The San Francisco call., 1907-02-08

Immediately He talked of the proba-
bility that the Japanese would get the
best of us at first in case of hostilities
and insisted thatit would be the height
of folly on ourepart to provoke war.
The Japanese people, he thought. were
pressing that Government to make a
strong demand that japanese should
be accorded the same privileges as
other nations. Whether or not the
treaty gives Japanese children the right
to attend the public schools Japan
thinks 1t does and accordi, ,gly asks
that the treaty be respected
FAvoRs EXCLUSION
"The President went out of his way
to tell us that he agreed with us on
the vital question of exclusion. A year
ago he declared Japanese exclusion to
be preposterous. Now he says he recog-
nizes that it must come and the sooner
the better, II 1t can be done without
affronting Japan. He is convinced that
Japan will not agree to exclusion SO
long as st thinks that its treaty rights
are not respected in San Francisco.
Therefore if exclusion were to be de-
manded without conciliation of Japan
on the school question he thought that
the people Of Japan would make such
an uproar as to overthrow the Gov
d
gramme.
"Conceding that a continuance of
Japanese immigration would result in
trouble, the President argued that we
should waive the question whether or
not the treaty conferred public school
rights upon Japanese in California. in
order that an arrangement might be
made with Japan for the exclusion of
laborers. The President, we think.
roo1i1ac that he want too
message in his anxiety to assure Japan
that treaty obligations would be re-
spected. He overlooked the stubborn
fact that the continued influx of Japan
ese on the Pacific Coast was certain to
make. trouble. He threatened us for
the sake of conciliating japan.
HE sees now that exclusion is in
evitable, with or without the consent
of Japan. He agrees with us that
exclusion should be ACCOMPLISHED
amicab1y If possible and for that rea-
son he believes that it must be accom-
plished soon, before something unex-
pected occurs to complicate the situa-
tion. He told us that it would be folly
to agitate for exclusion by legislation
while segregation of the Japanese
school children continued.
DIDN'T HAND GOLD BRICK
HE intimated that If Congress
should pass an exclusion act under
such circumstances he would be forced
to veto 1t in order to maintain peace
with Japan. He insisted that exclusion
should be accomplished through diplo-
matte means in order that Japan might
save her face The indispensable pre-
liminary to exclusion through dipIo-,
macy, he told US, must be an assurance
that japanese school children should
enjoy the privileges enjoyed by other
foreigners.
This is as clear an outline as 1 can
give of the Presidents position He
left the impression that he knew more
of Japan's attitude than he had i'm
parted to us and that the situation was
more serious than we thought When
the San Francisco people arrive we
shall go with them to the President,
and we have no doubt that he will
tell them exactly what he told u.s.
Now, it has been suggested that the
president tried to throw a scare into
US and that he is trying to hand US a
gold brick. = don't think that we are
either scared or fooled to any great ex-
tent We, know that the situation Is
serious. The President did not have
to tell us that, and everybody in Cali
fornia knows that it is only necessary
to permit Japanese immigration to con-
tinue in order to have first-c1ass ex-
plosion. We have not overlooked the
fact that Japan has just arranged to
grant 1000 passports monthly to Hawaii
instead of $500 as heretofore.
1T is getting to be only question
of steamship facilities. The Japanese
are hurrying into the United States as
fast as they can