The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-03-04
AMERICA AND THE CHINESE.
The Great Interests Involved, Which
Demagogues Do Not Understand.
The Whole Question Can be Solved, Without
Offending China, by Respecting the
Treaty and Enforcing the Laws.

The Chinese problem is something more than
whether Wang Lee should be sent homo with
his soap and tubs. because he can wash our linen
for fifty cents a dozen, while nationalities of
statelier civilization cannot do it for less than
dollar. Should we not rather consider, looking
at the subject from its material bearing, the
mighty interests involved in our commercial and
industrial relations with China, and in which no
Pacific coast3
This, however is to state selfevident prop
osition, and shall not trouble you with its dis
cussion. Wehave entered China by force. If
we did not direct the naval operations which led
tt that result we share the advantages accruing
from those successfully conducted by other ma
tons. We have imposed treaties upon China
which we would permit no country to impose
upon We control her tariffs, and thus, in
directly, control her revenues. Great Britain
compels her to accept opium because, without
opium, India would be either bankrupt or
grievous charge upon the imperial Exchequer.
China has received our merchants our mission
aries, our officials, with painstaking hospitality
1t has been my privilege to reside twice in China
once in private capacity as your representa-
I have visited the open ports, gone
many hundreds of miles into she interior,
have met and conversed with officials
of every class. / can only recall courtesy and
kindness. / have had occasion to discuss many
questions with the Prince and Ministers, with
provincial viceroys, and rarely failed to find
ready and judicious acquiescence to the just de-
mands of the United States l might even make
this statement stronger, and recall demands
granted by China upon the summons of my gov
eminent which would not have been considered
for moment in Washington had they been pre-
sented to us-demands which no minister jeal
Gus of his country's honor could present without
sense akin to shame 1t may be said chat this
came from the circumstance that my residence
in China, both officially and unofficially, was
der exceptional circumstances. But in all nv
experience minister dealing with the affairs
of Others and especially the missionary and
mercantile class. have ever found the authori
ties willing to observe every treaty stipulation
far as the protection of Americans was con-
cerned, and when local influences have led to
trouble or irritation, to make due reparation.
If it should be asked why China does not wei
come Western enterprise. the answer is that we
have scarcely the right to ask this quest ion Ell
Their of China or Japan until we make treaties
with them as with other powers If we consider
what Western enterprise has done since 1912,
aud compare China in it's relations with West
have no reason to complain.
In this development Of Chinese commerce the
United States may be regarded as the favored
nation. 1t we have not gained all that such
realize the fact when it is too late, but the mer
est novice in the study of Oriental politics can
not fail to see that, with policy worthy of the
Republic, with just and generous recognition
of the autonomy and dignity of the Oriental ma
tons, the voice of America would oe paramount
from Toxic to Bangkok. We have never made
war upon the Oriental nations. We have not
taken their territories imposed exemplary in
IDENTITIES, wounded the prestige of the rulers or
stupefied the people with opium. Our interest
is entirely commercial and in this China has as
much, and in some things more, to gain than the
United States.
Why disturb and destroy this by such egisla-
ton on the emigration question as is proposed by
ity of every argument that can be made against
the immigration of Chinese, and the fact re-
mains that since the passage of the act prohib-
iting this emigration no Chinaman has emigrated
from, China to the United States. / state this
not as opinion, or belief, or from rumor, but as
absolute fact, within my own Knowledge as
far as diligent inquiry can possess one with
kno wledge The evidence sustaining this belief
is matter of record in the Department of State.
The emigrants whose presence in California leads
to so much discussion do not come from China,
but from Hong Kong. The Chinese authorities
have So much control over emigration from Hong
Kong to San Francisco as they have over emf
grafton from Liverpool and Belfast to New York
and no more. Hong Kong is British posses
sion, under the British flag. with a British
Governor general-a small island at the
mouth of river which penetrates one Of the
richest and most densely populated provinces of
China within few hours by river steamboat
travel Of Canton, the metropolis of southern
China holding the same geographical relation to
Canton that New York does to Albany, with
population say of 100000 Cinnamon, and per-
haps 3, GOO of other nationalites--a commercial
center of wealth and Importance on the high
road to Japan, China ard the Indies, and deeply
interested in the emigrant trade 1t is to the
interest of Hong Kong merchants to send their
British ships to California carrying emigrants.
The trade is almost valuable as the slave
trade from Africa in other days, and is governed
by somewhat similar conditions. In the steamer
which conveyed me across the Pacific, not many
b %onhs o &C., cb tnsss e msrs
really an emigrant steamer. l recall
a hasty cabin table conversation with a fellow
passenger familiar with the subject, who esti-
mated that the gain on that single trip from emf
grant passengers to the British owners of this
British ship carrying the British flag and sailing
from British port, was $4,000. We know
enough of the conditions which govern so rich
trade and of the temptations attending it, to
know the pains that would DO taken to evade
treaties, disobey customs regulations forge GER
tificates and do other unlawful acts to insure its
immunity.
There is another fact of equal Importance!
The Chinese authorities care nothing about the
emigration of their people. They would prevent
rather than encourage it. During the years
when was in constant, l might say daily, and
intimate relations with the statesmen who gov
ern this empire never had but one converse
ton upon the emigration question. The
Grand Secretary, Ii Hung Chang, on one
occasion advanced the treatment of the
Chinese in California by Americans as an
offset to claim I was presenting, and, with
more feeling than is usual on the part of an
Oriental, asked me to show him the chapters in
'Wheaton's International Lava Chinese trans
lation of which was before him--which justified
the United States in awarding to the Chinese
different treatment from that accorded to natives
of England and Japan. dwelling, as remember,
especially upon the point that the Chinese were
as INTELLIGENT as the natives of Dahomey, to
whom we had accorded citizenship. could only
say to his Excellency that, in the absence Of an
instruction to discuss the question, all that l
could suggest was his addressing the department
directly through his minister in Washington
the discussion being which could be