INTRODUCTORY. 
3 
the shill required of them or the danger to which they are exposed. 
This is a suicidal policy, and I feel sure that it will be everywhere aban 
doned in the end by the workingmen themselves. 
The gradual extension of “single-hand drilling,” and the changes 
in administration which it frequently involves, have suggested in some 
quarters the employment of Chinese labor underground. It is not my 
purpose to enter upon the discussion of the so-called “Chinese ques 
tion.” Indeed, I feel that this subject is hardly in a condition to be 
properly discussed. Before argument can be made conclusive, it is 
necessary that a basis of ascertained and acknowledged facts shall be 
obtained ; and this vitally essential preliminary has been thus far fla 
grantly neglected by the disputants upon the question named. Inflamed 
by political and other jealousies, each party has dealt in wholesale asser 
tion, and each has endeavored to suppress the facts not favorable to its 
position. So long as there is a dead lock of contradiction as to the num 
ber, character, habits, and capacities of the Chinese in this country, 
there can be nothing definitely settled as to our duty and policy toward 
them. I purpose at present merely to contribute some facts with regard 
to their employment as miners. 
Since most of the Chinese in the United States are engaged in placer- 
mining on their own account, it is evident that they are well adapted 
for success in that branch. Indeed, it is universally acknowledged that 
they work with greater economy than the whites. In most cases, they 
buy up abandoned claims, and reopen them with profit. 
But deep mining is quite a different matter, and requires a different 
kind of skill. A knowledge of the varying hardness, tenacity, and 
cleavage of rock and vein-stuff, and of the force of explosives and their 
effects, is required in this work, if the greatest result is to be obtained 
from a given expenditure of labor and material. Moreover, a consider 
able amount of muscular strength and endurance is demanded by the 
incessant and intense labor of wielding the sledge or hammer. 
The experience of the Central Pacific Kailroad Company, which em 
ployed Chinese in the construction of tunnels, first called attention to 
their qualifications in this direction. A number of attempts have since 
been made to introduce them into mines, and generally without perma 
nent success. Sometimes the trouble has been the hostility of other 
miners, sometimes the difficulty of managing the Chinamen themselves. 
At Silver Peak, Nevada, the entire force in the Bed Mountain mines 
is said to have been at one time Chinese; but I understand that a change 
has been made, and white miners are now employed for a part of the 
work. 
The miners in Morey district, Nevada, were last year Chinese, under 
a white foreman; and the manager declares that they gave him perfect 
satisfaction, doing as well as an equal number of white men. But the 
foreman, during the absence of the manager, discharged the whole lot; 
and no more have been engaged up to this time.