The AFL Supports Chinese Exclusion

These excerpts from a 1902 American Federation of Labor pamphlet argue for a second extension of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. The pamphlet, entitled Some Reasons for Chinese Exclusion: Meat vs. Rice, alleged that the supposed willingness of Chinese and other Asian workers to accept inferior living conditions and lower wages made it impossible for white workers to compete. Despite a disclaimer disavowing "prejudice of any kind," the pamphlet is filled with racist stereotypes and unsupported assertions about the employment and social habits of "John Chinaman." The pamphlet's reiteration of previous AFL resolutions supporting the exclusion of Chinese and other "Mongolians" suggests that such views were widely held among skilled white workers on the West Coast.

In view of the near expiration of the present law excluding Chinese laborers from coming to the United States and the recognized necessity of either reenacting the present or adopting a similar law, the American Federation of Labor has determined to present its reasons and solicit the cooperation of not only all of its affiliated organizations, but also of all citizens who may consider the preservation of American institutions and the welfare of a majority of our people of sufficient importance to assist in this work. . . .

We have been to some trouble in obtaining the data herein contained, but were extremely careful in presenting only such as is entirely reliable and obtained through official sources. We furthermore desire to assure our readers that in maintaining our position we are not inspired by a scintilla of prejudice of any kind, but with the best interests of our country uppermost in our mind simply request fair consideration.

HISTORICAL
Beginning with the most menial avocations they gradually . . . invaded one industry after another until they not merely took the places of our girls as domestics and cooks, the laundry of our poorer white women, but the places of the men and boys, as boot and shoemakers, cigarmakers, bagmakers, miners, farm laborers, brickmakers, tailors, slippermakers, etc. In the ladies' furnishing line they have absolute control, displacing hundreds of our girls, who would otherwise find profitable employment. Whatever business or trade they enter is doomed for the white laborer, as competition is surely impossible. Not that the Chinese would not rather work for high wages than low, but in order to gain control he will work so cheaply as to bar all efforts of his competitor. . . .

DOES HISTORY REPEAT ITSELF?
What need of more figures? The reports of the bureau of labor statistics of California of the years 18834, 1886, 1890, and 1900 furnish ample proof of the utter impossibility of our race to compete with the Mongolian. Their ability to subsist and thrive under conditions which would mean starvation and suicide to the cheapest laborer of Europe secures to them an advantage which baffles the statesman and economist to overcome, how much less the chances of the laborers pitted in competition against them.

For many years it was impossible to get white persons to do the menial labor usually performed by Chinese. It was Chinaman’s labor, and not fit for white. In the agricultural districts a species of tramp has been created, known as the blanket man. White agricultural laborers seldom find permanent employment; the Chinese are preferred. During harvest time the white man is forced to wander from ranch to ranch and find employment here and there for short periods of time, with the privilege of sleeping in barns or haystacks. He is looked upon as a vagabond, unfit to associate with his employer or to eat from the same table with him. The negro slave of the South was housed and fed, but the white trash of California is placed beneath the Chinese.

The white domestic servant was expected to live in the room originally built for John, generally situated in the cellar and void of all comforts, frequently unpainted or unpapered, containing a bedstead and a chair. Anything was good enough for John, and the white girl had to be satisfied as well. Is it any wonder that self-respecting girls refused to take service under those conditions? And what is true of agricultural laborers and domestics equally applies to the trades in which Chinese were largely employed. Absolute servility was expected from those who took the place of the Chinaman, and it will take years to obliterate these traces of inferiority and reestablish the proper relations of employer and employee. . . .

SOCIAL HABITS
Of their social habits, none can form a proper conception unless personally familiar therewith.

From the report of the special committee of the board of supervisors of the city and county of San Francisco, appointed to investigate and report upon Chinatown July, 1885: [Appendix Municipal Reports, 188485, page 174.]

The frequent custom with these people is to have the brick and mortar bench where cooking is carried on, the sink, always more or less filthy, and an open, filthy, bad-smelling water-closet, all adjoining each other in the same room, or under the same cover. Frequently a space at the end of this cooking range—if we may call it so—is used as a urinal, the only outlet from which is the absorption of and seepage through some earth placed there for that purpose, while the intermingling odors of cooking, sink, water-closet, and urinal added to fumes of opium and tobacco smoke, and indescribable, unknowable, all pervading atmosphere of the Chinese quarter, make up a perfume which can neither be imagined nor described. This is no exaggeration, nor is it a fancy sketch. It is one of the common features of life in Chinatown.

THE FEDERATION OF CHINESE EXCLUSION 1881
As an evidence that the American Federation of Labor is by no means a latter-day convert to Chinese exclusion, we herewith present the following preamble and resolution, adopted at the convention of the Federation in 1881:

Whereas the experience of the last thirty years in California and on the Pacific coast having proved conclusively that the presence of Chinese and their competition with free white labor is one of the greatest evils with which any country can be afflicted: Therefore be it

Resolved, That we use our best efforts to get rid of this monstrous evil (which threatens, unless checked, to extend to other parts of the Union) by the dissemination of information respecting its true character, and by urging upon our Representatives in the United States Congress the absolute necessity of passing laws entirely prohibiting the immigration of Chinese into the United States.

1900
The position then taken by the American Federation of Labor has been constantly maintained, and at the convention of Louisville, Kentucky, December, 1900, the following preamble and resolutions were adopted:

Whereas recent events have increased the danger threatening the American workers from Mongolian labor; and

Whereas the Chinese-exclusion law expires in 1902; and

Whereas the Pacific Coast and intermountain States are suffering severely from Chinese and Japanese cheap coolie labor:

Therefore be it

Resolved, That Congress strengthen and reenact the Chinese exclusion law, including in its provisions all Mongolian labor.