THE EVENTS LEADING TO THE CHINESE EXCLUSION

ACTS.

BY MILDRED WELLBORN.

CALIFORNIA'S ATTITUDE TOWARD THE CHINESE.

The first Chinese who came to California were well received and treated with favor. The "Daily Alta Californian" of May 12, 1852, says: "Quite a large number of the Celestials have arrived among us of late, enticed thither by the golden romance that has filled the world. Scarcely a ship arrives that does not bring an increase to this worthy integer of our population. The China boys will yet vote at the same polls, study at the same schools, and bow at the same altar as our own countrymen."

In the ceremonies commemorating the death of President Taylor, the Chinese were given a prominent part in the program, and in the celebrations of Admission Day the Chinese took part in the parade, professing themselves loyal citizens of the United States. Their loyalty to the better class of citizens, and to law and order was shown by their contributions to the funds of the Vigilance Committee.

Governor McDougal spoke of the Chinese as "one of the most worthy classes of our newly adopted citizens," and in another connection stated that "the further immigration and settlement of Chinese is desirable." On the whole, these words of the Governor may be taken as representing the attitude of Californians in general during the earliest period of the Chinese residence in our state.

The cleanliness, unobtrusiveness and industry of the Chinese was often commented upon. Although most of the Chinese immigrants came from strictly agricultural districts, once in America, they seemed capable of turning their hands to anything and everything. In the mines, on the railroads and ranches, in laundries, in certain manufactories, in hotels and family kitchens, as cooks and domestic servants, the Chinese proved good workers. In those days, laborers were scarce, and for that reason the Chinese were welcomed.

The first dissatisfaction towards the Chinamen appeared in the mines. Here the Chinese were content with $5.00 or $8.00 per day, while the whites wanted $16.00 or $20.00. In spite of their much smaller daily earnings the Chinese, because of their industry, perseverance and thrift and their ability to live on a mere pittance, in the

long run, accumulated more gold than did many of the more reckless and extravagant whites. Moreover, when working for wages, the Chinese were content with such small pay that the price of labor tended to decrease.

The first exclusion acts, although entirely extra-legal were nevertheless thoroughly effective. In 1849 the Chinese were expelled from Chinese Camp, a mining camp eight or ten miles south of Sonora. In Columbia district in Tuolumne county, no Asiatics or South Sea islanders were allowed to mine for themselves or others, and no one was allowed to sell a claim to an Oriental.

Meantime an anti-Chinese feeling was springing up in other parts of the state, particularly in San Francisco. This was partly due to a change in the class of immigrants. The first comers had been chiefly merchants, and those possessed of a rather adventurous and ambitious spirit. But the organization of the Chinese Six Companies for the importation of contract labor, brought to America. not only many of the poorest and most ignorant class of Chinese laborers or "coolies," but also many who were morally deficient or criminal. The first of these classes flooded the labor market with cheap labor, and the second class added to the already unstable moral conditions of the new West, saloons, gambling dens, opium dives and homes of vice. The moralist saw in the Chinese a people far from practicing the precepts of their own Confucius; a people who won the confidence of their masters and then proved treacherous; a people who had no respect for chastity, many of their women being prostitutes; a people given to gambling, living in filthy places and keeping opium dens of disgust and horror; a people, however, to be civilized and converted. The politician saw in the Chinese a people dangerous to American institutions. The Chinese lived together, had secret societies or "tongs," maintained a sort of government among themselves, usually refused all efforts of the Californians to give them an American education, or benefits of the Christian religion, and in general refused to assimilate any of the American customs or practices. The philosopher thought it his duty to educate the stranger within his gates, but on the whole had to admit his failure.

It was the capitalist who appreciated the Chinaman most. For the development of the great ranches and the necessary systems of irrigation, and for the construction of the long-dreamed-of transcontinental railways, cheap labor was a necessity. The Chinese were the only race who could and would furnish it. Thousands were imported by the Six Companies especially for the railroads. Bancroft says of the Chinese: "Without their aid must have been deferred the construction of railroads to facilitate the introduction of white labor, the opening of ditches, reclamation of land, planting of

which all helped

vineyards, establishment of manufactures, to provide more employment for superior white men and for capital."

The laboring men evidently did not recognize this service the Chinamen had done for them by literally paving the way to California. Strange as it may seem and crude as were the sailing vessels of those days, before the building of the trans-continental railroad, it was an easier and more comfortable trip across the Pacific from China to California than across the plains from the Mississippi to the Golden Gate. While there were many among the laborers who believed that California was a land for all, the yellow as well as the white, yet as a class they were very bitter against the Chinese, and often expressed this bitterness in the most violent ways.

The first objection to the Chinese as given by the workingmen was that the presence of the Chinese reduced the wages of the laborers, but increased the profits of the capitalists. However, it is doubtful if the Chinese actually made any perceptible change in the labor market, except for a period of from six to ten years from 1863 to about 1875, and then not because labor was too abundant, but because money was scarce. The more fundamental cause for the anti-Chinese sentiment is probably to be found in race prejudice.

