Many of us have Indian neighbors, classmates, health care professionals, teachers, friends, and acquaintances. The following editorial appeared in a popular San Francisco newspaper, The Call, on February 1, 1910. Is this past, present, or our future? (Photo of East Indian Sikhs and Hindus disembarking in Canada after being denied entry in U.S.)
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The importation of Hindu coolies
apparently proceeds in large volume. Every steamer from the orient brings a
load of these highly undesirable people, most of whom are quite likely to
become a public burden. They do not fit into the domestic or social economy of
this country. As laborer they are inferior and any severity of climate
incapacitates them from work. "They are, in fact, the product of
generations of lazy life under the tropics. We do not know how or why these
people have been induced to come to California. We can understand that certain
powerful influences which desire to introduce the cheapest kind of labor may have
been brought to bear, but now that public attention has been directed to the
influx by The Call it may be hoped
that some means may be found to stop it. The Hindus are not wanted in
California. They are not wanted in any part of the United States. It is a cruel
kindness to bring these unfortunate people to this country. They are wholly
unfitted for the strenuous life of the temperate zone and they are further
handicapped by silly notions about caste and the special preparation of food in
accord with caste rules. They are brought here to serve a selfish purpose, and
they die oft like flies in the cold season. We have more Asiatics now in this
country than is desirable, and the Hindus are the least useful and the most
inefficient of the lot. They are dirty and quarrelsome as well as worthless in
the field of labor. Nobody wants these people in California…. Their
introduction is a menace to American civilization and it must be stopped. What
sort of mongrel community is this, our California, like to become if these
unassimilable breeds are to be permitted to occupy the labor field? We have
fought the Chinese and the Japanese invasions with more or less success, but
now we are threatened with something worse. If the immigration laws are not strong
enough to hold off the incoming tide they must be strengthened, and in the
meantime the officials, of this port will be, held strictly to account for a
rigid enforcement of the laws. San Francisco Call (Feb. 1, 1910), available in https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SFC19100201.2.70.1&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1
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