PEOPLE BECOMING AROUSED TO BROWN PERIL
The agitation against unrestricted Japanese immigration is already beginning to be felt far beyond the boundaries of the State. The great dailies of the East are giving space to the question and publishing editorials upon the crusade.
Considering the vast extent of this country and the varied nature of the interests represented by the press of the United States, the amount of favorable comment to be noted is remarkable. That the editors of California should enter the lists to preserve the Pacific Slope against the incursions of a people, whom one writer aptly describes as ant-like in their incessant activity in undermining our institutions, is no more than might have been expected. But that the journalists of the Atlantic States should see eye to eye with their colleagues of California is as remarkable as it is gratifying.
Among the dissenting voices none declaim openly in favor of allowing the brown flood to inundate this country. But some believe that the danger is but a phase of the great question of foreign invasion, and think that no campaign should be waged against the Japanese, which does not include undesirable aliens in general.
In a campaign such as is being waged by the "Chronicle" against the invasion of American industries by the Japanese coolie laborers, the response which is made by the general press and public is of vital significance. A newspaper may gather facts ad figures and sat them before its readers but it cannot enact the legislation which will cure the evils pointed out. The real power is in the hands of the individual voters scattered over the land. An exclusion law which embraces the Japanese laborer can never be enacted until the constituents of the lawmakers at Washington demand it in no uncertain tone.
That the "Chronicle" is receiving hearty support from its readers everywhere, inside and outside of editorial sanctums, is the strongest proof that could be adduced of the soundness of its contentions. The Japs are pushing their way into the ranks of labor, crowding their American competitors to the wall, lowering the standards of living and succeeding, both as workers and employers, by dint of their power of subsisting in an environment unfit for citizens of the United States. Such is the general verdict, as may be seen by a perusal of this columns below:
NATION'S PRESS GIVES WARNING
Representative Newspapers Decry Jap Invasion.
Below will be found a symposium of editorial opinion culled from representative newspapers of the State and country. Great pains have been taken not to misrepresent the expressed sentiments of the writers, and such omissions as have necessarily been made in no way affect the force and direction of the complete articles. The pros and cons have been given a proportionately equal hearing, and a perusal of the following will reveal the great preponderance of public opinion ranged against the invading hordes of Asiatic laborers:
A PATRIOTIC WARNING.
From the New York Evening Post.
"Another Asiatic problem menaces America," declares the "San Francisco Chronicle" in a frightened article about Japanese immigration. Having stood so long at the "Western gate of empire" as valiant defenders of American institutions against the original yellow peril, the San Francisco alarmists have grown uneasy as the number of Chinese in this country has decreased. Now they ask us to believe that the second Asiatic problem is even more serious than was the first. In California, we are told, the number of Japanese competitors of the lordly American farmhand, hotel waiter and curio-shop keeper has increased from eighty-six in 1880 to 10,000 in 1900. At the end of the 1904 the "Chronicle" estimates that the 10,000 has been increased to 25,000. It is darkly hinted that even these figures do not tell the whole story. "The movements, the motives, the coming and going of these stoical, strange Mongolians are as a closed book to the white races." Bret Harte's Ah Sin was a child in the art of deception compared to the elusive Japanese, who may be upon us in "countless thousands" to-morrow.
The "Chronicle's" warning is patriotic. When the little brown men have whipped Russia, California will be at their mercy.
ENCOURAGEMENT FROM BOSTON.
From the Boston Traveler.
The Pacific Coast papers are beginning to wake up to the danger of the Japanese invasion of the United States. They are beginning to see that the glorification of the Japanese as a result of their victories over Russia has made it practically impossible to pass anything in the way of a Japanese exclusion bill, which would place them on the same standing as the Chinese, because Japan, arrogant in her strength and flushed with victory, would resent and probably would not submit to any such legislation on the part of this country.
There are now in the United States, by conservative estimate, about 100,000 Japanese, and with the end of the war there is no reason to doubt that they will begin to come to this country in great numbers.
The Traveler has long contended that the Japanese can be truly classed as dangerous factors in our national life; that while they are more assimilable than the Chinese, they would be just as effective in competition in lines that require dexterity and not manual strength; but we quite agree with our Western contemporaries that in the present state of the public mind there must be some more serious manifestation of this danger before any legislation tending to keep them out can be passed.
