The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1901-12-18
CHINESE EXCLUSION.

Joaquin Miller contri butes an inter
esting article to the current number of
the North American Review on the
"Chinese and the Exclusion Act, !"
which contains some startling state
ments as coming from man on the
Pacific coast. In fine, it is that the
real proprietors of the Pacific coast
want the Chinese and the real work
ing men do not owbject to them. He
says that his work as teacher, talker
at teachers Institutes, colleges, and SO
on. in the last four years has taken
him into nearly every county IN Wash
ington, Oregon. California, Arizona,
New Mexico, Texas and Louisiana,
and he has nowhere heard one voice in
favor OF the Chinese Exclusion Act,
but the contrary, at all times and
places. He says that the "Ettle
brown man is honest and industrious
and patient and willing to do the
drudgery at a pitiful cost and that
those who enjoy his services are pleas
ed with him and want him to stay.
He asserts that he can count letters by
hundreds begging that this brutal
exclusion act be not perpetuated.
Indeed Mr.. Miller says that since
the exclusion of the Chinese, property
in the larger cities of the Pacific has,
in the main, been at standstill. That
San Francisco has slid back from its
proud place as the seventh city in
the Union to that of the ninth. He
declares that the sentiment against
the Chinese proceeds largely from 9TH
er foreigners who have come in and
from labor agitators.
We do not deny anything that Mr..
Miller has said in this connection.
The Chinaman is honest and patient
and industr; Gus and amiable, and be is
willing to do drudgery for small pay.
He can be used to advantage and is
doubtless used to advantage in the
West. But for all that it would be a
national folly for US to open our doors
to China and let her pour out upon US
her surplus population. This is a
most inviting field to the Chinese and
if we should throw down the bars they
would undou btedly come here in i'm
mense numbers. Admitting all the
good that Mr.. Miller says about the
little brown man" there is one most
important fact which he does not men
tion. The Chinaman does not come
here with view to making his home
here. He does not come here to be-
come an American. He expects to re-
main Chinaman and it is his hope TO
20 back to China, when he shall have
accumulated enough wealth to take
care of him for the rest of his life, and
that, in the Chinaman's estimation,
is no fabulous sum. The Chinese IN
America are Chinese just as they are
at home, and they cannot be absorbed
and Americanized.
There are two excellent reasons for
this, the one is that the Chinese do
not intend to be absorbed and the 9th
er is that the Anglo-Saxon race will
not amaleamate either with the brown
race or the black race. We receive
white men and white women of all
races and Americanize them and mar
~ and intermarry with them with the
net product of more Americans, and
sometimes better Americans. But we
draw the line at negroes and Chinese.
We have a negro problem, which is
giving US great deal of trouble and
if we should open our doors to China
we should soon have Chinese
problem also. This is white mans
country and must remain so, no mat
ter what view fanatics may take OF 1t.
Richmond Times.