Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1909-02-17
ORIENTOPHOBIA.
A WESTERN EDITORS VIEWS ON
THE WHITE FRONTIER.

DO the American people reailZe tnat
hey are now facing on our Pacific
'rontier what may easily become the
most significant crisis which the wes-
tern world has confronted since
Therapylae-a question not of policy
or prosperity or progress, but of ex-
Istence?
Nothing can keep our Pacific Coast
white mans country ex-
cept our continued determination to
keep it SO. Nothing can preserve the
essentially American social texture
Of the States bordering the Pacific
except the preservation of the racial
integrity of their population. And II
that is not guarded, nothing can pre-
vent the caste system and the wreck
Of free institutions from spreading
backward over the mountains and
across the plains, absolutely without
limit, until the white man at last
takes another stand, and establishes
a new frontier at the Rockies, the
or the Atlantic, with all
west of the new line outside the pre-
cipcts of the white mans world. 1t
is a question on which blunder,
once made, can never be rectified.
The frontier of the white mans world
must be established some day, some
where. Unless this generation estab-
fishes it at the Pacific Coast no fu-
ture genration will ever have the
chance to establish it SO far west, or
to maintain it anywhere. except by
war and permanent lines of garrison
ed fortresses. The problem is ours
in the next few years, in California.
and Oregon, and in the
Capitol and White House. The con-
sequences are the whole worlds.
forever
For all the national sins save one
there is forgiveness. That one We
committed long ago, when our fathers
brought in the black men to live
among white men. The curse OF
caste is on the South. There is a
foreign body in the very vitals OF
the nation, which can be neither abb
sorbed nor excised. AT best, We may
hope to encyst it. The condition is
incurable; our only hope is in the
Inherent vitality of the nation to
prevent it from being fatal.
But no such, hope remains if we re.
peat the blunder in the form which
now threatens. 1t was one thing to
deal with a few hundred thousands
and then few millions Of enslayed
negroes. 1t merely subjected our in
stftutions to. the one strain which
nearly disrupted them and then OF
liberated them from quarter Of oul
territory. But it is quite another
thing to deal with the overflow of {
whole world of Chinese Japanese ant
Hindus, backed by powerful and 1eal
Gus nations, which will submit to nj
imputation of racial inferiority. An,
IL Is still another thing, and a rela
lively easy one, to deal with un
limited hordes of white immigrants
equal or inferior, desirable or unde
sirable. Their problem is at most pc
litical and social. The other probler
| is biological Whatever any genera
ton may sallow, through the NeN
York mouth, future generations wi
digest. But what comes in throug
the San Francisco mouth no Amer
can generation can ever digest G
eject. Only Asia can assimilate Or
entail blood, and we must either b.
come Asiatic or refuse to try to al
similate it.
We ought to know by this tim
what immigration means, when ono
1t starts. Ireland found us out, an
moved over bodily Without credi
ing the claim that mythical imm
grafton of the clans O'Yama and Ma
Adoo began the political regeneratio
of Japan, we are sure it is no myt
that something very like that happe
ed here. Northwestern Europe four
us out, and all it's surplus populatic
moved over. Southern Italy foni
us out, and the surplus population
Naples and Sicily now digs oil
bitches and paves our streets Sout
eastern Europe is finding US out, al
the whole surplus population is mo
ing over. And nothing but the e
haustion of the surplus or artificial +
striction, ever stops such a flot
when it has once broken the dikes.
Asia has found us out too, and u
flood from the Orient has starte
Nothing can stop it unless we do. v
did stop it from China, because Chi
was helpless, but that helplessne
will not last long. 1t has been chec
ed from Japan by the grace OF Japa
but that grace may not last Ion
And we may stop it from India
cause we do not have to deal wi
| Ii dia about it. But the reservoir tn
lis tapped is limitless. Literally hi
d, eds of millions of brown men, y
: low men, and bronze men would M
like to come to America, for t
same reasons that the Europea
wanted to come; and they will con
Just as the Europeans have come,
they are equally free to do so. A
then-ths deluge!
The worst of it is that, temper
lily and economically, We need the
and therefore some of our short-sig
ed capitalists desire them. 1t is
fair and empty land that awaits
velopment. and it is capable of
ing exploited far more rapidly tt
tile white man alone can do 1t.
dustrially, the West can be full-gro
Il iii