Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-03-06
IGNORANCE AT THE EAST OF CALI
F0KHIA AFFAIRS.

fUhQlh AfEAlh6,
The New York Herald having replied
that its remarkable Chinese-immigration
statistics we're drawn from the Bureau of
Statistics, Congressman Morrow called
upon the Chief of that department for a
report of the actual number of Chinese
who have come into the United States
since 1882. That official promptly replied
with an abstract of the exhibits on his
books, from which it appears that but 1897
Chinese had immIgrated to the United
States since August 5, 1882, up to Deem
Der l, 1887. Mr.. Morrow then sent the
Bureau copies Of the reports of the Col
lector and Surveyor of the port of San
Francisco, showing irrefutably that be-
tween August 5, 1882, and December 81,
1887, the Chinese arrivals by sea were
36,9S9. The Bureau now explains that
1t does not treat the Chinese coming in I'M
der claim of "prior residence as immi-
grants, but, for statistical purposes, "as cit
izens."
This IS certainly very strange procedure
upon the part of the Chief of the Bureau.
By what right or logic he treats these Gre
turning" Chinese as citizens, even for sta
tistical purposes, ordinary intelligence fails
to comprehend. The true statistician never
falsifies or obscures the titles of his calcu-
lations and exhibits he invariably calls
things by their right names, and, as has
been said, classifies without mercy or
fear" The thing Colonel Switzler should
have done was to state the exact fact, that
so many Chinese returned and were ad-
mitted under claim of prior residence
The statistics were so reported to him, and
he had no right whatever to classify them
in any different manner. The stupidity of
his work led the Eastern press into serious
error, and no little injury has resulted.
We are at a loss for any possible reason
why Colonel Switzler should have sent out
these figures that have had the effect of
leading the people into belief in lie.
That they were so misled is proved by the
fact reported in the dispatches that when
Mr.. Morrow called upon the President and
Secretary of State and pointed out the blum
der of the Bureau and that thousands of Chi
nese had come into the country under the
"prior residence" clause, both officials were
amazed and confessed their ignorance of
the fact. 1t is astonishing that Mr.. Cleve-
land and Secretary Bayard should have
been so profoundly ignorant of that of
which about all the people on this coast
are well informed. We had supposed that
these high officials were sufficiently awake
to such an important subject to possess
themselves of the exact facts relating to it.
For instance, how could the President pre-.
pare the message which we are assured will
accompany the transmission of the new
treaty, or Mr. Bayard negotiate the treaty
intelligently, in ignorance of the number
of Chinese who have gained admission I'M
der the several clauses of the Restriction
Act 1t is saidby the dispatches that both
the Secretary and the President were ig-
norant, indeed, that the "prior residence
clause" had been used at all to engineer
fraudulent admissions This, to Californians,
seem incomprehensible, in view of themuch
debate ofthe question, the resolutions passed
by public meetings, the petitions sent up
to Congress, the personal appeals made to
the President and the Secretary, the letters
of the Federal Judges and custom
officers, and the reports of the lat
ter officials made to the Treasury
Department. The discovery now made
will serve to disabuse Californians of the
idea that this portion of the Union fills
very large place in the vision of the East.
We are very apt to fancy that the Pacific
coast, of such magnitude to us, and the
interests of which seem to us of such vast
Importance, are the subjects of constant
thought or mighty concern at the East.
We are but very small part of great
nation; an infinitesimal factsr, indeed, in
Eastern estimation, and our affairs COM
mand comparatively but very little atten-
ton in the midst of the activity of fifty
nine millions OF people beyond the Rocky
Mountains. Our distance from the great
centers of population, our comparative
littleness in the political and commercial
world, must account for the very great
that certainly obtains at
the East concerning this portion of the
continent and the facts of daily history
with us. It accounts in part for the blum
der of the Eastern press in accepting
the figures of the Bureau of Statistics re-
ferred to, in the face of the fact that the
California press has teemed for months
with the true exhibits, and that the Fed
eral Judges aud other officials have added
the weight of their testimony in letters
of the true situation, forwarded
to our Congressman and published in our
own press. 1t may be humiliating to our
pride, but it is undeniably true that the
East does not pay 1.-THE Of the atten-
tion to our concerns that we have sup
posed, nor take anywhere near the interest
in our affairs that we have beguiled our
selves into believing.
4 TREATY WITH CHINA.
The dispatches inform us that the adj