The Cheyenne Daily Leader

THE PLATFORM

Comments of the San Francisco Press on the Chinese Plank.

San Francisco, June 5.—Commenting on the anti-Chinese plank incorporated in the report of the committee on platform of the Chicago convention, the Call, after noting the resolution which the Pacific coast delegates proposed, says:

"This plank, which the committee thought too radical, does not meet the emergency. Its insertion in the platform would not bind the party to any action except such as can be taken with the consent of the Chinese government. It recognizes the evils of Chinese immigration and the desirability of a modification of the existing treaty, but does not say what should be done if the Chinese government refuse to modify the existing treaty."

The article then quoted the plank, as adopted by the committee, and continues:

"If this is the best the Chicago convention can do for the Pacific coast, it may save itself the trouble of doing anything. A successful campaign can be conducted on this resolution only in the event of there being no chance of a better one."

The Bulletin this afternoon will say:

The second phase which the plank in relation to the Chinese has been made to assume is more objectionable than the first. It reduces the objections to the Chinese to a single one—that they do not become citizens. No other interpretation can be placed on the language of the resolution. If the Chinese should present themselves in large numbers and apply for naturalization papers, the republican party, under this plank, would be bound to take no further steps against them. This must not be regarded so much as an attempt to carry water on both shoulders as a deliberate attempt to hoodwink the people of the Pacific states to their faces.

The article then goes on to picture the evils that would follow the admission to citizenship of the Chinese, and concludes: It is to be hoped, therefore, that the republican national convention will not inflict upon us the gratuitous insult of basing all our objections to the Chinese on the fact that they have not heretofore been anxious to become citizens. That is an objection which might easily enough be removed on the face of it, but it would lead to complications right off which none of the eastern philanthropists seem to anticipate. If common sense prevails, this plank will be considerably modified to-day.

The Chronicle says of the California resolution: "There is nothing rank in this. It is milder than the temper of the people of the Pacific coast on the subject, and less spirited than the plank reported yesterday by the full committee. The report, so far as it relates to this particular subject, is fully up to the wishes of the citizen population of California, which is saying a good deal, since the vote of this state at the last general election declared 192 to 1, or 15,400 to 800 in favor of rigid restrictions on Chinese immigration hither and the modification of existing laws treaties to that end. This vote accurately represents the sentiment of every Pacific coast state and territory, and any contempt of it manifested by any of the national political conventions will surely be resented at the polls in November by Oregon and Nevada, as well as California. The party that supports the spirit of the Payne resolution with the most vigor and sincerity, is the winning party of the present and future years, from the Straits of Fuca to the Gulf of California, and from the sea shore to the Rocky mountains."