Year: 1876

The cities of this State show a condi-
ton of affairs such as is witnessed by
no other country, or section of country.
Boys and girls have grown up in idleness
and, as was to be expected, have con-
tracted habits of vice by which they are
fit for nothing unless it be place in our
State Prison, at that age when they
should be prepared by education, habits,
and Industrious pursuits, To assume q
place in the roll of citizenship and soce-
ty, Scarce day passes but our senses
are shocked, when we read in one or the
other of our city dailies, Of crimes perpe-
trated by young men, which would put
to the blush, the more hardened bold
ness and audacity of a veteran in crime.
If we are TO credit what we read, the con-
dition Of affairs among young people at
the Bay City is appalling. Neither prop
tacks of the gangs of hoodlums" which
infest the place. And it is sad to think
that those young men, whose disregard
of law and order has become so notorious
that revival of the whipping post is SER
iously thought OF, might have been hon
ored and respected citizens but for the
mistaken policy which has governed our
law makers in former years.


1t has been bad feature of California
life that it has not given the proper OPP
portunities to bring up children to habits
Of industry. In the earlier days of the
country manufacturing industries were
not followed to any extent, the rates Of
wages ruling so high that nearly every
thing could be imported cheaper than it
! could be manufactured at home. Now,
however, the case is diflerent-the coun-
try is more upon an equality with the old
er States. Manufacturing and the trades
find profitable field of labor here, and
would furnish the ight kind of employ
ment for the young of both sexes, were it
not for that curse OF the State-the Chi
nese. This element of our population is
monOpOlizing many branches Of our man
ufacturing industries, crowding the
whites, who cannot compete with them
entirely from the field. Gra dually, but
surely, this people are getting hold Of all
the lighter kinds Of employment, for
which they are peculiarly qualified by
their natural habits of industry. Thus it
is that we find thousands Of Chinese en-
ployed at shoemaking and kindred occu
pations, to the exclusion Of the young men
and women who now constitute the
" hoodlum" element Of our cities. Idle
ness is toe nursery of crime and vice, and
to-day the parents of San Francisco are
paying the penalty Of having brought up
their sons and daughters without the
knowledge Of some mechanical pursuit,
and the habits Of industry Attending
And yet parents are not so much to blame
as are those who first resorted to employ
ment Of Chinese in preference to the ap-
prentice system. 1t was mistaken pol
icy for which the State will suffer.


The cheap rate at which Chinese labor
can be hired compared with white labor,
has caused the services Of that people to
be preferred for many kinds of employ
ment, and such will continue to be the
case so long as they are permitted to mi
grate hither in such numbers. Human
nature is apt to consult individual inter
est rather than the general good of com
munity, and if we can get the work as
well done by one person as another, we
are apt to give the job to the one who
will do it for the least money. But if we
take all things into consideration it will
be seen that we are not gamers in the
long run by the employment of Chinese
labor, however cheap. We owe a duty
to coming generations, and we but lily
fulfill that duty if we encourage the i'm
migration here of race whose very pres
ence hree is contamination. We hope
that another session of Congress will not
be suffered to pass without .such amend
ment to the Burlingame Treaty as will
check the incoming Of these Asatic
hordes, and let our children have oppor-
tunities for learning useful occupations
from which they are now practically ex-
cluded.