The Independent. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1895-1905, 1897-11-15
Continued from Ist pages

NTpNeu 10 Oe UduuuleUt, anu Wtie
repudiated by the Chinese Govern
ment. The Collector OF the port Of
San Francisco stopped the "Cantou
certificate" frauds as soon as posi-
BILE. He refused to accept the certi-
ficates as prima facie evidence, aud
SO forced the Chinese to either re
main on the ships that brought
them and return to China, or to sue
out writs of habeas corpus aud try
their luck in the Federal courts.
This procedure taught the people
OF the Pacific Coast, and particular
ly of California, some tricks that
they had never dreamed Of.
A transcript of the proceedings OF
the United States courts in the city
Of San Francisco, for one day only
would be a valuable contribution to
this attempt to show just what may
be expected, nay, what will occur at
Honolulu, in the event OF the annex
alton OF the Hawaiian Islands. Day
aud night the Judges of the many
Federal courts, for period cover
ing months, listened to wholesale
perjury. The Canton certificate
episode, which was the first organ
lied attempt to break through the
thin barrier Of the fret operative re-
striction act, led to two general con
illusions. The first was the enact
ment of second law, also aiming to
keep the Chinese out of the country
who were not entitled to enter; the
second was the establishment Of a
basis upon which, in a period OF a
few years, 10000 Chinese, by the
practice OF unparalleled frauds,
managed to make their way into the
port of San Francisco, by the use of
the writ OF habeas corpus,
That stream would still be flow
ing, undated, had not there been
an honest United States commits
sioner on the bench, to whom all
the cases were referred after the
pressure upon the courts became so
great that they could no longer
hear them, and who so thoroughly
Investigated the cases before him
that the habeas corpus was no
longer favorite instrument in the
hands of the Chinese with which to
get surreptitiously into the labor
market of the United States by way
of San Francisco.
But before this phase OF the Chi
nese question had been reached the
Chinese had learned the lesson
which they have availed themselves
of ever since, Even before, because
OF two laws being Intellectual to stop
frauds, it was necessary to pass a
third, the last named being the
exclusion act, the tide OF Chinese
began to drift more strongly to the
north Of San Francisco. First Chi
nese went there ostensibly 'in tran
Sit" but really to break into the
country over the nothern border.
At first they were few. Then they
were many. Now Colonel Scharff
finds the frauds Of such startling pro-
portions in the north that he resigns
to escape being connected with
farce, as he says.
In the period when habeas corpus
was daily invoked, and many times
daily, the possibilities for crooked
customs officials to make large
amounts of money by admitting
Chinese on marked certificates, the
certificates having icing marked by
confederates in China; by being
parties to the sending abroad of
large blocks of certificates which
would entitle the Chinese possessors
to enter the United States upon
presentation of the same; by land
ing Chinese by stealth, blackmail
and by many crooked devices, were
fully developed
A golden rain fell upon certain
white men, some OF whom have since
acknowledged that they often made
hundreds of dollars in a day. Twice