There are about 60,000 Chinese in California, and I do not know what we could do without them. They are industrious and peaceable, generally speaking, and it would be impossible readily to supply our manufactories with labor, but for the Chinese. Their wages—the wages of the laborers, I mean—average $1 a day. In Virginia City white labor costs as much as $2.50 a day. We need whatever Chinese labor we have in California. It might be well for Congress to check temporarily the flow of Chinese immigration by levying a tax upon each immigrant. But those who are now on our shores are needed, and they should be treated with humanity, and protected from the persecution of the rougher element of society. The Chinese, generally speaking, are temperate, exceedingly industrious and economical.
—The Attorney-General, by direction of the President, has given considerable attention to the question of protecting the Chinese in California. The Attorney-General finds that there is no authority for the United States to interfere unless the State should ask for aid, and is of opinion that this matter should be referred to Congress, and a special message from the President on the subject has been talked of. The President, and all members of his Cabinet, are anxious to use every means which they can constitutionally command to prevent the threatened outbreak. The class of people engaged in the attempt to create disorder is chiefly confined to the foreign laboring element, aided by roughs and the lower classes of San Francisco population. The fact that the Chinese have completely armed themselves has held the roughs in check; but matters are believed to be in a much worse condition than has been reported, and news at any time of horrible scenes in San Francisco would not create surprise in Washington.
NEW APPOINTMENTS.
1877-1878.
The following list presents the names and post-office addresses of those who are under appointment in the Churches, Institutions and Schools, aided by the American Missionary Association, among the Freedmen in the South, the Chinese on the Pacific Coast, the Indians, and the Negroes in Western Africa. The Theological Department of Howard University is supported jointly by the Presbytery of Washington and the A. M. A. The Berea College and Hampton Institute are under the care of their own Boards of Trustees, but being either founded or fostered in the past by this Association, and representing the general work in which it is engaged, their teachers are included in this list.
THE SOUTHERN FIELD.
| DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. | |
| HOWARD UNIVERSITY. | |
| Theological Department. | |
| Rev. W. W. Patton, D.D., | Washington, D. C. |
| Rev. Lorenzo Westcott, | Washington, D. C. |
| Rev. Alexander Pitzer, D.D., | Washington, D. C. |
| Rev. John G. Butler, D.D., | Washington, D. C. |