CALIFORNIA. 



75 



wages of the laboring class in China range 

 from $3 to $5 per month. Their condition is 

 a hard and miserable one. They are exceed- 

 ingly migratory in their disposition, and, 

 though their ports have been so scantily 

 opened to free commerce, they are to be found 

 to-day in every civilized country of the world. 

 They find in America a congenial climate, high 

 wages, and a more liberal government. They 

 are separated from us by a comparatively nar- 

 row ocean, which is pacific in spirit as well as 

 in name. Passage can be made quickly and 

 cheaply, the usual price being from $40 to 

 $50, which by competition has been reduced 

 as low as $12. If any are too poor to pay this 

 small sum, brokers stand ready to advance the 

 necessary amount, to be secured by a mort- 

 gage contract on their future wages. 



As the Chinese are thus residents in the 

 country under treaty arrangements, petitions 

 and memorials have been sent to Congress for 

 the abrogation of the treaty. This has led to 

 an investigation on the part of Congress into 

 the nature of the objections against them and 

 their justness. As a result it appears that the 

 Chinese laborer is in some respects very de- 

 sirable. He is frugal, thrifty, patient, cheer- 

 ful, and obedient. He readily learns his trade, 

 and expertly performs every species of light 

 work. Chinese cheap labor has worked a 

 great material benefit to California in its early 

 days, by digging its canals, delving in its mines, 

 reclaiming its tule lands, building its railroads, 

 and in various other ways contributing to the 

 development of its material resources. If the 

 desire for money-making were the only ques- 

 tion in value in this contest between Ameri- 

 can and Chinese races, it would in its indus- 

 trial labor phase be promptly decided in favor 

 of the latter. The material advantages of this 

 kind of labor, however, sink into entire in- 

 significance when compared with the personal 

 considerations at stake the comfort and self- 

 respect, the decent, honorable living of the 

 laborer himself. The Chinese laborer does 

 not come up to the American standard of in- 

 dustry. Those who come to this country have 

 no homes, no home feelings, nor home inter- 

 ests, in the usual sense. They are willing to 

 work for less wages than will secure homes 

 and comfortable support to white laborers. In 

 their own country they work patiently and 

 obediently during twelve or thirteen hours for 

 less than one tenth of what the poorest class 

 of American workingmen receive. In the Pa- 

 cific States they are willing to work for al- 

 most half of the price paid to American oper- 

 atives. They are able to live upon rice, tea, 

 and dried fish, costing upon an average from 

 twenty to thirty cents per day. Under-cloth- 

 ing is a luxury almost unknown to them, while 

 the clothing they wear is of the simplest and 

 coarsest character. They bring with them 

 neither wives, families, nor children. One 

 hundred Chinese will occupy a room which, 

 if subdivided, would not accommodate five 



American workingmen with their families. 

 Here they sleep, cook, and eat. 



Another and more serious objection urged 

 against the Chinese is that their personal and 

 moral habits make them undesirable members 

 of society. The crowded condition in which 

 they live renders the observance of hygienic 

 laws and sanitary regulations almost an im- 

 possibility. Neatness and cleanliness is an 

 exception. The air of their apartments is 

 filled with noisome smells and pestilential va- 

 pors, threatening disease and death. The prop- 

 erty occupied by them is lessened in value, and 

 the locality itself avoided by the white pop- 

 ulation. Not only their personal habits, but 

 moral ideas, methods, and institutions are di- 

 rectly antagonistic to those of Americans. The 

 religious ideas, even of the higher and titled 

 classes in China, are preeminently wretched. 

 Their superstitions are numerous and ludi- 

 crous. Their educational systems are exceed- 

 ingly defective. Among the laboring or cooly 

 classes the grade of morals is very low. One 

 illustration of this is seen in their treatment 

 of woman. Her birth is commonly regarded 

 as a calamity. If not destroyed, which is not 

 unusual, she is regarded as a slave, and suffers 

 privation, contempt, and degradation from the 

 cradle to the tomb. Instances are frequent of 

 the sale for debt by parents of their daughters, 

 and by husbands of their wives, and that, too, 

 for the worst purposes. Infanticide of girls is 

 practiced more or less in all parts of the em- 

 pire, and in some sections to an alarming ex~ 

 tent. The sanctity and obligation of an oath 

 are disregarded, and torture is often employed 

 to extract the truth. These are some of the 

 characteristics of the class from which nine 

 tenths of the immigrants come. 



A third and principal objection to the Chi- 

 nese was the fact that they do not assimilate 

 with the American people, but remain a dis- 

 tinct and alien element. In this respect they 

 differ from all other voluntary immigrants. 

 The German, the Irishman, the Frenchman 

 have sought this country as a permanent home 

 for themselves and their posterity, promptly 

 and cheerfully adopting its habits, customs, 

 and political institutions. Devoted to the peo- 

 ple, to the Government and the laws, they 

 speedily become the worthiest and thriftiest 

 citizens, vindicating in the chambers of the 

 nation their knowledge of the political prin- 

 ciples, and illustrating upon every battle-field, 

 when liberty has been attacked, the patriotism 

 which such knowledge inspires. It is not so 

 with the Chinese. They have been in this 

 country over a quarter of a century ; their 

 employment as house servants and laborers 

 has brought them into close and immediate 

 contact with the people ; but no change has 

 been produced in them. What they were 

 when they came, they are at this day the 

 same in disposition, in language, in religion. 

 They manifest no desire either by word or 

 action to become identified with the people 



