Assignment #8 (Quiz)

During many years The United States’ government has been seeking to generate a development for its society. The objective has been to improve the living conditions of its citizens through a capital increase and a supposed improvement in the legislation. In this work will be possible to know two of the many laws that have been implemented in this country.

The history of the Chinese community in the U.S. is very extensive and there are a multitude of documents that speak of it, which have relevant background for understanding many of the historical passages. One of the many documents is The Chinese Exclusion Act was a federal law of the United States signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882. It was one of the most important limitations of free immigration in U.S. history, prohibiting all Chinese labor immigration. The act followed revisions made in 1880 to the United States and China Burlingame Treaty of 1868, which allowed the U.S. reviews to suspend Chinese immigration. The act was originally scheduled for duration of 10 years, but it was renovated in 1892 and it was made permanent in 1902. It was finally repealed by the Magnuson Act December 17, 1943.

According to Galante (2203) the history of immigration to the United States and the contribution of immigrants and successive generations of American-born ethnic groups are important and essential factors in the history of the United States and the study of American social, economic, political, and cultural life. Between 1870 and 1900, for example, nearly 12 million immigrants arrived in the United States for a range of economic, political, and social reasons. Besides, a large number of Chinese immigrants arrived in the U.S., mostly on the West coast. By 1870, the Chinese were 8.6 % of the total population of California and constituted 25% of the labor force. Chinese immigrants arrived on U.S. coasts between the start of the California gold rush in 1849 and 1882, until the U.S. Congress enacted federal law in 1882 designed to prevent Chinese immigrants from entering or remaining in the U.S. Moreover, Galante (2003) exposed that

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first significant law that restricted immigration into the United States of an ethnic working group. It also was the first in a series of legislative, executive, and judicial acts by the U.S. Government in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries setting official immigration policies that many historians, scholars, and average citizens consider as racist. 

In addition, the Chinese Americans immigrants wrote a lot of Chinese American literature on nineteenth century, but those were written in Chinese. These Chinese-language writings have only recently been made available to be studied. These Chinese American authors wrote autobiographies as well as novels and poems, not only in Cantonese but also in Chinese and English. Some of these writers were Lin Yutang, novelist Yu Lihua, and Yung Wing, the first Chinese student to graduate from an American University, Yale.

On the other hand, The Sherman Antitrust Act was published on July 2, 1890; it was the first U.S. federal government measure to limit monopolies. The Act outlawed trusts, considering them restrictive for international trade. It was founded by U.S. Senator John Sherman of Ohio and approved by President Benjamin Harrison. 

The original text presented by Becker (2004) on his St. Olaf College’s page said in its first Section about Trusts, etc., in restraint of trade illegal; penalty: "Every contract or combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among the several states or with foreign nations, is declared illegal". 

Finally, The Sherman Act is a law that was penalized with the intention of curbing the monopoly of the steel and other industries characteristic of the era of industrial revolution. The standard does not penalize the figure of monopoly itself (ie, the exclusive control of a particular market), but rather that a business maintains and expands this situation at the expense of its competitors. It means, what is punished is the abuse of monopoly power. In short, what is sought is to protect competition to consumers’ benefits: more companies offer more products at lower prices, it is the reasoning. Title 15 of the United States Code outlines the role of the commerce and trade in the United States Code. Among the most notable laws is The Sherman Antitrust Act which can be found in: 15 U.S.C. ch. 1—Monopolies and Combinations in Restraint of Trade.

References

Galante (2003).The Chinese Exclusion Act (1882): Brief Overview. Lehigh University Retrieved on 20th June, 2013 from http://www.lehigh.edu/~ineng/VirtualAmericana/chineseimmigrationact.html
Becker, A. (2004) The Sherman Antitrust Act (1890). St. Olaf College. Retrieved on 20th June, 2013 from http://www.stolaf.edu/people/becker/antitrust/statutes/sherman.html#top