SIDES WITH JAPAN.
From the Stockton Independent.
With all due respect to the "San Francisco Chronicle" and the various labor unions which are furthering the agitation against Japanese immigration, we think the agitation is not only ill timed but dangerous. It is folly to suppose that the American Government can be induced to exclude the Japanese as the Chinese were excluded, especially at this time, and the agitation reopens the whole subject at a time when the exclusion law might be said to be on probation. The "Chronicle" is not always a safe leader in such matters. When the sympathy of all our people is with Japan in the present war, and when we are responsible ourselves for opening Japan to Western civilization and Uncle Sam is under obligations to observe treaties.
PLENTY OF WHITE LABOR.
John J. Hogan, a correspondent of the Modesto Herald, writes as follows:
To me and mine for years the Japanese have been an eyesore, a heartache and an interferer. If they were mainly they could and would be tolerated, knowing, as you must, that they were only emigrants, coming to America, not for the benefit of America. Instead of that we have been housing a viper unknowingly.
If you have got a notion that fruit can't be gathered, beets thinned, floors swept, alfalfa irrigated without their help, you have got a mistaken idea, that's all. White labor will cost a little more, but the result will be better for everybody. It's nonsense to say that labor enough cannot be had to harvest the fruit crop except Japanese labor can be secured.
A fruit-grower, be he poor or rich, if he will only let it be known that he is in favor of a little better conditions, a little less brutality, a little less expectancy for the white laborer to do twice as much as what he should be paid for, can get all the white help he wants and some to turn off.
WILL GO TO THE COUNTRY.
From the Daily Encinal.
In one column of the press one reads that Japanese are a necessity in the beet fields and orchards of this State. In another one reads how a mob of over 500 men fought bitterly and wildly for a chance to earn a couple of dollars by shoveling snow all day long, and how but fifty could secure the coveted jobs. There are tens of thousands of people out of work in the East, and no doubt they would jump at the chance to take the places of the Japanese. There is a popular belief that many of these idle men in the cities would not go into the country if offered a position. A correspondent of
NEED TO BE WATCHED.
From the Spokane Daily Chronicle.
In a San Francisco paper of recent date an American war correspondent, fresh from the Orient, warns Americans that unless the bars of exclusion be at once raised against the Japanese that nation may overrun our country and prove a worse pest than the Chinese. He expresses the fear that should we delay these restrictive measures until after the termination of the present war Japan will resist our measures by force of arms.
A renewal of anti-Japanese agitation may be expected, and, should the danger of, a rush of brown men to America prove to be real, the agitation may receive strong support upon this Coast. Much may depend, however, upon the duration and outcome of the war. The conflict now in progress is causing the death of tens of thousands of Japan's young men, and in this manner reducing the tendency to emigration; and should the Mikado's troops prove victorious, Corea and Manchuria may offer to his people a more tempting field for colonization than will be open on this side of the Pacific.
At any rate, the brown men need to be watched.
COMMENDS ARCHIBALD.
From the Tacoma Daily News.
That America, in the event of ultimate Japanese success in the war with Russia, will be the next to be threatened by that great bogey, the "yellow peril," is the assertion of James F.J. Archibald, a war correspondent lately returned from the Orient, and who expressed his views at length in an interview to San Francisco. He maintains that, after long and careful consideration, based on personal observation, should Japan have any success whatever at the conclusion of her struggle with the country of the Czar, we must look to our own borders immediately. He calls attention to the fact that Japan has already enacted restriction laws against foreigners, the affects of which are exclusionary. He says the rights of American manufacturers receive no respect whatever in Japan.
The views of Mr. Archibald are not by any means new, although they have not been advanced in this country. Popular sentiment in America, as well as in England, has been all along and is now in favor of the Japanese and strongly opposed to Russia. That this is largely based on sentimental grounds goes without saying. It is also due, in considerable degree, to lack of information or more or less unintentional misrepresentation. All the books and articles that have been written about Japan are lamentably lacking in the quality of getting down to the facts.
