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Show (Two unrelated articles have been combined here.) THE CHINESE BILL A LAW. President Arthur has signed the bill prohibiting the immigration of Chinese and for ten years after the 4th of August next it will be unlawful for Chinese to come to this country. In Congress, between members from the Atlantic states and the Pacific coast respectively, there has been the greatest possible difference of opinion respecting this bill, and the contest about it has been one of the closest witnessed in Congress for years. Eastern members have opposed it on legal, constitutional and sentimental grounds, while members from the Pacific coast have urged that the temporal salvation of the working men of their section demanded the passage of such a measure. Eastern men have urged that if the immigration of Chinese may be restricted or prohibited, that of the people of any other nation may, and in time this Union may lose entirely the character of an asylum for oppressed humanity, which so long has been its pride and boast. They have urged that the prohibition of immigration from any country would be in contravention of some of the fundamental principles of our government and that such a precedent ought never to be established. Members from the Pacific coast have answered that the Chinese did not come here with a view to locating permanently; that they did not become naturalized citizens, that they could not be Christianized, Americanized nor civilized; and that they were immoral. They urged these in addition to the principle objection against them, which was that they would work for such low wages as to make competition from white labor impossible. A bill similar to the present one was passed about two months ago and was vetoed by Pres. Arthur. But the veto raised a storm of indignation on the Pacific coast and promised to give the whole of that region to the democrats next election; and so, it may be presumed, President Arthur in signing this bill has yielded to popular pressure, rather than to his own convictions. Fears are expressed that the law, now that it has become such, will be only partially operative, as it will not be difficult for Chinese to land on Canadian or Mexican soil and then travel by land across the U. S. boundery. The Chinese already here are to be ?? and unrestricted in the right to go and come [unreadable] AN UNFORTUNATE AND FATAL AFFAIR. On Saturday afternoon, April 29th, a boy about ten years old, son of Christian Olsen, of Ovid, was amusing himself with a skein of woolen yarn, which was hanging on a snow-hoe stuck in between two logs of the house, the double of the yarn reaching within eighteen inches of the ground. The boy seemed to have lain down on his side to rest himself, and pushed his hand through the double of the yarn until his neck and throat rested upon it. In this position he seems to have fallen to sleep and the weight of his body on the one side of the yarn and the head on the other had drawn the yarn so tight around the neck and throat that it had gradually strangled him. Some of Brother Olsen's other children found him in this position, and thinking he was asleep tried to wake him, failing to do so, they called their mother, who was inside the house at the time, but it was too late, he was extinct. We sympathize with Brother and Sister Olsen under their sad bereavement.-Bear Lake Democrat. |
