Arizona republican., 1893-07-28
THE SIX COMPANIES.
Something About This Powerful
 Chinese Corporation.
Nearly All the Celestials In the United States Said to Re Under Bondage to the Mysterious Organi-
 zatlon.

How many people know anything about the Chinese "Six Companies, V that mysterious organization which rules the immigrants from the fowery kingdom with rod of iron, which die tates their business policy, which sits in judgment upon those who pre- sume to disobey its decrees, which col lects dues from them year after year, which sends their bodies home and which holds thousands of them in bond age? The Buffalo Enquirer thinks it is fair to say that not one man in hundred knows anything accurate about this corporation and has practically no knowledge of the powers it exercises among the Chinese in this country. The Six Companies have been talked and written about great deal since the passage of the exclusion act, and many people have wondered how it was that the Chinese yielded such un- questioning obedience to it's orders and allowed it to act as their repre- sentative in all dealings with the gov ernment. The matter may appear clearer when it is known that the Six Companies hold a mortgage on the lives of eighty per cent. of all the Chinamen in the United States and Canada, and do not allow them to re- turn to their homes until this mortgage is paid with interest. The Six Com panies represent six divisions of the province of Canton. China, and their avowed aim is to care for the China men coming from these districts, so that upon arrival here each immigrant may be associated with people who speak his dialect and come from his locality. They loan the immigrants money, give advice, act as bankers, care for the sick, furnish them with lawyers when they are accused of crime and swear to protect them in every way. Their strongest claim, however, upon the regard of their countrymcn is by their guaranteeing to return to China the body, dead or alive, of every Chinaraan who sails for these shores. They used to keep this promise to the letter, but now they only send home the bones of those whose families request 1t,
 The Six Companies started in small way in 1850. They began through the operations of the American agents of Hong Kong firm, and their first work was in hiring men in China to meet the demand for labor in California As the business grew other Chinese firms went into it, and finally the agents of all these firms united for self protec- tion and in order to keep the business among themselves There were six of these agencies, and they styled thcm- selves the Six Companies. Eighty per cent. Of the Chinamen in the United States and Canada are brought here at the expense of the companies, which get them work or loan them money to start them in business. In return for all this they are bound by contract to pay back all the money expended for them, and by an agreement which the companies have with the steamship lines no Chinaman is allowed to return to his native land unless he can show certificate to the effect that he is free from indebtedness to the com panies. Every Chinaman pays two and one-half per cent. of his earnings to the company having him in charge, and, if he is taken sick, he is taken care of at the expense of the company, while, if he dies, they bury him, and, if his parents request it, ship his bones back to Chlna. tA,ysrtrss