88 Transactions of the 



among the cottages, or rise in grainier proportions in the cities. Is not 

 this development, which is natural in its order, and without limit ot 

 duration or capacity as long as this land is freer than Europe, and has 

 that which Europe lacks, undeveloped resources open to the enterprise 

 of the laborer, and lands untitled, asking him to accept them as a home; 

 is not such sui*c and essentially American development better than that 

 which could possibly be obtained by transporting the Asiatic on any 

 terms to occupy those fields and exclude their prospective possessors? 

 Take Iowa, a new and thriving Western State, built up by the means 

 which I have indicated. Would it not he undesirable to see its popula- 

 tion retrograde to the level of Chinese, however industrious the latter 

 may be? I need not fill up such a picture; much beside industry is 

 needed to make a desirable community in this land. Yet there is no 

 practical difference in the result between the recession of an American 

 community back to the level of Chinese and the displacing or anticipa- 

 tion of such a community by Chinese. In a few words, the growth of 

 American and the influx of European population is developing our 

 resources healthily and rapidly; and it is better for us and our pos- 

 terity that these causes which have made us a great nation should have 

 unimpeded sway. 



But these considerations give no warrant for the appeals of shallow 

 or artful demagogues, who would stir up the reckless or ignorant to 

 murder or expel the Chinese, or make their presence here the theme of 

 partisan declamation. I have no fear that the Chinese will greatly 

 increase in numbers here or in the other States if stringent laws against 

 the importation of coolies are passed. ~No political party desires to 

 encourage their presence; no political economist would deny that the 

 population of this countiy by races kindred to our own is to be desired 

 in prefei'ence to it by those which are so incapable of assimilation. The 

 remedy for wmatevcr evils their presence entails will be found when the 

 question is not made the hobby of party, but is dispassionately con- 

 sidered; and that remedy will not be found by erecting a Chinese wall 

 around ourselves, not by suspending trade and treaties with China and 

 Japan, and not in the torch, the bludgeon, or the pistol of the bully and 

 assassin. I believe that the remedy for the presence itself of the Chinese 

 is largely in the hands of these whose only resource is their labor; and 

 that they should learn that excessive wages for little work prevents the 

 employment of capital, and with it the employment of labor; or else 

 drives the former, even against its will, to resort to an}^ cheaper labor 

 that offers. 



While these are truths for the laborer to estimate, there are others 

 for the capitalist as imperative. The safety and well being of society 

 depends on the intelligence and comfort of the laboi'ing classes. A rate 

 of wages that starves the artisan's family, or prevents the education of 

 his children, and does not enable the industrious worker to lay by of his 

 savings for sickness or old age, is un-American, degrading and intoler- 

 able. Our institutions can only be perpetuated by the continued intel- 

 ligence of all voters. The most numerous class of society will always 

 be those who furnish the skill or muscle for the many revolving indus- 

 tries of civilization. They are the workers, and by their numbers, 

 under our form of government, they are the ones who choose rulers and 

 determine the destiny of the Republic. They cannot fulfill the duties 

 of citizenship on the wages of peons or coolies. Their relation to the 

 State demand of them education and virtue, which are only to be expected 

 of those who have the means furnished by a fair share of the profits of 



