The Delta independent., 1913-06-06

cept 1Or tne negro, DeloHS to tne same
basic race, and are unable to tell each
other apart in a few years after any
struggle takes place. They have more
intellectual and spiritual similarties
than they have of any sort of differ
ences They mix.
1t is different with the Oriental.
His color sets him off from the rest
of us so far as to make him marked
man. 1t may be urged that this ought
not to make any difference, that a
man is a man, no matter what the tint
of his skin. Granted-but this is a
democracy. and people must be taken
as they are. We can not fraternize
with colored peoples as we do with
each other They feel just as we do
about it. We can not do the busi-
ness of a democracy with people so
strongly set off from us in racial char
acter. Their presence among us in
great numbers raises the most explos.
i've questions questions of sex, mar
riage, school lifechurch life, business
life. travelling problems, questions of
all sorts of mingling. Perhaps these
questions ought not to come up. but
to urge that is silly-they will come
up.
The nation, every nation, must keep
out peoples whose presence Will com
plicate this matter of democratic solid
| arity They must be kept out, not be-
cause they arc inferior, but in many
cases because they are SO different
For these reasons California is right
in her effort to keep out the Japanese.
For similar reasons the Japanese are
right in all the laws they may have
enacted, or may enact, to prevent the
domestication of large numbers of Am
orleans there. They can vote us out
of their club with perfect propriety.
We can and must vote them out OF
our club. They are rot clubbable with
the great masses OF the greatest eau
casian club in the world, the United !
States.
The Japanese are not pioneers.
If they were they could find great |
deal of new land in the northern is
land of their own Empire, in Sakhalin.
and in Manchuria. But they are not
pioneers. They prefer tense compet-
ton with men in settled countries to
the competition with nature in new
lands. So they like to emigrate to es-
tablished societies, like that of Cali
fornia. In these societies they can
compete successfully with anyone.
Their presence here. therefore. sets up
an economic strife which is emphasiz-
ed and embittered by their radical
dissimilarity to us. If they came here
only as they became enamored of the
American people. the American flag.
and the Caucasian civilization. we
say to all: "Welcome!"
But they do not so come. They do
not like us any better than we like
them. They do not understand us any
better than we understand them.
They cling to whatever differences
there may be between their moral
standards and ours. They see the
many respects in which they are our
superiors, and fail to understand or
appreciate the many respects in which
we are their superiors. They do not
mix. They are hurled into our midst
like javelins by the expulsive force of
their poverty. This is as fundamental
an objection to their domestication
among us as their marked difference
in looks.
Their presence among us in large
numbers would raise a race issue far
worse than the negro problem. For
while the negro and the white have
failed to cooperate in working out our
problem of democracy, while we have
great difficulty in being just to the
negro. and while the negro problem
is recognized as our greatest one, IL
would be worse If the negroes were
Japanese. For the negroes have no
home government to which they can
appeal-a government armed and in
spired with the fine race pride of the
Japanese. If Santo Domingo and Hay
ii contained fifty millions of well-or-
ganized negroes, our present race ques-
ton would be one Of war.
We must have war with Japan or
emma or 1reeu anu lnuepehueht f'ih-
dustan. Therefore we must settle this
matter now before 1t is too late. We
must settle it now on the basis of our
right to exclude any peoples whom we
do not think We can take into our
work of perfecting democray. We
must settle it before an alien nation
is established in onr midst--a nation
of marked people, proud of their race,
and ready to appeal to their ancient