Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-05-27
JAPANESE QUOTA
STAND UNCHANGED
Pacific Coast Group Signals
Opposition to Johnson I'M
migration Plan.
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

D1 FhEDEhIC WILLIAM VILE.
Japanese exclusion under the immi-
grafton act of 1924 will continue to be
opposed at Washington. The Cali
fornia joint immigration committee"
which has long been the spearhead OF
the movement to keep Oriental aliens
out of the United States, signals that
its attitude remains unchanged. It de-
clares that the plan now advocated by
Representative johnson, Republican, of
Washington, chairman of the House
immigration comrnittee-to place Japan
on the quota baSis-"was carefully con-
Sidered by Congress in 1924 and re-
jected." The California organization,
of which v. S. McClatchy, well known
coast newspaper publisher. is the lead
ing spirit, bases its opposition on the
theory that the proposed Japanese quota
would destroy the natural and con-
sistent barrier erected in the 1924 act
against entrance Of the unassimilable
colored races"
Urges STAND BY Guns"
That the McClatchy group does not
represent Pacific Coast sentiment in its
entirety is shown by a telegram just
received by Representative johnson
from j. j. Donovan, prominent Belling-
ham, Wash, lumber man, capitalist
Your announced proposal to have ia
pan placed on the immigration quota
basis Is timely and just. A resolution
to that effect was adopted unanimously
and with enthusiasm by the foreign
trade convention assembled at Los An
geles last Friday, which included 1000
delegates, over half Of whom were from
the Pacific Coast. Stand by your guns
Representative johnson assures this
writer that the foreign trade conven-
ton resolution is typical of public opin-
Ion, especially business opinion. through
out washington, oregon and California.
The ancient hostility to the japanese, J."
Mr.. johnson says, may not have fully
evaporated among the men in the
street, but it is no longer rampant
among the solid people of the Coast
States. Among these classes, the feel
ing almost universally is that what I
now propose should have been done
long ago. It would have been done at
the time the 1924 immigration act was
passed, but events moved so rapidly,
especially in the Senate, on the heels
OF certain developments Of which all
the world now knows, that 1t could not
be accomplished.
Japan Has Nominal Quota.
Japan already has a nominal quota
Of 100 immigrants entitled to enter our
country. Quota privileges might in
crease the possible total to 100 or 200
under the national origins provisions
which are now the law Of the land. ]
am wholly confident that quota for
Japan will in no way undermine the basic
principles which form the bone and
sinew of our immigration policy. There
Is no intention to let the bars down SC
as to permit the entry of aliens whom
we consider undesirable from the 'un-
assimilable' standpoint"
Advices reaching Washington from
Toxic reflect the utmost enthusiasm in
Japan over the johnson proposal. The
japanese authorities have already point
ed out that they are concerned hardly
at all with the number of their nationals
entitled to enter the United States
What interests the japanese government
and people is the fact that they are now
under the Johnson plan, to have re-
moved from themselves the stigma
which exclusion places on them. Fol
six years they have held it to be an in
\ tolerable affront to their national pride
Year after year, as the Nations foreign
policy was elucidated In the Toxic Par.
lament by the Japanese foreign minis
| ter, no matter to waht party he be.
longed, he has reminded the world that
Japan looked upon exclusion as an oper
wound.
(CopyTight, l9300