The attitude of Mr. Archibald is that of every one who has had the opportunity to observe the conditions in the East on the ground. His is not the view of the tourist, who takes a superficial glance at all things Oriental and readily fails a victim to the enchantments of the picturesqueness and beauty of the land of the Mikado and the Flowery Kingdom. The "yellow peril" is a fact in the commercial affairs of the Orient. Russia has no monopoly in the dread of the evil of that complexion, and it may eventually be recognized in America.
CRITICISES ARCHIBALD.
Herbert H. Johnson, superintendent of the Pacific Japanese Mission of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in the Christian Advocate for March 9th:
According to the articles and editorials appearing recently in the "San Francisco Chronicle," and the action of both houses of the State Legislature, unrestricted immigration of Japanese is the question of the hour. That there is a condition that needs to be remedied must be admitted, for it is inconceivable that both houses could be led to pass a resolution unanimously without what appeared to be good reasons.
There are, doubtless, abuses to be corrected, but we should never put away conscience of the deep sense of justice in the discussion of any subject. As the "Chronicle" said editorially a few days ago, "The discussion should be kept wholly free from passion, or any other form of human emotion."
It is stated that the Asiatic immigrant intends at all costs to preserve his old standards and to herd with his mates, but this is precisely what the Japanese do not do nearly so much as the great mass of the immigrants that come from Europe. In the great cities of the East, and of the West as well, there are quarters set apart for the various nationalities. This has been true of the Chinese, which fact had its influence in the anti-Chinese discussions and riots a few years ago. But with rare exceptions it is not true of the Japanese, it is true, in many of our cities flock to Chinatown, but the great mass do not.
The statements of James F.J. Archibald, who recently returned from the Orient, and whose views are expressed in the "Chronicle" of February 25th, are
WHITE SUPREMACY MENACED.
From the Springfield Republican.
The appeal of Governor Carter of Hawaii for the admission of more Chinese laborers into the Hawaiian islands was followed within a few weeks by the publication in Honolulu papers of some interesting correspondence between the Merchants' Association of that city and the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association. Perusal of the correspondence must convince any one that the sugar planting interest, which managed the campaign for the annexation of the islands to the United States, is now thoroughly reconciled to the Orientalizing of the archipelago; and, what is of more significance, it is evident that Orientals, especially Japanese, are rapidly gaining an overwhelming numerical ascendancy. How easily this numerical ascendancy may develop into a local political ascendancy is also made clear.
In 1897 there were 24,407 Japanese in the islands and it may be added that there were then 21,615 Chinese. With annexation, the Chinese exclusion law of the United States went into operation, but it left the Japanese still free to enter. In three years, that is, in 1900, the Japanese had increased to 61,115, while the Chinese had increased slightly to 25,762.
In presenting these facts one need not be moved by prejudice against Asiatic immigration nor against the Asiatics themselves. It is impossible, however, not to be impressed by the complete failure of the glowing prophecies made a few years ago concerning the anticipated supremacy of the white race in the Hawaiian Islands.
COMPLAINS OF OMISSIONS.
From an editorial appearing simultaneously in the Pacific Presbyterian and in the Congregational organ, the Pacific.
It is worthy of note that the "Chronicle" is, so far as we have seen the only San Francisco daily which has taken up this immigration question. Careful, well-informed readers know quite well that it has said many unjust things against the Japanese, and it has also appealed to the prejudices of the people, seeking in every way, to make a strong case.
It was not fair treatment of our editorial of last week which was given in the columns of the "Chronicle" on Monday. Some of the most material points were omitted--especially that one which disputed the contention of the "Chronicle" that the large amount of crime in California is due to the displacement of white labor by the Japanese. The admissions which we made in a spirit of fairness the "Chronicle" seizes upon and emphasizes, but our admissions could be understood and measured adequately only in connection with our other statements.
Nevertheless the "Chronicle" has set forth things which demand attention. If it is a fact that whole communities are likely to be given up ere long to the Japanese, as many have been to the Italians and Portuguese and others, there is foreshadowed a situation which, it must be admitted, would not be looked on with equanimity by our people. But that danger is greatly magnified by the "Chronicle." Indeed, it has put every feature of the case under a magnifying glass.
