The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1907-02-22
WESTERNERs
ROLL PRESIDENT
(Mail Special to the Advertiser.)

spot light of recent days for theii
agitation of the Japanese question
Charges of broken faith are mad,
against them at the White House ant
at the State Department. The Presi
dent is indignant. He hints at be
trayal of condolences in that certain
of the California delegation, after &
full and free discussion with them
about the delicate Japanese situation
went away, told the newspapers al
about it, and even quoted the Presi
den's language about the "bassoor
playing mayor" of San Francisco. The
California members who did not give
away what the President said are in
dignant at their colleagues who did
There has been secret service work
to find out the names of the men. II
is now claimed that one of them Ger.
tainly was Senator and that posi-
bly, two of the members of the House
| offended. On top of it all Senator
Perkins rolled the President and the
Congress by an address he delivered
before the National Geographic Society,
asserting that war with Japan might
be afar off but that it would come in
time.
So everybody has been put out and
the Californians have not been in al
together as desirable a light as the
thousands of friends and admirers of
that great State would wish. The
President has stated more than once
that the agitators in San Francisco
were really doing all they possibly
could to prevent him from securing
for them the very things they are
clamoring for. And now he has to
add that the California delegation, be-
cause of the indiscretions of some of
its men, are in the category with the
San Francisco agitators. On the 9th
er hand the California senators and
members are quietly passing few hot
retorts to the President to the effect
that if he had consulted them in the
first place instead of writing hasty
and ill-considered message the entire
difficulty with Japan could have been
adjusted. The San Francisco people
would not have been made mad at
the implied threat to send warships
against their city.
What does it all meant Officials
in Washington have been trying to
fathom the matter ever since the White
House consultation of nearly ten days
ago. The war talk, which the Cali
fornians fomented, has been pooh-pooh-
ed on every hand except in some of
the more sensational journals. At first
it was said here in the East that
there was probably politics in the Cali
fornia war prophesies. 1t would pre-
pare Congress for treaty excluding
Japanese, or, perhaps, pave the way
in part for an exclusion act by Con.
gress. Some said also that the talk
was furthered by army and navy Off
GERS who hoped it would impel Con-
gress to appropriate GENEROUSLY for
the military establishments. Congress
has not been in generous mood about
such appropriations this winter.
The President believes it is posi-
BILE to arrange protocol to the pres
ent Japanese treaty, by which Japa-
nese laborers shall be excluded from
the United States and American labor
ers excluded from Japan. This is not
accepted with much enthusiasm in the
Senate, where it is said that treaty
according to one class of American
corded to all other Americans could
never be ratified. OF course American
laborers care nothing for the privilege
of working in Japan and it would seem
that we were giving nothing for some
thing that we want very much. The
President believes Secretary Root can
frame the protocol in language that
will meet the criticism of Senators.
Secretary Root is very astute in fixing
up words and phrases but it remains
to be seen what he can do in that
line, if Ambassador Aoki is given au-
thority by his government to begin
negotiations for a protocol.
THE SCHOOL CONTROVERSY.
The important thing for the pres
ent, however, is to dispose of the con
troversy about the exclusion of Japa-
nese children from all except the Ori-
entail school. Both the President and
Secretary Root are more concerned
about that just now than they are
about any other phase of the Japanese
question. They are having big and
picturesque wrestle this week with the
San Francisco municipal and school au
thorities, including Mayor Sehmitz, who
We're hastily summoned to Washington
after the White House conference. II
President Roosevelt can bring Mayor
Schmitz to his knees and persuade the
school authorities to yield he is con
fident that he can settle nm the trou