The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1900-10-04
WASHINGTON.
From our Regular Correspondent.
Washington, Oct. 7. 1000

Washington, Oct. I, 1900.
President McKinley's extraordi-
nary and apparently unaccountable
friendship for China, which has
been so plainly shown from the be-
ginning of the trouble down to his
abandonment of the allies and the
order for the sending of the Amer
lean troops in China to the Philip
pines, has caused lot of thinking.
Attention has been called to the
fact that the Republican platform
failed to say word about the con-
tinued exclusion of Chinese labor
ers from the United States, al
though it must have been we'll
known to the makers Of that plat
form that the present Chinese ex.
clusion law will expire by limita-
ton in 1902, and unless it is eX-
tended by Congress our ports will
then be open to Chinese cooley la
borers. 1t has been noted also that
the Chinese Minister to the United
States has done considerable talking
OF late about the probability of the
increased friendship between his
government and ours, resulting in
the removal of immigration restric-
tions. That large employers of un-
skilled labor in this country, not to
mention the sugar planters trust of
Hawaii, are anxious to see the re-
strictions on Chinese immigration
removed is we'll known. By put
ting all these things together Pres
ident Mckinley is placed in a sus-
picious attitude toward American
labor. Perhaps, mention of Chi
nese exclusion was purposely left
out of the Republican platform, in
order to justify the Republican
Congress in not renewing that re-
striction, and the e-election Of Nc
Kinley may mean the flooding of
this country with cheap Chinese Ia,
Dor. The existence of such an in
tention would account for McKin-
ley's Chinese policy. 1t should
not be overlooked that the Demo-
cratic national platform contains
this clause 1--WE favor the contin-
uance and strict enforcement of the
Chinese exclusion law and its appli-
cation to the same classes of all
Asiatic races. J." It is not surpris-
ing that those who are interested
in the welfare of American labor
are doing some deep thinking. 1t
is time for them to think and to act.
Senator Morgan, in a speech be.
fore the Jackson Democratic Asso-
citation devoted himself to the hnan-
cial question, which, he declared,
was the most interesting topic to
him. He said "Thc only way to
settle the financial question is to
pay the public debt, and it would
be very easy to do so by saving
some of the wild expenditures we
are now making. In the course of
a few years we could save over
t$Ioo, ,ooo, 900, and we should COM
mence to-day in order to save the
interest which the people are pay
ing. The system created by the
last Congress is designed to increase
the national debt, and under that
legislation the debt cannot and will
not be paid, but will be increased
from year to year. The payment
of the debt would not underpin the
national banks, but would force
them to the old Jacksonian idea of
a specie basis, and we would not
be dependent for circulating me-
dium on government bonds. When
that is done the financial question
will be settled, and settled right"
MIR. Jackson H. Ralston, of Mary
land, made this reference to our
trade with the Philippines, in a
speech last week to the Bryan and
Stevenson Club: "Our exports to