Knights Against Chinese

AN ADDRESS THAT CONTAINS MUCH TRUTH. –

            Mr. Powderly has just issued an address on the Chinese immigration question, which is to be read in all the district and local assemblies of the Knights of Labor.  In the address he says that had not the tide of their immigration been checked, there would not be a white laborer at work west of the Rocky mountains, while those east of that range would be retiring before the barbaric hordes who work almost for nothing.  In speaking of Chinese restriction Mr. Powderly says: “On May 6, 1882, the act was signed by President Arthur.  It went into effect 90 days after he signed it and after the 6^th day of May, 1892, it will have expired and every barrier to the immigration and the importation of Chinese cheap labor will be swept away, wages reduced to the level at which manhood cannot be maintained, the substitution of the Mongolian slave for the American freeman, the abandonment of the home for the street and slum, the prostitution of men’s and women’s bodies; indeed, the overthrow of this republic are among the possibilities if congress does not re-enact that or a more stringent law for the prohibition of this most servile of all races.  Some of the most powerful influences in this nation are now at work on congress interceding for the Chinese.  They are at work on congressmen and senators, their missionaries are laying plans for the conversion of the president of the United States to their theories.  Standing behind them are the Christian employers of this land, who would rather import a heathen willing to work for barely enough to sustain life than retain a brother Christian at a wage sufficient to enable a man to live as becomes a Christian.  We do not want opium, or the Chinese who grow it.  Both are curses when planted where civilization has a foothold.