Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1902-04-17

most of them voters, are beginning to
grow uneasy as to the result of our
holding the Philippines permanently.
At present their uneasiness grows out
of the fear that Chinese may come
from the Philippines to our mainland
to compete with them. Consequently
they insisted that the following section
be incorporated in the Chinese exclu-
sion act:
That from and after the passage of this
act the entry into the mainland territory
of the United States of Chinese laborers
coming from any of the insular possess
sions of the United States shall be pro-
hibited, and the prohibition shall apply to
all Chinese laberers, as well those who
were in such insular possessions at the
time or times of acquisition thereof re-
spectiyely by the United States as to
those who have come there since and
those who have been born there since and
those who may be born there hereafter.
Being member of the foreign affairs
committee, which reported the bill,
helped force it into the bill, and in dis
cussing the bill in the house. deeming
it good opportunity to argue the re-
lation Of American labor to the Philip
pines, said inter alta:
The question Of Chinese exclusion has
for more than quarter of century been
one of extreme difficulty. taxing to the ut
most the ingenuity of the congress and
the thought of the country to devise So
luton which will exclude the Chinese
from competition with our laborers and at
the same time retain and increase our
trade with China.
Within the last five years both the aif-
ficulties and the dangers Of the situation
have been multiplied, first. by a decision
of the supreme court of the United States,
in the case OF Wong Kim Ark against the
United States, declaring that Chinese
born of Chinese parents in this country,
subject to our jurisdiction, Is citizen;
secondly, by the annexation of Hawaii
the Philippines, Porto Rico, Guam and
other islands. as the sale bill says, 'stee
tedious to mention" That decision of the
supreme court aounded like g fire bell at
midnight. In the wild orgy of annexation
in which we have been recently indulging
we took to eur palpitating hesoms hun
dreds of thousands of Chinese of all
classes and conditions. ranging all the
way from savants and merchant princes
to Chinese coolies, who are little above
the beasts that perish.
A Difficult Proposition.
When we annexed the Sandwich Islands,
we took twenty odd thousand Chinese.
When we ACQUIRED the Philippines, we
took in number OF Chinese variously
stated before our committee at from 200-
900 to 1,750,00o Consequently, for the first
time, the congress Is confronted with the
exceedingly difficult proposition of holds
ing our newly acquired PROVINCES eSlonies
or insular possessions hiehever or what
ever you please to call them-and at the
same time excluding from orr mainland
the denizens of those same pre- inces. aol-
onies or insular possessions whatever you
choose to deneminate them,
Verify, verify. we have troubles of our
own-lots Of them. Not having enough on
hand prior to the Spanish war to suit our
taste like the knight of La Mancha, we
went forth in quest of adventures to the
uttermost ends of the earth, even to far
Cathay, and we accumulated troubles
enough not only to last us during our nat
ura1 lives, but to last our posterity to the
remotest generation unless we possess the
courage, the resolution, the wisdom and
the patriotism to unload them and thereby
end them. Without being prephet or the
son of a prophet make bold te predict
that should the supreme court of the
United States deeide-as many think 1t
will deeide-that the citizens or subjects of
Spain, resident in the islands we annexed,
became when annexed ipsa facto citizens
of the United States the people of this
country will speedily find way to unload
themselves of that huge incubus, because
it cannot be that in their sober senses
Americans will deliberately determine to
subject American laborers to death deals
ing competition with the cheap labeF Of
the orient
The truth is that 1t 10 high time the la
as tria M.
the fact that the one escape not only
from competition with European cheap Ia
Dor, but from the unrestricted competi-
tion with the cheaper labor of Asia is for
us to at once and forever cut loose from
the Philippine Islands. 1t is their only
salvation, Suppose the supreme court of
the United States decides that the sub
jects of Spain residing in the islands we
annexed became American citizens by the
act of annexation; then what? The prob
abilities in the case are that the supreme
court will decide that congress has no
power to restrict the free locomotion of an
American citizen into any part of the ter
ritory over which the stars and stripes
float, and the laborers of the country, fer
whose benefit this bill is made, might just
as well wake pp new as later on to the
realization of the fact that the whole
tendency of this latter day annexation is
to bring them into ruinous competition
with the cheap labor of Europe and the
cheaper labor of Asia. There Is no sense
in locking the barn after the horse is
gone. The quicker we get rid of the Phil
ippines the better the laborers will be off.
the better we will all be off.
If we do not speedily unload these ac-
cursed islands, the day Ia not far distant
when all of u.s. especially the laborers of
the land. will in agony of soul exclaim,
"Who will deliver us from the body of this
death?, Should it be decided that the free
locomotion of the Inhabitants of the Phil
ippines cannot be restrained the yellow
flood will pour in and utterly submerge
the laboTers Of America, Our retention OF
the Philippines means reduction of
wages to the Aaiatie level. That is one
of the main reasons why was opposed to
acquiring them and why l am dead
against keeping them.
That the longer we keep them the harder
1t will be TO get rid of them is a PROPOSE
ton too plain to be argued.
Let no man hug to his breast the delu-
sion that Asiatics can work only as un-
skilled laborers, for the evidence In the
case fatty contradicts that theory. They
have the initiative faculty largely devel-
oped and soon learn to do anything they
see done. Consequently they will not only
compete with unskilled laborers, but also
with those of all degrees of skill even unto
the highest.
The cry once rang along the Pacific
coast, ''The Chinese must go!" Some day
the laborers of America in self defense
will raise the cry, '.The Philippines must
go!''
The policy Of Chinese exclusion is pet-
toned on the instinct of self preservation,
the supreme law Of nature, 1t is not a
mere demagegieal scheme to win votes for
any party or for any man. It is a pfilo-