"All about us the Asiatics are gaining a foothold. They are setting up Asiatic standards. From whole communities the whites are moving out. Already the blood is intermingling. At present the problem is comparatively easy and can be snuffed out. But let it go even a little longer and it cannot be snuffed out. "We farmers are interested in the Exposition. We will do all that we can for it. But there is one thing that we can not and will not do for it. We will not jeopardize our race. "In dealing with the men who demand this antiAsiatic legislation you are dealing with men who do not put the dollar above all else. Our Governor has shown us what the initiative is. The farmers of California will show you how to use it." The side of Labor was presented by Paul Scharrenberg, legislative representative of the State Federated Trades Council, and R. C. Hearst. Both these men stood well with the Legislature. They are held in high esteem by all who know them. But the action of San Francisco labor leaders in 1911 in advising against the passage of the anti-alien land bill of that year, was unquestionably a handicap upon them. There was a feeling at Sacramento that the unreliable element of organized labor at San Francisco, which through the Asiatic Exclusion League, had, in 1911, repudiated antialien legislation, might later in the 1913 session take similar stand. None doubted Mr. Scharrenberg's statement, for example, that Labor favors the passage of anti-alien land laws; nor did anyone who knows him doubt Mr. Scharrenberg's integrity and steadfastness of purpose. At the same time, none could say but that Labor, through those at San Francisco who assume to speak for Labor, would cast its influence against the passage of the bills. 204 James D. Phelan,205 former Mayor of San Francisco, capitalist, Californian, joined with representatives of farm and factory in demanding that the consideration of the Legislature should be first for the State. But Phelan pointed out tersely, in guarding the interests of the State, the Legislature will not be injuring the Exposition. "I know what is going on in this Legislature regarding this legislation," said Phelan, "because through a 204 The following letter from the officers of the Asiatic Exclusion League will be found on page 700 of the Assembly Journal for the session of 1911: "Hon. Mr. Hewitt, Speaker of the Assembly, State Capitol, Sacramento, Cal.-The following is a copy of lettergram sent under current date: "Senator Thos. Finn, Sacramento, Cal.: ""The Executive Board of the Asiatic Exclusion League regrets that regardless of previous communication on the subject we have not been afforded an opportunity to examine the anti-alien Asiatic bills which you introduced in the Senate Friday. It is the sense of the board that such bills as these at the present time are not conducive to the final enactment of effective and permanent Asiatic exclusion legislation and which only can be had through Act of Congress. The school segregation question has for some years been fairly satisfactorily settled and alien land tenure is judicially and sanely dealt with by this league and the State labor bodies. We respectfully request that you proceed cautiously in this matter, as pressing measures of this kind now would mean irreparable injury to the exclusion cause. "'O. A. TVEITMOE, President. "'A. E. YOELL, Secretary-Treasurer.'' 205 An interesting story is told of Phelan's attitude on the antiAsiatic measures. At the opening of the session, representatives of the Exposition circulated stories to the effect that Phelan, then on his way to California from the East, would, when he reached Sacramento, stop off to use his influence against the introduction of such measures. One man, at least, had faith to believe that Phelan would do no such a thing. He secured a bet of a five-dollar hat on the strength of his conviction. He won the bet. Phelan not only did not appear to urge the suppression of such measures, but wrote a strong letter urging that an anti-Asiatic land law be enacted. press clipping agency I am reading what the interior press says about it. On this question the metropolitan press is bottled up, just as this Legislature has in the past been bottled up." Mr. Phelan reviewed the history of the fight to save the State for the white man against the coming of hordes of Chinese. This had been accomplished. But the Japanese present as great, if not greater, problem. They are, Phelan argued, by destructive competition driving out the whites. White men and Japanese can not live together unless the whites submit to reduced wages, reduced standards of living, and sink to the level of the Japanese. And this, Phelan insisted, white men will not do. The Japanese in California will, he said, reduce the quality of our population; reduce the quality of our government. The State can not contain a foreign body and continue healthy. The result, if the problem be not met, will be that the Japanese will eventually dominate. Even now, they are increasing because of California-born children. Some of these children are Japanese; others are mongrel. In Hawaii native-born Japanese will be able to outvote the whites and take possession. California has the same menace. Our superior conditions attract the Japanese. They will not work as laborers when they can compel a share of the crop. They will not share the crop when they can get a long lease. The evil of him is that he drives out the white. Mr. Phelan told of his experience at Washington when California was considering anti-Asiatic legislation during the last years of Roosevelt's administration. He had asked Roosevelt if objection could be made to an anti-alien land law. Roosevelt had submitted the matter to Secretary Root. Root had reported that no objection to such legislation would be reasonable. Americans in Japan are not allowed to own land. Notwithstanding this assurance from the President and the Secretary the California Legislature was in such a panic that year, that it failed to enact even an alien land law. Mr. Phelan warned the committee that the Japanese are as clever in diplomacy as they are able in agriculture and manufacturing. Their diplomatic game is to prevent such legislation as is now pending. For eight years they have, on one pretext and another, succeeded in doing this. Now they are frightening us with intimation that they will not participate in the Exposition. "In the language of the street," said Phelan, "they have us buffaloed." Phelan insisted that independent action on the part of California will not jeopardize the success of the Exposition. The Japanese are as anxious to seize the opportunity which the Exposition offers them as California is to have their co-operation. "The future of California," said Mr. Phelan in conclusion, "is of far greater importance than the success of this Exposition. And in saying this I do not believe for a moment that in enacting this land legislation you will jeopardize the success of the Exposition." Such was the final committee hearing on the Alien Land bills. Even before it had concluded, members of the Assembly Judiciary Committee retired from the chamber, put the final touches upon a substitute measure for all the Alien Land bills pending before it, and decided |