Page:The Relations of the Advanced and the Backward Races of Mankind.djvu/40

 crudely selfish as some of their arguments may appear, seem to be right in believing that a large influx of Chinese labour would mean the reduction of the standard of life, and with that the standard of leisure and mental cultivation, among their artisan class. The Chinaman, though he does only two-thirds of the work of a white navvy, does it for half the white man's wage, so that his competition would in time lower the scale of wages by that margin which means comfort and ease to the worker. Add to this consideration the evils already described which the presence of an alien and politically untrained element breeds in a democratic community, and we may pause before condemning the policy the Americans and Australians have adopted. Each case must be judged on its own merits. But there are cases in which the exclusion of the Backward race seems justified, in the interests of humanity at large, by the consideration that to admit that race would involve more of loss to the higher race than of gain to the lower.

Where the contact already exists, a further question arises: Can the evils incident to it be mitigated through leading the Advanced and the Backward races to blend by intermarriage, a method slow but sure, and one by which many nations have been brought to unity and strength out of elements originally hostile? This is a question which Nature usually answers, settling the matter by the attractions or repulsions she implants. Yet legislation may so far affect it as to make it deserve to be pondered by those who are confronted by such a problem.