any intention of performing them except as stepping stones to his own high ambitions.

The Japanese in California must be either a successful competitor with the white man, or must be beaten in such competition by a lowering of the white man's standard of living, or he must be placed in a menial caste and kept there. Which choice is the greater evil? From the first two we shrink as we would from ruin. The third is perhaps the most insidious evil of them all and the most corrupting, and it is one moreover from which the Japanese himself will save us by his own ambitions. No community can remain free if it tolerates a clearly marked menial caste, if it allows the existence of such a caste to place a stigma upon any form of honorable labor. Already we see the marks of that stain upon the industries that the Asiatic has made his own. Already we see something like a "poor white" caste in the orchards and fruit fields of the state.

The Japanese problem is a thorny one. It will be solved not by popular clamor but by clear-headed statesmanship, and upon a basis of recognition that a moral principle is here involved and that our standard of right must be the ultimate benefit of the social organization that is our own.

A WESTERN VIEW OF THE RACE QUESTION

BY HON. FRANCIS G. NEWLANDS,

United States Senator from Nevada.

It is apparent that a change is necessary in our methods of dealing with the problem of undesirable immigration and the occasional disturbances growing out of it. The characteristic inertia of a great mass of people, naturally optimistic and easy-going, is nowhere more strikingly manifested than in their treatment of what is really one of the most vital and far-reaching problems with which we have to deal. If there is one question more than any other which requires the elimination of every consideration of opportunism, it is the one which involves the strains of blood that are to mingle in our descendants' veins, the competition which our laboring men must meet, and the maintenance of our high standard of comfort and social efficiency. Viewed in this light it is to be regretted that wise anticipatory action, of a character which might prevent the occasional outbreaks of race prejudice recently presenting such difficulties, has not been taken.

The race question is the most important one now confronting the nation. As to the black race we have already drifted into a condition which seriously suggests the limitation of the political rights heretofore, perhaps mistakenly, granted them, the inauguration of a humane national policy which, by co-operative action by the nation and the southern states, shall recognize that the blacks are a race of children, requiring guidance, industrial training, and the development of self-control, and other measures designed to reduce the danger of that race complication, formerly sectional, but new rapidly becoming national.

But as a resident of the Pacific Coast region, the problem of Asiatic immigration comes nearer home, and it is upon that subject that I will say a few words. Entertaining no prejudice against any foreign race, and particularly admiring the vigor, courage, and patriotism of the people of Japan, and disposed to advance rather than to thwart her career of national greatness, we of the West are yet profoundly impressed with the view that the United States,

possessing a vast territory as yet undeveloped and capable of supporting many times its present population, with natural resources unrivaled anywhere, with climates adapted to every people, will, with the cheapening of transportation, draw to itself the surplus population of all nations. Nature has classified the peoples of the world mainly under four colors: the white, the black, the yellow and the brown. Confronting us on the east lies Europe, with a total poulation of about 300,000,000 white people. We are finding it difficult to assimilate even the immigrants of the white race from that continent, and have been obliged to restrict such immigration.

Confronting our Pacific Coast lies Asia, with nearly a billion people of the yellow and brown races, who, if there were no restrictions, would quickly settle upon and take possession of our entire western coast and intermountain region.

History teaches that it is impossible to make a homogeneous people by the juxtaposition upon the same soil of races differing in color. Race tolerance, under such conditions, means race amalgamation, and this is undesirable. Race intolerance means, ultimately, race war and mutual destruction or the reduction of one race to servitude. The admission of a race of a different color, in a condition of servitude, is foreign to the spirit of our institutions, which demands equal rights to all within our jurisdiction.

The competition of such a race would involve industrial disturbance and hostility, requiring the use of a large armed force to maintain peace and order, with the probability that the nation representing the race thus protected would never be satisfied that the means employed were adequate. The presence of the Chinese, who are patient and submissive, would not create as many complications as the presence of the Japanese, whose strong and virile qualities would constitute an additional element of difficulty. Our friendship with Japan, therefore, for whose territorial and race integrity the American people have been in active sympathy in all her struggles, demands that this friendship be not put to the test by bringing two such powerful races, of such differing views and standards, into industrial competition upon the same soil.

This can be prevented either by international treaty or by national laws regulating, restricting, or even preventing immigration. International negotiation and treaty is, in my judgment, an unsatisfactory method. It requires a nation with which we have

treaty relations to prevent its own people from going where they will-a restriction which we would never apply to our own people. in any treaty. We would, therefore, be asking another nation to put a restriction upon the movements of its people which we would refuse to prescribe regarding our own. There is but one consistent position to assume, and that is, to relegate the whole question to domestic legislation in each country, permitting each to make such regulation, restriction, or prevention of immigration as it sees fit.

Japan cannot justly take offense at such restrictive domestic legislation upon our part. She would be the first to take such action against the white race, were it necessary to do so in order to maintain the integrity of her race and her institutions. She is at liberty to pursue a similar course. Such action constitutes no implication of inferiority of the race excluded; it may even be a confession of inferiority by the excluding race, in its ability to cope economically with the race excluded. It involves neither insult nor the possibility of war, for Japan could not possibly sustain a war, even were her finances in better condition than they are, without the sympathy of the world as to the justness of her cause.

I am opposed to sporadic legislation, here and there, by the various states, intended to meet only local phases of what really constitutes a national peril, phases which will necessarily have to be covered by broad national legislation. I am opposed to terms of opprobrium and of insult. Japan deserves from us only respect and admiration, and we deserve from her a proper regard for the integrity of our race and institutions. The time has come, in my judgment, when the United States, as a matter of self-protection and self-preservation, must declare by statutory enactment that it will not tolerate further race complications upon our soil. Our country, by law to take effect upon the expiration of existing treaties, should prevent the immigration of all peoples other than those of the white race, except under restricted conditions relating to international commerce, travel, and education. It should start immediately upon the serious consideration of a national policy regarding the people of the black race now within our boundaries, which, with a proper regard for humanity, will minimize the danger which they constitute to our institutions and our civilization.