CONDEMNS THE LEGISLATURE.
From the California Christian Advocate.
The agitation against the Japanese at this time is exceedingly unfair. The California Legislature, without any opportunity to consider the question--not even printing the proposed action--passed a resolution against the immigration of the Japanese. No matter what the merits of the case, such haste is unjustifiable. It is but little less than reckless. This action, which may involve the friendly relations of this country with Japan, should have had at least the credit of a careful and deliberate examination.
COLONIZING NEVADA.
From the Reno Evening Gazette.
Several papers in the State have recently indorsed the Gazette's request that the Legislature show the sentiment of this State in regard to the flood of Japanese which is pouring into this country by passing a resolution asking Congress to pass some measure, or arrange in some other way to restrict the immigration of Japanese.
We do not delude ourselves into thinking that all the Western States have to do is to pass resolutions, and that the boon of restrictions will follow. The East has too much admiration for the brown warrior to permit that desirable situation to come to pass. But we can show how we feel about it. We can, through our Legislatures, tell our guests they are unwelcome.
This is of especial importance just now in Nevada's case. In Reno a Japanese society, supposedly brimming over with a desire to better the morals of their countrymen in this place, is laying well-defined plans for importing great numbers of Japanese into this State. They consider this a favorable place for a colony. And all the while, with this brown menace at our throat the Legislature sits calmly by and refrains from passing a resolution expressing to these undesired guests the sentiment of the State.
NO JAP-GROWN FRUIT.
From the Sacramento Evening Bee.
With regard to the evil of Japanese immigration, and referring to the plea that it is impossible to harvest the orchard and vineyard crops of California without Japanese labor the "Chronicle" well says that if we cannot produce fruit without Japanese we had better do something else; that if the Japanese come, the white men will get out and keep out.
A large acreage of orchards has passed into the hands of Japanese as tenants, and they show a disposition to acquire more as opportunity permits. Wherever they get possession, although they pay no attention to appearances, and a generally squalid and slovenly aspect of the property ensues. The Japanese live in shacks, consume cheap food and make undesirable neighbors in any community.
OF VITAL IMPORTANCE.
From the Watsonville Register.
The question of restricting Japanese immigration is pressing for consideration. Here in California the subject is of even more vital importance than was that of Chinese immigration prior to the passage of the anti-Chinese restriction bill. The same deplorable state of affairs exists to-day that existed a score of years ago, and the evils that afflict us now call for the same remedy that
The campaign of education relative to the undesirability of unrestricted Chinese immigration was long and arduous and was attended by violent demonstrations of hostility against the aliens that were a disgrace to our civilization. To-day the Nation is in a more receptive mood. The people of the West have not forgotten the lessons impressed upon them during the anti-Chinese crusade. The people of the East have been afflicted by swarms of ignorant foreigners who, by mere force of numbers, have crowded the more intelligent workingmen, native and foreign born, from many of the principal avenues of industry. In fact, the people of all sections are more alive to-day than ever before the necessity of preserving America for Americans and people who are capable of assuming the duties of American citizens. The issue involves the entire structure and character of American society and concerns every man, and the laborer no more than others.
A FOOTHOLD AT RIVERSIDE.
From the Redlands Daily Facts.
The Japanese immigration question is one that is of local as well as general interest. The little brown men have a strong foothold no further away than Riverside, and were used in limited numbers in and around Redlands this winter in picking oranges. There is a diversity of opinion as to the benefit of using them for laborers.
"CHRONICLE'S" GOOD FIGHT.
From the Vallejo Times.
The "San Francisco Chronicle" is continuing its good fight against the unlimited immigration of Japanese. It printed many interviews Monday with legislators and prominent men of the Coast.
AMERICA FOR AMERICANS.
From the Yuba County Daily Appeal.
At last are the legislators and the people of California beginning to realize that it is getting high time to shut down the valve on Japanese immigration. The "San Francisco Chronicle" has been publishing a series of articles upon the effect of Japanese immigration, and this may have had much to do with calling the attention of Californians to existing conditions. There may often be a hazy idea that something is not just as it should be, but the thought may not take definite shape until one's attention is called to it from the outside.
