The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-03-08
ANTI CHINESE AGITATION.
The Other Side of the Argument Upon
the VeXed Chinese Question.
What the Chinaman Has Done to Develop the
Pacific Coast-The Necessity for His
Labor Past and Present.


The Chinese question is not the ghost OF
night nor the phantom OF year, but rather, like
lard going Flying Dutchman, it has been trav-
cling over the country west of the Rocky mount
aims for almost a. generation. To comprehend
it, therefore. perfectly, an acquaintance with it
which does not reach back TO the days of the
spring of 1850 is apt to lead to false conclusions.
Yet it is strange fact that not one of those who
for years past have been inveighing against Chi
nese immigration has ever thought it worth
his while to look back to the years when the
Chinaman was welcomed to these shores to
trace the change from welcome to hatred, and to
point out wherein matters are now changed from
their condition of generation ago. 1t was for
the purpose of getting history of the Chinese
on the Pacific coast that the Herald correspond
emit called upon Owying Ming, the Chinese con-
sIl-general in this city, and requested from him
such information as would enable the Herald to
lay before the world the facts, which are abso-
lutely necessary to an intelligent understanding
of an agitation which in some places has almost
taken the gravity of an instruction.
Owying Ming is not stranger to New York
and the East he having presided at the post of
the general consulate in New York city. In San
Francisco he is assisted in the duties of his office
by F. A. Bee, pioneer Californian, and an in
terview with the former almost necessarily in
cludes one with the latter. Both men may be
ranked as diplomates, for, while consuls in
name. the duties of their Office call for but few of
those generally required Of the commercial agents
of civilized powers. The opinions and express
sions of both where candid and entitled 30 the
consideration always to be awarded to mon who
have made the subject concerning which they
speak special study.
Owying Ming having been duly made
quainted with your correspondents wishes
through Mr. King. late of Yale, AS interpreter.
! expressed himself as willing to give the desired
| information.
Tell the gentleman" he said, in answer to
the correspondents first question, that the
cause of the white mans hatred of the Chinese is
that they are Chinese
s.And the cause of the Chinese lack of love for
the white man is that he is white mans that
its" qleried the correspondent
1T must be So" answered the Consul general.
1--WE find it written in our books that for thou
sands of years has despised another race,
and that the nations of the earth have looked
down upon one another. Have not your people
looked down upon the negro for more than
| century. and do they not now look down upon
him, except when the time comes for him to cast
his voteY The cause of the anti-Chinese feeling
among your people, first and foremost. is
What would you suggest to overcome this
prejudiceg'
1T is easier to tell of the wrong than to point
out the road to right" said the dignsary. Were
my countrymen to-day in the condition of the
negro a hundred years ago. the slaves of white
men, the chances for the extinction of the race
prejudice would be greater than they are to day.
For in that case they would receive pity where
| there is now contempt. and liberty would come
with equality. But now the Chinaman occupies
an anomalous position. for he is expected to
become an American in manners, in sentiment.
and in his mode of life. but yet he is not 30 be
come an American, for he is Chinaman."
What the Consul general MEANS" broke in
MIR. Bee, us that the most effective means to
break down the prejudice would be to confer the
right to vote upon the Chinese. Look around
| you and tell me who are the anti-Chinese agita
| tors They not men whose bread is taken
| away by Chinese competition. and they are not
| men with knowledge or brains enough to give
| reasons for the faith that is in them Tell me of
| what class is the following of these agitators
| composedg Not the class that reasons from cause
| to effect, but the class that, believing itself
| wronged, is willing to take the word of loud
| mouthed orators that the Chinaman is the root
| of all evil. That is happy thought. for the
| Chlnaman had no friends and he is a Chnaman
"a creature from a foreign land with ideas,
manners and opinions of his own who is of no
| earthly use to the politician except for strap
to whet his reputation as patriot anxious to i'm
prove the condition of his fellow-ctizens who can
vote him into office You will see, then, that race
/ prejudice is at the bottom OF the whole matter:
| and as there exists a condition of affairs which
serves to increase rather than abate this feeling
| the result is an agitation and an attempt to get
rid of the dog that can't retaliate when kicked"
But the anti Chinese feeling is represented as
! being universal on the coast?"
| Perhaps it is, because there is universal ig-
noranee as to the evils said to result from the
| presence of the Chinese here" replied the Con-
| sul-general Permit me to call your papers at
4 ANTI q VIII RI
seems to point moral, and it is this, that anti
| Chinese agitation and your hard times are al
| ways contemporaneous. and that your agitator
finds scant audiences when your merchants are
| prosperous and the laborer is fully employed
| and we'll paid. To my mind, this suggests the
| thought that the white man holds the China
| man responsible for the existence of hard times,
| and he believes that were my countrymen not
] here there never would be hard times The ag
| itation in 1878-79-80 was co-exstent and CO.
| extensive with depression in industry and
trade, and the cloud Of troubles in which the
Chinese now drifting arose at the same time
/ with murmurs and complaints concerning hard
| times He who desires to sway the minds of
men finds ready lever when dissatisfaction and
| discomfort dwell within them"
/ I'm other words" said Consul Bee less Ori-
| entally, "a yellow dog is wanted, and the China
man is bounced upon, because he is least able to
strike back for he has political status ard no
| protection. The lack of the latter cannot be
| overestmated. might almost say that it is the
next great cause to natural race prejudice of the
/ opposition to the Chinese"
"Do you mean to say that the presence of the
| Chinese here has had no adverse effect upon the
labor market and the wage-earnhg power Of the
Caucasiansg" asked the interviewer.
II will answer you with facts rather than with
| conclusions drawn from facts" replied Consul
Bee. Let US go back quarter of a century
| We find then that the Cinnamon were here in
| great numbers, nearly all engaged in mining with
little opposition TO their presence existing. CAL
| ifornia at that time-sav 1S60-was importing
| annually 40000 900 worth of manufactured
| goods from the Eastern States. With the war
of the Rebellion there broke out the sudden con-
| viction that California. to be truly prosperous
| must become a home-producing State. Mining
| was then in its decline. Let us manufacture
| was the cry. We have here large numbers of
| Cinnamon, the very class of labor we need for
| that purpose Then wooden mills. shoe factor
| les, tanneries. and nnmeries other enterprises