The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-04

to discern that the great Pacific area,
with its Islands and surrounding shores,
was to be the scenes OF the great events
of the worlds hereafter. In the interval
the United States completed the purchase
of Alaska, the acquisition of Hawaii and
the possession Of the Philippines, and en-
tered into an undertaking to construct
the Panama canal. In all this there was
a manifest increase of its obligations as
the greatest of the powers of the Pacific.
so much so that a French statesman was
prompted to say that the North Pacific
was already an American sea. But had
the Acknowledgement Of China and its par
tition among the military powers of Eu-
rope which was already under way in
1897. been allowed to proceed we should
have been confronted with another Eu-
rope on the eastern coast of Asia, amons.
the members of which would have arisen
the inevitable conflict for supremacy II
must be plain that the victor in such A
struggle would not only dominate Asia.
but that with this dominance would come
the reduction of the United States to the
rank of secondary power on the Pacific.
Neither on this continent nor on that
could our country have a policy, save by
the permission and approval Of the great
est of military powers ruling over a third
of the habtabe surface of the globe and
more than half of the human race.
Is Selfish Agitation
Considerations like those might be sup
posed to be of ready acceptance in Cali
fornia, with it's outlook on the Pacific
its dependence on transpacific trade and
its eagerly sought-for responsibilities as
the site of the Panama exposition. But
since Denis Kearney succeeded in achiev-!
ing fame and substantial pecuniary re4
ward by inveighing against the Chinese
there has been no lack of anti-Asiatio
agitators in California to exploit the race.
prejudice and the intolerant and avari-a
cious labor union sentiment of the state.s
Some of these agitators land In jail, but
more frequently they go to the state leg
islature or to Congress. One of the lat-l
ter, Mr.. e. A. Hayes, is member of the
House of Representatives, and has cen-7
stftuted himself the most prolific source
of bills drafted for the exclusion of alt
Asiatic races from our shores. The namel
of Mr., Hayes appears at the head of six
bills all bearing date of the 18th fnstant,1
and all apparently designed for the better
protection of white persons of the Cau-
easian race" against the competition Of
any Asiatic people. The present attitude
of the governor and legislature OF the
state of California has again raised the
question whether the Asiatc policy of
the United States is TO be dictated by the
Tveitmoes and Hayeses of California or
by the sober sense of the American peo-
pie 1t is a dilemma from which therel
appears to be no escape, since so long as
more votes are to be made by blatant
advocacy Of the principles of the Col
rean and Japanese Exclusion league than
by recognizing the obligations of Califor-
MIA as a state Of the union, so long will
it be impossible to secure due observ-
ance Of our treaty obligations to Asiatici
powers To that there can be but one
outcome. namely, a common union among
Asiatics against ourselves, and the ex-
clusion of American trade and enterprise
from any profitable field of activity in
Asia.