The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-04-23
PEOPLES FORUM


Editor Eirgnian:
Sir-Permit me mildly 10 demur to your edi-
toraL California" in this mornings paper, in
which I think you show that you deceived,
like most of the country. by what General Homer
Lea called the "valor Of ignorance
| was born in California. my father, Con-
federate soldier having gone there after the
war and although I have been good Nir-
gilman through the best years of my life, am
naturally interested in affairs on "the coast
You cannot blame the Californians for seek
ing to avert a curse, through Japanese in
vason, which your whole editorial shows the
South has been burdeued with ever since the
Yankees set the slaves above their masters and,
by physical and moral support have since tried
to thrust into unnatural social political and
economic equality. The very things you boast
Of having carried as a white mans burden the
Californian very sensibly is seeking to keep on
his back.
would have made great as it's progress has been
if 1t had not had to bear this incubus which
cheney and cheapness Negro cheap labor IS IN
daily competition with white labor in the open
market. 1t keeps white labor away from the
South and it drives white labor out Of the South.
We are so used to it that take it, like the
frosts Of winter. as a matter of course but the
Californian rebels.
And then. YOU don't know the Japanese. or
You would not belittle the yellow peril lie
laughs at scars that never felt wound We
black peril, ought to sympathize with those who
dread a very aggressive yellow one. The bright
eyed clever smiling and gentle Japanese We
see In Virginia is one thing but the VIGOROUSLY
arrogant the intensely vain the ferCely am
bilious and the utterly ruthless Japanese the
Californian is looking in the eyes iS quite an
You say we encourages the negro to buy land
Therein we are great fools. For il is the people
who cling to the land that survive while super
fetal dwellers vanish The Californian don
wish the unassimilable Oriental to get such a
fcothold. We Southern people show poor judg-
ment in taxing resources to train and equiv
the negro to compete with and chill
dren
The Japanese know TO nicctv our wealth
and our military weakness Pooh pooh says
the lick all creation lingo; but tell YOU what a
little study and reflection will couhrm--that II
the Japs attack us before the canal is finished
they will humiate us horribly. our people talk
and act like Turks, who sneered at the swine
heards of the Balkans Look at Turkey now.
Take a map Of California and study it. 1t has
a great valley 400 miles long and 90 miles
wide in which a horde of Japs can settle down
and defy the United States 10 put them out
There only five ways to move any consider
able force into that natural fortress-the Golden
Gate and easily defended gaps In the mountains
through which the railroads struggle East OF
California lies hundreds of miles OF impracticable
desert
How many trained soldiers we mobilize
in California properly "quartermastered' and
commissioned" and "hospitaIcd before the
veteran and warlike laps can steam across the
Pacific and jump ashore? Consider that for
one minute We could dash our brave hattalions
against those tortuous mountain passes in vain
We could later on lombard the coast until oul
hearts were sick. Could we invade Japan? No
The Japanese might, after while, consent tC
evacuate California II we would give up all claims
I to the Philippines, Hawaii, Guam and perhaps
pay singing indemnity.
IT does no harm to put yourself in the place
of the Californian, my brother, in this situation
JEFFRY MONTAGUE.
/ Richmond, April %, 1918