Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-03-26
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

Warfare of the Chinese tongs has
broken out again in many cities in
the United States. and to date the
fatalities are, in New York, Z;
Brooklyn, 2; Chicago, 2; Washing
ton, /: Newark. Manchester and Pitts
burgh each, dead, and in some
other cities several wounded. All
these casualties, coming simultaneous
ly in widely scattered locations,
prove how closely organized are the
tongs, disciplined to obey orders from
their officers. 1t is just two years
since the last tong outbreak was pacl-
fed with a perpetual agreement or
peace. as arranged through the inter-
vention of Americans.
What is a Chinese tong? Even the
best informed Americans who have
closest contacts with the Chinese
differ radically in describing the
nature of the institution.
By one source of information.
tong is described as a gambling
organization" claiming special terri
tory against rival gambling tongs.
and it is alleged, that tongs do not
exist i'm China. That description is
contradicted by others who have had
closer contacts. 1t is useless to seek
reliable information from official
Chinese, for, with Oriental secrecy, all
Chinese deny any knowledge thereof,
which is undoubtedly far more con-
tributive to Chinese longevity than
disclosure of tong secrets.
* x
At the last session of Congress,
Representative Miller of Washington
State introduced a bill Oh. r. 15535l
defining certain aliens as undesirable
residents and requiring their deporta-
ton.
This bill provided that certain
organizations and associations known
as tongs, existing in the United States.
with membership composed wholly or
in part of aliens ineligible to citizen
ship and promoting actions known as
tong wars, and tending to disturb the
peace of our people, are hereby de-
clared to be inimical to the good order
and welI-being of the United States.
Section 2. Any alien. ineligible to
citizenship, resident of the United
States, who is member of any
organization, society or association
known as the Hip Sing Tong, or the
Hop Sing Tong. or the Bow Leung
Tong, or the Bing Tung Bow Leung
Tong, etc, is hereby declared to
be an undesirable resident of the
United States"
(The present war is between the
Hip Sings and Bow Leungs0
Section 8 provided for the arrest
and deportation of all such tong
members by the Department of
h inc fI11 IN a
tempted TO go into hiding or to en-
ploy q bodyguard against arrest. that
would be taken as prima facie evil
dence of his membership of a tong.
The decision of the Secretary of
Labor was made final in all such
cases of alleged tong membership
and deportation, and all such eX-
PEELED persons became excluded from
readmission.
The Miller bill failed of passage.
largely because the Department of
Labor declined to support it, on the
ground that it's enforcement would
be impracticable, for the heathen
Chinee is peculiar"
It is stated that the Labor off,
Gals commended that if the tongs
were toe be deported, then, to be
consistent the BLACK Hands of
Italy should also be excluded. The
answer to that contention, as given
by Representative Miller is that the
italians do not come in the classi-
fications of being ineligible to Amer
lean citizenship, as do the immi-
grant Chinese, under the provisions
Of the Chinese exclusion act. There
are thousands of Chinese who are
American citizens (yet potential
members of the tongs). for the fact
that they were born in the United
States makes them native Americans,
although they belong to the Chinese
race--or one of the so or go races
of China.
According to police officials. it isl
extremely difficult to prove that a
Chinaman is not a citizen, for when
a Chinaman is arrested and brought
before a United States commissioner
he is defended by a powerful Chi
nese organization with unlimited
money, with which witnesses are
produced who swear that they have
known this particular Chinaman
from the day of his birth in
Seattle or San Francisco or Cleve-
land: the witnesses are unham-
pered as to details and the
Americans have no tangible proofs
- the contrary. The result. |
usually. is that the commissioner
rules that the defendant Is truly an
Americas citizsns hencs. the naore