The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-05-09
TEE SPECTRE OF COMPETITION.


the special reason that no was citizen OF Cal
afornia and intimate with conditions there. his
communications In The vfrptnidn, opposing the
position of this newspaper on tho course of tho
California legislature toward the Japanese, are
CT value and interest and entitled to respectful
consideration.
Yet in matters OF Importance and in all issues
the perponderance of evidence must prevail and
Official figures must outweigh opinions, however
respectable the source of those opinions and
however strong the defense Of them may be,
The Japanese have been in California a long
while. They have acquired by purchase some
1000 acres Of land which was poor and unpro-
ductive until they used It, They hold under lease
IL 900 acres more, The whole of their occupation
amounts to what would be regarded In Virginia
~ about eighty fair sized farms This acqulsl-
ton in more than quarter of century does
not look to us here like absorbing the land or
driving ont the white man Mr. Montague left
California twelve or fifteen years ago Doubtless
his opportunities for keeping In touch with the
best thought and observation in California
good: but they can hardly be better than those
Of DR.. Eliot, former president of Harvard uni
versity, who also has exceptional knowledge of
Japan and the Japanese. DIR. Eliot writes. under
date Of April 2sth. ten days ago, directing at
tention to the fact that the entire population of
the Empire Of Japan is less than half that of the
United States. They do not tend to intermarry
with people of other races, having powerfully
developed pride of their own. They love
their own country and do not leave 1t except
from necessits or motives of enterprise and
return TO 1t as quickly as possible Their states
men discourage emigration. seeking rather to
settle as many as possible OF their people on
their own territory
1t may be noted that the Japanese coming
here. going on farms and accommodating money
and returning to Japan to live differ .rom the
Chinese and the inferior class of italians in that
when they leave here they leave behind new
values they have created, improved and fertile
land where there was waste distinct addition
to the productive power of their temporarily
adopted country.
Such California newspapers as the San Fran
cisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Times and the
Oakland Tribune strongly oppose the anti-Jap.
snese measures. the Times describing them as
the work of the Tabor union dynamiters" Holy
Hiram Governor Johnson) and his freak legis-
failure. Mr. John p. Irish. under date of April
Ilth In the Oakland Tribune, says the proposed
legislation is being promoted "by sheer lying"
and quotes from the report of the State COM
missioner of immigration showing that In two
years and nine months, ending March, 1872 the
number of Japanese IN California actually de-
creased 1883.
The agitation, no matter who organized or
pushes it, is from the same underlying theory
on which the Republican protective tariff policy
IN based. This theory is that the masses Of the
white people of America are helpless against
strong competition and need to be protected
against it, coddled. kept within the walls of a
great national nursery, maintained by the gov
ernment. American labor to be protected
against the competition Of cheap foreign labor
The result Is the taxation Of the whole people for
the building up OF enormous fortunes for a few
enough to strange home competition, to despoil !,
the consumer and to afhict labor by bringing in
here armies of the same cheap labor against /
which the American working man was to be
protected. The theory on which this country was
established is that the American citizen given
fair and equal opportunity hold up his own
end against anybody. No government is intend
% 10 care FOR the weaklings the Incapable the
idle or shtftless- No government can do it, Yet
the State Of California and the people of the
republic now arc besought pitifully 10 protect the
white California fruit grower and truck raiser
against few japanese who from 80 600 acres of
ground giving the general public cheaper
erd better fruits and truck than the ablebodied,
iand-owning white man win apply the labor and
use the skill to produce In some parts Of the
South cannot protect some kinds OF white
people against the competition of the negro /
There instances OF negroes owning planta-
items and employing white men TO work for them .
" having white men as tenants. Yet cannot
destroy or expel the negro race because the .
white race has some degenerate or hopeless mem