Amador ledger., 1901-11-29
Anti hinese Memorial to Congress.
Continued from LIST page.)

cal, clothing, fruit canning, mantel
making, wooden manufacturing indus
tries, and have displaced more than
1000 white men in thes several en-
Payments in the city of san Francisco.
AS common laborers they have thro-
ughout California displaced tens of
thousands of men. But this country is
not concerned even in a coldly econom-
ic sense with the production of wealth
The United States has now a greater
per capita of working energy than any
other land. If it is stimulated by a
REPRESENTATIVE aud -consumin @
race, there is grave danger of over
production and staguatiou. The home
market should grow with the popula-
ton. But the Chinese, living on the
most meager food, having no families
to support, Injured to deprivation, and
boarding their wages for use in their
native land, whittier they invariably
return, cannot in any sense be regard
ed as consumers. Their earnings do
not circulate nor are they reinyested-
contrary to those economic laws which
make for the prosperity of nations.
For their services they may be said to
be paid twice: First by their employer
and then by the community. IF we
must have protection, is it not far
better for us toprotect ourselves against
the man than against his trade? Our
| opponents maintain that the admission
of the Chinese would cause an enlarge
ment of our national wealth and a
great increase of production, but the
distribution of wealth, not it's produc-
ton, is to-day our most serious public
question. In this age of science and in
vention, the production of wealth can
we'll be left to take care of itself. 1t is
its equitable distribution that must now
be the concern of the country.
EXCLUSION AN AID TO INDUSTRIAL
PEACE.
The increasing recurrence of strikes
in modern times must have convinced
every one that their recent settlement
is nothing more than truce It is not
a permanent industrial peace. The
new organization of capital and labor
that is now necessary to bring about
lasting peace and harmony between
those engaged in production will re-
quire greater sympathy, greater trust
and confidence, and a clearer mutual
understanding between the employers
and the employed. Any such new or
ganization will require closer union to
be formed between them. These re-
quirements can never be fulfilled be-
tween the individuals of races so alien
to one another as ourselves and the
Chinese.
The Chinese are only capable of
working under the present unsatis-
factory system. All progress then to
an improved organization of capital
and labor would be arrested We
might have greater growth, but never
greater development. 1t was estimat-
ed by the commissioner of labor that
there were million idle men in the
United States in 1886. Certainly the
10000 Chinese in California at that
time stood for 76, 600 white men wait
ing for employment, and the further
influx of Chinese in any considerable
numbers would precipitate the same
condition again. if not indeed make it
chronic. If the United States increases
in population at the rate of II per cent
per decade it will have nearly go, 600,
600 of people in one hundred years.
Our inventive genius and the constant
improvements being made in machinery
will greatly increase our per capita
productive capacity. If it be our only
aim to increase our wealth as to hold
our own in the markets of the world,
are we not, without the aid OF Chinese
coolies, capable of doing it, and at the
same time preserve the character of
our population and insure the per-
petulty OF our institutions? 1t is not
wealth at any cost that sound public
policy req uires, but that the country
be developed with equal pace and with
desira bic population which stands not
| 1nH OF n,1+ 60.
ANSWER TO OPPONENTS OF EXCLUS-
| ION.
In their appeal to the cupidity of
| farmers and orchardists the proponents
of Chinese immigration have stated
that the Chinese are only common la
borers, and by this kind of argument
they have attempted to disarm the
skilled labor organizations of the
country; but we have shown you that
the Chinese are skilled and are capable
OF becoming skilled. AS agriculturists
they have crowded out the native pop
ulation and driven the country bow
from the farm to the city, where he
meets their skilled competition in many
branches of industry, but shall hus-
bandry be abandoned to a servile class?
Shall the boys and girls of the fields
and OF the orchards be deprived of their
legitimate work in the harvest? Shall
not our farmers be compelled to look to
their own households and to their
own neighbors' for labor? Shall the
easy methods of contract employment
be fostered? We are warned by his
tory that the free population of Rome
was driven by slave labor from the
country into the city, where they be-
came mob and rabble, ultimately
comprising the downfall of the re-
public. The small farms were DESTROY
ed, and under an overseer large farms
were cultivated, which led Pliny to re-
mark that "great estates ruined Italy. -
EXPERIENCE WITH SLAVE LABOR.
The experience of the south with
slave labor warned us against unlimited
Chinese immigration, considered both
as race question and as an economic
problem. The Chinese, if permitted
freely to enter this country, would
create race antagonism which would
ultimately result in great public dis
turbance. The Caucasians will not
tolerate the Mongolian. AS ultimately
all government is based on physical
force, the white population of this
country would not, without resistance.
suffer itself to be destroyed.
| Ii we were to return to the ante
bellum ideas of the south, now happily
discarded, the Chinese would satisfy
every requirement of a slave or serviie
class. They work well, they are docile.
and they would not be concerned about
their political conditions, but such sug-
gestlons are repulsive to American civil