In judging this question of Asiatic immigration we should accept to a
certain extent the opinion of the people of the Pacific Coast regarding
the problems which these Asiatic immigrants create. At any rate, the
opinion of any group of people who are closest to a social problem
should not be disregarded, as there are probabilities of error on the
part of the distant observer of conditions as well as on the part of
those who stand very close to a social problem. Just as we should accept
the opinion of the Southern people in regard to the negro problem as
worth something, so we should accept the judgment of the people of our
Western states in regard to the Chinese and Japanese also as worth
something. Now, as regards the Chinese, the people of the Pacific Coast
say they would rather have the negro among them than the Chinese. They
have numerous objections to the Chinese, similar to the various lines of
argument which have already been given in favor of the restriction of
immigration. They say, namely, (1) that the Chinese work for wages below
the minimum necessary to maintain life for the white man, and so reduce
the standard of living and crowd out the white working-man. There can
scarcely be any question that the white laboring man is not able to
compete economically with the Chinese laborer.

(2) Again, they claim that the Chinese make no contribution to the
welfare of the country; that they come here to remain several years, to
attain a competence, and then return to China.

(3) It is claimed that the Chinese are grossly immoral, that they are
addicted to the opium habit and other vices, and that so few women come
among the Chinese immigrants that Chinese men menace the virtue of white
women.

(4) The Chinese do not readily assimilate. They keep their language,