Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-01-31
CHINESE EXCL US|O n
What John Foord Says of the
Foster Bill.
DEFINES EXCLUDED CLASSES
Instead of Attempting to Designate
Those Admitted.
NOT TO FLOOD COOLIE LABOR
Only Desire is to Do Justice to China
and Accept Certifcation of
American Consuls.
DEFINES EXCLUDED CLASSES
NOT TO FLOOD cooLIE LABOR

UNLESS We do justice we cannot expect
| justice done That is. broadly, the senti-
| ment of President Roosevelts message on
| the Chinese question and that is what we
| have tried to put into concrete form in the
| Foster bill. now in committee in the House"
! This was the summing up of the Chinese
situation by Mr.. John Foord. the secretary
Of the American Asiatic Association, in
| talking over the status of the exclusion law
and the Chinese boycott with a Star re-
| porter yesterday Mr.. Foord is an old resi-
dent of China. closely in touch with Ameri-
| can trade interests and deeply interested in
the coming treaty arrangements with China.
| His interests. of course, are those of the
! American exporter, but he says that the
exporter does not want to break down the
exclusion law and that China does not want
| to see it broken down; that both sides
merely want justice done, and want to see
China recognized as a dignifed member of
| the family of nations. Continuing on The
same line. he said:
Don't Want to Let Down the Bars.
ut Is utter nonsense to say that who
are standing by the Foster bill want to let
down the bars and flood this country with
coolie labor. We want no such thing, end
the bill does not propose 1t. What we do
want. however. is to substitute Il reason
able working law for one that is unwork-
able. The present bill makes this one SIM
pie and essential change from The old law.
It defines the classes that are excluded from
this country instead of attempting to de-
fine the classes that are admitted.
Take the reading of the bill itself. 1t
states that all laborers both skilled and
! npckillpd nd all 40
by the provision that the words labor
err or "laborers.' wherever used in this
act, shall be construed to mean both skilled
and unskflled manual laborers, including
Chinese employed in mining, fishing, kuck-
STEERING, peddling, laundering or those en-
gagged in taking, drying or otherwise pre-
serving shell other fish for home con-
sumption or expectation
That ought to be plain enough to any
one. The other essential point is that the
credentials OF the Chinese to be admitted
shall be examined and certified by the Amer
lean consuls or other officials residing at the
point Of departure in China, and that after
these credentials have been passed upon the
applicant shall not be submitted to a sup
Elementary cross-examination after he
reaches this country.
lone objection that has been raised to this
Is the statement that you cannot trust the
honesty and intelligence of American Off
Gals stationed in China. / am sorry TO say
that in some cases in the past that has been
so. But that is not plea that this country
could advance before the bar of nations.
Just think Of our saying to the civilized
world that we cannot do plain justice to the
Chinese because we cannot find an honest
man to put in office in China You have
only to send honest men to China, instead
of crooks and the thing is done. know of
one instance where an American official in
one month passed 500 Chinese certificates
and was paid from 100 to 200 taels apiece
for doing it. His successor had quite as
many applications, and in the same time he
passed just three.
What the Chinese Government Wants.
THE Chinese government does not want
to flood this country with Chinese labor.
Now that the country is waking up labor is
going to be in big demand. The more of it
you export the higher will be the cost of
what remains, and that is a condition that
the government does not want to encourage.
Yet one might think from the howl that is
being made on the Pacific coast that we
who are in favor of the Foster bill wanted
to sweep away all restrictions and flood this
country with coolie labor.
II do not want to critfcise anything that is
said or done in good faith in Congress- but
there has been more nonsense and misinfor-
nation diSburSed up there over the Chinese
situation than you would ever expect to
hear from Intelligent men. Take merely the
statement that the American boycott is the
result of the organized efforts of the coolies
who object to the discrimination against
them. Why, the coolies have no organiza-
ton. They are the lowest class of unor-
ganiZed labor. great, blind unorganized
invertebrate mass. Yet they are spoken of
In Congress a section of the merchants
guilds. Nothing could be wider of the truth,
nothing more misleading.
'As to the real effects of the boycott up
to date it has practically killed the trade
in American oil and American tobacco. 1t
has not yet seriously hurt the trade in
American piece goods. That trade may
be in somewhat less prosperous condition
than 1T would have been had not the boy
colt existed. But when you consider that
we did an export business of S35, 000, 900
in this line last year and had never before
got above 81, 600, 900, one cannot say that
the trade is being killed yet. Still, what
has been the fate of oil and tobacco yes
terday may be the fate of cotton goods to-
morrow There are millions of dollars in
the south alone invested in cotton mills
that work almost exclusively for the Chi
nese market, and when you tell the man
down there that his means of livelihood is
liable to be swept away next week or next
year. you naturally arouse his interest.
And it is about time that interest was be-
ing aroused.
There is no question that the present
exclusion law has worked great hardships
on many of the upper classes. Doctors,
lawyers, teachers and a host of others are
all excluded, for it has been held time ana
again that such classes as are not speclnc-
ally admitted are automatically barred
out You can define your excluded class
and work no hardship to any one and stu
accomplish what the law wants But you
cannot define your admitted classes win
out being sure of working grave injustice.
That is what the present law attempts TO
do, and that is what we want to chanse.
Army Orders.
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