Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-11-01
IMMIGRANTS

T INTELLIGENT citizens who use
their gray matter in Analysing the
Il attitude of the Republican party
toward immigrants will find cause for
worry. 1t is now proposed to allow
entry without possibility of naturaliza-
ton to hordes of Orientals. Under the
old conditions men of that type were
stopped at Castle Garden on account
of their ineligibility 10 become citi-
zens of the Unified States, for in addi-
ton to the property and conduct quail
ifications for immigrants there was al
ways to be taken into consideration
the element of possible citizenship,
which was used as an argument to
soothe directors who saw in the irnpor-
tation of unskilled labor literally by
the steamship load a menace to the
trained, intelligent labor of the United
States.
But no longer will the literary or
any other test be applied. Asiatics
cannot become citizens and Asiatics of
all kinds now in the United States are
not to be allowed to become citizens,
even although they are to be allowed
to remain and work in the United
Statesl
II this is not establishing a condi-
ton of peonage in the United States
then what is it?
We quote a special dispatch from
Washington, published in our reliable
contemporary, the Los Angeles Ex-
press:
1.-THE theory of the government is
that the Asiatic civilization is so diff
ferent in every important respect from
the civilization of Europe, on which
our own Is based, as to make Asiatics
undesirable for the purposes of citi-
zenship here. This doctrine is not con-
tested so far as certain of the Asiatic
peoples are concerned. For instance,
nobody in this country questions the
propriety of applying it strictly to the
| Chinese and the Japanese and also to
certain of the East Indian peoples and
to the Malay race.
1.-THE difficulty comes when the gov
eminent seeks to apply 1t to Turks
Syrians, Armenians, Palestine Jews
and to other peoples in the western
portions of Asia, for these people have
been coming to the United States In
considerable numbers during the past
decade. and now form a considerable
body of the inhabitants of certain dis
tricts of many of the larger American
cities.
1T is the contention of the govern
ment that all Jews are not within the
meaning of the prohibition referred to-
Those Jews for example, whose an
cestors many hundreds of years ago
moved TO Europe have, in the opinion
of the government, taken on European
habits of thought, action and speech,
have taken on the standards of civili-
cation of the Europeans and are there
fore not to be classed as Asiatics, al
though of Asiatic stock,
similarly the Firms, who are of Mon
golian stock, but who have lived in
northern Europe for thousands Of
years, are not regarded as Asiatics,
but Europeans. But the Jews of Pal
estlne, the Syrians, the Armenians and
the various other peoples of Asia
Minor are under the ban, and ac-
cording to the government MAY NOT
BECOME NATURALIzED IN THIS
COUNTRY"
In that case they SHOULD NOT BE
IN THIS COUNTRY AT ALL. unless
the people of the United States wish
to court the risk of establishing q peon
class.
Uncle Sans problem of benevolent
assimilation of people of all nations of
the earth is becoming more and more
difficult. Sometimes it seems as IT it
might be advisable to suspend immi-
grafton for a few years, in order to
produce some social order out of the
chaos of ignorance and alienism COM
prising the nethermost stratum of
American population