Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1886-08-13

institutions will sweep down upon tn
slightly settled western portion Of thi
continent, especially upon that riches
part of the Pacific slope where tn
presence of the Asiatics has alread.
produced mischief and discomfort.
Peculiarly pertinent to this phas
of the question is the fact that tn
Chinese have never retraced their wa.
from any region where they hav'
once established themselves. Th
dragon. flag has nexer been more thai
temporarily lowered from any countr!
where it has once been planted
Time has been within the past few
years when China possessed nothing
but her own area, the Central King
dom. To-day she has obtained, either
by peaceful acquisition or by conquest
the control of the countries of Mon
gOliai of Mantchuria, of Eastern
Turkestan, and of Thibet; while hel
population is swarming into Siam
and some portions of India, and the
complete control of Formosa is but a
question of time. More than this, in
the Philippine Islands, the first foreign
land to feel the noxious force of Chinese
immigration, neither statecraft mol
slaughter has been sufficient to up
root the peaceful invaders. Nearly
three hundred years ago, at a period
when the Spanish residents of the
Philippines were only about eight
hundred, the Chinese numbered
nearly twenty thousand. A we'll
founded fear on the part of the hand
full of Europeans led to contest in
which the Spaniards, provided with
firearms, succeeded in slaughtering
the whole number of the badly armed
celestials. Yet within thirty years
thereafter, the Chinese population had
through new immigrations
to thirty-three thousand. These were
in time detected fomenting rebellion,
and the work of the previous genera
ton was repeated. Fully two-thirds
of the Chinese were destroyed. After
this, legislation limited the Chinese in
the Islands to six thousand; and
ITO they were all expelled, and trade
with China was prohibited. With all
this, it has been impossible to keep
them away, there being at the present
time about ninety thousand Chinese
in Manila.
The meaning of this incident in the
history of Chinese immigration, is
by the admitted fact that
the outflow has occurred in defiance of
the authorities of China, and not by
their favor. With wise forecast, the
policy of the Government, since the
rise of the western powers, has been
to keep the empire intact, and to pre-
vent, SO far as possible, the involution
of its people with those of other coun-
tries. AS we shall see further on, this
policy, sound and considerate in itself,
has been broken down only by the
persistent efforts of the foreign powers,
to whom our own country has acted
as deputy-assistant in no very dig
nified manner of degree. The enforce
ment of Chinese law has been sufficient
to restrain the inhabitants of the in
terror from seeking foreign outlet,
but this has been Intellectual as con-
Germs the other provinces. The Chin
ese population on our Pacific Coast is
about one hundred and fifty thousand,
yet all of these have been derived from
an area of about fifteen square miles,
embraced within the Province of
Quangtung, this area having popula-
ton of about five million. An emigra-
ton, in the same ratio of population,
from the entire Central Kingdom,
would launch upon the Pacific Coast
a population of ten million, which
would reduce the Caucasian COM
munity to the proportion of six
per cent. of the total. But SO
great and so dense is the pop
ulation of China, that the loss of ten
millions, of her inhabitants would
make no perceptible change in her
resources, or her industrial, social OF
political condition. These emigrants
are from the agricultural and laboring
classes, not more than two per cent.
according to official data, being of the
literary class; but all, owing to the
peculiar educational institutions ol
their country, more or less disciplined
by study and instruction. The re
ports from which these statements art
taken, show that their average
wages of home may be reckoned at
less than three dollars month"
1t is to the conservative policy o
the Chinese Government, and to thi!
alone, that the western coast Q
America thus far owes even its com
parative immunity from the over
whelming Influence of Asiatic immi
grafton. l use the term compare
tive immunity" advisely. If Chin'
encourages the outflow of OF her pee
pie to the same extent that she ha
discouraged it, the Chinese question
would have been already settled be
yond recall. Reverence for the wisdom
of their ancestors in binding eac'
citizen to his native land by indissolu
BILE ties, has until lately led China t
maintain policy, the results of whic
have been even more favorable to ou
safety than conducive to her own.