The Chinese Question

[By pennlssion of BenJ. Brown, Esq., we are perraltted to oopy the following excellent letter upon the Chinese Questlon, wrltten by MU son In Seattle, W. Ter.- Ed.J You wished me to write jrou something about the Chinese and the trouble they are causing on the Pacific coast and in Seattle in particular. I am not sure I 8hall interest you or give you any new ideas. You are well-posted in regard to all the intricaciea of American glavery as it exlsted up to the close of the great rebellion. Chinese labor on this coast is slavery in another forin. Tlie Chinese siz companies own all the Chinese laborere here, and if you wish to build a railroad, grade a Street, clear a farm or a village lot, hire a load of wood sawed, or a servant that can cook, wash and act as chambennaid, you go to one of these Chinese bosses and get your man or men. You make the bargain with him, he turns the men over to you and he looks to you for the pay, and you have nothing to do with the laborers only to get all the work out of them you can. The boss furnishes a tent or hut for the men and gives them what rice they can eat, and that he imports from China. When you get your work done you return your meu and they are held in readiness for the next man. You may aay, why not employ white men to do thls work ? Because Chinamen will do it for half what a white man can. do it for, and make doublé what the white man can. You say, how can that be ? A laboring white man with his wife and three children needs a house with at least three room?, the rent of th:it house we will place at ten dollars permonth; and that same house will accommodate twenty Chinamen. l'lie Chinamen pays fifty cents rent per month and the white man ten dollars. The Chinaman has one moutli to feed, the white man five. Thus you see the white man has to compete with what seems to be worse tl'ian slave labor. These Chinese serfs were in our coa] mines, sawmills, loging campa, in our hotels and restaurants; and in San Francisco they were and are monopolizing ïnany manufacturing industries. All the money paid to these serfs is sent to China and is recoined, consequently never cirlates here again. It is estimated that one hundred and flfty thottsand dollars is sent to China every month from this coast iu payment of Cliinese serf labor, a Tery small portion of which eyer returns to this country. iUe Uitnamen are slow, fuithful workers. They never drink anytliing but tea. They {amble only among themselves, consequently, they leave no money liere througti that yice. They smuggle all the opium to this country they can and keep what are known as opium deus, where they congrégate to Bmoke the rile drug, and many times entice the fast, young American to contract the vile habit. The Chinese quarters are small and 80 filthy, it is next to impossible for a white man to even pass through thsni. Jïotwithstanding all the stenen and filth, our wealthy people will take tlieir cooks from these dens and allow them to go back every nlght, and return to tbeir work every morning. How they can relish their bread, pies and cake, after they have been slobered over by these fllthy creatures is more than I can see. Tliese cookg have a way of moistening their pie crust and their bread by filling their mouths with water and spurting it over whatever they wish to moisten. The classof people here, who were the strong" est anti-slavery party before and durinif the war of the rebellion are the strong pro-Chinese party now. This eovernment will havp to alirna-ot the treaty with China or place some restrictions upon Chinese immigration that will restrict, or figlit another rebellion. The people in the east do not understand the curse of Chinese labor as they will when tlieir fair country is overrun with them. Ea8tern manufacturers think it fine to have cheap labor at their command; and so it may be for a time. The Chinese are observing, shrewd and cunning, very quick to learn, and ere long they will be competlng with those same manufacturera. Then they will begin to realize the condition of things on the Pacific coast. This does not teil the whole story. Let them wait until Chinese begin to compete with Chinese, and then their business is ruined beyond redemption. I do not approve of the way some of our people are taking to rid our towns of the Chinese. To force them to go is unlawful, and it should not be allowed. I am anti-Chinese, and iny method is not to employ them directly or indirectly, and then they will go of their own free will. That, I contend, Is legitímate; there is no law or treaty violated by so doing. Had the government used a Iittle precaution and even tried to enforce the restriction laws, the people would have been more patiënt with the Chinese legally here. There has been nothing but au iron post here and there to keep them from coming here from British Columbia. They soon found that if they could get south of these iron posts they were in the United States, ' and they would come stringing along i uiuij iu iwos, iours ana even üozens. They were overrunning the country and cursing it like unto Egypt of old. When tlie raid commenced Seattle had about five bundred Chinamen, and there is from tifty to seventy-five here now. I have stood on neutral ground as lar as I poealblycould; have taken no active part on either side; do not belong to the Knights of Labor, still my syrapathy is with tLe white laborinsr man. I tkink I have worried jour paüence by this time. I tmve wrltten this as I could, when I had a few moments to spare. About fifty or more members of the senior class appeared at the court room last Saturday evening to pass an exainination for admission to the bar. E. D. Kinne was the meinber of the coinmittee to aak the questions, and the otter failure of the sludents to answer some of the simplest questions showed how sadly deficiënt had been their training iu the fundcmental principies of the common law. They were evidently well np on English court decisions and the Iike. The question, "What is Marine law?" elicited a response that it was the law relating to the U. S. Navy, or words of Iike import. Heinrich Heine, the Germán Jew, in one of bis humorous and garcastic poems, speaks of "stuffed chestnuts." Could he have seen away in tbe American future those proliibition victoriea so much bragged about ? If President Cleveland desires to marry Miss Folsom and Miss Folsom is willing, what basiness is it to the public ? There's no use of going wild or craiy over uch an event. n eflbrt was made Kt Ann Arbor, at the time of tbe printer' strike, to ralse tlie aubscrlpllou of the city papers u $1.50 per year, but falled, because the Courikk would not iMirec to the change. All of the Ana Arbor paper are fully wirth the proponed prlce, and we tliluk they nre standing In thelr own llght, when they refuse to ask a fair prlce for thelr labor.