DESPITE DISCRIMINATION

Early Chinese immigrant labor

helped build CPR, ope

By BERT WHYTE

he people of Kwang-

tung are shorter, dar-
ker, smaller and (some
say) smarter than the
people of the north.

Their customs and tastes
are different; women carry
babies in slings on their
backs; food is more varied
and includes such delicacies
as monkeys and snakes (which
I have eaten and found very
good).

It is from Kwangtung, the

southernmost province, of
which Can-
ton is the
capital, that
all the Chin-
ese in Can-
’ ada original-
ly came, and
that is why
Cantonese is
the language
bspoken in
Canada; a language known
to only about 10 per cent of
China’s vast population.

The first Chinese came to
Canada from the United Sta-
tes, following the gold trail
from California to the Cari-
boo. By 1863, five years af-
ter the first group arrived,
about 300 Chinese were min-
ing placer beds on the Fraser
River between Lytton and
‘Lillooet, while others were
working as cooks in mining
camps, and also in sawmills,
fisheries and on farms.

Chinese were to be found
as far north as Barkerville,
at that time the second larg-
est town in the West next to
San Francisco.

—

In 1872 the first anti-Chin-
ese agitation began in British
Columbia, a reactionary
movement that has left a blot
on the history of that prov-
ince. John Robson, an MLA
who later became premier,
fired the opening shot by de-
manding “a per capita tax of
$50 a head per annum upon
all Chinese within the prov-
ince.”

The motion was lost, but

ed by the leading newspaper,
the Victoria Colonist. In 1875
Robson had a bill passed de-
nying Chinese a vote in prov-
incial elections.

In 1879 Amor De Cosmos
(“Lover of the World’) intro-
duced a petition into the
House of Commons signed by
1,500 B.C. residents: it called

the agitation continued, back- - first anti- Chinese law,

for an end to ee immi-
gration, barring of Chinese
from work on the Canadian
Pacific Railway, and federal
approval of a heavy BiGetax
on Chinese in the province.

On most public issues De
Cosmos took a_ progressive
stand (he was a fighter for
responsible government and
a staunch defender of Cana-
dian sovereignty and inde-
pendence) but during the
wave of anti-Chinese agita-
tion he sided with the most
die-hard reactionaries.

When the CPR began push-
ing west-in earnest in 1881,
more than 15,000 Chinese
laborers were welcomed to
Canada within a_ five-year
period. They played a deci-
sive role in carving the road-
bed and laying rails through
rugged mountains, deep can-
yons and dense forests.

De Cosmos raised his voice
again in the. House in May,
1882, claiming that “the Chi-
nese will outnumber the
whites.”” He urged Ottawa to
restrict Chinese immigration.

Prime Minister John A.
Macdonald replied that B.C.
had to choose between Chi-
nese labor or no railway. De
Cosmos backed down and
said he would, in that case,
choose the railway with Chi-
nese labor. P

e

A royal commission found
the Chinese had helped ex-
tend railway communication,
opened up new land, intro-
duced fruit farming, aided
manufacturing and stimulat-
ed trade with the Far East.
The Chinese immigrants were
“honest in their dealings, in-
dustrious, sober, peaceful and
law-abiding, frugal and
cleanly.”

There were 10,555 Chinese
in B.C. in September, 1884,
engaged in railway construc-
tion (3,500), mining (2,240),
farming (800) and canning
and milling. There were also

many Chinese servants, bar-
bers, laundrymen, merchants
and a few doctors, etc.

In 1885 Ottawa passed its

posing a $50 head tax to re-
strict immigration. At the
same time, because the CPR
was nearing completion, large
numbers of Chinese railway
workers were fired.

The B.C. labor movement—
to its eternal disgrace—began
demanding that employers
should not hire Chinese. Coal

ims

n West

miners on Vancouver Island
were incited to petition

against use of Chinese min- | =

ers on the grounds that their
presence was “a source of
grave danger.”