During the past few years the Mikado's citizens have been pouring into the State. A certain amount of cheap labor is a good thing, but it will become a terrible burden if overdone. At the rate the Japanese have been coming in, California will soon be flooded, and it seems to us as if there are still Californians and Americans enough to do the work without the aid of so many of these foreigners. America for Americans is a policy which should be closely carried out.
NOT LOYAL TO AMERICA.
From the Sonoma Index-Tribune.
The agitation against Japanese immigration is well founded, and the "Chronicle," in its series of articles on the subject, is expressing the sentiment of the majority of the people in giving us facts and figures which have opened the eyes of many who failed to realize the gravity of the situation.
Japanese labor is infringing on our territory--in the fields, the shops and homes. It is a cheap labor, but far from satisfactory, and so really not cheap if we figure on results instead of output. Chinese labor was cheap, but the Chinese did better work. The Chinese did not crowd our schools, as do the Japs, nor threaten to compete for social and educational equality.
The Japs in this country are here to look out for themselves--to get our money and learn our ways. They are in reality spying on our civilization. America is altogether too tolerant of immigration, let alone this Asiatic type. The Government of Japan will give the American no such advantages as her subjects get here. Almost any immigration is better than that which Japan dumps on American shores. The subjects which hail from monarchies and empires and take refuge here, even though they be anarchists in temperament, are more to be relied on for allegiance than the subjects of the Mikado, who glory in their allegiance to their Emperor and can never be loyal to America.
A GREAT ISSUE.
From the Solano County Courier.
The "San Francisco Chronicle" is running a series of articles on the yellow peril--the Japanese. It only emphasizes what we said some time ago about this being a white man's country and that if we want to avoid trouble in the future we must henceforth permit only white men to become permanent residents and citizens. The past has proved that it is impossible for Caucasians to live in harmony and on equal terms with any other class of people. The Japanese question is undoubtedly the greatest problem for this Coast to consider at the present day. They should be excluded as are the Chinese and for the same reason, and the law should be so framed as to also exclude every other people whose skin is not white.
ACT AT ONCE.
From the Palo Altan.
The California Legislature has to a man expressed itself as opposed to the further unrestricted immigration of Japanese. This, of course, applies more particularly to the Japanese cheap labor which has been flooding the market in America, especially California, for the past few years.
Many say wait until the immediate need of restriction presents itself. Why not curb the influx of immigration now while terms can be made with Japan upon an amicable basis, and before the country is overrun with laboring Japanese to rise up in remonstrance?
STATEMENTS NOT OVERDRAWN.
From the Placerville Reporter.
For over a week now the "San Francisco Chronicle" has been running a series of articles for the purpose of awaking public sentiment to the dan
The white man should never be compelled to compete with the Asiatic laborer. He could do it, but that would be retrogression, not advancement. The Asiatic will always remain an alien race and can never be assimilated. His presence lowers the standard of the white workman, and when he secures a competence he returns home, his place being taken by others who continue the same methods.
We commend the work of the "Chronicle." It has not sounded its warning a bit too soon, for considerable time must necessarily elapse before public sentiment is aroused sufficiently to cause the Federal Government to move in the matter.
QUOTES FIGURES.
From the Weekly Callistogan.
The "San Francisco Chronicle" of a recent issue sounds an alarm that is amazing, and it is the yellow peril that provokes it. Facts and figures are given to show that the Japs are silently entering our open door and rapidly multiplying in this country. Since 1880, when the Japanese population in California was only eight-six, not less than 35,000 of those little brown men have come into the State to stay, and at the present time estimates place the number of Japs in the United States at 100,000.
AN ANT-LIKE PEOPLE.
From the Chico Daily Record.
The influence of the California Legislature is to be directed in opposition to the wholesale immigration of Japanese laborers into the United States. There has been a constant stream of the little brown men pouring into this country for several years, and California labor finds itself in crushing competition with the ant-like people who can subsist on cheap rations and profit by wages which would not meet the expenses of a modest living for white man. Location is the occasion for California, being the first and heaviest sufferer from Oriental immigration, and, while the Eastern States are not disturbed by this immigration to any alarming extent, it will be difficult to secure action that will relieve the situation in the West; but relief must be had. The Japanese are becoming a greater menace to American labor than were the Chinese before exclusion laws were passed, and a few more years of unlimited immigration would result in white labor being driven from many of the most important industries of the State.
