The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1907-06-05
COLORADO AND
YELLOW PROBLEM

In this issue Of The News is given
picture of the Japanese immigration
to this State. Six months ago the
japanese population of Denver was
estimated at 600. Now it is above 1000
There are nearly 300 of the little
brown men working in the beet fields.
Here, as everywhere else, they bring
as much Of Japan along as is possible.
The Japanese supply houses of this
city import practically everything that
their countrymen use, except the meat
and bread they eat and the overalls
they wear. 1t is more than likely that
they occasionally import their custom
ers too, under contract.
These conditions must impress every
thoughtful man as being worthy the
most serious study. As yet the Japa-
nese are a small fraction of our popu-
lation, it is true. But they are a
steadily increasing part. They are
working their way rapidly to the East;
and the experience of Hawaii tells us
what that region may expect which
acquires a Japanese majority. Be
ginning as day laborers, they have
steadily encroached on every field of
industry They are a profit only to
their employers; a temporary profit,
even then. Their clannishness makes
sr;r nn
vantage in trade, while the whites
think only of comfort or cheapness
until it is too late to think of other
things The Japanese have fixed the
type of civilization for Hawaii; and If
their influx is not checked they will
fix it for many a portion of the main
land of the United States as well.
And this The News holds would be
an unmitigated calamity. We have no
patience with the cry that the Japan
csc must be excluded because they are
an inferior race. They are inferior in
some ways, but superior in others; and
The News has no means of striking
balance between the good and i'll. We
object to the Japanese as immigrants
not because they are inferior for we
are not sure that they are so; but be-
cause they are different, hopelessly
different, and must always remain so.
The Japanese in our midst is an alien,
and is proud of the fact. The course
of evolution has made him a very
different creature from ourselves. The
keynote of American civilization is the
care for individual freedom. The key
note of Japanese life is loyalty the
sacrifice of the individual to the mas
ter or to the State. The legends OF
our race too often glorify the outlaw
who sets all restraint at defiance, and
owns no rule but his own unbridled
way. The Japanese legends are typified
in that of the forty-seven Ronins, who
endure exile, starvation, humiliation
and death to revenge the death of
their master and bring his enemy's
head to his tomb.
Their race is different from ours,
theirs customs are different, their
ideals are different, their religion is
different. The two will not mix. They
cannot adopt our ways nor marry with
our people. And the people whom we
cannot admit to intermarriage we
should not admit at all The United
States is democracy, a government of
the people; and for the people to gov
ern themselves successfully they must
be of the same race and have the
same ideals. We have a negro pro-
blem now to which no man can see the
answer If we have left a single atom
Of wisdom we shall not add a yellow
problem to the one which now battles
rs. The Eastern papers which sneer-
ed at California were very i'll advised.
California was the outpost, that is all.
When that State demanded the exclu-
sion of Japanese coolies she was ask
ing boon for all the States The
News is glad that Colorado backed her
Western sister in that demand. And
The News would suggest that exclu-
sion laws are not self-operative, and
hat if we wish to really stop the Jap
anese immigration we must let our in
'pectors know that they are doing
heir work in the public eye.-Denver
News.