ADDRESS ON CHINESE MISSIONS IN AMERICA.
REV. E. S. ATWOOD.
I am requested to add to the written report a few words, which will be unreasonably brief, in view of the importance of the subject. I count it a great misfortune that we should have been obliged to postpone to the last, weary, unenthusiastic hours of our meeting, the consideration of a subject which is one of the great problems this Association is set to solve. It would have been well for us if we had been allowed time to open the information that is accessible to us on this subject. There are many who think the Chinese question a very small affair. We get but faint rumors of it on these Eastern shores. Yet that little cloud on the Western horizon, not larger than a man’s hand to-day, is destined to cover the whole land, and will either be found to be filled with tempests or refreshing rain, according as the people meet the exigencies of the hour. The Chinese question will by-and-by, I believe, assume a proportion quite equal to that of the negro question. There is this peculiarity about it—almost every other department of work in this Association is amply provided for. The question of the evangelization of the Indian is comparatively a temporary question; for not many generations will pass before only a scattered remnant of Indian tribes will be left in this land. The welfare and lifting up of the black race is continually under consideration. But who cares for the Chinese? The discussion in regard to them is limited and local. And yet their presence on this continent is a matter of national interest. It starts grave problems, that have somehow to be studied and solved.
There are three classes in the land to-day who are studying this question, and are giving us their conclusions upon it. First of all, we have the Communists, east and west, who are trying to grapple with the question, and settle it. We have one Dennis Kearney going up and down the land, and men say he is a loud-mouthed demagogue, whose utterances have no weight of public opinion behind them. Not at all, Mr. President. Dennis Kearney is a representative man—a John the Baptist, crying, “Prepare ye the way of the Devil, and make his paths straight.” Communism, as a whole, proposes to deal with the Chinese, by driving them out from the land. If you doubt that assertion, look at the facts. Documentary statements in regard to the matter, compiled by B. S. Brooks, an eminent counsellor on the Pacific Coast, have been presented to a Joint Commission of both Houses of Congress. I wish they could be put into the hands of every Christian man. Unfortunately, the books that give any real information on these statistics are somehow not easily accessible. This setting forth of facts in the documents of Mr. Brooks, shows incontrovertibly that Communism in California is murderous in its intent towards the Chinese.
It has put its intention into acts. It has outraged unoffending men, and struck them down relentlessly in the public street. Violence of that sort is comparatively safe. The testimony of the Chinaman cannot be taken in opposition to the white man. The only chance a Chinaman, who is about to be murdered, has to obtain justice, is to secure a white witness to see it done. The rougher element on the Western coast is bound to annihilate the Chinaman. And all for no good reason. They are not numerous. There are only 100,000 Chinamen scattered up and down the coast. They foment no disturbances. There are only two offenses charged against them—grave offenses—and these are, that they live economically, and don’t get drunk; and so are able to work for lower wages than the masses of the Irish and native-born population.
There is another power trying to solve this problem, and that is the politicians. They are no more successful than the Communists. They have secured the enactment of certain statutes, but those statutes are often iniquitous. The Legislature of California has enacted what seems to me the most infamous laws that ever disgraced any statute-book. The Fugitive Slave Law was a Golden Rule in comparison. Let us see. It is well known that the Chinamen are laundry men. They do their work in their shops, and carry it out themselves. Forthwith, the Legislature of San Francisco enacts that every laundryman who carries his work out with a horse shall pay a dollar a month; but every laundryman who carries it out by hand shall pay fifteen dollars a month.
The Chinese are gregarious. They crowd together in tenement-houses, from which people of other nationalities are excluded. By Section Second of an Act approved April 3, 1876, by the Legislature of California, it is provided that “Any person or persons found sleeping or lodging, or who hires or uses for the purpose of sleeping, any room or apartment which contains less than 500 cubic feet of space in the clear, for each person so occupying such room or apartment, shall be deemed guilty of misdemeanor, and shall, upon conviction, be punished by a fine of not less than ten, or more than fifty dollars, or by both such fine and imprisonment.” That is, says Mr. Brooks, as a penalty for lodging in rooms containing less than 500 cubic feet of space, they are to be thrust into prison cells of less than one-fifth the dimension. Certainly
“For ways that are dark, and tricks that are vain,
The heathen Chinee is [not] peculiar.”