THINKS IT IS TOO LATE.
From the Daily Colusa Sun.
The "San Francisco Chronicle" is seized all at once with a nightmare as it dreams of the industrial invasion of the Japanese. Steamships, it tells us, are landing hundreds of them every few days. It shows that they are taking the places of women, and pictures starvation to the latter.
We have set at defiance the teachings of Washington, Jefferson, Monroe and the others and gone outside the proper sphere of our influence, and have thus thrown down the bars to all the races of men. We have under the flag millions of all sorts of mixed races, and they must all come in commercial corporations will make more money and we will call it prosperity, but our working people will have to come in competition with all the peoples of the earth because he have spread out so as to invite them all. We think the "Chronicle" is taking its nightmare entirely too late.
With every letter from a private correspondent which comes to the "Chronicle" the indictment against the Japanese invader becomes stronger and the charges against him more specific. The writers of these letters are from every walk in life and the opinions represented are those of all sorts and conditions of men and women. Not every one favors the position taken by this paper, though the chorus of commendation is so loud that it all but drowns the occasional note of objection which is lifted. Some of the writers seem ignorant of the facts as they exist in California to-day. A few are evidently careless of the real welfare of the commonwealth. But like a great dragnet drawn over the country this correspondence brings to light a host of facts, which could be gathered together by almost no other means. And these facts, some of them seemingly trivial in their nature, point one and all like straws before the wind the direction in which the Oriental hordes are driving us. Unless the tide is stemmed in time the prosperity of the Pacific Slope will be a thing of the past--this is the burden of the truth brought to light by the correspondents of the "Chronicle."
HAVE FELT PINCH OF THE ASIATIC
Letters Pour in Telling of Brown Aggression.
Below will be found ungarbled extracts selected from the innumerable letters bearing on the question of Japanese exclusion which every day brings to the "Chronicle." The reader may glean from their perusal many enlightening facts and have the benefit of more than one novel point of view. In these letters are heard the voices of many of those to whom the Japanese invasion is no more question for debate and academic discussion. They have themselves felt the pinch of Asiatic aggression and speak what experience has taught them.
A DANGER TO CALIFORNIA.
Editor "Chronicle"--Sir: In 1860 I followed General Winn, the founder of the patriotic order of the Native Sons of the Golden West, from door to door for the purpose of organizing anti-Chinese clubs. This was the first strong movement taken in the matter in California, and I assure you it was uphill work. Now a new danger is threatening us. A race far more dangerous than the Chinese is gradually occupying our fair State. The Japanese, coming from their overcrowded islands, find California a paradise, and, unless some measure be taken speedily, they will come by tens of thousands to our shores.
The Japanese are entirely unreliable, as many farmers know to their cost. Some few years ago the grape crop of the Italian-Swiss Colony at Madera was so large that the president of the colony hired a company of Japanese to pick at the high price of $1.50 a ton. They worked for a few days, when they suddenly quit without notice and left for another place, where they obtained 25 cents a ton more. The Manufacturers and Producers' Association of California some time ago received astonishing information from a traveler in Japan. He stated that a manufacturer of dental instruments in London had sent a traveling agent to Japan to sell some of his instruments at $50 a set. The salesman, on offering them to a Japanese artisan, was shown an identical set of instruments with the London maker's own name, which the Japanese was selling in Japan for $14.
I believe if the Japanese should be permitted to come to this country in unrestricted numbers, they would in a few years transform California into a Japanese State. If we allow them to gain a strong foothold it will be a very difficult matter to get rid of them. The Japanese are not as peaceable as the Chinese, and if our Government should disagree with the Mikado it might not take long for him to land half a million Japs in Manila. Before this unpleasant situation arises let us by all means make a treaty excluding Japanese laborers from our shores.
