p. 176 | A Dangerous Weapon by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 18, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 11.

A Dangerous Weapon.

By Editor

At a recent anti-Chinese meeting in San Francisco, the State secretary of the Anti-Chinese League made a speech in which—

“He recounted the success of the boycott in Truckee. It had proved irresistible. It was a weapon more powerful than revolution itself. If in Truckee a handful of men had, in twenty-four hours, forced a wealthy firm like ——, who had expressed a willingness to expend the whole of the million of dollars which they had invested in their business before they would yield to the anti-Chinese movement, to surrender at discretion, what could not the organized coast do?”

A powerful weapon indeed, and it is liable to be called into requisition on very slight occasion. “More powerful than revolution itself.” So were the rack and the thumb-screw, the wheel and the gridiron, of the old Inquisition. And then it can be carried on so consistently with law! No bluster and violence, but a simple notification to a man that if he does not at once change his sentiments he will be systematically starved either to death or into

submission. And yet there are men calling themselves Christians, who allow themselves to be intimidated by this newly-found weapon, so that they are willing to use it upon others. There have been men who preferred starvation to wrong-doing. We think the next few years will develop more of the same sort.