The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-02-04
Legislation Against Aliens In California Gets a Real
 Knockout Blow
SENSATIONAL SPEECHES
 ARE MADE ON THE BILL
Principal Objection to the Measure Was That ltWould Drive an lm- mense Amount of Foreign
 Capital Out of State.

sacramento, February 3.--After a de- bate extending from Il o'clock this morning until o'clock tonight the as- sembly. by a vote of AS to 2S, reject ed the Drew bill barring aliens from owning land in California.
 The bill had been amended at the request of President Roosevelt and Secretary Root so that the clause ap plying it to Japanese only was elim mated, making the bill apply to all aliens, but the measure aroused such 8 storm of opposition that long be- fore the debate was closed by MT. Drew it was apparent that the measure would be defeated.
 In subs the objection to it was that 1t would drive at least a billion dollars of foreign capital out of the state and might jeopardize the present friendly commercial relations with Japan.
 The supporters of the bill contend ed that the state was being overrun by thrifty Japanese, who were grad ually gaining impregnable position as landowners and whose government was trying to dictate to California re- gardng legislation.
 Two sensational speeches were made, one for and one against the meas ure.
 When the debate began in the as- sembly the galleries were crowded. There were no Japanese among the auditors.
 Drew's Opinions.
 Assemblyman Drew opened the de- bate. He said that in his opinion. President Roosevelt had done all he could to help solve the Japanese prob lem, but had been unsuccessful. The federal government. he@safd had an unchallenged right to exercise sole power over immigration, but California also had the right to protect the in- tegrfty of her soil
 T think l voice the sentiment of a majority of the people of the state when I say that conditions now pre- vailing are deplorable. This is a law against alien ownership of land in this state, not against the Japanese alone and the President himself informs me in a letter I received today that he is not opposed to the bill as it has been amended.
 We must keep the Japanese out of this country and we must prevent them from owning land in California "I wish to dispel the idea that seems to have gained wide circula- ton that my bill was the result of union labor agitation. When I intro- duced it two years ago. I had never heard of the Asatic Exclusion league. ". Mir Drew quoted from letters received from Hawaii and Canada, showing the large increase in the numbers of Jap anese there and continued:
 Who is opposing this measure in Cali fornia? The first are the commercial in- terests, including the chamber of com merce of our two largest cities, San Fran cisco and Los Angeles. Some of those interests are large employers of Japanese labor"
 School Segregation.
 Assemblyman Grove L. Johnson of Sac ramento, ex-congressman and author of four bills segregating Japanese in schools and residential districts. and preventing aliens being members of corporations, made an impassioned appeal for the en- actment of the bill.
 At the climax of his speech he walked backward from his seat to the lobby rail and, sezing in his arms golden-haired girl of years, held her aloft and de- clared that The was in favor of this. as opposed to the Japanese menace to our Institutions.
 Nathan J. Cole of San Francisco. who was elected with the indorsement of the union labor party, opposed the Drew bill on the ground that it was in conflict with the state constitutions; that 1t was nimi- cal to union labor, and that it was not favored by the national administration, which, he said, was dealing with deli cate problem and should be supported by the people of California.
 Confronting Assemblyman Drew he said;
 'If President Roosevelt should throw open the doors of this assembly chamber and, laying his hand on your shoulder, should request for reasons of state that you withdraw this bill, you, MT. Drew, as patriotic citizen of the United States, would assent without murmur'
 Bill Amended.
 Tn reply MT. Drew, closing his argu- ment for the bill said that he had re- ceived a letter from the President in which he stated he was not opposed to the bill as 1t had been amended at his re- quest. In his opening remarks this morn ing MT. Drew said that already there were in California 40,O0O Japanese, most of whom had belonged to the Japanese army, who could be mobilzed at a mo- ments notice in case of hostilities. Richard Melrose of Anaheim declared that there were not more than 25.OOO Jap anese in California. He quoted from sta- tistcs compiled by the Asiatic Exclusion league to the effect that there were not more than 75 Japanese property owners in the state.
 MT. Melrose, who spoke for Governor Gillett, Speaker Stanton and other leaders in both branches of the legislature, coun- selled delay to enable the state labor commissioner to take a census of the Jap anese.
 Nr Stanton introduced recently at the request of the governor bill appropriat- ing s1O000 for such a canvass and as soon as other ant-Japanese measures are disposed of this bill will be rushed to passage