The sparsely settled acres of California and the Western States require immigration, but that immigration must be of the right kind, composed of the Caucasian race, which soon assimilates with us. It is this kind of immigration which has in one hundred years transformed the deserts of America into the richest country on the face of the earth. If we want that prosperity to be maintained we must keep out the people of the Mongolian race.
REVILES HIS OWN RACE.
Editor "Chronicle"--Sir: I was much surprised at the tirade that appeared lately in your paper about the Japs and the poor white laborers. I will say from my own experience that the white laborer of California is the poorest, selfishest and most unreliable commodity to be found in the world, and if I needed a servant I would much prefer a Chinese or a Jap. Look at the hordes of so-called white labor who live in cheap lodging-houses and sleep in saloons and barns, and who will not work only when they can no longer beg or borrow or beat their way. "Keep up the wages"--that's the cry of the poor working man. Give him more wages so he can loaf more. Of course, this doesn't apply to the 2 per cent of good steady men who will make their mark in the world.� J.H. VOURTNEY.
JAPS IN ARMONA.
Editor "Chronicle"--Sir: There is a great field here in Kings county, and especially around Armona, for one of your men to study the growing Japanese evil in the vineyards and orchards. It is even worse than the situation in Vacaville, so graphically described in your Saturday's issue.
I have learned from a commercial traveler that one of the great tea and spice houses has just discharged all its white boys and girls and sent for packers to Japan.� G.L.S.
USE NEGRO LABORERS.
Editor "Chronicle"--Sir: You have taken a stand in defense of the American people and home labor which is so commendable that doubtless it will meet with the hearty approval of our people. As an Afro-American I would like to say that if the fruit-raisers of this State fail to find sufficient white help to gather their products. I could, being in touch with the old South, supply them with all the help they might need in the shape of honest, law-abiding negroes. They could be used as a substitute for coolie labor. J.J. NASHBURN.
SIGNS PRINTED IN JAPANESE.
Editor "Chronicle"--Sir: Allow me, as an American, to add my thanks to the many you have already received for your timely presentation of the Japanese problem.
While alighting from the train here to-day my eye was attracted to the signs displayed, showing the destination of outgoing trains. Besides those in plain English it has been found necessary to print others in Japanese. This has never been necessary before, and only adds proof that this rich country is being made the Mecca of the brown man, who sooner or later will take the place of our American citizens. It should be prevented. GEORGE ISADORE.
ARGUMENTS BEARING FRUIT.
Editor "Chronicle"--Sir: I view with keen satisfaction the great fight which the "Chronicle" is making for the stoppage of Japanese coolie immigration to this Coast. The able and luminous arguments which have recently appeared on this all-important subject are bearing fruit. The workingmen of this Coast--those who are chiefly affected by the Japanese invasion--are becoming aroused to the gravity of the situation, and their various unions are taking decisive and vigorous action.
As a workingman and trade unionist I wish the "Chronicle" godspeed in its efforts. It deserves to have its circulation increased by about 40,000 among the free white workers of the Pacific Slope. Ever well wisher of American labor should buy and read the "Chronicle," which is the exponent of true Americanism in California. ADALBERT BEACH.
NATIVES CROWDED OUT.
Editor "Chronicle"--Sir: I overheard a party of Japanese discussing an article in your valuable paper on the Jap question recently, and one remarked when they were through with the Russians they would give some of the other white dogs a dose of the same medicine. If that is the sentiment of the little brown men the sooner we bring the issue to a point the better, especially for our women who are being crowded out of all kinds of employment. A few years ago many of our girls made a nice living as seamstresses working on underwear for some of the large retail stores. Now such a thing is not known. In one block on Eddy street, near Mason, there are eleven Jap stores which make a specialty of underwear, and our girls are compelled to adopt other means of making a living, not being able to compete with cheap Jap labor. A shoemaker on O'Farrell street tells me that he once made a good living repairing shoes, but since the Japs have flooded the city with cobbleries it is a hard matter for him to support his family.
The Japs are also crowding out of the public of the public schools white children whose parents have to pay taxes for their support, while the Japs do not pay a cent. I hope means will be found by which these Mongolians may be barred from further encroachments. A NATIVE SON.
POINTS TO AUSTRALIA.
