The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1897-09-01
v. ?. STRADLBY
Is AROUSED
The immigration Commits
sioner Will Frame an
Amendment.
To Deal a Deathblow at the
Traffic in Japanese
Women.
Horrible Brutality in the 0bata stuta
Case Makes Him Decide
on Action. 4

The circumstances of peculiar brutality
surrounding the case of the japanese
woman Stuta have aroused United States
Com missioner OF Immigration Walter
P. Stradley to the crying need OF an
amendment to the present Immigration
laws and be intends to take immediate
steps to have one ad opted. ..:
This is the most horrible case l have
ever keard of in the line of importing
women for i'm moral purposes" said the
Comm ssioner yesterday, land 1t has
brought strikingiy 10 my mind the need
OF an amend ment to the present law.
There Is no doubt but that Japanese
women are imported frequently fer the
purpose of being placed in dens in China
town and elsewhere, but there is no ex-
ciusion Law against the japanese. BY a
recent decision of the Chicago courts
women brought to this country for the
specified purpose of leading an immoral
life to enrich the person who imports
them are regarded as contract laborers
and can be deported if the case is proved
within year of their landing. The diff
Guilty is to prove the contract.
There Is no doubt but that Japanese
women come here frequently under agree
prove it? They Will not tell on one an
other unless they have quarrel, as If the
Siuta case, and we are only able as the
LAW stands at present to secure few con-
victions annually"
The amendment which Mr. Stradey is
about to frame will be to exclude all alien
women who come 10 this country for the
purpose OF leading lives of i'll fame. Mr..
Stradley's amendment, if it becomes law,
will give the Secretary of the Treasury
power to issue a warrant for the arrest
and deportation of any alien woman who,
within year of her landing IL the United
States, is leading professionally immoral
life.
Unfortunately this would not apply to
Chinese women. as under the exclusion
act they are not subject to immigration
laws.
with such an amendment everything
would be plain sailing" said the Commits
soner. 1--WE could easily lay our hands
on these japanese women as it is, but we
cannot prove the contract, so they are out
Of our jurisdiction. If the law were
amended so as to exclude women of ill
fame it would be easy enough to show the
lives they are leading. Whatever their
nationality, women of this class are most
undesira Bile immigrants. From all points
of view they are much worse than con-
tract Iaborers.''
Il is Mr.. Stradley's intention to submit
his amendment to the Immigratio De.
partment or to the chairman of the I'M
migration Bureau. probably both. 1t
would be Federal law, apply to the
whole of the United States, and he ex-
poets would deal its deathhiow to the
traffic in Japanese women, which has
assumed fairly lively proporl ions in this
port. Women born on American soil
could not be prevented from landing, but
the Japanese have not been long enough
in this country for any adult from the
Mikado's oominions to lay claim to beng
q native daughte ter, as Chinese women i'm
m igrants often do.
The department. regrets the light sem
tence given The culprit in the Stuta case.
Obata Rinjiro brought wife, Obata Tama
over from Japan some time ago, and es-
tabished her in Sacramento, where she
supported him by her earnings. After a
while the couple quarreled, and the man
returned to Japan, where he secured the
woman Stuta under the pretense of Sc
curing lucrative work tor her.
The willy Japanese brought otuta to
California via Victoria and put her into a
den in Sacramento, where she was prac-
tically a prisoner. The jealousy of his
wife. Tama, resulted IN warrant being
sworn out by another Japanese and Obata
Rinjiro was arrested under the Dor con-
tract law. He pleaded guilty and was
sentenced to fifteen months in San QUEEN
tin, cut the circumstances of peculiar
brutality surrounding the case were such
that it was deemed unfit TO use them in
the pleading in court. 1t Is the posi-
bility of u recurrence OF such a sc..ndal
that has aroused Walter P. Stradley to
the need of amending the present immi-
grafton laws.