Los Angeles herald., 1906-12-05

the case, studying the treaties with
japan and preparing to make good his
promise, made in the name of the
president, that the Japanese people
shall receive at the hands of the United
states the same treatment accorded the
people of the most friendly European
nation. He has found numerous de-
clsions of the supreme court in which
II Is held that a treaty is the supreme
law of the land. As early as 1898, five
years after the constitution took effect,
decision was handed down which Is
especially interesting in the light of
the fact that at that time the discus
sion incident to the adoption of the
constitution must have been still fresh
IN the minds of many. In the course
OF that decision, which upheld the right
OF aliens to inherit property in a state,
the laws of that state to the contrary
Notwithstanding, appeared this para
graph:
'Tf doubts could exist before the
adoption of the present national gov
ernment, they must be entirely re-
moved by the sixth article Of the con-
stitution, which provides that all the
treaties made or which shall be made
under the authority of the United States
shall be the supreme law of the land,
and the judges in every state shall be
bound thereby. etc. There can be no
limitation on the power of the people
OF the United States. BY their author
ity the state constitutions were made
and by their authority the constitution
of the United States was established,
and they had the power to change or
abolish the state conventions, or to
make them yield to the general gov
ernment and to treaties made by their
authority. A treaty cannot be the su-
preme law of the land If any act of
the state legislature can stand in it's
way. If the constitution of a state
(Which is the fundamental law of the
state and paramount to it's legislature)
must give way to a treaty and fall be-
fore it, would it be questioned whether
the less power, an act Of the state
legislature, must not be PROSTATE? It
is the declared will of the people of the
United States that every treaty made
by the authority of the United States
shall be superior to the constitution
and laws of any individual state and
their will alone is to decide. If a law
of state contrary to treaty is not
void, but voidable only by a repeal or
notification by q state legislature, this
certain consequence follows-that the
will of small part of the United
States may control or defeat the will
of the whole"
This extract is selected from many
decisions which have bearing on the
Japanese case, because the decision
from which it was taken was handed
down so soon after the constitution
went into effect. The department of
state and the department Of justice
officials are confident that they will
have no difficulty in defeating before
the courts the contention Of the Cali
fornians that the law of the California
legislature can in any way interfere
with a right guaranteed to Japan by
treaty.
Scope of the Japanese Treaty
The question then arises as to
whether the favored nation clause in
our treaty with Japan includes the
right to attend the public schools estab-
lished by state. Article of our treaty
of commerce and navigation, concluded
in 1894, guarantees to the citizens or
subjects of each of the two countries
full liberty to enter, travel, or reside
in any part of the territory of the other
contracting party" that they shall ZEN
joy full and perfect protection for their
persons and property. They shall have
free access to the courts of justice in
the pursuit and defense of their right;
they shall be at liberty equally with
native citizens, or subjects, to choose
and employ lawyers, advocates and rep
resentatives to pursue and defend their
rights before such courts, and in all
other matters connected with the ad-
ministration Of justice they shall enjoy
all the rights and privileges enjoyed by
native citizens or subjects"
Nowhere in this article, either in the
clause quoted or in those which follow,
is the right to attend schools specified in
SO many words, but the officials of the
department of state contend, and they
have the support of the department Of
Justice, that the following clause car
ries with it the right to attend schools
on the same footing as the citizens of
the most favored European nations,
although that right is not stated in so
many words:
"In whatever relates to rights of resi-
dence and travel, to the possession of