While this anti-Chinese feeling was developing, the Chinese continued to hold their own. Gardening, farming, laundry work and cooking were almost monopolized by them. They were employed by the railroads, worked in the mines and in at least some manufactories, such as shoe-making and cigar-making. But still they remained aliens. The result was the practical exclusion of white labor, first a voluntary exclusion, because the whites refused to work beside the Chinese, and second an involuntary exclusion, because the employers preferred the cheaper Chinese labor.

THE CHINESE QUESTION IN STATE POLITICS.

The Chinese question came up for discussion in the legislature of 1852. The Constitution of '49 had provided that all foreign residents should enjoy the same property rights as native-born citizens. But the anti-Chinese feeling had hardly begun in '49. By '52, however, it had developed into a question of considerable importance. Bigler, who was candidate for governor, made political capital of it, and when elected tried to get the legislature to pass antiChinese measures, and was very much displeased at their failure. to do so.

In the legislature of '53 the Committee on Mines and Mining Interests reported that the fear that too many Chinese were coming

to California was entirely unfounded and that Chinese trade should be encouraged. Moreover, an attorney representing the Chinese Six Companies testified before this committee that there was at that time no contract labor in the state. The next year California sent a resolution to Congress asking that a tax be placed upon each Chinese or Japanese coming to the United States, the tax to be paid by the importing vessel before landing the immigrant.

California attempted to levy such a tax, but was stopped on constitutional grounds.

Meantime in the mining camps the opposition to the Chinese had been growing or was manifested by riots and attempted lynchings. Consequently this same legislature of '55 raised the Foreign Miners' Tax from four to six dollars per month. The following year there was a petition for the reduction of this tax, and for an end to their "exclusion by taxation policy." Bigler objected because of this anti-Chinese sentiment and the Senate objected because it would lower the state revenues. Nothing was done that year, but the following legislature raised the tax to eight dollars, the next session to ten and so on for each succeeding year. As a result of this increase in the license tax, almost all the Chinese gave up mining. Many of them returned to China, and others congregated in the cities. In losing the three dollar tax which the Chinese had formerly paid the state lost $200,000 annually.

The discovery of a new vein of gold was sufficient to draw many Chinese back to the mines in spite of the high tax. The income from this tax in 1863 was $187,000, but it dropped to $80,000 in 1867. This was another tax difficult to collect, but it was made unconstitutional in 1871 by the adoption of the fifteenth amendment to the Federal Constitution and the Act which was passed to enforce it.

In 1859 the antil Chinese feeling reached such a pitch among the miners that Governor Weller had to send a company of the militia to put down riots in Shasta county. Not content with taxing the miners, in 1862 a tax of two and a half dollars was levied upon all Mongolians over eighteen years of age, who were not engaged in the production of rice, sugar, tea or coffee. The next year this tax was declared unconstiutional.

During the years of the Civil War the people had their attention diverted from local to national affairs, and from contract coolies to negro slaves. But in spite of more urgent and important questions of the day, the Legislature of 1862 appointed a committee which conferred with prominent Chinese officials and reported that there were 50,000 Chinese in the state, who had paid in taxes, license and trade, about $14,000,000 to the state community; that there was

comparatively little competition between the Chinese and the whites; that there were no contract laborers; that the Chinese were not in ordinately immoral; that they had been the victims of a system of wrongs and outrages; and that it would be most advantageous for the United States to maintain friendly commercial relations with China.

It was during this period that the large number of Chinese were imported for work on the Central Pacific Railway. In 1864 there were 1,000 whites, all that could be obtained, and 3,000 Chinese working on the railroad. During the years 1865-9 there were the same 1,000 whites and 9,000 Chinese. In reporting to the Legislature of '65, Mr. Stanford said that the Chinese were peaceable, industrious and economical, apt to learn and quite as efficient as white laborers.

After the war the labor issues again became prominent. The workingmen formed anti-Chinese societies and asked the Republican candidate for governor to answer certain questions regarding the Chinese problem. The answers were guarded, and therefore unsatisfactory to the hot-headed Irish of which the working class was largely composed. As a result, Haight, the Democratic candidate, was elected. Haight was strongly anti-Chinese, and favored complete exclusion, although he could not see why the Chinese were not as much entitled to the franchise as the negro, meaning that he thought neither should have it.

The completion of the railroad in 1869 and the consequent discharging of about 9,000 Chinese flooded the labor market with lowwage workers. The malcontents had more cause than ever for their complaints. The Democratic platform of that year was out-and-out anti-Chinese. The Republicans could not avoid the question and so recommended the restriction of Chinese immigration by constitutional and congressional measures. Here it must be noted that in 1870 the Federal Legislature extended the Naturalization act to include not only white persons as before, but also persons of African nativity and descent. By interpretation the Chinese were, and still are, excluded from the privileges of naturalization.

In 1871 it was evident that the party which carried the workingmen's vote would win. The Republicans, by the adoption of certain planks, among them an anti-Chinese program, in their party platforms, were able to carry the election. Once in office the tone of their Chinees agitation became much more moderate.

In 1873 there was a sort of a panic, followed in '74 and '75 by a time of temporary prosperity, especially for the capitalists. These years saw the beginning of Kearneyism and the Workingmen's Party. It was this party and this movement which were largely