Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-03-12

MEMOIR AL TO CONGRESS.
To the President and the Senate and House Of
Representatives. Of The United States: The Anti
Chinese Convention of the State of California
assembled at Sacramento, called for the purpose
oil proposing relieffor the Pacific coast from the
Chinese evil. submit the following memorial:
Speaking for the entire people of his State,
your memerialists represent that for thirty-six
years we have been settled upon the shores of
the Pacific, and thus brought face to face with
the great Mongolian hive, with its 50000, 60 of
hungry and adventurous inhabitants; that for
thirty six years we have watched the operation
of the industrial and social system that has re.
suited from it, and weighed the advantages and
disadvantages as they have developed.
Under these circumstances, we feel that we
understand better than any others can the ne
cessity of resisting the tide of immigration set
ting out from China, which has already done SO
much mischief to nations bordering upon that
country, and which threatens so much more.
We feel that our fellow-countrymen east of the
mountains have been too much in the habit of
forming their Judgment upon the Chinese ques-
| ton from its material aspect, and as a mere
| question of industrial development and pro-
| gress and the creation of wealth, wholly over
locking and ignoring its social, moral aud polit-
| ical sides
| We do not deny that the people of the Pacific
coast are Influenced by material considerations,
| and that each Of US is trying by all legitimate
means 10 better his condition.
| Bnt we say that, regarded from the standpoint
! of immediate material results and considered
| as the codest question of dollars and cents and
lt
| social aud moral order. and even patriotism
there is no advantage or profit in the mixed race
| system now being forced upon this coast, or in
any mixed race system whatever.
That there is more mere money profit in dol
! lars in a homogeneous population than in one OF
| mixed races, while the moral and political OBJ
| iections are unanswerable.
For while the Chinaman works industriously
| enough, he consumes very little, either of his
| own production or of ours.
| That he imports from China much that he
| and much that he W ki1n cf cot
alogue of articles consumed by our own people
| the production and sale of which makes our
| commerce and our life what it is, the Chinamau
| does not use at all.
| Indeed, so far as he is concerned, hundreds OF
useful occupations essential u our system OF
| civilization might as well, and If they depended
on him would have to be, abandoned alto
gether.
That he underbids all white labor and ruth
lessly takes its place, and win so on doing SO
till the white laberer comes down to the sesnty
| food and halfcivilized habits of the Chnaman.
while the nee results of his earnings are sent
regularly cut of the county and lost to the com
munity where ii is created.
| And while this depicting process is going on
| the labcriDg white man, to whom the nation
must in the long run look for the reproduction
of the race, and the bringing up and educating
of citizens TO take the place of the current gen
| Grafton as it passes away, and above all to de-
| fend the country IN time of war is injured in
| his comfort, reduced in his scale and standard
| of life, necessarily carrying down with it his
moral and ply sical tone and stamina
| But what is even more Immediately damaging
to the State is the fact that he is kept in perpet-
| ual state of anger, evaporation and discomfort
always bordering on sedItion, thus jeopardizing
| the general peace, and creating state of
| chronic uneasiness. distrust and apprehension
| throughout the entire community.
| That this alarms capital, and forces ii into
| concealment or out OF the state in search OF
better security, checks enterprises, increases the
| cost of government, especially for police pur-
poses, while decreasing the sources OF revenue
| from which taxes can be raised.
| And that whether the producing Classes are
| right or wrong in their opinions is practically
immaterial, for experience has shown that the