The Washington herald., 1913-12-28


rather than a treaty so drawn that re-
course must be had to the extreme step
! Of abrogating it IL it ever becomes neces-
sary to exercise the right in question.
The ARRANGEMENT We made worked ad-
mirably. and entirely achieved its pur-
pose. No small part of our success was
due to the fact that We succeeded in i'm
pressing on the Japanese that We sin
cerely admired and respected them, and
desired to treat them with the utmost
consideration.
Deprecntes Reckless Writers.
I cannot too strongly express my indig-
nation with, and adherence of. reckless
public writers and speakers who, with
coarse and vulgar insolence, insult the
Japanese people and thereby do the
greatest wrong not only to Japan bur
to their oGn country. Such conduct rep
resents the nadir of underbreeding and
folly. The Japanese are one of the
great nations of the world, entitled to
stand, and standing, on a footing of full
equality with any nation OF Europe or
America l have the heartiest admira-
ton for them. They can teach US much.
Their civilization is in some respects
higher than our own. 1t is eminently un-
desirable that Japanese and Americans
should attempt to live together in masses;
any such attempt would be sure to re-
suit disastrously, and the far-seeing
statesmen of both countries should join
to prevent it. But this is not because
either nation is inferior to the other; it
is because they are different
The two peoples represent two civili-
cations which. although in many respects
equally high. are SO totally distinct in
their past history that it is idle TO eX-
NsrWnEH NF
come this difference. One civilization is
as old as the other: and in neither case
is the line of cultural descent coincident
with that of ethnic descent. Unquestion-
ably the ancestors Of the great majority
both of the modern Americans and the
modern Japanese were barbarians in that
remote past which saw the origins of the
cultured peoples to which the Americans
and the Japanese of today severally trace
their civilizations.
But the lines of development or these
two civilizations, Of the Orient and the
Occident, have been separate and diver
gent since thousands of years before the
Christian era certainly since that hoary
cid in which the Akkadian predecessors
of the Chaldean Semites held sway in
Mesopotamia. An effort to mix together,
out of hand, the peoples representing the
eliminating points of two such lines OF
divergent cultural development would be
fraught with peril; and this, l repeat.
because the two are different, not be-
cause either is inferior to the other.
Wise statesmen. looking to the future,
will for the present endeavor to keep
the two nations from mass contact and
intermingling, precisely because they
wish to keep each in relations of per-
manent good will and friendship with the
other.
A Letter to California.
Exactly what was done in the particu-
lar crisis to which l refer is shown in
the following letter which, after our
policy had been successfully put into
execution, l sent to the then speaker Of
the California lower house of the legis-
lature:
THE White House, Washington,
February s, 1903.
Hon. p. A. Stanton,
Speaker of the Assembly,
Sacramento, California:
II trust there will be no misunderstand-
ing of the FEEDER al governments attitude.
We are jealously endeavoring to guard
the interests Of California and of the en-
tire West in accordance with the desires
of our Western people. By friendly
agreement Will JdpdI' we are HO"
carrying out a policy which. while meet
ing the interests and desires of the
Pacific Slope, is yet compatible, not
merely with mutual self-respect, but
with the mutual esteem and admiration
between the Americans and Japanese.
THE Japanese government is loyalty
and in good faith doing its part to carry |
out this policy, precisely as the Ameri- |
can government is doing. The policy |
aims at mutually of obligation and be- |
havicr. In accordance with it the pur- |
pose is that the Japanese shall come |
here exactly as Americans go to Japan. |
which is in effect that travellers, students,
persons engaged in international busi- |
ness. men who sojourn for pleasure or |
study, and the like, shall have the freest |
access from one country TO the other, |
and shall be sure of the best treatment,
but that there shall be no settlement in |
mass by the people of either country in |
the other. During the last six months |
Under this policy more Japanese have |
left the country than have come in, and
the total number in the United States |
has diminished by over 1000. These fig
ures are absolutely accurate and connot
be impeached. In other words, it the
present policy is consistently followed /
and works as well in the future as it is l