FROM AMERICA. NOTES AND NEWS OF INTEREST

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 58, 6 September 1909, Page 3

FROM AMERICA. NOTES AND NEWS OF INTEREST

(From Our Own- Correspondent.) . SAN FRANCISCO, 6th July. THE SEARCHLIGHT OF ASIA. Always there is something new to learn of the yellow race problem. The strike of the sugar field workers in Hawaii was a uniq'.fl; lesson. The old order was reversed j the Japanese were striking for higher wages, and white men were willing to "scab" against them. Now it is said the employers contemplate importing Russians to replace the too expensive yellow men. And what of China ? Every . return- I ing traveller tells of the awakening of the Mongol giant. There is proof of a i coming prosperity in the fact that American men of commerce are beginning to find the Flowery Land worth exploiting, and are eager to prevent the British from issuing the whole loan for the latest railroad there. The American Consuls from Shanghai and Hankow, who have been in San Francisco this week, have thrown aside diplomatic caution, and appealed witk all their force to merchants to go in and exploit, since the time is fully ripe. "The British and Germans are working night and day over there," said Consul William Martin, of Hankow. "You must not expect the Chinese to kowtow to you and beseech you to come over to them." An able-minded Chinaman who was seated on the platform smiled in frank amusement at the idea of a Celestial begging foreign devils to come and share his country when they barred him from theirs. SIGNS OF A NEW LIFE. Among the Chinese in America, too, there are signs of a new life. The Chinatown of San Francisco is the biggest colony of this race outside of A.sia, and the happenings of the rjast three weeks in that quarter have been significant. It had been the practice of certain guides, Europeans, to take parties of tourists to see the sights of Chinatown. They would conduct the gullible traveller into a filthy den, where a single hollow-cheoked opium-smoker displayed himself and his vice for a valuable consideration. Then they would lead the way to an ill-lighted cellar, where the "singing children" of Chinatown would go through a grotesque performance. These sights revealed nothing of the true lifs of the -Chinese, but they were sufficiently gruesome to excite the morbid interest of the tourists. The more decent Chinese felt the shame of it. No help could be got from the police, for they actually licensed these guides. Si the Chinese took the matter in their own hands. The "Highbinders" — the roughs of Chinatown — demanded that the degrading exhibitions should cease, and enforced their demands with a few brickbats. Since then the Chinese Benevolent Association has enterod the fight for this cause. Another typical incident : Two policemen of the Chinatown squad have been accused of roughly handling two Chinese women, whom they searched for lottery tickets. It is even charged that they forced the women to strip before their eyes. Though it seems incredible, just such dastardly outrages were in former times perpetrated not infrequently in that quarter. The victims, as a rule, were afraid to expose the deeds lest they should be subjected to even worse persecution. But times have changed, and so have the Chinese. Many of them now refuse to lie down beneath the lash of oppression. CHICAGO'S SHAME. The police of Chicago have for many years been receiving regular monthly bribes from the resorts of vice in the city. But that is not news ; it has been a matter of common knowledge. The novel thing is that at least one of the corrupt gang is being prosecuted. Perhaps, too, it was a little surprising to some of the pure-living folk of the place to hear it said that the harvest) reaped by Jtheir "protectors" was as high as £600,000 a year. fhe harvests would probably have continued regular and steadily increasing year by year but for the excessive avarice of one police inspector. He tried to work the ground .for more than it could produce. Here is the most credible story yet told of how the prosecution was begun : this official had squeezed the utmost penny ouu of the vice-purveyors in return for the protection he could assure them. They protested against his extortion, but submitted in {,he ond. Then came a rumour that the man was likely to become head of the Police Department, and his victims pictured to themselves with terror the reign of blackmail that he would be able to institute. They preferred the risk of being gaoled themselves to the risk of having him as their unfettered sovereign. So they volunteered their story to the State Attorney, and had the officer indicted on ten charges of corruption. • On the - other hand, the inspector's friends say he is the victim of a vile political plot — that an enemy has induced low scoundrels to bring these charges, and that they have been glad to do so because nis rule has been too firm for their liking. TAMMANY STILL RULES NEW YORK. Though the crimes of Tammany in New York were revealed in gruesome detail in a magazine article, not a move has been made to throw off the yoke. Instead, there has come further" proof that the bosses still hold the city in complete political subjection. The one Commissioner of Police of recent years who has tried to clear his department of Tammany's corruption — General Theodore A. Bingham — has been removed from office by the Tammany Mayor M'Clellan. Almost every newspaper in New York has condemned this act and praised the efforts of the discharged Commissioner to remove the police from the corrupting influence of partisan politics. Of course, there was an excuse. A young man named Duffy had been several times arrested on charges of felony, but had never been convicted. Yet Bingham had had his portrait taken, and had given him a place in the Rogue's Gallery. The man complained of this treatment as persecution, and the result was Bingham s dismissal. It certainly seems as though the Mayor was glad of the opportunity to get rid of the Commissioner. Most of the papers, after. they had vented their anger at the Mayor's action, began to regard Bingham's fate as a sacrifice in a good cause. They are hoping that it may serve to turn the scale ot the votes against Tammany at the coming election.