The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-05-04
ROW WITH JAPS STARTED AT ORIENTAL
SCHOOL AND ENFORCED ATTENDANCE
AntAen Land Law Simply
Something About the Schoolhoue Where San Francisco
EducateS Her Far Fasteners

Mighty oaks from little acorns grow
States. Japan has been worked up late
~ more than ever before in her feeling
against the Observation-Disclosures to the
anti ilien land law in California. But the
land law, although aimed directly at the
Japs, is only the last straw to break the
traditional camels back in the long
series of hosttlities The first of these
untoward events-the first actual open
piece of hostility occurred shortly after
the san Francisco earthquake, when the
Japanese of the Golden Gate City took
issue against the enforced attendance of
some Japs at the Oriental School or
Frisco. On the face of it, there is much
Justice in the Japanese contention. San
Francisco is one of the largest cities
of the earth: distances are tremendous,
and the sluggish school-boy who would
get to class at $50 in order not to be
tardy must indeed rise betimes, if he
must first traverse half the city TO
reach a stated school-house. That. in
fact, is the reason we have many
public schools-0ne in each city district.
Were it not for this we might, at much
less expense to the community, have
but a single school-house.
Question of Morals.
But the American fathers, and, in par
tcular, the. American mothers, looked
at the matter from another angle. Not
all the Japs who come to the United
States Of America have a common school
education, and so, when the opportunity
offered, these focked TO the school. That
meant that in the same room with your
youngster were men of the twenties
and thirties-and men whose morals
were far from the best. To be exact, in
the words of one careful student Of the
question, your real Jap is not immoral,
but immoral. When one finds the great
bathing establishments Of Tokyo using
women to rub down men and boys, and
other men Offering their wives for loan by
the week, what may one expect? These
and similar good reasons made the people
or frisco decide that the Orientals must
be segregated in the schools They claimed
II was to get the Chinese and the Japs as
well, but. as matter OF fact your Cali
fornian gets along wonderfully we'll with
the Chinaman. The labor unions do not
like him, OF course-because, being able
to live on fare that would starve an
American, he can work for far less than
they and so defeat them in their contests
for jobs. But, like Uriah Heep, the China
man is humble-knows his place-and is
tolerated. The Jap will fly to the other
extreme. and with astute thickness. man
ifest his equality or even superiority to
the whites
Hence, then, the Oriental School
and < has been the bone of contention. ]
between pro-Asiatic agitators and the
California American ever since II is
the focus, or, rather, the personifica-
ton of the Japanese troubles on the
Coast. Even aside from this interna-
tionaI interest, however, the Oriental
School lis one of the quaintest places
in all Chinatown that a visitor may
view in safety.
One should go, preferably, in early
morning, at school time. Follow the
innumerable little Orientals-the Japs.
taking to American garments; the. Chi
nesa willing to cling to the black seer
sucker Of their home land. Every lane