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Graduating Address of Yan Phou Lee, at Yale College. ———————
The American Missionary. Volume 41, Issue 9 September 1887 pp. 269-273
TRANSCRIBED BY CASSANDRA BATES 2006 GRADUATING ADDRESS OF YAN PHOU LEE, AT YALE
COLLEGE. THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CHINESE QUESTION.
The torrents of hatred and abuse
which have periodically swept over the Chinese industrial class in America had
their sources in the early California days. They grew gradually in strength,
and, uniting in one mighty stream, at last broke the barriers with which
justice, humanity and the Constitution of the Republic had until then
restrained their fury.
The catastrophe was too terrible, and
has made too deep an impression to be easily forgotten. Even if Americans are
disposed to forget, the Chinese will not fail to keep the sad record of faith
unkept, of persecution permitted by an enlightened people, of rights violated
without redress in a land where all are equal before the law.
Sad it is that in a Christian
community only a feeble voice here and there has been raised against this
public wrong; while the enemies of the Chinese laborer may be counted by the
million. Yet these men, having everything their own way, are still dissatisfied
and cannot rest secure until all the Chinese laborers have been driven out or
killed off with the connivance of a perverted public opinion. Is it not high
time for good men to ___ themselves and say to the enemy of industry and order,
"Halt! thus far shalt though go, and no farther"? For be assured that
after the Chinese have all departed, those men who are determined to get high
wages for doing nothing will turn against other peaceful sons of toil; and who
would venture to say that there will be absolute safety for the native
American? Mob-rule knows no respect for persons; the Chinese were attached
first simply because they were the weakest. I do not deny that the anti-Chinese
agitation has some show reason. But its strength rests on three erroneous
assumptions, by proving the groundlessness of which the whole superstructure of
fallacy and falsehood can be made to totter.
First, it is assumed that the work to
be done and the fund for labor's remuneration are fixed quantities, and that if
the Chinese are employed so much will be taken from other laborers. It is
sufficient to reply that no economist holds that view.
Secondly, it is assumed that the
Pekin authorities are anxious to get rid of its redundant population. Nothing
can be more absurd. They have been always, and are still, averse to the
emigration of their subjects; so much so that they yielded only to the
inducements and concessions offered by this Government, which are embodies in
the Burlingame Treaty. Another proof is the readiness with which they consented
to the limitation of Chinese immigration when the Angell Treaty was negotiated.
Thirdly, it is assumed that China's
four hundred millions are only waiting for an opening to "inundate"
this country. This is soberly asserted and has the effect of the Gorgon-head;
for who is not stunned at the bare mention of this appalling and impending
disaster? It would be terrible if it were possible--if it could be true.
But there is no cause for
apprehension. The immigration of my compatriots has been exclusively from
Canton and the region around it within a radius of a hundred miles. The
population of this district is estimated at 5,000,000. Not a single immigrant
has hailed from any other part of the Empire. The Mongolization of America,
therefore, is an event as far off as the Millennium. For after twenty-five
years of unrestricted immigration, your patriotic agitators could muster up
only 200,000 Chinese laborers in all the States and Territories. Now place this
figure side by side with the 3,000,000 of immigrant princes from the
"English Poland," which has never had more than 8,000,000 inhabitants
at any one time, and you will be struck with the contrast.
What reason can we give why so few
comparatively come from China? The Chinese are by nature and from habit
gregarious, but not migratory. hey dislike to cut adrift from the ties of
kindred, the associations of home, the traditions of fatherland. The belief
that their welfare in the future life depends on the proper burial of their remains
in home-soil, followed by sorrowing children and tearful widow, curbs their
desire to go abroad, even with the hope of bettering their condition. But as
only the poorest are tempted to lead a life of adventure, and as the good
Emperor does not pay their passage money, the number that can leave their
native land is very small. Thus you will find that Chinese immigrants are
usually poor on landing, for they bring no votes in their pockets which can
immediately be turned into money, and so they must rely upon their countrymen
who have preceded them for assistance. This is afforded by the Six Companies,
who accordingly have a lien on their prospective wages. From this practice of
advancing money arises the terrible accusation that Chinese labor is contract labor--is
slave labor. We know with what reluctance they first made their way to this
country. Oftentimes they had to be drugged and kidnapped. It was thought
necessary, for labor in those days was in great demand; the Western country was
wild; its resources wanted development. Laborers were welcome irrespective of
race or nationality.
