The Tacoma Method [pp. 234-239]

lThe Tacoma Method.
pies of Con-fut-tse an opportunity of exercising their dexterity in forgery. The Secretary of State at Washington construed that
law to cover only arrivals at sea prior to January Tst, and gave instructions which resulted in the order from the bench and the subsequent action of the United States Marshal.
The case, then, is resolved into this: "The
Tacoma method," in the abstract, is an application of the principle that all of the rights
of the people cannot be conditioned or defined in the statute books, with specifications
of encroachments or traversements; and that
remedies and resorts must be left, in some
degree, to be indicated by emergencies. Every government on the face of the earth recognizes this principle, and to all communities
of the governed it is a vital one. It may be
objected that, under it, the murders of Christian ministers in heathen lands are more to
be regretted than reprehended: or that the
hanging of Mary Dyer, on Boston Common,
or the whipping of Rev'd Obadiah Holmes,
in Salem, was justifiable. From the standpoint of Christian tenderness, brotherly love,
and religious sentiment, such occurrences
seem monstrous; but in social economics,
where hard facts, and not necessarily of the
Gradgrind order either, are alone to be dealt
with, the peace, contentment, welfare, and
opportunities of the majority, and the claims
of corporative orders of civilization, obtain.
Under that ruling, mawkishness and cant are
excluded.
In the organic act of the State of Oregon,
there is a provision (Section xv.) that, after
A. D. I857, no Chinaman shall own or possess any real estate or mines, or independently engage in mining there; and it is simply
a recognition of the fact that the race is an
undesirable element, and should not be allowed to obtain a foothold on our soil; for
that it is which really fixes a man, as the
earth about the roots of a tree, to one spot.
The Chinamen are to be regarded merely as
nomads, and to be constitutionally continued
a transitory race. No such distinction, unfortunately, exists in Washington Territory,
and the agitation so near fruition in Seattle
ha s borne only sorrow.
Tacoma is to be congratulated on the advantages it possessed in dealing with the
Chinese question; and all derogatory reports
to the contrary, escaped even the appearance
of riot or violence. The conditions precedent were general determination, unanimity,
firmness, and judicious counsels and leadership. Above all, the keeping of counsel and
promptness of action commended themselves
by their prominence. It was only because
of the active participation of the sober, intelligent, and respectable citizens, whose
motives could not be questioned or integrity
impeached, that a speedy and peaceful
result was reached. The few interested
men who would have espoused the cause
of the Mongolians, were overwhelmed and
awed when they saw the class and character
of those arrayed against them.
It is now a little more than three months
since the coolies left Tacoma, and the desirability of their absence is demonstrated.
The late Christmas without Chinese was a
veritable fete day, and the merchants unite
in declaring that they have not had such a
generous and substantial holiday trade for
many years. Wvhat can be more natural?
The $25oo00 a week, buried in China, had
been retained in home circulation for about
eight weeks, a neat little difference, in favor of the city, of $20,000. Only the year
before, every fourth citizen carried a subscription paper; a widow with children, a
father out of work and a motherless brood
about him, starving men and women who
needed transportation to homes of kindred
or to places where situations could be hadall these appealed to the self-denial of the
charitably inclined. This year, not an eleemosynary scheme was set on foot. To us
and our race, Christmastide means giving.
It opens the purse; it blesses every mite,
yes, even every smile bestowed on the young,
the old, the poor, the helpless, the halt, the
lame, and the blind, for whose miseries the
heart of the Master bled. Who ever heard
of the Chinese being thus warmed by the
fires of love and charity? Like the horseleech's daughter, they cry "give" and are
never satisfied.
238
[March,