Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-07-21

Mr.. Morrow, of California, speaking to
the resolution, expressed his qualification
that the question at last fairly confronted
Congress, and drew attention to the pecu-
liar interest it possessed for California. In
the course of his remarks he said:
If it has now become national question,
affecting the more populous East as well as the
extreme West, we may reasonably hope for
effective measures of relief in the protection of
the whole country against this foreign invasion
On the Pacific coast We have confronted this
condition of affairs relating to foreign labor for
more than thirty years, during which time our
laborers have been compelled TO come into com
petition with the imported cheap and degraded
labor OF Asia. and yet our people have protested,
ana until recently, in vain against this Chinese
immigration. We have shown that ii does not
assimilate and is not Incorporated into the IT,
dustrial system of the country You are now
confronted with the same condition of things
arising out of an invasion from another direc-
ton. large part of this excessive immigra-
ton into New York, it is said, consists of con-
tract laborers or hired slaves precisely as the
Chinese are brought into San Francisco. There
has been an effort to restrict Chinese immigra-
ton, but the law is evaded. 1t is fact that
while prior to the adoption of the present law
the average annual Chinese immigration into
San Francisco was about eight thousand, yet
under the operation of the present restriction
law it amounted last year to about eleven thou
sand, so that this law that was intended 10 be
restrictive has resulted in permitting an IN
crease of immigration of these people whose
labor is sold before they leave Hongkong.
The spirit of the House plainly indi-
Gated the desire that the committee, when
named, should go to work at once and
make report at as early a day us is pos
sible. Mr. Morrow's statement of the
importance of the investigation to the Pa
citic coast was not overdrawn. The need
for official determination of the question
Of involuntary servitude by Chinese coolies
sent to this country is great We know
precisely what the report will be; the
facts are undeniable, but their official
PRONUNCIATION will clear away world of
doubt and false sympathy at the East, and
purify the public sentiment upon the
whole Chinese question.
But even more important is that branch
of the inquiry suggested by Mr.. Morrow,
| the evasion of the Restriction Act. That
it operates i'll, and is practically nullifed
by the chicanery of the Chinese brokers
and the perjury of their clients is indis-
putable. We may hope for such a report
from the committee, after the facts are
LAID before it, as will remove any hest
fancy any Congressman may have about
giving us legislation equal to the need.
We should have had now, if the restric-
| ton bill of Fair and Morrow ranorted
and voted for by General Harrison in the
Senate, where it passed, had not been
throttled in the House by Mr.. Belmont.
However that has gone into history, and
the conditions are such to-day that there
is reason to believe the distance between
hope and realization is not great.