The islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1891-1899, 1896-01-23

and to our own home people OF inc
Pacific coast we desire to speak "oro
directly, with all the sincerity words
NAV impress. We have called upon
our lawmakers to protect them from
the VIGOROUSLY cheap labor across the
Pacific, by the passage OF the exclusion
act, yet every day we are alders ana
abettors in sending money to that
filthy, pestilential, disease-spreadlng
race. Just think of this for one mo-
mentl During the years lo94-loSo'
the people of Oregon and Washington
paid to foreign manufacturers and pro-.
ducers in Hong Kong the enormous
sum of $1,000 for Chinese sugar
alone; this appalling figure, made up
from the quarters, halves and dollars
of the people, never to return. just
think of it! Could this amount have
been retained among ourselves. what a
wonderful factor those 1 ,000,00 hard
earned dollars would have been during
the many hard. hard months OF econo-
MIXING and pinching and starving
through which we have just passed. Ii
it were necessary that we should buy a
necessary staple like sugar abroad in
order that we might sell our surplus
of some other products, we might as
well, perhaps, buy sugar as anything
else, but such is not the necessity. we
can sell our products at the worlds
price, which is our market with
others, and what we do when we ex-
port. If in return, however, for our
products we receive back coin in pay
ment we are just that much better off.
The pernicious trade in Chinese sugars
which has grown to large proportions
on our Pacific coast, is deplorable to
think Of Americans, free working
men, supporting the labor of a race Of
people born in poverty, reared IN
squalor and living in pestilence and
disease. You have but to walk through
any city of any consequence, having
Chinese quarter, made to certain ex-
tent wholesome by the sanitary laws OF
a better civilization surrounding them
to realize the beggary, the stencil, the
nauseous handling of mOribund pop
ulation whose labor exists upon the
payment of 10 cents for days labor.
We have seen how the Chinese live in
our own midst, thousands of them hud-
died and bunked together in dark, mar
row rooms, void of ventilation, the foul
stencil of which makes the strongest
heart grow sick, and draw our own
conclusions, in buying Chinese sugar.
A gentleman who came to America
when the cholera and plague prevailed
in the Orient, said that every pack
age of merchandise, and even silk,
etc., should be fumigated thoroughly
to eradicate the cholera germs lurking
in that disease stricken country"
These are not idle words, but the
deep sounding words of warning from
one knowing we'll the dangers to which
we are subjected, from an eye-observer
of the natives themselves, and the hor-
rors of the CHASTITY work of death
among that myriad of fast-breeding,
pestilential people. Such are the risks
taken by every person buying Chinese
made goods. Such the chances, unneces
sary chances against the homes of our
working people, and without cause
other than the support of degraded, ill
paid labor, as described. These facts
are daily becoming better known to
our own people. So much SO that
many stores now display the sign,
1--WE handle the American Refined
Sugars only" and it is a safe rule to
| n
is made, to be sure you are not getting
China-made sugar is to ask the question
or promptly transfer your custom.
See that you are supplied with no
other than the American-made article,
made by American workmen, in
American clearly factories, operated
by American capital, paying American
wages, in good American coin and
keeping that American money at home,
not sending it abroad to support the
Chinese nation.
We have here in our own glorious
state of Oregon and sister state of
Washington as evidenced by the exposi-
ton of the Manufacturers and Pro-
ducers' Association, one of the greatest
fields for beets this Or any other coun-
try can produce. In rejecting the
coolie-made sugar, and buying only
American made goods, you are encour-
aging and strengthening the hands of
your neigh5or farmer, and building up
an industry in which you will your
self share, and in time proudly realize
the greatness of the soil upon which we
live and which God has blessed with a
special providence as unsurpassed on
the face of the globe.