Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1886-09-24


the classes that profit from Chinese
cheap labor, may lie at the basis of our
temporizing policy with China, a
policy that drags and dawdles and SEN
timentalises, that sends vain embassies
abroad to talk, while at home it Oper-
ates to destroy the control of our own
people over our own country, our own
institutions, and the direction Of our
own future.
Whatever the causes Of this policy
it has lasted far too long. The con-
flict is upon us. 1t cannot he evaded
or suppressed. Each year of delay rem
ders its labor more arduOus and its dan
gers greater 1t has been approaching
through unconscious ages, for it is the
latest result oi the advance in OppO-
site directions of two great peoples,
because of destiny forced upon them
by the coniiguration Of the earth. The
fruitful alluvial of China lay within
boundaries that isolated her from the
rest OF the world; and here, separate
from other races, her people increased
and tlourished and grew strong. Mean
while the hardy populations of North
ern Asia outgrew the food supply Of
their comparatively sterile regions,
and participated themselves with fu-
tile valor upon the laborious, patient,
brave and enduring denizens of the
Central Kingdom. Driven back from
fertile plains at the southwark, him
dered by the heat of the east, repulsed
at the north by the baroness Of arctic
solitudes, their only outlet lay west
ward over the comparatively low-lying
regions where at later times were
traced the pathways OF the caravans
that carried to the countries of the
Caspian the slender traffic of the re-
motest east. Displacing Goth and
Alan and Vandal, they urged these
onward to new migrations which, in
their turn, impelled the German to-
ward the Atlantic. This, the second
ary result OF Chinese power, gave a
westward movement to strong and
hardy peoples whose successive inva-
sions changed tine face OF civilization
from the borders of Persia to the shores
of Spain The first waves of conquest
were displaced by those that succeeded
or were dissipated by fusion with the
native populations, but through all,
the advance was toward the west; in
the nature of things there was no re-
ceding. And 80 in the vicissitudes OF
ages our progenitors framed the new
structure of Europe and developing
from the rudest to the highest form of
society, created the nations from
which our own people directly sprang.
But the progress did not end with
this. The conditions under which the
Caucasian developed in Europe, after
the fall of the Roman Empire, were
parallel with none of those known to
anterior peoples. They favored a
growth of civic liberty, of earnest in
tellectual effort, and deep and intense
emotional feeling, from which grew
the complex relations and delicate adj
justments OF government, Of law, OF
religion, of science, Of arts and indus
tries which have elevated man to a
higher semblance of the image OF his
Creator than was possible under the
grosser forms Of antecedent civiliza-
tions. Yet throughout all this lin
gered the tendency to reach still fur
ther toward the west. And after the
venturous ships of Icelandic voyagers
had crossed the sea, and the records
of Iceland had told the tale to the
Genoese, the way OF the Caucasian was
opened to the continent beyond.
Then, not yet four centuries ago,
our immediate ancestors, the descen-
dants of the westward-moving hosts,
came and possessed the land and left
it, an inheritance, to us, their chill
dren.
And we, from the hamlets scattered
along our Eastern coasts, have fol-
lowed the instinct inherited through
centuries and have pressed westward
still, ardent, earnest, toiling, and vic
torious, until beyond prairie and buf-
falo plain, beyond alkaline desert and
Nevadan forest, we have planted our
civilization and builded our cities
upon the edge OF the utmost ocean
whose farther waves wash the shores
Of that China whose prowess gave its
first impulse to the westward journey
Of our race. That journey is ended.
We have completed our share of the
circuit of the globe. And on our la
test territory we are met by those
same Chinese, driven toward the east,
their only outlet, as we for ages have
been toward the west. The tTo races,
have met, and one or the other must
give way. The Chinese must recoil
to his own land, or We must recede
from ours. The two races, distant as
if drawn from different planets, COM
PEELED by geographical conditions to
advance in opposite directions around
the world, are brought face to face.
They will not mingle, they cannot
fuse. The Pacific Coast at an early
day, and our entire country at a re-
moter time, must be the inheritance