The Republican journal., 1886-04-29
Unspeakable Heather.

| CONGRESSMAN MILLIKEN IN CHINATOWN. HE
| BELIEVES IMMIGRATION SHOULD BE STOP
| PED.
| The Washington correspondent of the Port
! land Advertiser furnishes the following inter-
view with Hon. S. l.. Milliken; mo other
city in the United States would tolerate 'China-
town for twenty-four hours. If Chinatown
were dropped down on Boston Commons the
people would hold their noses and rum Such
is the emphatic language in which Representa-
tive Miiken of Maine puts his conclusions
after visit to the celebrated Chinese quarter
of the Congressional committee appointed to
accompany the remains of the late Senator
Miller to California. While in San Francisco
Representatives Miiken, Spriggs, of New
York, Hepburn, of Iowa, Latfoon, of Kentucky
| and Morgan, of Mississippi, with two detec-
| tives who We're familiar with Chinatown, and
| several San Francisco gentlemen, made tour
| OF the Chinese quarter and examined it thor
| oughly. The result was a unanimous verdict
| by the Congressman that Chinatown was a
| great ulcer on the beautiful city of the Golden
| Gate, and a unanimous conclusion, not that the
Chinese must go, bnt that no more Cinnamon
must come.
| But we will let Mr.. Millikcn tell his own
| story. "Chinatown," he says, Occupies four
| blocks in the heart of the city. You break off
abruptly from the rest of the city when you go
| into this quarter. You none but Chinese.
They are as utterly separated from the whites
! except for the police and occasional visitors
| like ourselves, as though they We're still in the
heart of the Celestial empire. The Chinese are
| inveterate gamblers and their gaming shops are
| thick along the streets. You see groups of
men, a very few women and almost no child
ren. don't think saw dozen children in
| Chinatown. There are no family or OrganiZa-
tions among these people We went down
into the Chinese dens three stories under
| ground. In these dives, which are reached
through narrow, dark. filthy passages, we
| found crowds of Cinnamon smoking opium.
| The stencil was almost unbearabe to Ameri-
can nostrils. | believe Chinatown would cause
a pestilence in almost any American city eX-
cept San Francisco, where the winds from the
ocean sweep across the city every day at GER
tain hours and clean out the poisonous at
| mosphere.
| ''While the Chinese are reported to be good
| servants and on the whole peaceable people,
| their filthy habits and their gross immoralities
make them blot and a scourge to the city of
San Francisco. They have no families or homes
like other people. They buy their clothing in
China, they send their money to China, they
have the bones of their dead taken to China for
burial, and in no way do they assimate with
American civilization"
''What remedy would YOU suggest for this
state of thngs?" was asked.
"Chnese immigration should at once be
utterly prohibited was the reply, mot only
on account of the evils l have mentioned but
because the coming of these people tends to
cheaper and degrade labor. If they We're
scattered throughout the country thckly as
in California, their competition would cause
the ruin of our native American laboring
classes. | stated in speech while in San Fran
cisco that | thought the Chinese who have
already come to this country should be fairly
and decently treated, but that | believed the
East would stand by the lacitic coast in the
passage of lawsto exclude any further Chinese
immigration. The respectable and intelligent
people Of San Francisco do not approve Of
driving the Chinese out by violent or unlawful
means or of maltreating or abusing. or mutat-
ing or killing those already here. They regard
the Chinese as an incubus San Francisco,
and object to anything that will increase the
size Of that incubus. So few Chinese children
are born in this country that if immigration is
stopped these people will gradually die out ana
this the CalifornianS regard as the easiest
method of getting rid of them.'