Ch. 10: Tracks of Conflict…
This week I read about the Chinese immigrant strike and California Senate investigation. These Chinese immigrants, who were constantly faced with discrimination and exploitation, indeed would rise up, but they would have mixed results. In the spring of 1867, thousands of Chinese workers went on strike against the Central Pacific Railroad Company. However their plan was struck down when their food supply was cut off and the Chinese Immigrants were literally starved back to work.
This state-senate investigation happened in 1876 when hearings were initiated in order to investigate the problem of Chinese Immigration. Although these hearings ended with the legislation concluding that such immigration was “an unmitigated evil,” the end result of this investigation was the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. This act gave Chinese Immigrants an opportunity to raise their voice against the discrimination and exploitation they faced.
The investigation involved the testimonies of two Chinese immigrants. The first testimony is that of Hong Chung, and the second testimony is that of Lem Schaum. These two testimonies are extremely different from one-another. You can understand why people believed that the Chinese Immigration had to be stopped, because there were immigrants who spoke bad english, and were willing to work for anything, this made them very susceptible to being exploited. There is one point during Mr. Chung’s interview where he is asked, “Would you like to be Governor of the State of California?” and he answered, “Of course. I like State of California a long time; I like a free country.” In contrast to Mr. Chung, Mr. Schaum appears to be much more “Americanized” and free-thinking. At one point he is asked, “As a general rule, taking the on hundred and fifty thousand of them [Chinese Immigrants] in California, they don’t learn much good after they come here, do they? Don’t they learn the vices of the country?” He responds by explaining, “That is your own fault. No Chinaman can take a walk up and down the street unless you find an Irishman or a Dutchman to strike them down….A great many Chinamen desire to learn to read and write English, and then also our methods of business, or any kind of work; perhaps the arts or sciences.”
The goal of these testimonies were often to get Chinese witnesses to confirm their presumed stereotypes, such as that they were dirty and unintelligent people, but immigrants such as Lem Schaum would come along and prove those stereotypes wrong. In fact, people such as Lem Schaum were willing to point out that is was the government’s fault for allowing the Chinamen to be exploited. I feel this story does a great job explaining the negatives about immigration. It is not that immigration is necessarily bad, but if there is going to be mass immigration from other countries then we have to work together with those individuals in order to create productive members of society.
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