Chinese immigration

“ And when we reflect how enormous Chinese immigration might easily have become in these recent years of quick and easy transportation, and excessive activity of steamship agents, contract labor agents, and others of their 104kind, it is apparent that if free immigration had been allowed to these people of a widely diverse race, we might now be facing a Chinese problem in this country second in gravity only to the negro question. ”

“ At any rate, as soon as Chinese immigration changes its character so as to form permanent settlements upon American soil, one consequence is certain: the Chinaman, transplanting himself permanently from his own home to this country, will soon cease to be a Chinaman; he will be obliged to identify himself with the interests of this country, to accommodate himself to the requirements of our civilization. ”

“ The question of Chinese immigration is a large one. It has its social and its political aspects. It is found all along the Pacific coast that Chinamen make good and faithful servants. The outcry against them as competing with white laborers and artisans is more the result of political agitation for political purposes than good judgment. Where they have been displaced on farms, in mills, in warehouses, in domestic life, white men and women have not been found to take their places and do the work which they can do so well. ”

“ The larger part of this emigration from China has occurred since the walls of Chinese exclusiveness were battered down by English and French cannon in 1858. It is clear that, while China was then opened to the commerce and intercourse of the world, so the world was likewise opened to the free flow of the yellow tide of Chinese immigration, sweeping with constantly augmented and resistless force in every direction. We have seen the incentive of poverty and misery at home that underlies and induces Chinese emigration. ”

“ If Chinese immigration concentrated in cities where it threatened public order, or if it confined itself to localities where it was an injury to the interests of the American people, the Government of the United States would undoubtedly take steps to prevent such accumulations of Chinese. If, on the contrary, there was no large immigration, or if there were sections of the country where such immigration was clearly beneficial, then the legislation of the United States under this power would be adapted to such circumstances. ”

“ The questions arising in connection with Chinese immigration stand by themselves. The conditions in China are such that the entire Chinese coolie class, that is, the class of Chinese laborers, skilled and unskilled, legitimately come under the head of undesirable immigrants to this country, because of their numbers, the low wages for which they work, and their low standard of living. ”

“ On the contrary, socialists and communists are more tolerant of the Chinese than any other class of those who feel or are threatened by their competition. For not only is there, at the bottom of what is called socialism and communism, the great idea of the equality and brotherhood of men, but they who look to changes in the fundamental institutions of society as the only means for improving the condition of the masses necessarily regard Chinese immigration as a minor evil, if in a proper social state it could be any evil at all. ”

“ As to the fear of an overflowing immigration of the Chinese, in case immigration should be freely permitted, the fact is that the Chinese are not, and never have been, a migratory people, but are, on the contrary, more strongly attached to their native soil than the people of any Western nation—except, perhaps, the French. They have not even "settled up" their own outlying districts, as Formosa, central and northern Manchooria, and the vast regions of inner Mongolia. And it is to be added that the demand for Chinese labor in California lessens yearly as the country is cleared up. ”

“ As a natural result, Chinese immigration has become a red rag to Australians and Americans alike, and the question of putting a decided stop to it, or so dealing with it as to keep it within manageable bounds, forces itself with daily increasing weight upon the attention of the several administrations concerned. ”

“ While the emigrants were so anxiously protected at the outset of their voyage, the immigration of Chinese into the United States and the Australian colonies was exciting interest of a different kind in those countries. Legislation was continuously directed against the influx of Chinese, and not legislation only, but barbarous ill-treatment and outrages on a par with those perpetrated against foreigners in China. ”

“ There are just as many Chinese in the country as there were in 1880. This is the result of about forty years' Immigration. And, as these people cling more fondly to their native heath than any other in the world, the dangers of their overrunning this continent, even if all its ports were thrown open to them, is altogether imaginary. ”

“ Respecting European, Japanese, and Korean immigration, the law admits all except certain classes definitely described, such as paupers, criminals, and so on. Respecting Chinese immigration the law excludes all except certain classes described, such as teachers, merchants, travellers, and students. In the case of European immigration the burden of proof is upon the immigration authorities to show that the immigrant should be excluded. In the case of the Chinese, the burden of proof is on the immigrant to show that he should be admitted. ”

“ Asiatic Immigration.—Utterly distinct from all other immigrants in the nineteenth century are the Chinese. Coming from a civilization already ancient when Europe was barbarian, the Chinaman complacently refuses to assimilate with Americans, and the latter reciprocate by denying him the right of citizenship. His residence is temporary, he comes without his family, and he accumulates what to him is a fortune for his declining years in China. The gold discoveries of California first attracted him, and the largest migration was 40,000 in 1882, the year when Congress prohibited further incoming. ”

“ The report submitted for the committee by Senator Sargent stated that the investigation established the fact that so far as material prosperity was concerned, the Pacific coast had been a great gainer by Chinese immigration, and, if inquiry was not to be made into the present and future moral or political welfare of the Pacific States, it must be conceded that their general resources were being rapidly developed by Chinese labor. Opposition to any restriction on Chinese immigration was manifested by the capitalistic classes and those interested in transportation ”

“ Although the Chinese immigration is more or less of an ephemeral nature, it is very likely to become exceedingly numerous, especially in the towns and their suburbs, and might in the course of time render the competition of the Whites extremely difficult, and necessitate interference on the part of the Russian Government to limit the sphere of Chinese labour. ”

