government could arrange a solution with Japan upon the basis of international justice and the welfare of California and the nation.

Japan protested against the anti-Japanese land law because the discrimination against the Japanese violated the spirit of the "gentleman's agreement. Our government replied that in this matter it had no jurisdiction. One of the states of the Union had passed a law offending another nation and the Federal government was helpless. Our government is thus put in a strange position: it makes an agreement or a treaty with another nation; one of our fortyeight states can pass a law directly opposed to the spirit of that agreement or treaty; the other nation protests; and our government replies that it is practically helpless. "The most important piece of legislation still waiting to be done in this country is the enactment of a law or laws, by constitutional amendment if necessary, that will put international affairs in the hands of the nation," declares James A. B. Scherer.

3

The discriminatory alien land law should be repealed and non-discriminatory legislation substituted for it. The law should be made to apply to all aliens alike.

The Japanese situation in America also involves a change in our naturalization laws. We base citizenship qualifications, in part, upon the unscientific element of color. Moreover, we apply the color test unscientifically, for we admit the color extremes, white and black, and exclude the intermediate eleThe Japanese Crisis, p. 115.

ments. We now know that every race is a combination of several races and that it is impossible to state where one race begins and another ends. The same principle is true when applied to color. A better test for admission to citizenship is that of individual potentiality, worth, attitudes, ability. Modern psychological studies and tests have made it possible to define our standards in personal terms, and at the same time to safeguard our nation and the individual states against an influx of masses of undesirable immigrants. It thus becomes possible to repeal discriminatory admission laws, land ownership laws, and naturalization laws.

California is right in her desire not to be overcome by Asiatic hordes, but her solution of the problem is myopic. It ignores Japan's willingness to accede to the fundamental desire of California. It overlooks America's request for an open door in Asia and equality of opportunity for our citizens with that accorded to citizens of "the most favored nation."4

Our test for admitting immigrants can no longer be determined by our sympathies or our prejudices, but by considerations of personal fitness and international justice. It has been proposed by Mr. S. L. Gulik, that we admit immigrants from any nation not to exceed 5 per cent of those here and assimilated, from the given nation. Such a standard would admit annually only a small proportion of the Japanese

5

'Americans are not allowed to own land in Japan. But the law there is applied to all aliens alike.

"Described at length in American Democracy and Japanese Citizenship, Chap. VIII.

who are now coming in under our present objectionable laws. Mr. Gulick's test would be fair to Japan and actually lessen Japanese immigration, thus protecting California and the other interested states. The interests of California would be better conserved than at present and our Federal government would be put in a position of acting justly and democratically toward a neighboring nation. It is possible for Americanism to acquire such a flavor that it will incur the increasing suspicion of the nations of the Far East or to stress elements which will foster the good will and co-operation of Japan and China. May the latter tendency prevail.

The solution of the Asiatic problem in America involves nothing less than an appreciation of the relation of the East to the West, such as is found in the following classic statement by Inazo Nitobe:

"It is said that the genius of the East is spiritual, mystical, psychical, and that of the West is materialistic, actual, physical; it is said that the forte as well as the fault of the East is religion and sentiment, and that of the West science and reason; it is said that the East delights in generalization and universal concepts, and the West in particulars and special knowledge; that the one leans to philosophy and ideas, and the other to practice and facts; that Oriental logic is deductive and negative, and Occidental logic is inductive and positive. It is also said that in political and social life, solidarity and socialism characterize the East, and individualism and liberty, the West; it is said again that the Asiatic mind is "The Japanese Nation, pp. 11, 12.

impersonal and rejects the world, whereas the European mind is personal and accepts the world. The strength of Europe lies in the mastery of man over nature, and the weakness of Asia in the mastery of nature over man. In the land of the morning, man looks for beauty first and writes his flighty thoughts in numbers; in the land of the evening, man's first thought is for utility and he jots down his observations in numerals. He who watches the setting sun, pursues whither it marches, and his watchword is Progress and his religion is the cult of the future. He who greets the effulgent dawn is therewith content and cares not for its further course, but rather turns in wonderment to the source whence it came, hence his religion is the cult of the past. The matin disposes man to contemplation, the vesper hour to reflection. In the East man lives for the sake of life; in the West man lives for the means of living."

CHAPTER XVI

THE MEXICAN IMMIGRANT

In the Southwestern states, "the Mexican problem" has developed with rapidity since 1900. Because the Mexican immigrants represent the peon, or the mixed and least developed classes of Mexico, because they come from scenes of current oppression and revolution, because of the delicate international relations of the United States and Mexico, because of the untoward living conditions of the Mexican immigrants in the United States, and because of the chasm of misunderstanding which exists between Americans and Mexicans, no Americanization program is complete which does not include the Mexican immigrant problem.

Of Mexico's population of 10,000,000, it is estimated that 19 per cent are white (Spanish), 43 per cent are mixed bloods (Spanish and Indian with Negro admixture), and 38 per cent are native Indians. The process of amalgamation-mixture of races-is gradually taking place. Unlike the situation in the United States, the Indians are not dying out as an isolated race, but are contributing their qualities to a new Mexican race of Spanish and Indian origins. But a mixed race, living at the same time and in the same locality as the parent races always confronts a hard struggle. Recognition is reluctantly given to it; taunts and cries of shame are