic coast. In pro;
portion as the demand for the results
of labor in the East diminishes, Just in
the same degree must the wages of the
laborcr in the East be reduced, and
unless this tendency is stopped by leg
islation, both as concerns the East and
the West, it must continue with con-
stantly increasing force until white
| ItitI II ullNtlt w vi ItNo-
luton.
But the tendency referred to has
gone even further than | have indicat-
ed. We have seen that the hop-yards
Of California, some Of them Of forty
and fifty acres in extent, are picked
by Chinese whose wages are so low as
to afford IL virtual bounty upon the
product us against that of eastern hop
yards. 1t is known that within the
past few months the tobacco of Con.
necticut has been shipped to Califor-
MIA, there made into cigars by Chi
nese operatives, and then returned to
the Eastern markets; so that the cigar.
makers, of New York, Boston and
Philadelphia are brought into the
same direct competition with Chinese
labor as those of the Pacific Coast
AS concerns many branches of manu-.
facture, this would occur even if Chin
ese immigration was restrained west
OF the Rocky Mountains. But, as We
all know, the Chinese have penetrated
to every large city i'll the country
They swarm in Brooklyn, and have
their own" Chinese quarter" locally
known as Chinatown" In New
York City there are, in round mum
bers, two thousand of them who, like
their brethern in California, take tht
work ordinarily done by women ant
, children Here as there, they are
| without families, and here as ther'
they live in the same cheap squalo
, and comfortable debasement. 1t i
keeping within bonds to say that t.
each Chinaman who follows the Occu
patton of washee-washee" i'll thi
country, family of washer-womal
5 with four children lose their means o
, subsistence and sink to deeper depth
1 of poverty.
4 TO be continued.