Los Angeles herald., 1907-01-14
SAYS JAPANESE
EXCLUSION LAW
WOULD Be SILLY
David Starr Jordan
Gives Views
President of Leland Stanford Univer-
sty Asserts Move Against Friendly
Nation Would Be "Hood-
Ium Measure"
BY Associa ted Press.

by Associated PfeSS.
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 13.-"No
congress could pass a japanese exclu-
sion act and no president would sign
one, because it would be a hoodlum
act" said David Starr Jordan, presi-
dent of Stanford university, in address,
ing meeting at Equity hall tonight
of Socialists, by whom he had been in
vited to speak on the Asiatic problem.
Continuing DR.. Jordan said I'VE
don't care straw what nation our
friends come from. The resemblance
is greater than the difference between
Americans and the Japanese, but it is
right that California should think that
she would rather on the whole that
this should be an AngloSaxon state"
DR.. Jordan quoted President Roose-
welt in saying that as a general rule
''it paid for a nation to be a gentle
man." and he was of the opinion that
the remedy for the immigration trou-
bles did not lie in lawlessness nor yet
in mass meetings denouncing the Jap
anese as a nation because they did not
go to the same Sunday school we at
tend.
He prefaced his remarks on immi-
grafton with a sketch of the japanese
at home as he had found them during
his stay in Japan. saying that they
gave themselves more than any other
people to making each other happy.
DR.. Jordan denied that the Japanese
were more given 10 vice than western
nations.
1T is not true" said he, chat we shut
the Japanese children out of our schools
because they have some peculiar Jap
anese vices that other children do not
have.
There can be no exclusion act aimed
at gentlemanly naton that is nation
with stable government. They would
resent it. But am assured by JapaneS
officials whom I know that they are will
| ing to enact a law themselves prohibit
| ing the immigration of unskilled labo
into this country. They are willing t.
keep their children out of our yard, bu
they do not want us to drive them ou
with our bulldogs.
1T is all nonsense that we have tc
fight with Japan to see who shall have
the mastery of the Pacific. That coun-
try will have the supremacy which has
the best goods to sell, wrapped up in the
most attractive parcels, and for sale al
the cheapest prices. Trade follows the
flag when it is on merchant vessel.
Supremacy of battleships has moth
ing to do with supremacy of trade. The
good will of Japan is the best asset
this coast has and it is always a bad
plan to begin a trade by hitting your
customer over the head. If you find
it necessary to take his hat off there
are several ways to do it rather than
knock it over his eyes or to hit it up
from behind.
This city pays for it's schools and
it has a right to run them as badly
as it did fifteen years ago if it wants
to. 1t may have the right to exclude
all aliens, but 1 doubt if it has the
right to exclude the aliens of one sim
gle nation. In any case it might have
been done more gracefully.
1T is only the hoodlums that make
the trouble and every time a boy
throws a tomato can at a Japanese he
makes the question so much harder
of settlement. / do not think the ar
gument of permanent race differences
is so strong after ALL"
DR.. Jordan said he believed Japan
was sincere in its desire to stem the
unskilled labor immigration to this
country.