The San Francisco call., 1909-01-26
No Anti-japanese Legislation,
| Says Theodore Bell
Leader of the State Dem
ocracy Thinks Sacramento
Should Keep Hands Off

Should Keep Hands Off
By Theodore Bell
The Japanese question has fared UP
again. With every successive revival it
grows uglier. over in Japan there is.
a feeling of bitter resentment; at
Washington an earnest appeal for mod
GRAFTON; and here at home evident
determination to prevent any further
Japanese encroachments. All this goes
to show that it is not matter than can
be dismissed lightly.
We are convinced that we can not
compete with the japanese upon our
own soil. They are our economic supe-
riors. Not long since most people
thought it was labor only that was
threatened. but with their successful
invasion of the fields of agriculture,
commerce and general business has
come the knowledge that with free
competition we must take a back seat.
This is not a humiliating admission; for
success, industrially. depends largely
on the difference between income and
outlay.
Their standards of living and ours
are far apart, hence our handicap. We
might forgive them for any difference
in religion, social customs and things
along that line, but when it comes to
taking second place in landing the al
mighty dollar a little extra provocation
is all that is needed to fan the smolder-
ing fire of racial hatred into fierce
flame. Intuitively we feel the histori-
cal truth that the economic instinct, in
proportion to its strength. writes laws,
builds institutions, mo1ds society. modi-
fies religions and, generally, shapes
things to its liking
/ he Contest for Mastery
And there's the rub. 1t means more
than the acquisition of farms, the ep-
GRAFTON of factories, the conduct of
business or the control of commerce;
it is their necessary implication. the
inevitable contest for mastery over the
things that we think best and most
holy in our own civilization that haunts
US when we leave our business in the
evening and sit down to think it over
by the fireside.
But we are not going to act i'm
pulsiyely or prematureiy. We can't af-
ford to do it, for it is serious business.
The Japanese government must realize
that the irritation displayed here on
the Pacific coast is only the outward
sign of a deeper feeling. She knows
that her immigration into California
must cease, and apparently the imperial
government is cooperating with ours
to that end. The president positively
asserts that the recent entente. between
the two nations is having the desired
effect. If true, and we are not pre-
rejoice But even if the president is
mistaken, let US not forfeit the good
Will of the rest of the union or the
world by enacting any critical legisla
tion until we have at hand incontro-
vertible evidence that we are right and
that he is in error.
No abandonment Of Rights
Ny candid judgment is that the pend
ing legislation at Sacramento affecting
the interests of the Japanese should
not be passed at this session. Such a
abandonment of our sovereign rights
There is no dispute about our right to
say who shall be admitted to the own
ership of our soil, or who shall be
eligible to the directorates of our do
mestic corporations, and our simple
omission to use all the power we pos
sess can not be distorted into a sur
render OF our rights any more than
the failure to make it a crime to catch
fish on Sunday could be held an abro-
cation of the privilege of so legislating
If we chose.
The suggestion that the restriction
on land ownership should be extended
to all aliens is doubly wrong. In the
first place it would be contrary to our
long avowed national policy and would
discourage the investment of foreign
capital in the development of our nat
ural resources; and again, by implica-
ton, it would be recognition of
Japan's ultimate demand that her sub
jects be admitted to full equality with
white aliens upon our shores. This
ultimate demand for complete equality
is the crux of the whole situation and
it will continue to be the storm center
until it is either withdrawn or rem
dered a moot question by the absence
of Japanese in any considerable num-
bers in our midst.
4 Non-P Partisan Commission
The legislature should pigeonhole
the anti-Japanese measures, then au-
thorize the governor to appoint a nom
partisan commission of say six mem
bers (the first named to act as chair
mani, with power and means to collect
facts during the next two years, CO.
operating with the federal department
of commerce and labor, TO the end that
the next legislature may have before it
tbo hast obfain data IN