The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-08-19
THE RIGHT OF JAPANESE
TO NATURALIZATION
The Test Case to Finally Decide the Question
May Have Arisen in the Application of
Suzuki, Made Yesterday.

{ Hans have never. ethnologsea1lv. beer
considered white persons. OF IneIade1
j II any saeh designation.
THE NEGRO FEELING.
From the first orr naturalization
laws only applied . The people who had
settled the eountrv-the Europeans o.
white rae-an4 - they remained anti
in 1915. Ehea under the pro-uegro feel
ing, generated and infame1 by the war
with the Southern States. and its p0IIt-
zeal consequences, Congress was drIv-
en a. once 70 the other extreme, and
opened TIE door. not only % persons
OF African descent, but 70 ali those OF
African nativity thereby profEerlng
the boon Of American citizenship 20 the
comparatively savage and strange lnhab-
Itants Of the DARK Continent while
withholding i from the intermediate
and much better qualified red and yell
Iow races.
HARMLESS LEGISLATIVE BUN
COABE.
However, there IS this 10 be said in
excuse for tnIs seeming inconsistency
The negroes OF Africa we're not likely
TO emigrate 10 this country, and, there
fore, the provision concerning them was
merely q harmless piece OF legislative
buneouibe, while the indian and the
Chlnaman were In our midst, and at our
doors and only too willing 70 assume
the mantle OF American sovereignty,
which We ostentatiousIy offered 10 the
African, but denied to them.
The conclusion being that an In
dian Is not a white person within the
puryiew Of the naturalization laws the
question arises. what is the status in
this respect OF the petitioner, who is
person OF one-half Indian blo0ds In
Louisiana, if the proportion Of African
blood did not exceed 0ne-eighth. the
person was deemed white; and this was
the rule iii the colonial code noir OF
France and approved IN Carolina.
In Ohio il has been held that q per-
son nearer white than black Or red was
a white person, within the provision Of
the State constitution of 1902 limiting
the privilege Of voting to the white
male inhabitants etc; but that where
the colored blood was equal 10 or pre-
ponderafed over the white blood, the
person was not white.
THE LINE OF RACE DIVISION.
In Jeffries Y Ankeny, It was held
that the offspring OF white man and
a haif-breed Indian woman was a voter;
that all nearer white than black, or of
the grade between the mulattoes and
the whites, were entitled 10 enjoy every
political and social privilege OF the
white citizen.
Upon these authorities, and none
other have come under my observation,
the petitioner is not entitled to be con-
sidered q white man. As matter Of
fact, he is as much an Indian as white
person, and might be cIassed with the
1ne race as properly as the other Strict
ly speaking, he belongs TO neither.
'fThe power to say when and under
what circumstances aliens may become |
American citizens belongs TO Congress-.
is privilege which no one
has right to demand; and in con-
struing the acts OF Congress upon the |
subject of naturalization, the courts |
ought not to go beyond what is plainly |
written.
''The petitioner Is not white per-
SON. in fact, nor can he be so consider
d upon any reasonable construction of
he statute, or within any rule that has
,ver been promulgated on the subject.
The application is denied.
THE CASE OF SAITO.
The next case on the subject was
decided by Circuit Judge Colt in the
United States Circuit Court for the
District of Massachusetts, This was on
he application of Shebata Saito. Judge
'oit, after quoting the naturalization
lct, says: "The japanese, like the
1hinese, belong TO the Mongolian race,
md the question presented is whether
hey are included within the term
white persons.
"These words were incorporated in
he naturalization laws as early as 1902
1t that time the country was inhab-
ted by three races-the Caucasian, or
,hite race; the negro, or black race;
nd the American, or red race. It is
therefore, TO infer that (
7hen Congress, in designating the class ;
persons who could be naturalized,
asserted the qualifying word white,
! intended to exclude from the priyi- ]
,ge of citizenship all alien races ex- {
ept the Caucasian. K
- Put we are not without more di-
sct evidence of legitimate intent. In
$40. after the adoption of the thir- c
zenith amendment to the Constitution |
rohibiting slavery, and the fourteenth !
declaring who shall be citi- I
Ems, the question of extending the !
rivilege of citizenship to all races of .
lens came before Congress for con-
deration. At that time, Charles
umner proposed to strike out the word
White from the statute; and in the
ng debate that followed, the argu-
ent on the part of the opposition
as that this change would permit the
hinese (and therefore the Japaness)
become naturalzed citizens, and the
ply of those who favored the amend
ent was that this was the very pur-
,se of the proposed amendment. The
nendment was finally rejected. and
e present provision substituted. ex-
nding the naturalization laws to the :
frican race.
CONGRESSIONAL INTENT.
Again, in the first revision of the
atutes, IN 1873, the words being free
hite persons were omitted, probably
rough inadvertence Hinder tho At