Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-10-21
@0LlE9 M0 NAIVE Dol}y

livery OF thousands Of coolies at Panama.
This move has caused cross-fire of pros
and cons from all parts of the land. Ignor-
ing the partisan questions involved, let us
consider the coolie from an Industrial,
economic and sociological point of view.
Coolies from the southern provinces of
China are asked for by the commission. In
other words, the celestials wanted for this
work are of the same type the Chinese
laborers who were brought into this coun-
try until the Chinese exclusion laws were
passed. Practically our entire Chinese i'm
migration, while 1t lasted. consisted Of Can
tonese coolies, from the single province of
Kwan-tung, within forty miles OF Canton,
its capital. The fact Is that few Chinese
outside this region will enigrate even to
countries where they are guaranteed full
civic rights. These Cantonese coolies were
collected in gangs by a Chinese corporation
known the Six Companies and shipped to
America under rigid contract to work for
a period OF years fixed by their masters.
II was contended by agitators for Chinese
exclusion that this system was one of ex-
plotted serfage. Slavery Is. of course, the
order of the day in China. Children are pur-
chased from their parents who sell them
on account of poverty. The slave girls
remain the property of their masters until
their marriage, when they become free. But
the males are slaves forever unless they
can purchase their freedom, and every child
OF a slave is the property of the master
Few, II any, of the coolies who have come
TO America have belonged to -le actual
slave class. They are the very poor rree-
men. forming the unskilled laborer class OF
China.
The coole can underbd any white la
borer because his extreme poverty at home
has disciplined him to a life of abject pri-
walton. For many interesting facts as to
how the coolie lives at home l am indebted
TO Mr.. Chester Holcombe, for many years
connected with our legation at Picking as
Interpreter secretary of legation and act
ing minister Although meat is cheaper in
China than in our country. a laborer there
receiving what he considers good wages
cannot afford to eat a pound in month.
Skilled laborerS earn from 10 to 30 cents IN
silver per day, the average being about
twenty cents Unskilled laborers, the
coolies who as they put it, sell their
strength" and who constitute the class
imported abroad for such work as that in
Panama. earn at home from o to 10 cents
for long days work. the average receiv-
ing but : cents. And yet China Is a coun-
try where bachelors and old maids are un-
known. where each free man has Il large
family to support. To quote Mr. Hol-
combe
II have often hired special messenger
TO travel distance of thirty miles for eight
cents. Boatmen are regularly hired to track
"a native boat. pulling ii against the stream,
from Tientsin to Tungcho, distance of I25
miles, for fifty cents and their food one
way They make the return journey on
foot-that is they travel greater distance
than from Boston to New York for fifty
cents in silver and one-half their food
The coolies daily food is steamed rice,
boiled cabbage and flew bits of raw tur-
nip picked in strong brine. When very ex-
travagant he purchases a handful OF dried
watermelon seeds for one mill-our money
and munches them for dessert. In summer
he varies his diet with raw cuCumbers, raw
carrots. raw turnips or perhaps a melon
eaten rind and all. The very poor coolies
do not fare nearly so well as this, the COM
mon ration OF the industrious workingman
The coolies marketing for his family din
ner and the fuel with which to- cook it
costs him from three to four pieces of cop
per cash" each equal to about one mill,
our money. His charcoal costs him one
cash; rice or flour. two cash; cabbage. one
cash. on occasions of prosperity another
cash would be spent for oil or SOY" and
on very exceptional festive days still an
other would be invested for about a tea
spoonful of alcohol, to be drunk hot wl.h
the meal
In summer the coolies clothing con-
sists of shoes, stockings. both of cotton;
unlined trousers. and sometimes jacket,
all of cotton cloth. In spring and au-
tumn. If he can afford the luxury, his
jacket and trousers are lined and in the
winter they are wadded, or, If he has
been very thrifty, he can perhaps keep
warmer in jacket of sheepskin tanned
with the wool on it Undertaking Is
unknown to him, and he sleeps in the
same garments in which he works. Tires
dollars more than suffices to buy his en-
tire summer wardrobe. His family of
five or six persons lives in one-room
hut of brick laid in mud with mud or
brick floor and paper windows. This
abode has no chimney, the door offering
the only escape for smoke and foul air
His entire furniture equipment consists OF
table stool or two. sometimes a ward