The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1901-01-31
THE CHINESE ON THE PACIFIC COAST
Correspondence of The Journal.]

sailed through Golden Gate and anchor
ed at the then small village of San
Francisco. This was but a few weeks
after the discovery of gold at Suffers
mill on American river The news of
this discovery reached China as soon as
it did the Atlantic States, if not sooner.
While the men of the East were coming
overland and around the Cape, the peo-
pie in this far-off dream-land of the
Orient were also talking of the land of
gold, which had been reported to them
as solid mountain of gold large enough
for all the people of the world to pick
up all the nuggets they desired. To
people who for centuries have lived in
poverty and industrial slavery, the story
of California's fabulous wealth must
have made happy impression. But
the Chinese are not as easily moved as
some other people, and for this reason
they did not come in great numbers at
first. They never 60 on FOOLS errand.
They sent two men and one woman
probably to see that the men reported
the TRUTH as sort of an investigating
committee to spy out the land and to
see if the report was true. Word was
sent back to China that while Califor-
MIA was not exactly solid mountain of
gold. nevertheless there was much of the
yellow metal in the sands of the rivers,
and besides this a good chance to get
rich i'll laundry, cooking and gardening.
Even with this promising report the
Chinese were cautious about coming.
In the following month four more ven
tured to come. These also sent back
favorable reports, and in one year from
the time the first came the number had
increased to one thousand Most of this
number were employed as laundrymen
and cooks about the mines Some We're
working the low grade placer washings
which the miner had abandoned. At
this time there was no opposition to the
Chinaman, for he had not entered into
competition with the Anglo-SaXon, but
he did a work which no other race would
do, and did it well and cheap He was
laW-abiding, Industrious, Trustworthy,
and therefore there was no reason at
that time for prejudice against him. 1t
was in the tifties that Gov. McDougall
IN his message to the Legislature re-
ferred to the Chinese as the most de-
sirahle of our adopted citizens" It was
in y That the first great wave of Chin
eSe immigration rolled i'll upon these
shores. In two years 80 to "a more
than forty thousand landed at San
Francisco. But California is big
State, and even that large number of
Chinese immigrants did not cause any
alarm. In '62 the Legislature passed a
resolution commencing Chinese immi-
grafton. and recommended that means
be adopted to induce more to come: and
more did come, for they poured in by
the thousands, each vessel that came
being literally packed with them. They
were employed in large numbers in
building the Central Pacific R. r. When
this road was completed, in 80, it set
free about twenty thousand Chinese,
who at once fiocked to the towns of
California seeking employment 1t was
about this time there began an agita-
ton against Chinese immigration, which
resulted in the passing by Congress of
the Exclusion Act, forbidding the land
ing OF Chinese in any American ports.
But 1t is one thing to make a law, and
quite another thing to have that law
enforced. Congress cannot practically
place an officer with gun on every rod
of the Mexican and Canadian boundary
lines, nor III every little port along the
Gulf aud Pacific coasts. Though they
do not come in such great numbers as
they did before the exclusion law was
passed yet they come, few each month
III the year. There are upwards of one
hundred thousand in this State There
are twenty thousand in San Francisco,
nearly all living and doing business in
what is known as chinatown" ter
ritory about one-half mile square in the
very center of the old part of the city.
The objections raised against the
Chinese on the Pacific coast are not
moral or social objections, for no class
of foreigners are more quiet, peaceful
and law-abiding. The objection is an
industrial one In the world of indus
trial competition the Anglo-Saxon has
met his match for the first time in the
Chinaman. This is not, as many sup
pose, because they work cheap and live
cheap They will work cheap rather
than not work at all, and they will live
cheap if they have to- AS far as my
observation of six years goes | believe
that the Chinaman receives as good
wages for his labor as an any other
man doing the same work; in fact, as
cook | believe no other class receive so
good wages And as for their living,
they eat what other people eat. The
Chinaman succeeds not because he
works cheaper or lives cheaper than
others, but because of his long fixed
habit of industry and patient plodding,