Editor "Chronicle"--Sir: Your stand on Japanese immigration is taken in the nick of time. I sincerely trust that the campaign will be pushed forward until severe restriction laws are passed and enforced. This immigration of Mongolians to the United States, if allowed to go unchecked, will be increased enormously at the end of the present war.
A good lead to be followed is that of the Australian Commonwealth toward Oriental races. It has for some time past recognized the danger of an unrestricted influx of Japanese,
LET ALL OBEY.
As to the Japanese who come to America against the law--
There's so much bad in the best of us,
And there's so much good in the worst of us,
That it hardly behooves any of us
To say anything of the rest of us.
Let us obey the laws ourselves. Let us enforce them rigidly on every citizen and alien. The Japanese student class has heretofore represented the large part of the immigration, and they have been loyal learners of our civilization. If members of the peasant class come here and traffic in women and young girls, as the Chinese do, let the guilty ones be deported. MRS. E.V. ROBBINS.
CONSIDERS THEM FILTHY.
Editor "Chronicle"--Sir: I will give you a good pointer about the Japanese question. Find out the names of all canneries and shippers that employ Japs or Chinese labor to handle their fruit, and send the names to the East. Then tell the world how these Asiatics live and work and how dirty and filthy they are. Tell the whole truth, and these firms will be boycotted by the general public. The East would then not use anything handled by such unclean laborers.
Show up the whole matter. Tell how these Asiatics do not buy clothes or anything else here that they can get from Japan, but simply get our money, while we get no trade in return from them. W.H. BRAMMER.
WHITE WOMEN INCOMPETENT.
Editor "Chronicle"--Sir: The unprejudiced attitude of the "Chronicle" in presenting what it terms the Japanese menace makes it certain that this comment will find a place in your columns.
The American woman, whom Wednesday's issue describes as endangered in pocket and profession by the little brown men, is seldom found in the kitchen--she is usually the mistress of the house. Our kitchen candidates are, as a general thing, newly from Ireland, Germany, Sweden, and Dixie. Once in fifty times our American woman applies for housework. Of these foreigners who apply, the majority are incompetent. They demand the highest wages obtainable and are then poor cooks, poor laundresses, poor waitresses--poor everything for which they are paid. The tired American woman whose home shows the ravages of these dish breaking, grease spreading foreigners sighs for any one, even a Japanese, if he will be worth his wages. AN AMERICAN WOMAN.
THINKS THEY ARE HYPOCRITES.
Editor "Chronicle"--Sir: I wish to indorse your crusade against the Japs. The time is past when we need immigrants of any such class. Let us preserve for ourselves and our posterity all the blessings of our liberal laws and institutions. I noticed the action of the Methodist ministers and think I could write their report in advance. I know so well their love for the Chinese and Japanese. I think they should use their organization for the betterment of our own kind.
The Jap cares nothing for Christianity, but the church furnishes him an education and a livelihood. I know them intimately from contact with them for over ten years. Continue your good work, even though nothing is accomplished this Congress. GEORGE W. COLLIER.
A COLORED MAN'S OPINION.
Editor "Chronicle"--Sir: I write to congratulate you on the stand you have taken against Japanese immigration. The conservative way in which you handle the question appeals to me in a very forcible manner. The little brown man is a menace to every American citizen, white or black. Many positions would to-day be filled by intelligent negroes if the Japanese were not here. The negro's deeds of patriotism do not need to be rehearsed. He is here to stay and will ever be ready to protect this great country at all times. EDWIN D. JOHNSON.
WILL NEVER ASSIMILATE.
Editor "Chronicle"--Sir: Permit me to indorse every word you have published in regard to the restriction of Japanese immigration. I am highly gratified to note that our Legislature is awake to a realization of the fact that this nature is confronted with the greatest menace that can befall a country. We have been receiving the scum from Europe and we are getting the Japs, who will never assimilate.
Their presence has already begun to bear fruit. How many of our girls are driven to follow lives of shame because Mongolians are employed as house servants--positions that girls would naturally fill were there no Japs here? Have we not enough of this cheap contract labor? It seems to me that every loyal American should comprehend what the result to our country will be if we permit this influx of the Oriental to continue. W.H. ARNOLD.