President Arthur vetoed this bill, on the ground that it did not agree with our treaty with China. A new bill was then passed, stopping immigration for ten years, and this Mr. Arthur signed.
By this bill it became a crime, for which people could be imprisoned, to bring a Chinaman into the country.
In 1892, when the ten years covered by the bill had passed, a fresh bill called "The Chinese Exclusion Bill" was put through Congress, and made a law.
By this bill, the landing of any Chinese person was strictly forbidden, and all Chinamen living in the country were forced to take out a certificate, licensing them to remain. Any Chinaman found without such a certificate was to be imprisoned, and sent back to his own country.
The Chinese were much annoyed at this. They protested, but the United States Government remained firm. In the years that had passed since 1882, the people had had time to find out that the Chinese did not make good citizens.
One cause of complaint against them, is that they have brought with them their horrible habit of smoking opium, introduced it among our citizens, and in that way alone have done us more harm than they can ever repair.
Besides this, the fact that they would work for less money than our own workmen was very harmful to our citizens.
Employers will always get their work done for as little as possible, and if the Chinamen had been allowed to swarm into this country, and work for the pittance they ask, the result would have been that our own workmen would have been obliged to take the same miserable wages or starve.
The Chinamen like this country, and are willing to work for anything they can get, because they are so much better off here than at home.
It is their anxiety to get over to this free land that is causing the present difficulty.