The San Francisco call., 1908-11-10
WHEELER SEES BIG
JAPANESE PROBLEM
Events of Future History Will
Be Enacted in Pacific"
He Says

! ANN ARBOR, Mich, Nov. 9.-Under
the auspices of the Students lecture
association of the University of Mich
/ igan, President Benjamin Ide Wheeler
of the University of California, tonight
delivered an address in University hall
in behalf Of the Pacific ocean and its
international significance.
President Wheeler left Berkeley inn
mediately after voting last Tuesday,
and on his way here lectured in Lin
coin, Neb., and Chicago. He will con-
tinue his eastward trip tomorrow, and
viii arrive in Washington, D. c., in
time for the convention of the Asso-
citation of State Universities, which will
/ open November 16 Wheeler tonight
spoke in part as follows:
The year 1898 is likely to be date
which future history viii conjure with.
1t was the year in which Russia ac-
quired from China her right to occupy
Port Arthur and in which the United
States annexed, the Hawaiian islands
and took possession of Guam and the
Philippines. The unfolding Of the sig
nificance of 1888 attaches itself to the
main events of the decade. The Boer
war, the agreement of the powers TO
the open door policy in China the
Boxer uprising and the Russo-Japan-
ese war
The situation in the Pacific suffered
violent dislodgment through the Russo
Japanese war. At the conclusion of
this contest Japan had planted its foot
on the mainland of Asia and had be-
come an empire girdling the sea of
Japan. In spite of traditional friend
ship with Russia, American sympathies
had been strongly with Japan until
The japanese have felt it and are
shocked and amazed. They counted the
| United States their best friend and
| revered ii as their early teacher. And
what had caused the change? There
was a complication of reasons The
Americans were doubtful whether it
was, after all, an advantage that Rus
sia, with whom we wanted to trade,
had been summarily thrust back from
the Pacific shore.
Then came the Japanese sensitive
ness and aggressive vanity that were
everywhere met and displayed, even at
/ the door of our state department, in in
sistent visits and nagging complaints
The opposition to Japanese immigra-
ton is not a California phenomenon
Protests are also heard from Vancouver
! Seattle, Valparaiso, New Zealand and
Australia. 1t is not a California oues-
ton; it concerns the whole Pacific rim.
It is a question that bodies trouble. and
not submit to an exclusion law such as
affects the Chinese and herein lies a
peculiar outlook for trouble, for the
people Of the occidental rim class both
together. AS sentiment is at present
Californians would much prefer an ac-
cess Of Chinese than of Japanese. They
are as laborers more useful, more sta
/ BILE, more steadfast to agreements.
The japanese are absorbing the car
/ rying trade Of the Pacific at a time
when our merchant flag, under the in
/ fiuence OF hostile laws, is retreating
from the seas. They are worthy of ali
respect and admiration as a people and
as nation, and we must abide in
friendship with them and learn from
them and teach them and buy of them
and sell to them, but it is best that the
two people should not hasten too much
/ the process of coming to dwell to-
gether on the same soil and in the same
commonwealth"
President Wheeler asserted that tbe
events of future history were to he
enacted in and around the Pacific ocean