and will always so far do so as to control the situation. The man who will do the work for half the sum, is in universal demand. The American must either lower his wage, or leave.

But it would require the same training of centuries, and under populous conditions unknown to us, for the American to come down to the Chinaman's reduced standard of comfort. Even could he at once descend to it, it would be undesirable. Low wages, with temporary local advantage to manufacturers, would ultimately prove an enduring national curse. Their incidental influence upon production is adverse, in making the laborer less efficient, and diminishing the tendency toward improved economic methods.

Their proper and permanent effect, however, is upon distribution, in giving to capital a larger share of the wealth, and widening the gap between poor and rich-an evil already assuming among us threatening aspects.

In judging Chinese immigration, we distinguish between the "water rats" of Canton and Hong Kong-the opium-smoking, hard-looking, criminal scum of seaport cities-and the clean, bright-eyed, well-bred Chinamen from the interior rice and tea farms, raised in homes where parents exact obedience and children yield it. There are, too, doubtless, noble spirits among the Chinese, many whom the best of us could admire and love. But these come not to us.

The main-stream upon California has been vile. Beyond question it is blighting the Pacific coast. The Californians are the most competent judges, and their opinion, excepting some interested manufacturers, is intense and unanimous. The State is said to be approaching retrogression, and even her millionaires are "gravitating" eastward. We have before us the "Report of the Special Committee of the Board of Supervisors of San Francisco, on the Condition of the Chinese quarter," issued last July. The facts to which they testify, after a personal and most painstaking inspection, including affidavits from prominent physicians and law officers, can scarcely be questioned. They affirm:

That in 12 blocks are crowded, in indescribable filth, 30,000 men, and 1,385 women, of the latter 57 being legitimate wives, 567 professional prostitutes, the residue either concubines or women of doubtful character; that, beds being unknown, they sleep in bunks, with two in a bunk, "relays" in daytime, and rolls of bedding for sleeping on floors, women and children being stuck in out-of

the-way corners; that there are 150 gambling dives, the approaches to which are generally so barricaded as to defy police detection; that, while there is an "opium lay-out" in nearly every sleepingroom, the public resorts are 26, with 319 bunks; that there are 35 dens of white prostitution, generally patronized by Chinese, and 69 of Chinese prostitution, patronized generally by whites; that among the latter especially the rates are extremely low, and that white boys, as young as even 8 or 10, are often enticed into them; that there is no city in the world where so many children are afflicted with secret diseases as San Francisco, and that nine-tenths of it is traceable to the excessively cheap prostitution of "Chinatown;" that the Chinese prostitutes are regularly bought and sold for terms of years, and that organized bodies of villains exist, as the Ye Tung Society, for the purpose of capturing and restoring to the owner fugitive prostitutes; that gambling, opium-smoking, and prostitution are so intrenched that the police force necessary to suppress them would bankrupt the city; that the course of justice is systematically baffled by the powerful guilds or secret tribunals; that, within these 12 blocks, there are 13 Joss Houses, where hideous idols squat upon the altars; and that for every Chinaman's soul rationally converted, scores of American souls are lost through the increase of vice.

A purer stream of immigration, while lessening these moral evils, would enhance danger on the economic side.

Therefore, Congress, in 1882-as Australia has done-imposed restrictions upon immigration. As these have proven inadequate, effectual measures should be taken, or conflicts will be inevitable. The California feeling is spreading. Those who know China, know her friendship should be cherished; nevertheless, we must be self-protecting. Traditions to the winds, that do not make America first of all for Americans!

An uppermost thought in the political mind of the age is the national importance of homogeneous population. Its absence, even within the circumscribed area of those white varieties of the race, whose language, laws, and religion have a common origin, is to-day vexing England to the core, and stimulating Bismarck in a course toward the Poles that is brutal, yet sagacious. Many think we Americans have had enough of immigration, even of our own color. The riotous tendencies among us largely come from the foreign element. America's digestive powers are strained to assimVOL. CXLIII.-NO. 356.

