agitated question of Chinese immigration, it is well to give an epitome of them.
The report submitted for the committee by Senator Sargent stated that the investigation established the fact that so far as material prosperity was concerned, the Pacific coast had been a great gainer by Chinese immigration, and, if inquiry was not to be made into the present and future moral or political welfare of the Pacific States, it must be conceded that their general resources were being rapidly developed by Chinese labor. Opposition to any restriction on Chinese immigration was manifested by the capitalistic classes and those interested in transportation; also by religious teachers, who found in the presence of the Chinese an opportunity of Christianizing them.
On the other hand, the laboring men and artisans were opposed to the influx of Chinese; and the same view was entertained by many professional men, merchants, divines, and judges, who regarded the prosperity derived from the Chinese as deceptive and unwholesome, ruinous to the laboring classes, promotive of caste, and dangerous to free institutions.
The committee reported the evidence as showing that the Chinese lived in filthy dwellings, upon poor food, crowded in narrow quarters, disregarding health and fire ordinances, and that their vices were corrupting the morals especially of the young. It also showed that the Chinese had reduced wages to starvation prices for white men and women, that the hardships bore with special severity upon women, and that the tendency was to degrade all white working people to the abject
