The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1921-02-28
WHY CALIFORNIA
HAS "JAP-OPH0B|A'
CITIZEN OF GOLDEN GATE STATE
THROWS LIGHT ON JAPAN
ESE SITUATION.

Light is thrown on the causes that
have prompted Californians to make
a fight on japanese that, if not re-
strained, may involve this country
and Japan in a by the statements
of a citizen of California who has
studied the Japanese question during
a decade that he has spent in various
parts of California. He has spent
much time at Sacramento, home of
the Sacramento Bee, whose publisher
McClatchy, has "Jap-Ophbia" in an
aggravated form and is spending
much time, money and energy in cir
~culating snti-Japanese propaganda.
This California citizen said:
''The Japanese are among the best
citizens of California, or any other
western state. They are seldom vio-
lators of the laws of the state or gov
clean and strictly honest. You very
seldom hear or read of japanese be-
ing arrested and people wonder why
there is so much bitterness against
them in California. The reason is
very plain to those who have lived in
that state.
'As long as the japanese were con-
tent to work for wages on farms,
railroad sections and other work, they
were regarded in high favor. Thous-
ands of them were brought into Cali
fornia to do the work the white peo-
pie would not do. They worked for
less than white people and the en-
ployers of labor wanted them because
of this and the further fact that in
most work they excelled the whites.
They were in demand in the gardens
and orchards. They are ideal garden
ers and orchardists. Everybody want
ed the Japs because they were re-
garded as almost a necessity. 1t was
next to impossible to get white men
to work on the railroad sections, the
farms, sugar beet fields and orchards
and gardens.
The Japs were getting higher
then they had been accustom-
ed to in their own country and were
good customers of the stores and the
banks and all lines of business. They
were regarded as good customers.
But a change came. The Japanese
began leasing or buying land and
farming, raising gardens and or
chards and sugar beets. They en-
gagged in business. They built large
stores They established a big bank
the heart Of Sacramento. They
"a tronized their own stores, their own
,anks and they came into competi-
with their former employers.
They raised better crops because
hey are better workers than the
They made money where
men had failed.
s'Then the sentiment changed. The
nerchants, who were being under
old by the Japanese store next door
r a short distance away; the banker
Who had lost the deposits of the Jap
nese and had seen this money with
rawn and redeposited in the Japan
Sc banks; all of those who could no
onger hire the Japanese at lower
than were paid to whites; those
Tho could not sell their goods to Jap
nese at extortionate profits, backed
Y union labor, which is always I'M
riendly to Orientals, suddenly dis
overed that the Japanese are a men
&c to the Pacific coast. 1t was found
lat Japan is planning to capture the
nited States and her outlying pos
Some of those who had /
cen exploiting the Jap as a laborer
discovered that he is the
ost dangerous kind of a person and !
ad 9 fit over what Japan plans to do
the United States in general and I
lie Pacific coast and California in :
,rticular. .
But California is facing a grave Z
niger from foreign immigration. 1
an Francisco is the dumping ground E
r southern Europe and Italians, Ru- z
Slavoniians, Greeks Spani- 10
ds, and many others from southern h
have been arriving there by y
e thousands. These people are 4
assed under one name 'Wap' and n
ey are a la They are not IS
arly as thrifty, Industrious or Y
cd citizens as the Japanese. They II
We taken to gardening and fruit =
Along the Sacramento q
LEY, which is very rich, these peo- u
, are now getting a foothold and n
ey are raising fine gardens and y
lit. / expect those who are fight III
: the japanese to suddenly realize h
1T these Waps' r no longer to be "
ed but are coming into competition ~
the whites, and start a war on III
en-, California looks upon a for 81
,ner of any kind as a good citizen q!
1or1 o. h. Lo 4x--141J 49, ~