The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1909-03-18
A PROBLEM THAT
MUST Be SOLVED
So Says a Prominent Californ-
ian Regarding the Jap
anese Question.

Chester II. Kowell, Editor OF the Fresno
Republican. in Golfers Weekly.
Do the American people realize that
they are now facing on our Pacific
frontier what may easily become the
most significant crisis which the west
ern world has confronted since Their
mopylac-a question not of policy or
prosperity or progress, but Of eXis-
tence!
Nothing can keep our Pacific coast
essentially a white mans country ex-
cept our continued determination to
keep it so. Nothing can preserve tho
the state bordering on the Pacific. ex-
eept the preservation of the racial in
tegrity OF their population. And II that
is rot guarded, nothing can prevent he
caste system n the wreck of free in
situations 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 Mississippi or the
Atlantic, with all west of the new line
outside the precincts OF the white mans
world. 1t is g question on which 81
lblunder. once made. can never be rec
titled. The frontier of the white mans
world must be established some day.
somewhere. Unless his generation es-
.ablishes it at the Pacific coast no
future generation will ever have the,
chance to establish it SO far west or to,
maintain 1t anywhere except by war
and permanent lines of garrisoned for
tresses. The problem is ours in the
aeXt few years in California. Washing
ION. Oregon and in the capitol and
White House. The consequences are.
the whole worlds, everywhere, for
ever.
The food from the Orient has start
e1 Nnthinp can ctnn il ,1plpcc 1po do
We did stop it from China. because
China Was helpless, but that helpless
ness viii! not last long. 1t has been
checked from Japan by the grace of
Japan, but that grace may not last
long. And we may have to deal with
India about it. But the reservoir that
is tapped is limitless. Literally hun
dreds OF millions of brown men. yell.
low men and bronze mon would now
like to come to America, for the same.
reasons that the Europeans wanted
to come; and they will come, Just as
the Europeans have come, if they are,
equally free to do 50. mo then-the
deluge.
The worst of 1T is that, temporarily
and economically, we need them. and
therefore some of our short sighted cap
italists desire them. 1t Is q fair and
empty land hat awaits development.
and it is capable of being exploited
far more rapidly han the white man
alone can do it. Industrially. the West
can be full grown in one generation,
If we will permit it, but not by the
labor of all the white men it can get.
The West can absorb men faster than
white men are c%onsenting to come.
A deliberate dog in the manager policy
is the only way to reserve for future
generations of our race the resources
which we have not time nor men to
develOp ourselves.
Already we raise more fruit than
we can hire men to gather, even with
the aid of Indians, Mexicans and such
orientals VINO have been admitted. Our,
large land owners cry aloud for work
ers, and they like the Oriental best.
Under the policy of laissez faire, the!
free play of natural forces would soon,
work out the inevitable result. 1t has;
begun already. The class OF free white!
farm laborers is disappearing. The!
migratory hobo is not desirable either;
as a worker or a citizen. In the great;
fruit industries the harvesting is beinRi
done more and more by Orientals, In
dams and Mexicans. The Pacific coast
small farmer, where a few asfes make,
n competency and the Isolation of coun-
try life disappears. But there are be-
%ginnings which, II unchecked, would,
mean the end of the small farmer, also
The japanese does not remain a coolie.
When he can, he buys or rents land.
Wherever many Japanese settle, as
owners or renters. white men move out,
StlTIellueTllS 10 TIE japanese q NOlun-i
tary monopoly. The Japanese will not
accept subordinatton. He knows that
he is the equal of the white man, andi
| nc is quite prepared to maintain hat
equality. A large population of %native-i
born Japanese would nave the right to|
vote and would insist on exercising It'll
Up to the present time the Japanese|
: have refused to Understandable peri
llaps we cannot blame them, since we;
mostly dc not understand ourselves
thar InCiGtRnna on rno0 coro, .ofjon 5Noct
: not mean the assertion of race Inferior
!. ity. Many of the Europeans whom we
welcome are our interiors. The Jap
anese, to whom we object. are, as a
!. ferent race, physically, and nature will
|, keep them different through all the.
: generations, unless there is mingling of
I blood. We owe it to the posterity OF
!. both races that this experiment be not
tried, in either America or Japan.
Since that far day when there first
awoke in the white mans breast the
!. %gerrninal instinct to 'go west the
{ has consisted in following that i'm
, pulse. The other half Of the world
was. for us, on a different planet. Nov.
at last the long migration is ended and
!, !, the two have come together. The flu
l ture will turn OF the new relut.on Of
: these hitherto unrelated ;2alNes And
> the nature of that relation will depend
Very largely on what we do In the i'm
{: mediate future in California. Oregon,
Washington and British Columbia.
{ Shall the frontier Of the white mans
}: world be drawn at the Golden Gate, or
I right down the middle Of our social
{ structure? Shall the line be geographic
or social? Or il we repeat in Calf
. fornia the Hawaiian experiment, shall
l there be another geographic frontier.
! with California forever on the brown
: mans side of it?
This is not a plea for an Immediate
exclusion treaty. or any other specific
measure. But it is the cry OF the UNI
born generations Of the West for tho
& right to he born OF Occidental blood
: md under American institutions. It is
the call to tho warders Of the western
mark to be true to the trust which a
hundrcd generations Of westward far
ing men have beQueathed to them.
. .And it is a reminder of the high duty
I not to surrender at the Western Dor
I der and at the elimination Of our cfvi-
lization the victory which the heroes
o of Thermopylae won for US in Mt the