- Saline obuerver. The price ih.it the proprietors of the newspaperg in this city ahould receive for thelr publicatlons bad nothing whatever to do with the so-called printere' strike in Ann Arbor, and they very eenaibly declined to interfere In the matter. Did the Observer fully understand the situation liere, it would undoubtedly look at tilinga as we do. The Courier, having kept iu subscription priee up to $1.50 per year against bitter competition (at 60 cents per year), was linally forced to drop the price to $1.00. This change in price was not of lts seeking, and against its better judjtment. All publisuers who have had experience know how easy lt is to get prices down, but how difflcult to brins; thera up. The Coubieb ig not responsible fer the subscription price Ann Arbor editor's receive, as the blame for that rests elsewhere, but being forced to stand upon that basis it doesn't propose to be forced to make another change, at present. As long as the weekly editions of the great city dailies are furnished at$l or less per year, it would be very difflcult in these times, and under such circumstances to secure an advance of 50 per cent. in the price of our weeklies. What lias become of the "business boom?" Haait all died out, and nota blow struck ? "Aniong the Bronkers, " to be producid by the University Dramatic Club, will be well worth hearing. The Easter services held by the Ann Arbor Commandery, K. T., at their asyIn in last Sabbath afternoon were well attended, and the sermón by Rev. T. W. Maclean, was a very fine effort, indeed. Music of :in excellent order was furnished by a quartette conslsting of Hrs. H.Woodward, Mrg. R. Kempf and Messrs. Fall and Mallory, wlth Prof. R. Kempf presidinjr at the organ. Lewis Moore, who had been a respected resident of tliis city for the past IS or 20 years, died on Tuesday at his residence in the Unity House, leaving a wife and two children. The deceased was one of the firemen and from violent exercise n run" ning to the fire on Thayer street, last Thursday morning he caugbt a scvere cold, and died from the eflects thcreof. He was a man 40 years of age, and a brother of Eli W. and Wendell Moore, of the 5th ward. He was one of the most faitlif ui firemen the city ever had, and really lost hls life in the interest of the public. me Aiicnigan sclioolmasters' Club [ composed of teachers of High Schooli and Colleges throughout the state meets in Room 24, on Saturday, May lst. Iti object is to bring the high schools of the state in harmonious action with themselTes and the Uuiversity. An extended program has been gotten out, on which are several papers by teachers of note in the state, and we are iniormed that the sessionsare open to the public. Prof. W. H. Payne delivers a lecture Saturday evening, upon "The Teacher as a Philanthropist." This momlng, at about 1} o'clock, a fire broke out in the building owned by B. Green, corner of E. Ann and N. 4th streets, occupled upon one side by Hendricks & Wilson, grocers, and upon the south side by Fred. Schlede's book bindery. Pire caught in the cellar under the grocery, from some unknown cause. The fire departmeiit was soon on had and had the llames drownded out. Hendricds & Wilson put their loss at $1,000 with a small insurance. Schlede's los cannot be estimated at this time, but is considerable, as nearly all lus stock is ruined by water. He has $1,800 insurance. Loss on building about $200, insured. The clilldren's service at St. Andrew's church last Sunday.in observance of Easter, was of unusual interest. The church was handsomely decorated with flowers, lillies being by far the most abundant. The rector's remarks were appropriate to the occasion. He called th e attcntion of the children to the spotlessness of the lillies before them, told them bow the least touch of the flnger would soil their surface, and so he aaid it was with one's soul. Every wrong deed, every impure thought Ie ft it.s lmpress on the soul, and lie begged of them to keep their soul, and body also, pure and clean. The many friends of Ed. C. Hoyt in this county, will be sorry to learn that he lus been ill for several months, but glud that he is now in a fair way to recover. In this connection the followiiig card may be of interest: 8BKKCA Falls, N. Y., April IS, '86. To Whom U May Concern: The bearer Is Mr. E. C. Hoyt, who has been our book-keeper and cashler for 6 years. Have alwüj's found hlm raarvellously accurate, thorough and prompt In hls work, a good collector, exceedlngly systemattc, a stenographerof flrst-class ablllty, and of unquestlonable lnU-grlty. As proof of hls accuracy we may say that In these 6 years only 2 ledgwr errors have been broaaht out by hls trial balances. He Is very qulck, and has very good business Ideas and can make hlmself of great value toanyoneln want of hls sei vloes. He left us on account of a dnngeroux illness wlilch has conflned hlm to hls room for over threemonths. To further attest our appreclatlon of hls general abllltles we may say, we have been paylng hlm, for the last 4 years, i.0O0.ÜO per uiiiium Very respeotfully, THE QOÜLDS M'F'G CO. J. H. Qould, Treas.