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Show THE CITIZEN any other taxpayer to give a history of his life to the desk sergeant. How preposterous it is to ask such questions when the offender appears at the police station in answer to a .summons. And it smacks of tyranny when such a citizen is placed in a 'cell for daring to assert his American manhood. It is a system of oppression that would have escaped without criticism in the, Russia of the,.czars day, but .it system which should be abandoned in free America. P&f If the police would spend less time measuring the distany cars from the curb with a foot rule they probably would have time to devote to the detection of crime. : v. 1 i '' WHY JAPAN SPLITS HAIRS OVER ALIEN LAND LAWS By a splitting of diplomatic hairs with subtle patience and painstaking the Japanese have tried to define the Califorfiia issue in such a way as to set up claims here which they deny to aliens .in their land. In Japan aliens are denied the right to own land. In view of Japanese law, therefore, tile government of Nippon ought not to oppose a California law excluding aliens from the ownership of land. To raise an issue Tokio must split hairs and Roland S. Morris, our ambassador to Japan, takes the trouble to exemplify this interesting process for the enlightenment of his fellow countrymen. The Japanese government, he says, contends that it is unjust and unfair to pick out a particular group of aliens who are under certain disabilities and deprive them of rights which all other aliens are permitted to enjoy. The Californians have been able to distinguish between the Japanese and other aliens because the Japanese are no eligible to citizenship. Consequently bypassing a law barring from the ownership of land all aliens not eligible to citizenship the Californians have been able to exclude the Japanese and other orientals from land ownership. The Japanese, as Mr. Morris informs us, do not complain because their nationals are ineligible to citizenship; they admit that the United States, like any other sovereignty, has a right to say who shall and who shall not be admitted to citizenship, and they are not seeking to remove restrictions on Japanese immigration. In theory they almost concede our case, but in fact they do not. What, then; is back of this painful splitting of hairs? The Japanese, because they claim for themselves the same rights they concede to us, cannot make an issue of those rights. This compels them to limit the issue to the smallest possible compass. They insist, for their own purposes, on having an issue. What those purposes are time will develop. At present they are rather obscure. The Tokio government does not object to a law which prevents its subjects from swearing allegiance to another sovereignty, because Tokio wants to retain legal and moral sway over the men of Nippon wherever they may be. The Tokio government does not ask any greater rights for its subjects than are granted to other aliens, for the obvious reason that Tokio asserts the right to exclude foreigners from Japan' whenever it seems expedient or desirable. The Japanese government does not even ask that the present restriction on Japanese immigration be removed and the reason is that Japan does not want to lose its subjects too rapidly and is quite satisfied with the rate of increase of the Japanese in this . country. Now let us consult Ambassador Morris so that, grasping at straws with him and the Japanese, we may try to discern something tangible in this rarefied issue. Tokio is not deeply concerned even about property rights. It simply objects to a law which applies to orientals and riot to other ' aliens. But it does object mark this to a law which may lead to other laws relating to other rights. The issue has to do with what may be rather than with what is. But we would deceive ourselves if we neglected to inquire into this further issue for, undoubtedly, it is the real issue. However delicately the Nipponese diplomat may piroutee r - vs mt St ir gjng a situa vAnier Th e i about the issue it is the issue which most nearly concerns my.ali It is the racial issue and in it is involved, the question of social equaNyy Mr. Morris explains that Japan fears the law srelating to proptV ;r will be succeeded by laws affecting the personal rights of What are the personal rights to which the Japanese refer? sonal rights relate to the individual the right to life, freedom action and the pursuit own welfare. Specifically, it is, discrimination between the white and the yellow races in the seb and in social and domestic relations that is profoundly agitating,tiffing innermost soul of Nippon. It is an agitation caused but Bttlej discrimination. stirs the of What secret the J aParublir property anger is the discrimination which he forsees in the not remote future; a discrimination which, would prevent the Japanese from settling wtjj ever they please in the United States, which would keep them aj from the white race as far as possible, which, in a word, would Eng ify'b them a status or, at least, the appearance of racial inferiority, get jc is is That the genuine issue, but it one that the. Nipponese diplo: does not wish to state too broadly. His government is desirous ean maintaining its sway over its own people everywhere, after the ner of Germany, and there is more than a suspicion that his gov jjje ment, after the manner of Germany, believes in a dual citizen, jnt which would divide the loyalty of a Japanese no matter what ggsic ernment, other than Japan, he might swear to support. The Tterests government cannot state the issue as broadly as it desires becauserica do so would act as a boomerang. Such a statement would dems our government rights which Japan, as sovereign nation, wants retain, rights, in fact, which inhere in sovereignty and which evt r sovereign nation must retain. ry Da And so it comes about that Japan tries to limit the issueat he . using the phrase, a particular group of. aliens. guc is Who primarily responsible for the creation of this particr our group of aliens? sedon Is it not Japan herself? Does she not create a particular gre see of her own people by asserting a sovereignty over them whereill me t they go? And that sovereignty is of a peculiar kind. It is not only cnor but spiritual. The Japanese consider their emperor divine. E Be though they might swear allegiance to the United States they still maintain an allegiance to a sovereign they consider as belonged to to a super-naturorder. This is no mere spiritual allegianceirrenc the head of the church ; it is the kind of an allegiance that pa.as. w peoples pay to their gods. A recent dispatch from San Francisco states that Buddhist prlJ id m; agandists with the backing of the most powerful influence in Ja; Lc has taken over all Japanese propaganda in this country with !1(j ju a come. of State to grand Japanese policy century Contro!rUgg Johns S. Chambers, executive chairman of the California Exclu?oerty League, declares that the developments of the last few days tecord convinced American leaders that the Japanese, in view of a pa?e st faith which, they never lose, never can be Americanized or assimilatr We realize that there is always danger of distortion and fl " Dveri the;-' raised. issues when are Usually religious understanding ar el seized upon in a political crisis to create. prejudice. Nevertl g0 there is so much that is tangible in the issue that the AnuriCm, f ivfc people will be making a blunder if they do not keep it in mind iturr keeping their mind open on the subject. Jayo of-one- qq s wc-cor- de al : i |