CALIFORNIA AND THE JAPS AGAIN.

Californians have evidently assimilated the Chinese question and digested it. The Chinese population of that State is the largest in the Union, and yet we hear no more complaints from California concerning these people.

Apparently they have come to understand each other and with the present restriction laws controlling the immigration of Chinese, and the disposition upon the part of the Chinese to play the part in Californian life which has been forcibly set apart for them, there is no cause for further trouble or further discussion upon this topic.

With the Japanese, however, it is different. California has only about as many Japanese as we have in Washington, and yet California seems to have about ten times as much trouble with its Japanese guests as we have here.

It is all very well to group the Chinese and Japanese together and call them the "Oriental Problem," or by some other high-sounding name, but as a matter of fact, it is impossible to group them because they are two peoples entirely different in temperament, racial characteristics and dispositions.

You cannot treat a Japanese as you would a Chinese -- no matter whether your intentions be kindly or hostile. A favor to one might very easily be construed as an insult to the other. They are two widely diverse problems, and although California seems to have solved the problem of the Chinese, it is evident that they are still groping in darkness where the Japanese are concerned.

The worst part of this agitation upon the part of the State of California is that it raises the question of State Rights. It is very difficult to explain to the people of a foreign country that treaty rights which are supposed to apply to the whole of the United States may not necessarily apply to a certain State.

It makes a great deal of trouble for the State Department, for our diplomats abroad and often brings upon the heads of entirely innocent communities the revenge for a discrimination against a foreign people in which they have no deserved share and very little actual concern.

There should be some amendment to the Constitution which would settle once and for all this matter of the rights of citizens of all foreign countries within the borders of the United States. It is both nonsense and anarchy to allow the Federal Government to proceed with the solemn task of entering into treaty obligations which can be nullified by the action of a single State.