3

ilate it, and develop within it that organizing principle which is the Anglo-Saxon's glory. The Negro question, too, remains unsolved. The race has a phenomenal fecundity, and should and must remain distinct, or our descendants will be hybrids inferior to the native negro ancestry. Should the race become vagabond and moribund, it would poison the body politic, and drag down those with whom it is allied. Should it advance intellectually, race struggles are foreshadowed. If this Chinese tide be allowed to keep flowing in, it will corrupt still more our ethnological hellbroth, and add another and a notable element of disturbance. The three great families into which mankind is divided-black, yellow, white-(the debasing effects of amalgamation across color lines indicate this) should develop within themselves, and toward what apparently are their respective bounds, a half-civilized, civilized, and enlightened condition. E. W. GILLIAM.

Zillisess

SHOULD THE GOVERNMENT OWN THE
TELEGRAPH?

THE United States Government, since its foundation, has assumed the business of carrying letters and newspapers for the people. It is not necessary to argue the constitutional right, or the business propriety of this proceeding. As telegraphing is a modern form of the same service, it is remarkable that the government has permitted it to fall into the hands of private companies or monopolies. In Europe, telegraphy is almost exclusively under the management of the various governments. The first telegraphic line in the United States was constructed, owned and operated by the government. At the present time the United States erects and operates an extensive military telegraph system. These long extended and but partially used lines stretch from point to point between military posts and stations. In other words, the profitable part of telegraphing has fallen into the hands of private companies, while the most expensive and yet necessary portions of the telegraph system are maintained at very considerable cost by the government. In this way the remote or thinly settled parts of the country are deprived of telegraphic communication, and great stretches of the settled country but indifferently supplied, since it is not profitable for private enterprise to build lines in these localities. To the above may be added the still more serious objection, that under the existing system, the telegraph companies, and in combination with them the news companies, make a private monopoly of news, and are able to control its transmission to the public.

Britain, which has a similar postal organization, allowed telegraphy, when first introduced, to fall into the hands of private companies. Becoming convinced that telegraphy properly belonged to the postal system, an Act of Parliament was passed in 1868, providing that the "plant and trade" of telegraph companies should be negotiated for and paid in three per cent. consols. The

act required the post-office officials, after ascertaining what a twentyyears' purchase of profits would be, to debit the companies certain amounts for the depreciation in their "plant." The report of the Chancellor of the Exchequer for 1871 shows that up to that time the Government purchased the interest of some twenty companies. The estimated profit value was £6,215,000, from which £500,000 was deducted for depreciation of the "plant."

From Mr. Scudamore's report we learn that the principal results sought to be accomplished were: the reduction and simplification of charges for the transmission of messages throughout the British kingdom; the extension of wires from railway stations lying outside the town populations to post offices in the center of such populations; the extension of wires already carried into large cities to many points within them and to the suburbs thereof; the extension of wires into rural populations not having telegraphic communication. It was also designed to make a complete separation of the commercial and the railway telegraph system, to relieve the former. Another important purpose was to secure a perfect freedom in the collection and transmission of news, at a low rate, no matter by whom or by how many agencies it might be collected and transmitted. The evidence had shown, as it probably would in this country, that telegraph companies and news companies, in combination, not only make a monopoly in the trade of news, but by a process called "editing news," actually exercised, or were able to exercise, a censorship as to what news could be sent.

The Act of Parliament of 1868 fixed the rate of one shilling for twenty words, to all distances. In Mr. Scudamore's report for June 3, 1871, he states that after the government had furnished an enormous increase of new telegraph facilities to the public, "the net revenue was much more than the charge for capital invested," or interest charges. It is well to trace the experiment a little further. The British Postmaster-General's report for March 31, 1875, shows that the net earnings of this postal telegraph system for the fiscal year ending March 31, 1871, were £303,456 13s. 6d. ; on March 31, 1872, £159,834 138. 81d.; March 31, 1873, £103,120 28. 8d.; March 31, 1874, £90,033 68. 111d.; in 1875, £36,725. That official says in his report that it will be necessary to reduce expenses, increase charges, or consent that the telegraph department shall become a permanent charge.

During the first year of government telegraphy, only nine mill