The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 81, July 1977 - April, 1978 Page: 17
521 p. : ill. (some col.), ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Chinese in Texas
To cope with this alleged smuggling operation, the immigration au-
thorities resorted to making "domiciliary visits" among the resident
Chinese. These were unannounced raids and searches, including, it ap-
pears, dragnet searches. On at least one occasion, in July, 1895, federal
agents rounded up the entire Chinese population in El Paso, to dis-
cover only two Chinese out of five hundred lacking the certificate of
residence required by the exclusion laws. Similar searches were carried
out in other towns near the border, such as in Sanderson in 1905.32
The Chinese, however, did not, either in El Paso or in the United
States as a whole, meekly accept the harsh treatment dealt out to them,
though their efforts were necessarily limited because they were, by yet
another of the exclusion laws, denied the right of citizenship. In 1892,
after Congress had passed the Geary Act extending for ten more years
the exclusion policy and requiring the Chinese to register with the gov-
ernment, the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association in San
Francisco, better known as the Six Companies, spearheaded a campaign
to test the constitutionality of the act by urging the Chinese across the
country not to file for the certificate of residence. The Chinese in El
Paso agreed initially to go along with the campaign but in the end, for
some unknown reason, failed to follow through. In Galveston, however,
about half of the local Chinese, twenty-three out of fifty-six, complied
with the campaign by not registering. Unfortunately, the Supreme
Court eventually ruled in favor of the act. Ten years later, in 19o2, the
Six Companies once again opposed, with no more success, the indefi-
nite extension of the exclusion laws. Toward the expenses of this new
campaign the Chinese in El Paso contributed the not inconsiderable
sum of $1,500.33
Meanwhile, the Chinese in America began for the first time to take
an active interest in the affairs of their homeland. They came to realize
that without a stronger regime in China, they could not expect any bet-
ter treatment from the American government. This was the message of
the various Chinese leaders who, during the decade preceding the re-
publican revolution in 1911, crisscrossed America in search of funds
and support among the scattered emigrd communities. With a small
17, 1907; W. W. Bridgers, "Just Chatting" (a scrapbook of his newspaper columns in the
El Paso Public Library), I, 64-65.
32Facts Concerning the Enforcement of the Chinese Exclusion Laws, 61 (quotation);
El Paso Daily Herald, July go, 1895; San Angelo Standard-Times, March 8, 1970o.
33San Antonio Express, September 20, 1892; El Paso Daily Herald, May 9, 1893; Dallas
Morning News, May 21, 1893; Farrar, Chinese in El Paso, 21-22; Lyman, Chinese Ameti-
cans, 66-67.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 81, July 1977 - April, 1978, periodical, 1977/1978; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101205/m1/35/: accessed April 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.