The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1888-10-25
RsDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 25, 1888.

MORNI!N
THE BENIGHTED CHINESE.
Social and Political Conditions In the EN-.
pirs,
Ne,O Pork Times.
Residence in China and study of the
present condition and past history of the
Chinese throw flood Of light on ques
tious naturally suggested by the bill to
exclude the Mongolians, and show that
the causes of their non. assimilative fla
ture reach back and down far aid deep.
The analytical observer Of public events
has not failed tp notice that the agitation
against the Chinese is peculiar one. II
is not raised against certain specified
classes of Chinese, but against them as q
race. Against no other nation Is this
Wholesale discrimination made orsought.
Laws have neither beeh enacted nor
proposed .fot the cothplete exclusion OF
the English, the Irish, the Scotch; the
Welsh, the French, the German, of any
other European people as a nationality,
but for the prescription of paupers, idiots,
criminals, and contract laborers, from
what eouhtrS so6vef thsy come. Current
discuaaidn Of the Chinese .pfobletfi has
made the public familiar With the pro&i-
mate causes ,.for this discrimination
against the. Mongolians-their moral,
intellectual, social, and industrial degrs.
dation and their strange and almost
/ unique incapacity for assimilation with
i the spirit of our political, industrial, and
social systems. The alembic of civilized
associations and environments in this
country seems utterly powerless to trans.
mute them. The people Of no other
nation on the globe, not even our Ameti:
can Indians are 30 refractory when placed
in the midst of the powerful forces of
American civilization. 1t is true, IN a
deeper and more serious sense than the
author said it, that "for ways that are
dark and tricks that are vain the heathen
Chinee is peculiar"
Many people have wondered why this
people, who emigrated from the South
Caspian country into China twenty. four
centuries before the Christian era, with
the resources of Western Asian culture
knowledge of writing, astronomy, and
the arts that primarily. minister to mans
comfort-shoGld in this late gehefation
be 40 inferior to us that ne can neither
endure them as they afe nor transform
them as they should be. Seeing the ap-
proximate cause for their exclusion, their
unftneas asa race, the. spirit .of@inveati-
CATION seeks the more remote causes 1.-The
causes Of that nnftness. =.
Stated in the briefest terms, the Chi
nese are not progressive nation, first,
because they appear incapable of self
civilization from within, and secondly,
because they are impervious to civiliza-
tion from without.
Their incapacity for self-eleVation may
be noted firstin their system of govern.
ment. A hereditary despotism, it has
rarely had at its head a man of great
capacity. Under marriage customs,
which place practically no limit on. q
young Emperor's indulgences upon his
arrival at age; it is a marvel if he do not
mentally and physically incapacitate
himself for the functions of government
by the time he ought to bring his greatest
powers into action. The Chinese throne
has been conspicuous for its lack ofgreat,
strong, formative minds, and it is 80
-hedged in with form, ceremony and ad.
:herence to precedents that unless the
incumbent be man of supreme ability
he falls under the guidance of bis entour
AGE, and although an absolute despot, be
makes little positive impression on the
government of his people. The provinces
are governed by yiceroys or Governors,
who, so long as they follow certain min.
ute directions laid down for them, are at
liberty to manage affairs as they please.
And under them the mandarins do the
same. In the matter of taxation, if the
tax galherefs turn over to their superiorh
their expected quotas, too careful exami.
nation is not made into the amounts over
and above those sums which they have
extorted from the people and put into
their own pockets. The civil service is
honey. combed with corruption. If from
no other evidence, this is apparent from
the fact that, officers with utterly made
quate salaries retire with ample fortunes
Mondarins; asa rule, seldom enter office
with large possessions; and it is 8
reasonable deduction that the wealth
with which they smooth their declining
years Is il1g5t;en.. Occasionally, the
official who has been more successful in
featherjDg his nest than in concealing the
fact, e1cites the jealousy of his snperiors
and suffers in consequence. Hang Ke,
who was superintendent of customs at
Canton prior to 1859, resigned his seals
with fortuneo of 800, 900 taels, ($50O,0e0,)
Notwithstanding his salary was enly 2, ,40C
taels year, and the necessary expenses
of his yamun (oficial residence) were
5000 month. He was ordered to Pekin
and before he had been many days in the
capital one.third of his $500, 1000 hao
been transferred to the "inside pockets
of the members of the Government. Oc'
casionally lyseverer punishmentis inflicted
but the crime apparently consists ofbeipe
discovered, not of fleeing the people
and, Judged by the American standard
the civil service is about the most corrupt
on the face of the earth. In their crude
administration of justice, without juriel
or legal codes, the same venality exists
and when cruel torture of witnesses fails
to evoke testimony warranting precon.
ceiyed verdict, tue desired end is mol
infrequenty obtained by sufficiently Gin
sulting' the magistrate in the sense tha
Pooh. Bah is "insulted" in 1.-THE Mika
do"
Without strong elevating force on the
throne to lift them up, without represen
tatiye government in which they car
participate and raise themselves lit they
wanted to-, without well.developed ant
equitable judicial and legal system to in
sure Justice and encourage right living
with nothing to stimulate invention, tt
ameliorate the condition of the race
without anything to develop virility aue
stamina, with almost everything to press
subject, confne and servilize them, it il
little to be wondered at that they do no
rise, expand and advance.
But they do not seem to desire any
thing better. They do not aspire to ,
higher condition. With an Unborn spiri
of subseryiency, intensified by centurie
of heredity, which is reflected in degre,
of ahiect auhn;ssiyeness to p9rental 2n(