Mr. Luttrell moved in Congress that the steamboat bills be so amended as to forbid the employment of a Chinaman in any capacity whatsoever. Congressman Shelley, of Alabama, introduced a bill providing that all Chinamen coming to the United States, except officially, be taxed $250 per capita, or serve five years in the penitentiary. The Chinese in California are made to pay more than $42,000 school taxes annually, while their children are not admitted to the public schools, neither are there other schools provided for them. Thirteen hundred Chinamen asked the California Legislature for school privileges for 3,000 of their children, seeking only such as are provided for those of African and Indian descent. Their petition was immediately laid on the table, and stigmatized as dangerous. This is only a specimen of this class legislation on the Pacific Coast. They are very ingenious there. Just as fast as one law is decided unconstitutional, they have another.
Communism crushes the Chinese. The politician says, “They sha’n’t come here if we can prevent it by oppressive legislation.” As a protest against the unreasonableness of this course of procedure, the testimony of Postmaster-General Key is of special value. In a recent conversation, he gave the following as the result of his observations during his visit to the Pacific Coast: “The politicians,” said Mr. Key, “are almost to a man against the Chinese, and antagonize them bitterly. The merchants, the manufacturers, the farmers, and nearly the entire employing class, are very fond of the Chinese, and prefer them to any other laborers. They speak in the highest terms of the Chinese; they say that they are docile, obedient, obliging, punctual, hardworking, and faithful; they are exceedingly thrifty and economical; they are temperate in their habits, do not drink liquor of any kind, eat very little meat, and live almost entirely on rice. It is wonderful to see how little a Chinaman can live on. Their economy struck me as something marvellous. Large numbers of them sleep in a single ill-ventilated room; they constantly violate the fundamental laws of health, yet they are seemingly very healthy. I was astonished to learn they had no hospital. I was shown through the Chinese Quarter of San Francisco by the Mayor, and saw everything in that locality; but there are a number of places here in Washington fully as bad, if not worse, than anything I saw in Chinatown. I also observed that the railroad companies employed a large number of Chinamen, and found them excellent workmen.” Evidently, the politicians are not competent to the settlement of the Chinese question.
The American Missionary Association takes hold of the matter in the right way. It says: Let the Chinese come and be treated as men. Let them have the gospel preached to them, and be lifted into a civilization that is level with your own. Communism has not succeeded, so far. The politician has not succeeded. The American Missionary Association has shown itself able to grapple with the question. They have got hold of the right end of the rope. If they are encouraged by the churches of America, they will solve this problem.
There appeared in the Congregationalist, some weeks ago, an editorial of great merit, in which this radical mistake was made: it was a sort of apology for the Chinese, because they were so few in numbers. It said they were decreasing instead of increasing. Why, Mr. Chairman, look across the ocean and see that great nation, covering one-tenth of the globe, and holding one-third its population. So crowded is it that millions (even more than our entire population) who never have a home upon land, are born, live and die floating upon rivers and canals. A more industrious race is not; neither can agriculture, which still ranks far above any other employment, be found anywhere else carried to such perfection of thoroughness. There is no idleness among these millions. The monstrous human ant-heap is astir. They are also an educated people, nimble in figures, as well as in all kinds of labor. There is but one written language for all the population, which has been transmitted, with even no dialectic changes, for at least 2,500 years. It is a nation industrious and frugal. We talk about the heathen Chinese, but we had better talk about the heathen Anglo-Saxon. What useful art is practised to-day that China has not had for centuries? What we count the great discoveries of modern science, may turn out not to be so modern after all. I saw a statement made within ten days, that it has been discovered that Edison’s phonograph was known in China two hundred years before Edison was born. China has a history—a record which cannot be ignored.
