The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-04-04
RELAXING EXCLUSION.

T is reported that communication between the Chi
nese Minister at Washington and the Chinese
Consul at Honolulu is to the effect that
treaty with China is made necessary by appear
ance in Hawaii and the Philippines and that therein
the strict exclusion features OF present treaty will
be softened and relaxed During the discussion OF
Hawaiian annexation The Call declared that this
policy would be inevitable if acquired tropical
possessions with the expectation of getting CONNER
cial value out OF them White cannot work in
the plantations of Hawaii The climate bars them
out Without coolie labor there the production of
the islands will decline to the zero where it stood
when reciprocity made sugar of sufficient value to
warrant the importation OF Asiatic coolie labor
When annexation occurred it was given out that
Chinese exclusion laws would be extended and our
non-conract and other labor laws would speedily
follow so that equality in the kind and cost OF labor
would exist between the islands and the continent
1t is evident that this policy colldes with the
mercial expectations which induced annexation, and
that it is withdrawn and the planters to have lib
eral in respect their labor supply so as
to avoid that lack of aborers which would first cause
substantial increase in wages, the lowering OF
profits, and finally the disappearance OF consequen-
tal surplus OF production.
Our practical homogeneity Of climate and physical
conditions has heretofore smplihed the problem OF
hours, rights and wages in all parts of the United
States. AS the tropics this condition ceases
Our people demand commercial advantages to offset
the cost OF conquest and government. Commerce
cannot be without the surplus productions of labor
Therefore tropical commerce depends upon that form
Of labor suited to the climate, which must be in some
way servile Our home labor laws cannot apply to
servile labor, for with their application its servty
ceases and without servity its usefulness and profit
to the employer cease.
These facts give color the report OF new treaty
with China, which will be novelty because it will
continue restriction to continental possessions
but relax it on our newly acquired islands Therein
will first appear the inequality of law required by in
equality of physical conditions and it will be official
notice served on American labor that it has no place
in the tropics
Other departures from domestic system will OF
necessity in quick succession
1t is evident now that the influence OF the Hawai-
ian planters put the code of laws for those islands
to sleep on the files OF the last Congress They de-
sire to entrench coolie labor in a new Chinese treaty
which be easier ratified by the Senate than law
to secure the same end pass both houses OF Con-
gress.
The victory far is distinctly with those who
cheap labor. They refuse to submit to equality
of law and wages. In the logical development OF the
issue their competition with the products of our do
mestc labor will finally its employers to camor
for equality. AS the employers in our tropics hold
the whip hand and refuse to permit their labor and
wages to be leveed up, will the final result be
that our domestic labor and wages will be leveled
down?
In popular government inequality is odious and
finally yields, as slavery did to freedom, which be-
the universal law of the republic Now there
is change of ideals That was an age of senti-
ment this is OF commerciaism and will its spirit
permit higher level of labor and wages n.the tenn
perate than in the torrid zone?