Actually it was the wanton
neglect of safety precautions
by the greedy mineowners
that was the source of danger
— between 1879 and 1909 a
total of 206 miners, including
'10 Chinese, lost their lives in
major disasters at Island coal

mines.
e

In June, 1900, Sir Wilfrid
Laurier, the prime minister,

‘ introduced a bill raising the
‘head tax on Chinese immi-

grants to $100. It was passed
and came into effect on Janu-
ary 1, 1902. In 1903 an amend
ment boosted the head tax to
$500, with the province col-
lecting it getting one half.

The $500 head tax changed
the character of Chinese im-
migration, but did not stop
it. In a curious way, it was
largely responsible for the
progressive change from con-
tracted labor to free labor, for
contractors were no longer
willing to pay the head tax,
and immigrants borrowed the
money from relatives and
friends instead.

Anti-Chinese and anti-Jap-
anese riots occurred in Van-
couver in 1907; later the gov-
ernment, after a probe, paid
for the damage.done. Again
in 1912, during a strike of
coal miners at Extension and
Cumberland, anti - Chinese
feeling flared up after spe-
cial police by threats and in-
timidation, drove the Chinese
miners back to work. What
the miners forgot was that
the Chinese workers, though
barred from the union, had
downed tools at the union
call.

Prior to and during the
First World War, many thou-
sands more Chinese immi-
grants entered Canada, to
take their place in the labor

force. They were generally —

welcomed at the time (though
the reactionaries never for a
moment ceased their anti-
Chinese propaganda) but
when the economic crisis of
1920 threw thousands of wor-
kers onto the street, anti-Chi-
nese feeling was again whip-
ped up.

The blow which practically
ended Chinese immigration
for many decades came in
1923, when the MacKenzic
King government passed the

Food for Peace

Washington Art Exhibition

Evergreen, Peking.

‘Unite!’ says Hall
to U.S. socialists

A letter from Gus Hall,
calling for recreating ‘‘a
spirit
ground canbe established on
the main issues of the day,”
was addressed to the recent
convention of. the Socialist

Party — Social Democratic
Federation of the United
States.

In the letter, Hall, a Com-
munist spokesman in the U.S.
wrote:

“Let our beginnings of
socialist unity spark a great
reawakening of democratic
and socialist thought and ac-
tion in our country.”

The letter asked: “What
issue has thus far divided the
socialist forces and thereby
weakened their _contribution
to a united struggle of our

Chinese Immigration Law,
abolishing the head tax but
prohibiting entry of wives
and children of Chinese im-
migrants, and containing so
many rigid discriminatory
clauses that few could pass
the barriers erected.

Since the Second World

War progressive pressure has
forced some revision of the
anti- Chinese legislation of
1923; public opinion has also

changed, and discrimination ©

is not practised as openly to-
day as during the half cen-
tury covered in this article.

But discrimination still ex-
ists, and a study of the role of
those forces fighting against
it — ‘including the contribu-
tion of the Communist Party
of Canada—would be of con-
siderable interest and value
to the labor movement and
other progressive forces in
Canada.

where a common.
the letter declared. “It

‘yond calculation.

“on stony ground, now

people in the face of
great challenges?”
“It is in fact not an

poison. It is anti-commu
The price our people
paid and are still payil ;
anti-Communism, pat’
ly in the last decade;

“The price the 4
especially the. Socialist '

have paid for either
prey to its insidious !
or retreating before i
been a catastrophic ™
ing in their historic © 4
the political life of Oma
tion. For this our entir
ple and not,alone the ~~
ist forces have paid.”

Hall’s_ stirring app

the Socialist Party’s ™%
convention had its h@ :
to maintain a semb)a?
unity within its oW?
and it ran out of ine
it could consider th€

in building the trans‘Canada railway which united Canada from coast to coast.

June 29, 1962—

PACIFIC ‘TRIBUN