Speech #500015965

It is further represented that from these laundry establishments. so far as conducted by American citizens. emanate no immoral influences and the seeds of no physical. moral. or religious leprosy. but. on the contrary. they are healthful factors in the great civilizing organization of American industry. The memorial further suggests that the Chinese Empire. which was for so many centuries closed against the enlightenment of true civilization and shut up as a vast hotbed of monstrous political. social. moral. and superstitious propagation. having. unfortunately for the rest of the world. opened its national doors. appears now to be ridding itself of a large surplus population by a strong organic effort to cast the poisonous fruitage of its corrupt system upon our shores. It is stated. moreover. as the belief of the Laundrymens National Association that the 250.000 Chinese at present forced upon us are but the avantcouriers of an army to come unless the wise provisions of the Chinese exclusion bill introduced by myselfin this body are adopted. It is further asserted as a fact that a much larger proportion of Chinese immigrants than that of any other foreign element gravitates naturally into the laundry business. It is stated that of the 250.000 Chinese now here. 98.500 are laundrymen. and their laundries today number 12.973. more than double the number of those conducted by Americans. that they employ no American help. that threefourths of them are controlled by the Chinese syndicate known as the Six Companies. whose agents are in every hamlet in the land. making weekly collections from each laundry. and reminding these pagan people. whereever they go. that they are still the slaves of the Chinese Government as they are of the hideous vices with which that countrys effete society is reeking. The memorial further states that of the $26.983.840 which they draw annually from this country. giving back no return in taxes or any form of loyalty. many millions are expended in China for the means to indulge their national vices and to hire what is really slave labor to compete with American laborers. It declares that the meagerness of their business expenditures. from which this country could alone realize any benefit in their presence. is indicated by the estimate that their total laundry outfit costs less than $325.000. while many of their laundries are opium dens of the lowest type. � The furthersuggestion is made in this memorial that the 60.000 wage women now employed in American laundries might have their number more than quadrupled if these Chinese seedbeds of leprosy could be closed. And in this connection it is asserted that one form of the Chinese laundrymans business economy is the temporary conversion of customers clothing into beds. where they absorb every form of filth. It is further stated that all the arguments against Chinese immigration. drawn from economic or other physical considerations. are really trifling compared with the gross immoralities which everywhere attend them and the pagan rites with which they continually insult and tend to debauch every Christian sentiment. The memorial declares that the Chinese. in short. are the one people among all our representatives of foreign nationalities from whom our country has the least to hope and the most to fear. The more intimately they and their imperial customs and national characteristics become known among us. the more fixed is the wise determination of our native population that Mongolian character and rites shall not be incorporated into our nationality. and it is said that side by side with this determination is the clear conviction that the only way to prevent this immeasurable evil is to absolutely close the door against Chinese immigration. The memorial further attracts attention to the fact that while heretofore the chief opposition to the influx of this hopelessly degraded people has existed oN the Pacificcoast. now they are rapidly spreading themselves over all parts of the country. and especially through the thickly populated regions of the Atlantic seaboard. where the opposition to their coming is arising at every point where their character and national purposes and personal practices become known. and in this connection it is said in this memorial the East is now vying with the West in demanding their total exclusion. The memorial concludes as follows: To avert all these evils and dangers. therefore. we solemnly pray you to grant the relief herein which all classes of American citizens are asking. by adopting and enacting as law the Mitchell antiChinese bill now pending before your honorable body.