The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1893-05-10
THE CHINESE EXCLUSION LAW.

4
The six companies have surrenderen
! three OF their employees to the ohi'en
States marshal for the city OF New forh
as derellcts under the Geary chinese eN-
cluslon act. The object OF this action was
10 GET The law before the United states
Supreme Court TO test Its vahdity uhoe'
the Constitution. the six companies claim
ing that II Is in violation OF our treaty
rights with China.
THAT Mr.. Cleveland either believes this
law TO be unconstitutional. or has grave
doubfs about it's validity, has been SHOWN
bv hts suspending its operations until IL
( can be passed on by the Supreme Court
OF the United States. and In so doing ne
IS perfectly right. The law requires that
| all Chinese in the country. not reglstereu
as citizens. shall be deported TO their own
/ land. This would have TO he done az I'M
rnense expense. and should 1t be under
taken and partially carried out and then
| the court should declare the law Invalid
null and void, the result would be perpieN-
ing and unfortunate in the extreme. IL
would. therefore. be little less than fool
ish 10 attempt TO execute the law until
all doubts as TO its being valid have been
removed.
This Chinese question. like all Others
has two sides 10 IT. II is very desirable
that this country should not be oyerrun
with the almond-eyed celestials. who
though quiet and iaw-abidng enough DO
not make good immigrants. They as
rule. refuse 10 become American citizens
but work hard and laboriously to accumu-
late money which they do not put again
I'm circulation, but carefully hoard up,
either for the purpose Of taking 1t to
China with them when they feel rich
enough 10 return, or TO pay the expenses
Of transporting their remains TO the
Celestial Empire for interment when they
die. while all money left over, after pay
Ing necessary expenses Of doing this, goes
TO their relatives at home. These are
not the kind Of immigrants the United
States wish for by any means, and 1t is
not strange that there IS an universal de-
sire that they should not be allowed
to remain i'm the country, 10 compete with
other immigrants who propose to remain
here. and become part and parcel Of the
great American Republic.
On the other hand the United States
for sixty years sought 10 enter China and
establish commercial relations with her,
despite the opposition Of Great Britain,
and OF China herself At last we sue
ceeded and made a treaty with that coun-
try under which quite an American colony
have settled in China, and are engaged
in business there. while a number Of
American missionaries have also gone
there. II this exclusion act is pronounced
valid. therefore, China WILL of course, re-
taliate, and IL will mean the destruction
Of the Characterization colony, the re-
turn Of all Americans. missionaries in
cluded, and a cessation of all commercial
intercourse between this and that country.
The question then resolves itself into this
simple one; Which will be the more bene-
fetal to the United States. freeing the
country of all Chinese whatever at the
expense Of our trade with China, or re-
tanning our trade and keeping the Chinese?
This is a very important and difficult
question to answer. No wonder Mr.
Cleveland was 50 anxious to so slow about
enforcing the exclusion law, and that he
was determined on understanding exactly
what he had to do before going ahead.