The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-12-15
THE M'CREARY ACT
OminOus Silence of the
Six Companies.
WILL CHINESE REGISTER ?
They Show No inclination to
Obey the Law.
THE INCREASE IN PARTNERS.
Membership i'm Chinese Firms Quad
rupled Within Three Months.
Grounds for a Test Case.
THE INCREASE IN PARTNERS.

]
lomats, students, merchants and trav-
elers en- route to foreign countries to
register.
Internal Revenue Collector Welburn
does not believe the Chinese intend to
obey the law. and he bases his belief upon
Investigations that have been made at his
request.
1t is noteworthy fact that from the
time of the announcement that the Nc
Creary bill extending the time for regis
tration had passed on up to the present
| date less than a score of Chinese have
called at the Federal building to make in
! qulrles concerning its requirements, the
proposed date for opening the registers or
10 ask instruction and advice as TO how to
proceed to comply with the new law. On
the contrary, the Chinese have been con-
spicuOus by their absence, and sphnX-like
silence has been maintained alike by the
famous SIX COMPANIES and their LAWYERS
The present attitude of the Chinese
toward the McCreary bill is in marked
contrast to their actions at the time of the
passage of the Geary act. When that act
became law the Federal buildings were
throDged day after day with Chinese all
anxious to know what they should do to
be saved from deportation and how they
should go 10 work 10 secure immunity
from such tate. So great was the rush
Six Companies issued not one but three or
four prOclamations telling the Chinese not
TO register and assuring them that in the
event of their disregarding the Gearv law
n harm should come To them. Even after
| Secretary Carlisle partly nullified the
Geary act by striking out the clause re-
curing photographs on the registration
certificates, and some 500 Chinese regis
tered In consequence, the Six Companies
issued another circular. which was threat
ening in its tone. and which most eff
fectually put stop to registration. De-
spite the assurances and threats OF the Six
Companies the Chinese labOrerS were I'M
easy and continually. III one way or
another, manifested their uneasiness and
fear of punishment for having failed to
register.
There are no such indications of either
Willingness to register or fear of punish
ment IN case of refusal manifested by the
ChlneSe now. and yet they have neither
the threats of the Six Com panies to deter
them or he assurances Of that powerful
organization 10 strengthen them in their
defiance of law by promises of protection
in case of trouble. The Six Companies
have issued no circulars of advice or
warning, and have made no threats in re-
gard to obeyihg or refusing TO obey the
McCreary law, while the Chinese amen |
able TO the law have given not even the |
slightest indication as to their intentions
other than the manifestation of utter in |
difference. All this, too. when more than
month Of the six months extension of
time in which to register given them by
the new law has expired.
There is no one who will claim that the
Chinese are ignorant of the requirements
of the McCreary bill, and since they are not
deferred by threats as before the motive for
their apparent indifference must be looked
for in other directions. 1t is highly prob
able that the laborerS are acting now. as
before, under the guidance of the SIX
Companies; but that organization was
taught lesson in It's fight against the
Geary act which it has pro6ted by. An
influential Chinese merchant probably ex-
pressed the true state of affairs yesterday
when. in discussion of the McCreary bill,
he said:
Last time the Six Companies talk too
much on paper. This time they say moth
ing, but do heap more. By and by you
See."
In just what way the new law is to be
attacked, If it is to be attacked a all, is a
mystery to the Federal officials, but there
are several "straws" which may indicate
at least part IL not all of the Six Compa-
Eies' plan of battle against registration
For more than three months past the Fed
eral officers, and more especially United
States Commissioner Heacock, have no.
ticed that the Chinese mercantile firms
have increased the number of partners or
stockholders in their companies to enor-
TO find Chinese firm with ten or even
fifteen partners in the concern, but of late
merchants in giving the list of their part |
ners furnish from thirty to fifty Names |
each person owning an equal share In the |
business. AS the McCreary bill does not
require merchants to register, the increase |
in partners is significant
The new registration law is most ex- |
pllcit in its definition of merchant 1t |
says:
1.-THE term merchant as employed |
herein and the acts of which this is am en- da- |
tory, shall have the following meaning and |
none other: A merchant is person en-
gagged in buying and selling merchandise, |
at fixed place of business, which bust |
ness is conducted in his name. and who |
during the time he claims 70 be engaged as |
a merchant does not engage in the per-
Torrance of manual labor. except such as
Is necessary In the conduct Of his business |
as such merchant
1t is a well-known fact that not one Chi |
nese firm in hundred, taking only the |
most rep3table. is conducted under or in !
the name of an individual. The Chinese |
live in tribes and all the members of |
tribe trade at the store of their tribe. For |
instance store with sign You Kee & Co. |
doesn't mean that a Chinaman You Kee is |
the proprietor. but 1t means that it is |
store OF the on family or tribe. The |
name is the same as an English or Ameri- |
can firm whose sign reads, The North |
west Development Company" or 1.-THE |
Consolidated Dry Goods Syndicate" and |
the firm may contain two to three hundred |
partners. 1t is certainly clear, so say the |
lawyers, that a partner in firm, even if |
IL is conducted under some other name |
than his own. is as much a merchant as the |
man who runs his own business in his own |
name.
Again, Chinese firms engaged in selling |
chickens, vegetables. seeds. etc, or in man |
ufacturing boots and shoes and selling |
them, need not have all its partners, so say |
the lawyers. actively engaged in the store. |
If Smith d Co., dealers in hardware and |
agricultural machinery, in which firm there |
are five partners, have two factories, a |
nailmhl and machine-shop besides their |
store, and one partner manages a factory,
another the nailmill and another the ma
chine-shOp, they are quite az much mer-
chants as are the two partners who stay in |
the store and sell the manufactured goods |
So, say the legal lights who have looked |
into the matter. 1t will be with the Chi |
nese. If it can be proven that firm has |
twenty ranches or shops which supply the |
parent store with the goods il sells, and |
these ranches or shops are managed by |