We do vastly ill when we talk about the “heathen Chinee.” Their religion is something against which we set our faces; but their character is worth commendation. I was talking, the other day, with a gentleman who had passed the greater part of his life in China. He said there was not an element in the Japanese character that was not in the Chinese, and of the two, he considers the Chinese the more hopeful. In dealing with the Chinese, we are not dealing with refuse material. China is a great nation. It has its place among the foremost of the earth. It is a sad thing for this great nation of ours, if it cannot endure the little leaven on the Pacific Coast. Do you suppose it will affect the great mass of Christianity unfavorably?
Over 300 of the Chinese have already been received as members of the Protestant Churches in California, and 700 are under Christian instruction, studying the doctrines of our faith, while 1,000 attend Sunday-school, and two young men are preparing for the Christian ministry. Even those who do not come under the influence of such instruction can scarcely be said to be the worst people in the land. In 1875, of the 7,643 arrests for drunkenness, not one was a Chinaman; of the 3,263 paupers admitted to the alms-house, only six were Chinamen; of 83 murderers hanged during the last year in the United States, not one was a Chinaman.
If any other race, born or naturalized, on this continent, can show a similarly good record, let them step to the front and declare it.
The truth is, Mr. President, we are only standing on the threshold of this great question. I believe if you and I live to come to these meetings ten years hence, less will be said about the blacks and more about the Chinese. We need to understand this great work now opening before us. We ought to remove one source of prejudice against the Chinese. Men say the Chinese must go, because their coming reduces their wages. I happen to have a statement of wages in California for the past year, clipped only a few months since from a San Francisco paper: Carpenters, from $3 to $3.50; bricklayers, $4 to $5; painters, $3; plasterers, $3.50; hod-carriers, $3; stone-cutters, $4; machinists, $3 to $4; common laborers, $2; house work in families, per week, $6 to $7. Can we make a show equally in favor of the wages of the workingmen on this sun-rise side of the continent, where the Chinese are insignificant as a competing power? The truth is, all this cry about their taking the bread out of our children’s mouths is simply nonsense.
But it is said there is another difficulty. The Irishman comes to this country, and is assimilated. The German, also, and is assimilated. The Chinaman comes, and he alone is not assimilated. Why not? First of all there is no provision for his naturalization, if he desires it. The sixth article of the Burlingame Treaty provides that “Chinese subjects visiting or residing in the United States, shall enjoy the same privileges, immunities and exemptions in respect to travel or residence as may be enjoyed by the citizen-subjects of the most favored nation; but nothing herein contained shall be held to confer naturalization upon the citizens of the United States in China, nor upon subjects of China in the United States.” More than this, there is a certain stress of public opinion, which is weightier than treaty provisions. The head of the Chinese Embassy in this country was confronted with this question; “Why is it that your countrymen come here alone, without any families?” He replied: “It is about as much as a Chinaman can do to keep his head on his shoulders alone, without bringing his family.” There is nothing in the nature of things to prevent the absorption of the Mongolian into American citizenship. It seems to be the peculiar office of this nation to assimilate every element. It makes no difference what our estimate of a man is; if he is a man he can, by the power of the gospel, be brought into oneness with us. Walk up and down the pavement of the mosque of St. Sophia, and here and there you brush with your steps bits of gilded and colored glass that, rude in shape and void of beauty, seem only fit to be swept into a corner; but lift your eyes to the seraphim that blaze in flaming mosaics on the ceiling, and you see how the artist’s skill has wrought just such rough fragments into forms of grandeur that awe the soul. Our American Christianity gathers the best and the worst of the race forces of the world, and is able, by God’s good help, out of them to compact a nationality with which to face the world.
“The Chinese must go,” Mr. Kearney says. Yes, we accept that motto, but we put our own meaning to it. We say, “the Chinese must go” and come, whenever and wherever they please. This Association is called of God, I believe, to stand up and assert that, as it has opportunity, no effort shall be spared to give them place among the sanctified of the land.