Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 February 1917 — Unrestricted Immigration of Japanese Would Give .S. a New Race Problem [ARTICLE]

Unrestricted Immigration of Japanese Would Give .S. a New Race Problem

By FRANCIS J. HENEY

Ou of Framer* of Anti-Alien Legislation in California

The people of the Pacific coast, of California in particular, are naturally opposed to wholesale Japanese immigration. If the na'tives of Japan, the working class especially, were permitted to emigrate to any particular* section of\ the United States unrestricted, and if they were allowed to possess land on exactly the same terms as do the citizens of this country,.it would be a matter of grave concern to the entire nation. In am pot opposed to Japanese immigration in California through any fear that these people will not become good citizens, i. e., law-abiding and industrious citizens. My objection rests on a gGnYLCtion: that the yellow races of the‘Orient can never be assimilated by-the Caucasian race. # Should we permit these nationalities to come into our country unrestricted, giving them the privilege of purchasing land on the same basis as native Americans now hold it, we would only be loading ourselves down with the responsibility of another race problem, similar to the one we are-confronting in the South today. . . . It was to avoid the possibility of any such contingency that the alien land law of 1913 was passed by the California legislature. This measure provides that no alien not eligible to citizenship has the right to own land in California. The stability of our democracy rests on the elimination of class, cohesion of races, and a united" purpose regarding ideals. If a race totally different from our own is allowed to gain a footing in this country, to own our land on equal terms, and is yet unable to meet us on equal terms socially and economically, surely we are victimizing ourselves and fostering a condition in which lurks the direst peril to our nation as an institution. Such a condition would strike at the very foundation of the republic. The gentlemen’s agreement, by which it is understood that Japan will not give passports to its coolie or laboring class, has the effect of protecting us from an influx of cheap laborers and undesirable yellow men. And the California alien land law gives the Japanese already in this country exactly the same privileges which are extended to Americans in the empire of Japan. Americans are not permitted to own agricultural land in Japan; therefore why should the Japanese be given the right to possess farms here ?