The leading part taken by our
country in the subsequent settlement, especially in warding off the
threatened dismemberment of China, added immensely to our influence.
Again, on the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese conflict, which was
waged mainly on Chinese territory, it was American diplomacy that
secured for China the advantage of neutrality, and once more warded
off a danger that menaced her existence.
Yet every spark of gratitude for these transcendent services is
liable to be extinguished by the irritation caused by discrimination
against her labourers and the consequent ill-treatment of other
classes of her people. No argument is required to show how important
it is to remove all grounds of complaint in the interest of our
growing commerce.
That any sweeping alteration will be made in our existing laws, I
have given my mandarin friends no reason to expect. Self-preservation
stands on a higher plane than the amenities of intercourse. For
many years these laws served as a bulwark without which the
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sparse population of our Western States would have been swamped by
the influx of Asiatics. In early days it was easier for the Chinese
to cross the ocean than for the people of our Eastern States to cross
the Continent. Now, however, the completion of railroads has reduced
the continental transit to five or six days, in lieu of many months;
and the population of our Pacific Coast is so considerable that
there is no longer any danger of its being overrun by immigrants
from the Far East.
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