The Saint Paul globe., 1901-07-20
CHINESE EXCLUSION.

AAA-'A@pA- 1-<At A<CtSAON
The Chinese exclusion act which was
passed in 1882 and re-enacted ten years
later VIII expire next year. During the
last decade the Chinese population has
decreased $4,000. Are the Chinese a
menace to the welfare of the work.ngmen
of the United States? Win any consider
able demand be made for law continu-
ing the prohibition of immigration?
The exclusion act in its inception was
In the nature of protector Of labor from
foreign competition. Labor being
commodity was. under the theory of Re-
publican tariff, fit subject for protec-
ton. 1t mattered not if that labor be
Of the rudest kind, yet it must be kept
from the i'll effects of competition. This
was twenty years ago. The change of
circumstances which render the old poll
cy of protection obsolete and injurious
to all classes of this American commu-
nifty, also renders the Chinese exclusion
act out of date and a measure which
should be greatly modified, perhaps
dropped.
The Pacific coast alone demanded the
exclusion of the Chinese, and to secure
support both parties hurried, regardless
of treaty rights, to Go the bidding of
this section which might hold the bal
ance of power.
The time has come when, owing to a
monopoly of the labor markets and the
scarcity of labor in the South, the impor-
tatson of cheap labor is matter of
prime Importance
Year after year the complaint comes in
from the country of a scarcity of help.
The farm is neglected. Good steady
farm hands are hard to find and impos-
sible to keep. In the South, the negro
element, knowing that it has monopoly
OF the labor field, rules the roost and re-
tards the rural development of the Sec
tlon. The South cannot develop until
different system of labor is introduced.
Plenty of help, yes, such as it is, but it
is unreliable and good for nothing.
The press of the South is in favor Of
allowing the Chinese exclusion act to ex-
pire. Says the Mobile Register: What
is wanted is a million active Chinese in
the South to wake the negro population
into activity. There is work enough for
them and for the negroes too. We ought
to have them; yet here is this un-Ameri-
can exclusion law in the way, barring
from US the labor we most need and
condemning us to put up with incompe-
tents who know we cannot get a:ong
without them and take advantage of their
knowledge"
There seems little question that as an
economic measure the Chinese or any
other race that cap furnish us with rude
labor should be admitted The importa-
tion of raw material and tn importation
Of raw labor should stand upon the same
base. But there is another lactor which
enters into this imm g a ion problem-the
race factor, Can we afford to attempt
to assimilate the Chinese? The question
Of race assimilation affords the best ar
gument of the anti-expansionist We ad-
NIT the Poles the Bohemians the ItaI-
ians, whose modes of life and whose iGeas
OF morals are not far superior to those
OF the heather Chinese These people,
however, possess the power within two
generations to shake off their old world
civilization and assimilate our ideas and
our customs, The Chnaman Is apt to
remain a Chinaman. This may be ow-
ing to the manner in which he has been
treated in the past. The wider knowl-
edge of the outside world brought about
by the late unpleasantness at Pekin.
may make him more of a cosmopolite
like the Jap. but that remains to be
demonstrated.
1t may be that before the exclusion act
expires we will have taken under our
wing sufficient number of Orientals to
satisfy all demands for cheap labor in
the cotton fields of the South and in the
harvest fields of the West. The supreme
court may advise us that labor from the
Philippines may come In free of duty.
If this should be the case we had bet
ter restrict Chinese immigration until we
ascertain what we can do with the Taga-
log and Malay.