The Boise citizen. (Boise, Idaho) 1906-1910, 1907-03-08
WHNT TO Be
HMERI6HNS
Japanese Desire to Be
Mdd6 Oitlz6nS
REGARD THIS AS NEXT STEP
Situation as Viewed bu a Japan
csc Statesman

The Japanese question is growing
one President Roosevelts unwise and
unpatriotic recommendation that the
Japanese be naturalized is bearing fruit
and will torment the nation long after
any good the president has done is for
gotten. To lower and change the stand
ard of our citizenship from the whittier
civilization to the oriental, to attempt to
assimilate a race absolutely dissimilar
and unfamiliar and fundamentally op-
posed to our system of government
would be a colossal blunder. Yet this is
the program mapped out by Roosevelt,
and which is being seized with avidity by
Japan, as her foremost statesman are
demonstrating.
In an open letter addressed to Wis
count Hayashi, japanese foreign minis
ter the Hon. Julius Kumpei Matsumo-
to, a member of the Japanese parliament,
discusses the latest developments in the
Diplomatic relations between his own
country and the United States Mr..
Matsumoto has been member of the
Japanese diet for several years. As one
of the leaders of the Seiyu Kivai, the
constitutional party of the empire, he is
entitled to be heard when he speaks on
the subject of naturalization for Japa-
nese Besides being lawyer of repute,
he is a graduate of two American uni
Neutrality-suspicious. and Brown.
From the open letter referred to- which
appeared in a recent issue of Dai-Nippon
{Greater JAPAN, monthly review Of
Toxic, we quote as follows:
The fundamental cause of the political
ard social ostracism to which the Jap
anese are condemned in America is the
fact that they have not the privilege Of
naturalization If the Japanese had that
privilege, and within three years after
naturalization they had the rights to
vote as the Italians, the Irish, the Ger
mans and other nationalities have, the |
voice of japanese exclusion would never
have been raised in politics or in So
ciety in America If the japanese acquire
the privilege of naturalization, those who
will become American citizens will in
crease gradually, and finally constitute
themselves powerful political factors.
The japanese are an enlightened race.
In politics their power may prove to be
too great to be trified with. Those pol
iticians who are now catering to the
pleasures of the Italians, the Germans,
the Irish would, with soft and sweet
voices, wait upon the Japanese. They
would not perhaps point finger at them
And of course it is palmer than light
that, in such event, the Japanese eX-
clusion would be a forbidden thing In
perusing the constitution of the Unit
ed States l find that the races that are
allowed to be naturalized are two: the
white and the negro. The supreme court
OF the United States interprets this por-
ton of the constitution and says in rela- {
ton to Japanese: THE japanese are nei- ;
ther OF the white race, nor of the negro
race. Therefore; the japanese have not
the privilege of naturalization. The
court thinks this is just Interpretation {
OF the constitution, and has no compunc-
ton about declaring It's opinion. In some t
States, by the state laws, naturalization {
Of Japanese is allowed. There are some y
Japanese who have already obtained cit a
;zenship papers from the state govern y
ment and believe that they have been y
duly naturalized But before the consti-
tuition of the United States, which is
the supreme law of America, the state b
laws are void if they should conflict with $
the federal constitution. Should any p
thing happen, and should naturalized t
citizens of America ask the de- s.