Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-09-16
JAPS ARE COMING ON
Question of Social Status Be-
tween East and West.
OLD RESIDENTS VIEW
YOKOHAMA CLUB HAS PERSIST
EMILY EXCLUDED JAPANESE.
Little Brown Islanders Yearn for the
Worlds Respect and Are
Going to Have It.
OLD RESIDENTS VIEW


Written for The Star.
MANY of the Americans and Europeans
who do business with the japanese said
a man who has spent much time with the
little brown men of the orient to the writer
the other day, may have to revise their
personal attitude toward them after a bit,
if they wish to continue business relations.
l mean by that" he continued, that the
old, half cOntemptuouS treatment OF the
mikado's subjects will have to stop, or
there will be a general revulsion against
it on their part the results of which won't
be pleasant.
Let me explain a little. In Yokohama
there is a social organization to which ev-
cry white man who is anybody at all be-
longs. Ii isn't an English club, an Amcri-
can club, German club or French club;
nationality has nothing to do with 1t. Cen
eral good character, proper connections and
'clubability' are the only requisites to mem
bcrship. provided the applicant has a white
skin. Sometimes membership is secured by
a man who Is not quite all he should be,
too. This is the famous Yokohama Club.
Nov, although any one properly intro
duced who has Il white skin, may join this
club its doors are closed TO any one who
hasn't; and this, of course, keeps out the
japanese. 1t matters not how high the
mans social standing among his own peo-
pie 1t matters not what his achievements
in art or science or scholarship; it matters
not that he has made a shining mark in in
ternational craftsmanship; 1T matters not
how rich he may be; 1t doesn't help him to
have done some unusual service on behalf
of Americans or Europeans. If he is a
Japanese and with brown skin he can't
get in, and that's all there is to it.
This rule has been broken just once, but
1t wasn't broken because of any good rea-
son. 1t was broken solely through acct
dent The applicants name was so much
like white mans name that it just slipped
through. There were a few who knew who
the man was, of course; they were his spon-
sors and they felt pretty cute when he got
through. though they were on pins and nee
dies lest some one should start an investi-
cation before the favorable vote upon his
name was taken. Once he had been elected
it was reasoned he couldn't be put out for
there is nothing in the rules or bylaws of
the club prohibiting Japanese membership.
Now, of course, any one has right to
say he won't associate with any one he
chooses. but when he bars any particular
person or class from social equality with
himself. IT isn't exactly consistent to in
sist on social equality from the other side.
You should not try to keep your neighbor
from sliding down your cellar door unless
you willing to have him lock the gate
to his back yard. Yet that is practically
just what most of the Americans and Eu-
lOpedLS III Japan 40.
One-Sided Social Intercourse.
"Of course. it isn't done quite as boldly
as you might suppose from my unqualified
statement. There is a great deal of So
cial intercourse between the brown faced
citizens of the country and the white
faced foreigners, but it is pretty one-sided,
and much as you hear about oriental re-
serve in my opinion the Japanese are
good deal more open and unreserved in
their treatment of foreigners than foreign
ers are of the Japanese.
The truth is that the foreigners in ia
pan have felt. until now, that they We're in
finitely superior, mentally and physically
to their hosts and have conducted them
selves accordingly. There is a good deal
Of talk about japanese loose morals, but
how at least some of the Americans and
Europeans who go to Japan, can hold them
selves, morally, better than the Japs 1t
would be hard to imagine. 1t Is quite true
that Japan lacks the occidental prudery
and even that good many lapses Of morals
occur among the Japs. but l would stake
my reputation that there is really no more
immortality in Japan than in the United
States or England. 1t Is covered up little
more in western lands that is all
Now, the very openness of the Japanese
way has its compensations, for through its
operation everybody knows the real char
acter of everybody else: there Is no de-
ception whatever on that score.
1.-The treatment of the Japs as interiors
by the foreigners is extended much fur