The Weiser signal. [volume] (Weiser, Idaho) 1890-1904, 1897-09-16
WOMAN SLAVERY.

East and West have bewailed the
buying and selling of wretched Chin
ese women in San Francisco. 1t is
pitiable business; only grade higher
than that carried on among the bar
barous and naked natives of Africa.
But those women have always been
slaves They were bought in Hong
kong for $40 each for the very pur-
pose for which they are used, and
with the consent of their parents.
They suffered no sense of shame or
outrage; neither their intellectual nor
moral natures were in the least
shocked, for neither had ever been
quickened In point of fact, the
change was an advance for them, for
it secured them better food, better
clothing-more comforts than they
ever knew before. They simply rep
resent the degradation which settles
upon race when it for hundreds if
not thousands of years is compelled
to make daily fight with want which
periodically eliminates in famine. 1t
is natural, probably, for the good
men who preside over our churches
in the East, and for the good women
and who attend those churches, and
who conscientiously subscribe large
sums to home and foreign missions,
to be shocked to learn of such things
going on in our country, right under
the flag that so many brave men died
under that men might be free, and
that the poor might have ampler OPP
portunities to better their conditions.
But are we so much in advance of
those wretched Chinese after all? We
have chung to a system Of finance for
twenty four years which has resulted
in doubling the ratio of women of our
own race, who in that same way 90
down to death. Last season very
many of the clergymen of New York
city took it upon themselves to advise
their congregations how to vote. They
fancied they were doing right because
the very richest pew holders in their
churches approved of what they did.
True, they knew nothing of what was
pending in the election, they had not
the slightest comprehension of the
mighty issue, but from superficial
view they concluded that some bad
men were seeking to repudiate honest
debts by statute, and that as Chris
tan ministers their duty pointed d.
rectly to a protest. So busy were
they that they never once stopped to
think that something had been inaug-
urated which made it impossible for
thousands of American girls to earn
honest livings, and that twenty thou
sand of them, right in New York
city, were annually turning to lives
of shame in order to obtain bread
and clothing. These are not Chinese
girls, brought up with no knowledge
of life's proprieties, no sense of
shame, without having the germs of
their moral natures in the least quick
ened, but American girls, reared ten
derby in American homes, educated
in American free schools; and led to
look forward to happy and honest
lives. While this is going on with
annually increasing momentum, does
it become us to cry our eyes out over
the fate of some wretched human an
imals who are mere creatures of CON-
merce IN Dan FranclScOY
Human nature can only bear a GER
tain strain. We are told that the coal
miners who started the great strike
which is still on were receiving 81. so
per month for their labor. If they
had daughters who were young wo
men, and if they were proud Ameri-
can girls, how long could they bear
that distress2 And where are they to
go? When in land like this 2,000.-
600 men are tramps because they
cannot obtain employment, what
must become of the 1000, 900 wom-
en- whom they ought to be sup
porting?
After all, Americans ought not to
cry over some Chinese women in San
Francisco who are contented with
their lot; they should save their tears
for their own countrywomen. Salt
Lake Tribune.