New-York tribune., 1906-12-26
TBoUBJE IN THE WEST.


There is trouble in the West. The Occidental
moon is fecked with sanguinary gouts and the
mutitudinous seas that flow and ebb through
the Golden Gate are much ncaraadined. Mob
Hill sits up and takes notice. while the voice
Of the Sand Lots. like the sound OF many cock
tails, is heard from Shasta 70 tho Salton Sea.
Not only Three Men of Tooley Street, but some
twenty-five hundred men of Walton's Pavilion
are surely on the warpath, swearing that
d" 'Friscans never. never shall be slaves!'
Twenty-Five hundred Of them, Of every tribe
and nation. save the cock-eyed heather.
Irish and Dago and Dutch are we.
But all OF us down on the vile Japanee!
But it isn't merely the Yellow Peril now.
That is all but lost sight of in the greater issue
of the natural and inalienable right OF a state
TO raise the devil all 1t pleases without external
interference. What is a little thing like the
Constitution between hoodlums and their fun?
If the gentle children of the Sand Lots want
TO haze, mob. insult and slaughter the bias-eyed
Mongolians coming hither under treaty rights
who shall say them nay? And If the municipal
or state authorities are unwilling or unable to
afford protection to the leprOus heather, what
earthly business has the United States TO inter
ferel
AS for that man Metcalf and his impertinent
exaggerated and altogether outrageous report,
the English language even In simplitied spell
ing fails TO do him justice. He actually says
the Japanese have been boycOtted! True!
Why, OF course it's true But what business
had he TO report 1t? 1t was absolutely un-
worthy Of him to do so. It made his report as
one-sided as Jug. Besides which, all that he
says is of not the slightest significance. 1t has
no more TO do with the case than have the
flowers that bloom in the spring. tra-la. Moth
ing has anything 10 do with it. except that
(salifornia-nO NOT California but the twenty
five hundred of Walton's PaviliOn-must be re-
garded as The Whole Thing, in the awful pres
ence of which the President, the Constitution,
habeas corpus, e pluribus unum and all the
rest must hide their diminished heads and get
of the perch!
And vet we do remember that once upon
time there was a President who declared that
he considered THE power TO annul law of
'the United States assumed by one state, in
compatible with the existence of the Union"
and who thereupon sent troops and warships to
prevent such notification. Also, there was an
other who when a company of twenty-five hun
dred, more or less. intPrtered with the opera
tons of the federal government and neither
the city nor the state would or could exercise
proper police power for the protection of the
functions of government, promptly interviewed
with federal force and arms. We haven't the
slightest notion that the Spartan twenty-five
hundred of Walton's Pavilion will compel any
such extreme resort. The Shark will prove to
be nothing but Il BoOjum. after all. But we
shouldn't be a bit surprised if, should bad lead
through worse 10 worst. the federal government
under its present Chief Executive proved quite
able TO vindicate its constitutional authority,
without setting up the despOtic standard of
dictatorship above the PROSTATE liberties OF
Walton's Pavilion.