Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-10-31
A VOTE FOR CLEVELAND IS A VOTE
AGAINST CHINESE RESTRICTION.

On the 10Th inst. we published dis
patch received by prominent Republican
in this city from Governor Stanford, in
which the Governor called attention in
the most significant way to the relation |
between protection and the Chinese queS
ton. In that dispatch, terse and vigor-
Gus, he showed that these questions are
introactive. One sentence of the dispatch
read:
The welfare of the country is largely involved
in the coming election The Restriction Act
protects our citizens against the competition of
the Chinaman in our own territory but of what
avail is that if their manufac ures can be i'm
ported without restraint
In other words, Senator Stanford says
that the restriction of Chinese immigra-
ton and the exclusion of that race from
this country will effect nothing so long as
the output of their labor in China may be
freely sold in America to compete with
the products Of American labor
This is a perfectly lucid statement Of an
undeniable and unvarying economic law.
1t is illustrated in the Chinese question
with singular yiyidness. For, as Governor
Stanford shows, between the coming of
the Chinaman to compete with American
labor upon American soil aud the coming
of the product Of his labor to be sold in
the american market, and thus compete
with the product Of American labor, there
is no real distinction.
Now it follows-and there is no possible
logical denial of the conclusion to be
made-that whoever votes for tariff re-
duction, votes to create national con-
ception of fiscal policy on the down grade,
towards free trade. The testimony of the
most distinguished advocates of free trade
in the world, the unanimous verdict of the
English press and of English political
society is, that Mr.. Cleveland's projected
policy, as reflected in his message in De-
cember last, and in the measure known as
the Mills bill, is towards free trade, and
more, that it is free trade with limited re-
strictions only. A vote, therefore, for
tariff reduction-and consequently a vote
for Mr.. Cleveland-is vote for the intro
daction of Chinese competition, in the
form of the freely introduced product of
Chinese labor, So then, whoever votes for
the fiscal heresies of Grover Cleveland.
and in favor Of the solid South, votes for
the introduction of Chinese competition
by leaving the doors of the Republic wide
open to the free incoming of the product
of Chinese labor-indeed, whoever so votes
absolutely solic;ts and invites such ruinous
competition, a rivalry more dangerous to
American skilled labor than when carried
on by the Chinese upon American soil
In these views Governor Stanford has
presented TO the conscience of the Ameri-
can people the Chinese question in its
strongest and most startling form, and the
working people, the wage-earners in fac
tory, mill, shop and field will see that the
issue is SO presented, with such clearness,
that no sophistical preaching of public
speakers, or contortion of the facts by Jug
Cling Democratic journals can eradicate
conviction from their minds.
On Saturday last, in briefly considering
Senator Stanford's views, the RECORD
UNION said that no man can satisfactorily
answer the Senator's question quoted from
the dispatch referred to, in the beginning
of this article, who is not in favor of PFC
tecting American labor from unfair COM
petition. And this we repeat with empha-
Sis. As we said early in this month, and
desire to say again with force, the natural
and most economical relation of producer
and consumer is that of close proximity
But, in the case of the Chinese worker,
civilizing conditions forbid the application
of that law. Hence the exclusion of low
class of labor producing in competition
with another class, upon which civiliza-
ton imposes the obligation of conditions
compatible only with greater wage than
| the Chinese earn, and greater comforts
than they desire, is valueless, unless we
also shut out the products of the labor Of
the excluded, or Chinese class, when pro-
duced beyond our borders.
Senator Stanford is so emphatically
clearly and unanswerably sound in his
statement, that it ought to be written into
the intelligence of every voter who is
tempted to cast a ballot for the falsely
styled economic tariff experiment of Grover
Cleveland and the Democratic party.