The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1896-04-23
CHINAMEN WHO VOTE.
There Are in San Francisco About Two
Thousand of Them.

y II
in this city, will have attained the age
of q years, and, therefore, will be en-
titled to vote. They acquire this priv
ileGe under the 18th amendment to the
constitution of the United States.
Yet, under the treaty between this
country and China, the voters father
cannot be naturalized, and is, there
fore, not citizen. The population of
the Chinese quarter is about $4,000, and
the coming Chinese sutfragists, in adj
dition to those who have already ar
rived at the voting age, will soon cut
an important figure in the politics of
this city and state. They are now be-
ing courted by the politicians, who are
looking forward to 1896.
Notwithstanding the prohibitory
laws Chinese laborers percoIate
through British Columbia on the north
and come up through Mexico on the
south. The Chinese not only engage
in all kinds of industrial labor, but are
leading the Californians in the manu-
facture of many articles and are also
entering the professions. They manu-
| facture shoes and sell them at 25 to 10
per cent. cheaper than does the Cau-
casian manufacturer. They have nu-
merous shops, where mending and re-
| pairing are done at cut rates, and these
cobblers are largely patronized by
white people who are not averse to saw
ing a few dimes. They make fine calf
! skin shoes for three and five dollars,
for which the white shoemaker will
charge five and eight dollars. They
manufacture and retail cigars at one
| cent, which the white man sells at two
for five" These are mainly purchased
| by youths and blatant hoodlums, who
stand upon the corners and denounce
the 'heathen." Recently several new
markets have been established in the
Chinese quarter, where every kind of
| fish and game may be had fresh. Hun
| dreds of Chinese are continually en-
| gagged in fishing and trapping game. A
great deal is dried and shipped to east
ern markets. But it is common to see
| housewives and servants in the Chinese
markets bargaining for vegetables and
fish. a few years ago such a thing
was not to be thought of. Bevies of
women are seen daily in the Chinese
quarter buying ladies' and children's
shoes, the manufacture of which is
specially with the Chinese. And
| wherever q woman can get things
cheaply she will purchase, because she
will then have more money to buy other
things with. The manufacture of
ladies underwear is also a speciality
with these deft workers, and their
stores are daily visited by feminine
shoppers.
Selling vegetables and fish is one of
their leading industries. Market hours
continue throughout the day, and street
vendors on foot and i'll wagons may be
seen in all parts of the city crying their
commodities in cracked voices and
broken English. =.
In addition to shoes and all kinds of
clothing, they manufacture brooms,
| jewelry, and preserve and can all kinds
of fruit for shipment. They learned
this on the fruit ranches and in cam
neries, where they were employed at
one dollar day. Now they purchase
the fruit, can it, and undersell their
former employers.
! When the Caucasian manufacturers
| imported what they termed these
heathen," they little thought that in a
few years they would have a rival, and
one that is gradually driving them out
of business. The Chinese went to work
; at making shoes for $1.5O a day, sup
! planting white men who We're receiv-
ing three dollars day. The manu-
facfurer who employed from so TO
100 men prided himself upon his stroke
of economy. Now the Chinese have
their own factories, and in order TO
compete the white manufacturer must
get skilled labor at one dollar a day
or go out of business. The same may
be said of the other branches of indus
try into which the Chinese have en-
tered.
To the neglect of cur own heather,
who are filling the prisons and refornla-
| tory institutions, our overZealous but
misguided missionary societies under
took to Christianize this heather"
| than our civilization. Missions and
schools were established, and the mis-
sionaries passed through the slums of
our city to the field of Chinatown. The
! shrewd Chinese took advantage of this
opportunity to learn English without
purse or scrip, and after they had grad
uated the missions saw them no more.
Some of them even wore American
clothing, or Civilized clothing" as it
is termed, but not one of them ever
cut off his queue-the badge of his re-
| ligion. About the only real CONVEX
sions were those of the white women
| teachers who married their Chinese
pupils.
AS an evidence of their undetermined
| dealing, a Chinaman will seek work in
basket factory, and in a few months
after he has learned the secrets of the
| business, where the material may be OBJ
tanned and who are the customers, he
will bring his cousin" to his employer,
saying: me quit; me go to China; my
cousin work, all samee." The fellow,
instead of going to China, sets up :.
basl<et-making or accommodating shop
in the Chinese quarter and begins to