THE JAPANESE IN MEXICO.

THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT undoubtedly is watching the development of the Japanese colonization scheme in Mexico with the closest attention, and it is fair to presume that necessary steps to safeguard the interests of all Americans will be taken at the proper time and in no uncertain manner.

It is conceded that the United States would have no international ground for refusing to permit Japanese peaceably to settle in Mexico. In fact, the Oriental power would have the best of reasons for assuming a position of protest if discrimination were shown its subjects.

The efficient and hard-working Japanese would add enormously to the wealth of Mexico. He would develop the country as the lazy and shiftless peon never could be expected to do. To declare that he shall not be permitted to settle in Mexico or in the Americas at all, would be to assume a position such as no other power ever has assumed under any similar circumstances.

It is well to remember, however, that this is an exceptional case. If Japanese be permitted to settle up the west coast of Mexico and the United States does not demand that the power itself keep its hands religiously out of the colony's and the republic's affairs, the Monroe Doctrine will cease to be worth the paper on which it was originally written.

If Japan can colonize America, so can Germany, France, England -- the whole world for that matter -- and the very condition of international strife and backbiting that the United States sedulously has sought to prevent would be developed.

The Japanese government undoubtedly will be made to show its hand. The United States has not been forced, these many years, to make an issue of the Monroe Doctrine, but if the Oriental power is determined to test the spirit of this government, it will not find much hesitancy in a "show-down."