854 



THJE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



been carefully studied by Mr. Seward from 

 the customs statistics of arrivals and de- 

 partures, and from the recent census ; and 

 it turns out that there are no more than 

 ninety-seven thousand Chinamen in the 

 United States, of whom one half live in 

 California, where they form about one in 

 seventeen of the population, and enjoying 

 such provisional security of life and prop- 

 erty as the other sixteen see fit to permit 

 them. During the past few years the num- 

 ber of resident Chinese has somewhat di- 

 minished, owing in part to the resident Cali- 

 fornian's conviction, which he has not failed 

 to express in practice, that the pagan ele- 

 ment in a Christian population should be 

 discouraged. This conviction, if we may 

 trust the evidence of Commissioner John 

 A. Swift (p. 250), would seem to be increas- 

 ing. "In 1852," says Mr. Swift, "the 

 Chinamen veere allowed to turn out and 

 celebrate the Fourth of July. In 1862 

 they would have been mobbed. In 18V2 

 they would have been burned at the stake." 

 This spirit may be profitably contrasted with 

 that of a memorial written by a Chinaman 

 resident in this country (p. 245) : " If the 

 spirit be noble and good, although the man 

 be poor and humble, we honor and love 

 him. But we affirm that the people of your 

 honorable counti-y dislike the Chinese be- 

 cause they see the p:ain appearance and the 

 patched clothes of our poor, and do not 

 think how many spirits there are among 

 us whom they could respect and love." 



2. The results of Chinese labor in Cali- 

 fornia are considerable. In railroad-build- 

 ing, in farming, fruit-culture, and the rec- 

 lamation of swamp-lands, in mining and 

 manufacturing, and in such special indus- 

 tries as cigar- and shoe making and laundry- 

 work, they have been of particular service. 

 Governor Low estimated that four fifths of 

 the grading oh the Central Pacific Railroad 

 was done by Chinese laborers. Mr. Charles 

 Crocker, one of the builders of that road, 

 testified before the Congressional investi- 

 gating committee: "If I had a big job of 

 work that I wanted to get through quickly, 

 and had a limited time to do it in, I should 

 take Chinese labor to do it with, because of 

 its greater reliability and steadiness, and 

 their aptitude and capacity for hard work. 

 They are equal to the best white men." 



On this point, however, there is some dis- 

 crepancy in the evidence, one estimate being 

 that three Chinamen are needed to do the 

 work of two first-rate white laborers. In 

 domestic service the Chinese hold an un- 

 questioned place. No one who has had ex- 

 perience of them will underrate their intel- 

 ligence and faithfulness. A great w^ant of 

 the American community is that of good 

 house-servants. To what is the lack of 

 supply due ? To our liberal institutions, 

 the spirit of which makes domestic service 

 of any kind seem degrading in American 

 eyes, and even after a short term of resi- 

 dence in the eyes of the European immi- 

 grant. But, in the case of the Chinese im- 

 migrant, who, it is complained, does not 

 " assimilate " with us, this moral condition 

 is not set up. This lack of assimilability 

 may be owing to our inquisitorial treatment 

 of him ; but it will be time enough to decide 

 whether he will assimilate, or wishes to 

 assimilate, with us, when we shall have 

 admitted his rights as a human creature. 

 Meanwhile, as Mr. Seward might have 

 pointed out, it is precisely because he does 

 not assimilate that he makes the best house- 

 servant that our community has yet seen. 

 He has no thought of becoming an alder- 

 man or a mayor, or of being promoted from 

 the kitchen to Congress. He comes to do 

 the day's work for the day's w^ages ; he 

 does it faithfully and contentedly, and there 

 the matter ends. If American politicians 

 have taken pleasure in the rapid assimila- 

 tion of the Celtic contingent in our immi- 

 gration, American housekeepers, on the 

 other hand, would welcome a class of ser- 

 vants a little less in haste to assimilate, and 

 a little more disposed to serve. If the 

 American home is in danger of extinction, 

 as some foreign critics have predicted, and 

 our families are to be driven into hotels for 

 the lack of cooks and chambermaids, it will 

 not be because a race of real servants could 

 not be brought from China. 



3. The main objection to Chinese im- 

 migration, as already intimated, is political, 

 and not social. Political equality, political 

 availability, have been made the test, and 

 unjustly so. Mr. Seward reviews other 

 grounds of objection in detail, and con- 

 cludes by saying : " I dispute earnestly the 

 statement that they are a servile class ; that 



