The Chinese Problem

A Washington correspondent of the Chicago Times telcgraphs that journal as follows : The Chinese question has of late excited a great deal more interest among public men at the capital than it has ever before been ppssible to arouse. At a dinner party in this city, a few eveniugs since, where Senator Blaine was a guest, the cojflfetion turned upon the Chinese quesnon. Southern men of extreme Democratie type were present. Northern men of extreme Radical type were present. Senator Blaine, almost alone at the outset, took strong and decided ground against Chinese immigration. On being reminded that this was against the broad and liberal creed of republicanism, he replied that the creed of self-preservation was the broadest and most liberal creed in the world in its effect on the actions of men, and that, in ida judginent, if free immigration of the Mongolian race was permitted, they would take possession of the Pacific coast, to the exclusión of the white race. "A people," continued Mr. Blaine, "who eat beef and wheat bread, and who drink beer, cannot labor alongside of those who live on rice, and if the experiment is attempted on a largo scale the American laborer will have to drop his knife and fork and take up the chop-sticks." On being asked if he did not by this argument concede the superiority of the Chinese laborera, Mr. Blaine said no; no more than it was conceding the superiority of tlie slavo labor to say (as was always found to be the oase) that freo white labor could not live and flourish alongside of it. The causes which would drive white labor from the Pacific coast by the introduction of the Chinese were not essentially different from those causes that drove white labor from the South by the spread and increase of the servile race there. It was urged by a well-known New England man that the policy of exclusión could i not be maintained in this nineteenth eentury, but Mr. Blaine in.sisted that all our great troubles thus far in the United States had their origin in distincj tions and prejudices of race, and that now, just as we are getting over one I that threatened the destruction of civil liberty on this continent, it would not I seem wise to invite another and possibly jioro serious trouble of the same kind from an even more dangerous sonrce. Mr. Blaine was then asked by a prominent Western man how he would deal with the Chinese already in the country. " Kindly and fairly and honestly, of course," replied Mr. Blaine. " They carne here," continued he, " unte treaty rights, and are entitled to legal protection and humane, Christian treatment. ïhe questions of fair dealing with the few Chinese already here and the throwing our ports wide ouen to an unlimited immigration of Mongols I are entirely distinct issues, and no man ' of sense will confound them." The conversation was prolonged and animated, and was suggested by the presence of the Chinese embassy in Washington. At the conclusión of the talk it was said that tliree-fourths of the guests at the table were in sympathy with I iitor Blaine's ideas.