“ A heated fancy — I cannot use any other expression — is drawing the picture before our eyes of thirty, forty, fifty, or one hundred million Chinamen suddenly flowing from their native homes across the Pacific ocean, sweeping over this country, and fairly submerging, as under a deluge of barbarism, our whole civilization and all that is dear to us. It is a horrible picture. Now, sir, let us look the facts in the face. Chinese immigration to the Pacific coast commenced, as I understand, in the year 1848. ”

“ 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 immigration, as already intimated, is political, and not social. Political equality, political availability, have been made the test, and unjustly so. ”

“ All that has been said regarding Chinese immigration applies to Asiatic immigration in general. It is not surprising, therefore, that since the Japanese laborers have begun to come to us in large numbers the people of the Pacific Coast should demand the exclusion of the Japanese immigrants. While Japan has not the immense population of China and while the Japanese are perhaps a more adaptable people than the Chinese, still it would seem that in the main the people of the Pacific Coast are justified in their fears of the results of a large Japanese immigration. ”

“ If there is one question upon which the philanthropists of the present day, especially the more emotional ones, are agreed, it is that any law restricting Chinese immigration is an outrage; yet it seems incredible that any man of even moderate intelligence should not see that no greater calamity could now befall the United States than to have the Pacific slope fill up with a Mongolian population. ”

“ The admitted right of a government to prevent the influx of elements hostile to its internal peace and security may not be questioned, even where there is no treaty stipulation on the subject. That the exclusion of Chinese labor is demanded in other countries where like conditions prevail is strongly evidenced in the Dominion of Canada, where Chinese immigration is now regulated by laws more exclusive than our own. ”

“ Many stringent regulations appear in the annals of immigration, but no radical or permanent reform. Agitation, legislation, superficial and temporary improvement, recurrence of the evil when public attention is diverted, about describes the situation.
Perhaps the exclusion of the Chinese may be instanced as one exception in the long list of failures to regulate immigration. Chinese exclusion is somewhat of a misnomer, as the constant arrivals from Mexico and British Columbia plainly bear witness. That the entrance of the Chinese has been greatly checked, however, may freely be conceded. ”

“ It is the chief reason why the emigration of hundreds of thousands of men in search of work has now become necessary. If the Chinese were unhampered by fear of the invisible ones who are considered by all to be the real proprietors of the land, they would have an abundance of lucrative work within their own borders, and they need not then afflict other countries by their immigration. ”

“ Wherever they have gained a foothold there they have continued to go, there they have increased and multiplied. Wherever they have gone, in earlier or later times, prolonged contact with them and competition in the field of labor have developed the same race antipathies that exist between the American people on the Pacific coast and the Chinese to-day.
Since 1860 200,000 Chinese have landed in Chili and Peru. Nearly 400,000 have found their way into the United States through the port of San Francisco since the Chinese immigration first began. ”

“ It has come to be almost universally acknowledged that Singapore is indebted as much to Chinese as to British enterprise for its present commercial prosperity, and therefore the subject of Chinese labour which is vexing America and Australia, assumes a very different aspect in the Straits Settlements, and the fact that Chinese immigration has increased 50 per cent in the last ten years is looked upon as an unmitigated blessing. ”

“ There is good reason to believe that the law restricting the immigration of Chinese has been violated, intentionally or otherwise, by the officials of China upon whom is devolved the duty of certifying that the immigrants belong to the excepted classes. ”

“ A parallel to this is found in the recent bill prohibiting Chinese immigration——an enactment injurious to this country, a wrong to China and a violation of the fundamental principles of the Declaration of Independence, and of the law of God. It is a shameful repudiation of our boast that this land is an asylum for the oppressed of all nations, and it is a cowardly acknowledgment that a hundred thousand inoffensive Chinamen can so excite and alarm a nation of fifty millions of people. ”

“ Now, sir, as long as the Chinese immigration continues to have that character, I agree that it is not well fitted for naturalization. These temporary immigrants will essentially remain Chinese and not become Americans. But it is also evident that these temporary immigrants will not desire to be naturalized. They might, indeed, be prevailed upon to do so by some one who has them under his control and may find it convenient to use them as a political machine. ”

“ The chief barriers to Chinese race-expansion in these regions are legal hindrances or prohibitions of immigration, and of course such barriers are in their essence artificial and liable to removal under any shift of circumstances. Many observers predict that most of these lands will ultimately become Chinese. ”

“ They can accomplish something very desirable. I am sure that with the teachings of our civilization — and here is a point which I consider very important, and from which it will appear that even that temporary Chinese immigration is not without its intrinsic value to this country — I am sure that with the teachings of our civilization even the Chinamen, much as he may be wedded to the customs of his old home, will gradually acquire also the wants of our civilization ”

“ Chinese are cagey at census time, because if the rolls show anywhere near as many in the country as there are, the difference in numbers between those here and the ones on record would be so startling, it would cause an investigation and wholesale deportation. Another reason is that they are on a gentlemen’s agreement quota basis with agents of the Federal Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization. When an agent runs across a group of illegally-entered Chinese, he gets practical about the whole matter. ”