But the times soon changed;
California had grown rich and flourishing; the Pacific Railroad had been built;
wages had fallen; the Chinese became superfluous, and the corals which
constructed the reef must go or die. From being an economic question, the
expulsion of the Chinese laborers was made a political question. Disinterested
demagogues easily won mob-favor by advocating the cause of the sand-lot, and
the Chinese workmen were sacrificed to the Moloch of political ambition. The
matter was carried to the National Council, and you would suppose that Congress
at least would be just and dispassionate, but it, too, was borne along the
waves of prejudice.
In every such conflict might is
right; the weakest goes to the wall. Two parties were bidding for the Pacific
vote--that of great moral principles as well as that of no principles. The
Chinese came in like cloth between the blades of the scissors, like Mr.
Pickwick between the infuriated rival editors of Eatanswill. When 80,000
offices were at stake, and the hoodlums of California had to be petted, it was
not hard to make the Chinese out to be undesirable immigrants and to hoodwink
the public with charges against them which are false, or which may be preferred
against all immigrants.
Sand-lotters were scandalized by the
alleged immoral practices of the Asiatics; were in trembling and fear lest
their Christianity should suffer by contact with Chinese paganism. I believe
the cesspool once complained of the influx of muddy water. Californians
prohibited the Chinese from becoming citizens and then accused them of failure
to become naturalized. People in general were staggered at the imminent danger
of the Mongolization of American and at the same time found fault with the
Chinese for not making the United States their home. “Consistency, thou art a
jewel.”
Those who make America a catspaw to
secure home-rule chestnuts proved most conclusively the non-assimilability of
the Chinese race--said they came simply to make money which eventually found
its way to the old country. I admit both points: I admit that they do not come
to America for the good of their fatherland and mother church, and that they do
come here to make money. So do Americans in China. They are wicked enough to
send money home to support wife and children, but they give an equivalent in
work. Gold and silver are things you can most conveniently spare; but if you
must keep them at home, why then make a law forbidding their export.
I also admit that the Chinese laborer
does not assimilate with your enlightened Hibernian citizens. Thank God for
that! If he did, he would not be compelled to do menial work through fear of
starvation. If he did he might have become a saloon statesman by this time, or
even a much-envied “boodler.” If he did, he might be even now luxuriating in
Sing Sing at the public expense.
But why pursue this theme further?
The bill was passed which excluded both skilled as well as unskilled Chinese
laborers, though the Court of Pekin diplomatically understood that the
restriction was to affect common workmen alone. Natives of China are forbidden
to become citizens of this Republic, which takes to its bosom the off-scouring,
the garbage, and the dynamite of Europe. Never had there been seen such
pandering to the worst passion of an insignificant faction!
Were it not for the tragic events
which trod on the heels of the Chinese Immigration Bill, one might be inclined
to laugh at the absurdities in the bill itself. If the law is faithfully
executed (and to be worth anything it must be), all Americans born in China are
disfranchised, and all Chinese natives of British colonies, like Hong Kong and
India, have free access to this country. But who could laugh in the midst of indignant
tears? By passing a discriminating law against an already persecuted class, the
Central Government yielded to the demands of the mob, and to that extent
countenanced its violence and lawlessness. The Anti-Chinese Act is a cause of
all the outrages and massacres that have been since committed in Rock Springs
and Denver, in Portland, San Francisco and other parts, which, if they had been
perpetrated in China against Americans, would have resounded from Bedloe's
Island (whereon stands the Statue of Liberty) to the Golden Gate. But the
criminals in these cases were not punished, and even the pitiful indemnity was
voted down until Congress could not withhold it from very shame.
I have stated facts which are well
known. It is not necessary to exaggerate. I now ask you Christian people of
America whether you have not failed in your duties as lovers of justice and
fatherland, in not enforcing your opinions in public and in private, as well as
in church as in State. I ask those who gallantly sided with the strong against
the weak, whether they do not think they have done enough for glory and
personal ambition?
If there is an avenging Deity, (and
we believe there is), ought you not to beware of the retribution which is sure
to overtake a nation that permits the cold-blooded murder of innocent strangers
within its gates to go unpunished?
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