The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-03-15
EQUALITY BASED ON INEoAL1rY


gun It's career with two statutes that In
dtoate how far it's people are believers
that ell men are born free and equal. This
young democracy seems to be convinced
that equality, political or social, applies
only to men of the white races. Being
determined therefore to be a thorough
going democracy it begins by shutting
out all the yellow, black and brown races,
with the avowed intention Of securing a
white Australia" The Australians, In
laying the foundations of their federal
commonwealth, differ from our forefa-
theirs in their attempt to reconcile theory
and practice. rather than in either theory
or practice. AS a matter of fact the
trainers OF the Declaration Of Independ-
ence never for moment considered their
slaves as their equals, and scarcely
thought of the word men, as they used
it in the declaration, as being applicable
to their black bondservants.
However, they went on reading the
great document and sounding its praises,
but even while its strong sentences were
stirring the blood in their veins they
were buying and selling and whipping
men and women and children. The Aus
tralians, profiting by our sad experiences
in trying in our later years to live up
to the declaration that all men are born
free and equal, have found that the SIM
plest way is to keep out of their country
all non assimilable race elements. They
n$ 10
plantations of Queensland, and they want
no quiet, submissive, alien and always
alien, free workmen, like the Chinese. II
Australia's resources can not be devel-
oped without that class of labor they
shall not be developed. Developed or not,
Australia purposes to escape the embar-
easements Of democracy based on the
theory of equality; and yet confronted by
condition in which the dominant race
firmly believes it is and, as a matter OF
fact, is superior to the minor race. They
purpose to attain equality of population
by primary legislation that frankly con-
fesses the inequality of races. -.
Curiously enough this first federal legis-
lation in Australia resembles the consti-
tutonal, "grandfather'' and "ability-to-
read amendments to southern state con-
| stitutions adopted for the purpose of put
ting the negro out of politics without
naming him in the act. 1t is not that
! the Australians are at all squeamish
about cataloguing in their statutes the
! races they wish to keep away, but that
| just as southern constitution makers have
to keep an eye on the federal constitution
the Australian lawmakers have to frame
their legislation with view to its effects
upon the international relations Of the
great world-empire of which they are a
part. If the Japanese and Chinese were
specified in the act they would complain
to the imperial authorities and the law
would be vetoed in London. They may
complain anyway, but they will not have
so good prima facie case when they are
confronted by an innocent-loozing law
which merely requires that the immigrant
shall be able to write his application for
admission in one of certain named Euro
pean languages. ---< ... T.. =
It will be interesting to observe as the
years 80 by what effect legislation that
bars from an almost uninhabited CONT
nent the teeming and Industrious mill
lions Of China, Japan and India will have
on those countries in the future. If their
renascence proceeds much farther they
may yet fight for admission to Australia
for an opportunity for racial expansion.