Now. in the Straits Settlements the population in 1889 was 387.234. nearly all of whom were engaged in tin mining. This popfilation is composed of 3.497 Europeans. 170.163 Malays. 173.279 Chinese. and 40.295 natives of India. So that less than 4.000 Europeans direct this army of nearly 400.000 coolies and others. the cheapest laborers in the world. whose product entes the United States free of duty. so that. while the immigration of Chinese laborers into the United States has been prohibited. American labor will. in the absence of the duty now asked for. be compelled to compete with a class of labor little better than slaves. and in the face of disadvantages arising from the severe climate of Dakota. which requires large outlays for living as compared with the cheap and primitive way in which the inhabitants of the Straits Settlements are enabled to live. So far as the tin mines of Wales are concerned. if these people had only to compete with that source of supply. furnishing last year only 9.300 tons of metallic tin to the world. this industry in South Dakota would ask no odds of Congress or otherwise.
Identified stereotypes
Chinese laborers are described as 'little better than slaves'.