oblivious of the fact that manhood in the long run is the most potent factor in wealth production, as well as being itself the highest wealth, the most important product of an industrial system. Some humanitarians think it unjust and cruel to shut the door against a man because he is ignorant and penniless and undeveloped. And some, on religious grounds, regard the incoming of non-Christian masses as a providential facilitation of their propaganda. But the great majority of thoughtful persons regard the matter as a choice of evils, and believe it a lesser evil to limit the locomotion of the unfit than to imperil the civilization of the more progressive countries by an inundation of low-grade life. A family does well to be careful about the sort of people it admits to daily contact and intimate association with its children. And a nation may wisely exercise a similar care. A flood of undesirable humanity is a much more serious problem than the importation of a mass of undesirable merchandise. The condition of the lower classes in the old world is pitiable, but even if they go in crowds to a new country, the space they leave soon fills up again with the same sort of social molecules or cells, and the principal effect is the degradation of the new country.3 Distance and cost have so far protected Australasia from any large amount of immigration from the lower classes of Italy, Hungary and Russia. But if such an inundation threatened, the disposition to prevent deterioration of the average citizenship and labor level is so strong that, no matter where it comes from, low-grade immigration is likely to be resisted by law. Countries like New Zealand and some of the Australian States that aim to secure work for the unemployed and pay pensions to the aged poor, have special reason to exercise care in selecting those they take into partnership, and for whose well-being they become responsible. They claim the right to exclude from their association all new comers who do not seem calculated to make reasonably usemany trades that do not require much intelligence, but only good staying qualities-something alive that can keep moving-a Chinaman without family, or social, or political interests, or even a stomach that calls for good food, can keep at work 16 hours a day and live on 8 or 10 cents' worth of rice in two meals a day, and be as fresh in the 16th hour as he was the first. His competition is unfair. He degrades the standard of living. He comes only to extract what he can from the colony and take it back to China. After scraping up two or three thousand dollars he goes home. At one time the returning Chinese were taking an average of more than a million dollars a year from the Australian Colonies. 3 The idea of excluding the products of low grade labor abroad by a tariff wall while admitting the low grade labor itself, is one of the absurdities of a politico-economic philosophy that carefully guards merchandise and profit but leaves the wage level open to attack. ful members of it; the right to keep their soil for men fit to be free and self-governing; the right to prevent the lowering of their standard of life. The effectiveness of the laws now in force is unquestioned. The Chinese in Australia and New Zealand fell from 42,521 in 1891 to 34,638 at the census of 1901. The strength of the recent Australian statutes and the vigor of the Government's policy are well shown in the speech of Mr. Deakin, Premier of the Commonwealth, at Ballarat, October 29, 1903. Discussing the question of a white Australia, the Premier said: "In this theatre, two and a half years ago, I laid special stress upon the white Australia policy of the Government. After that there was a fierce conflict in Parliament as to whether the means we proposed to exclude the undesirable and colored aliens would suffice. There were those who wished that on the face of the statute the prohibition against them should appear in so many words. We believed that we studied Australian interests, and also lessened the difficulties of the mother country, if, instead of saying in so many words they should be excluded, we placed in the hands of the Government an educational test which could be applied so as to shut out all undesirables. We have had two years' experience of the working of our test, and it has worked well. You have seen from time to time how few have managed to survive it. The returns for the last nine months show that 31,000 persons entered Australia from over sea, 28,000 being Europeans. Of the remainder, many of the colored persons came to Australia to engage on pearling vessels. The arrangement we have made is that they land only to sign their articles. A guarantee is taken from those who bring them that, when their time is up, they shall leave the country. By this means they never really enter Australia. They merely fish in our waters or just outside them. I find that out of 408 Japanese who came to Australia, 374 went at once to the pearling vessels; 11 others had been in Australia before, and were entitled to return; while one deserted and managed to escape our clutches. Of 406 Malays who came to Australia to engage in the pearling trade, only one was entitled to enter the country, and again we had one deserter. While of the 73 Papuans who came over to assist in pearling, none deserted, and all will return. To come to the persons who, either under the State law or since, have secured domicile in Australia, the return shows that 2,571 colored persons entered the Commonwealth during the nine months, of whom 2,561 entered under the authority of the law. There were only 10 to whom we could not or did not apply the test. Besides these there were 785 Pacific Islanders, who came in under permits, which cease on March 31st next, after which no Kanaka is authorized to be brought into Australia. While 785 came in, 978 went out. There were 755 Chinese entered the Commonwealth, while 1,456 went out. Altogether 3,172 colored people left Australia. The alien colored population is being steadily reduced. "Now, as to the test. Of course, this is not much applied, because ship-owners know that if they bring colored aliens to this country who are not legally entitled to land, they will have the pleasure of taking them back to their native land. During the nine months 121 such immigrants presented themselves; 9 only got through. Out of these, two were entitled to do so because they simply came from Ceylon to purchase horses, and of the others I found that five were probably colored sailors who deserted from one ship and enlisted on another. I don't think that during the next nine months even nine are likely to enter. You probably believe that a white Australia is secure. I hope it is, but it won't be secure unless a vigilant watch is kept upon proposals to tamper with it. None of a serious character have been put forward by anybody in a responsible position, but there are indications that we may have to defend the principle yet. So far as this Government is concerned it will be ready for the emergency. A white Australia does not by any means mean only the preservation of the complexion of the people of this country. It means the multiplying of their homes, so that we may be able to occupy, use and defend every part of our continent; it means the maintenance of conditions of life fit for white men and white women; it means equal laws and opportunities for all; it means protection against the underpaid labor of other lands; it means social justice so far as we can establish it, including just trading and the payment of fair wages. A white Australia means a civilization whose foundations are built upon healthy lives, lived in honest toil, under circumstances which imply no degradation. Fiscally a white Australia means protection. We protect ourselves against armed aggression, why not against aggression by commercial means? We protect ourselves against undesirable colored aliens, why not against the products of the undesirable alien labor? A white Australia is not a mere sentiment; it is a reasoned policy which goes down to the roots of national life, and by which the whole of our social, industrial and political organization is governed." For further information, see the Report of the Royal Commission on Alien Immigration, London, 1993; the Parliamentary debates of the various Colonies and of the Commonwealth, for the years indicated by the dates of the laws mentioned in the text, especially Mr. Barton's Speeches, pp. 3497 and 5492 of the Australian Hansard; "A White Australia," by Sir H. Tozer, Empire Review, Nov. 1901; the Australian Review of Reviews and the columns of Australian newspapers, especially the Sydney Bulletin for 1901; "Australia From Another Point of View," Macmillan's Magazine, March 1800; "The Chinese in Australia," Quarterly Review, July 1888; "Chinese Exclusion in Australia," by H. H. Lusk, North American Review, March and April 1902; "Chinese Problem in Australasia." by C. A. Barnecoat, Imperial and Colonial Magazine, April 1901; "Exclusion of Aliens and Undesirables," by W, P. Reeves, National Review, Dec. 1901;"Australian Immigration," by J. Henniker Heaton. Leisure Hour, July 1901; "Australia for the White Man," by Gilbert Parker, Nineteenth Century, May 1901; Reeves' "State Experiments in Australia and New Zealand; Dilke's "Problems of Great Britain;' Correspondence Relating to Chinese Immigration into the Australasian Colonies, English Parliamentary Papers, July 1888; and Proceedings of a Conference between the Colonial Secretary (Rt. Hon. Jos. Chamberlain) and the Premiers of the Self-Governing Colonies, English Parliamentary Papers, 1897. |