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About Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885 | View Entire Issue (April 1, 1879)
78 ".JOHN." VOL. VIII. hSMi&s. K 1' l . ; ' - - not too conceited, ami should for n while be fed with slick honeyed words, hu would cense to consider it 1111 art to circu late the slimy iluid, hut would start upon an immediate search for brains to 111! an alarming vacancy. II. "JOIIX." Must cheap John content himself at home? At present this question is hy no means one-aided. With such men as Joseph Cook on one side and David Swing ou the other, there will of necessity be many adherents and the contest will drag on for sonic time. Not many years ago John was wclcomedjto our shores and was looked upon as a great curiosity. Poetry, too, was then composed, with him as tiie hero. Scene afier scene lias been enacted. In the Mist of these, comedy played the principal part, in the last, tragedy steps to the front. Now another act is placed before the public and, without doubt, before the curtain falls ou the last scene John will be compelled by law to content hinielf with other lauds than ours. This large hearted liberaliy and human. Ity which Josepn Cook, lluury Ward Beceher, and others oxhibel may do very wcll'for the present, if expressed only to eastern audiences; but if adhered to all over the land, before man' years would give posterity the priucibal of "reaping the whirl-wind;" for, we are surely "sow iug to the wind" so long as we open our country to hords of races which wis can neter assimilate. Our laud lias been characterized as an "Asylum for the Poor and Oppressed," and 1 am one of those who would gladly hail all the poor and oppressed who come here, not merely to belter themselves, but to become one of us and aid us in our struggle to maintain a republican form of government. On the contrary, I am as bitterly opposed as any to throwing open our country to races with which we cannot assimilate, which cling tenaciously to their native customs how ever revolting, and hy such means as this are able to live upon that which would starve ourown people in a short time. Let us make our country "An Asylum for the Poor and Oppressed;" but while doing so care must be taken that we do not oppress our own people to such a de gree that a conllict cf races ensues. To do so, is our own destruction, but first and above this is the fact that while wc arc throwing the arms of freedom around a heathenish race, we are grinding down people of our own race and blood by the iron heel of despotism. Pray, what sort of liberality and humanity is this? The customs and revolting habits of the Chi nese who come to our shores have been snllicieutly aired through responsible newspapers and reliable men so that none need he ignorant. It is said that the com plaints do not come from the "belter class' of citizens along the Paeitic coast and this is the argument in favor of "Cheap John." By the "better class" is meant those who lind it temporarily advantageous to hire large numbers of these cheap laborers. I say temporarily, for cheap labor will in the end pauperize any country. Are we to work in the interests of this "better class" alone, and stop our ears to the cry of the poor laborers who are starving be cause they cannot live upon tilth as this race can ? They tell us "This is a free country and tl is 'jontrary to the .spirit of the constitu tion lo favor tine race and debar another. Is our constitution such a monstrosity that wo must fold our anm and allow heathen hoidcs to overrun our whole laud ci eat ing interna'! strile? I cannot believe this lo he the spirit of the couxtilutiou, neither is it justice nor humanity. Let us then have laws regulating the influx of semi barbarous races. And now "Cheap John's" friends ask: "('an we over-ride the provisions of the 'Buiiiugaiuc treaty' which wo in conjunc tion with other nations, forced upon the Chinese?." A treaty is binding only so long as both