the Republic at that time (June, 1907) was only about 1,000. Inasmuch as they had not left the country through the ports, it was concluded that they had immigrated to the United States, lawfully previous to the issue of the President's order of March 14, 1907, surreptitiously ever since." 1 Thus dissatisfaction with conditions in Mexico and the discouragement of emigration to the United States gave rise to a movement into and out of Mexico across our boundary much smaller but not unlike that from the Hawaiian Islands. Officially Immigration of Laborers ended in 1907. - Officially the immigration of those occupied as laborers in Japan came practically to an end in 1907, when the President issued an order refusing admission to "Japanese and Korean laborers, skilled or unskilled, who have received passports to go to Mexico, Canada, or Hawaii, and come therefrom," and, under pressure, the Japanese government agreed to discontinue the issuing of passports to certain classes of its subjects who might desire to emigrate to the continental United States. This order and the agreement developed out of very strained relations incidental to continued opposition to and discrimination against the Japanese, especially in California. Opposition to Immigration. The first strong note of opposition to the immigration of Japanese laborers came from a mass meeting held at San Francisco in 1900, to consider the reënactment of 1 Immigration Commission, Reports, Vol. 23, p. 15. the Chinese exclusion law, soon to expire by reason of limitation to a period of years. Before this, however, there had been some evidence of dissatisfaction with the existing situation. The State Labor Commissioner had recently made an investigation of the employment of Japanese in California, and in this connection adverse criticisms, such as had been made of the Chinese, were made of the new race. Moreover, Mr. Rice had been detailed by the Immigration Bureau to investigate charges of violations of the contract labor law in connection with Japanese immigration. His report1 described the connection between the emigration companies and the increasing number of immigrants. It also stated as a fact that twelve of these companies at that time had their representatives in the United States. "It was in 1900, when an unusually large number arrived, however, that the first organized demand was made for the exclusion of the Japanese. At a mass meeting called in San Francisco, May 7 of that year, not only was a resolution adopted urging Congress to reenact the Chinese exclusion law, but it was further resolved to urge the adoption of an act of Congress or such other measures as might be necessary for the total exclusion of all classes of Japanese other than members of the diplomatic staff."2 Following this came the first of the anti-Japanese messages emanating from the governor's office at Sacramento and resolutions from the state legislature calling upon Congress to extend the 1 See House Doc. No. 686, 56th Congress, 1st Session. Chinese exclusion law to other Asiatics. Yet little interest in the matter was taken by the people at large in California until the San Francisco Chronicle for what reasons need not trouble us here — conducted a very successful campaign against the Japanese. This was in the spring of 1905 when a large number were coming to the mainland from Honolulu and greatly augmenting the number of arrivals. The enlarged stream emptied itself in San Francisco, where it was made conspicuously evident by all the circumstances connected with disembarkation, boarding and lodging, and subsequent employment. Organization of the Asiatic Exclusion League followed in May, this being, in a sense, ready made of the trade unions which had always been in the thick of the fight against Chinese immigration. The San Francisco School Order. It happened that the same elements at this time dominated in the Exclusion League and the municipal government of San Francisco. On May 6, 1905, the Board of Education passed a resolution declaring its determination to effect the establishment of separate schools for Chinese and Japanese pupils, but no further action was taken until after the great fire of the following year, when a separate school order was passed.1 This required the transfer of most of 1 The need for this action was, as so often happens, popularly over-estimated. The total number of Japanese children in the twenty-three schools of the city was only ninety-three; of whom nine were sixteen years old, twelve were seventeen, six were eighteen, four were nineteen, and two were twenty. The remainder were all under sixteen years of age. Cf. Secretary Metcalf's report to President Wilson. the Japanese pupils who had enrolled in a number of public schools as a result of the scattering of the population by the fire, to the Oriental School, located in the center of the city, far removed from the homes of most of the pupils and almost inaccessible under the circumstances. The promulgation of this order at this time was no doubt connected with the fact that, partly for reasons other than the activity of the Exclusion League, a strong opposition to the Japanese had grown up. They had come to occupy a conspicuous position in some of the petty businesses of the city, and especially in the restaurant trade. At just this time these restaurants were being boycotted by the Cooks' and Waiters' Union and incidental to the prosecution of the boycott not a little violence was being practiced. School Question becomes an International Issue. Against this state of affairs the Japanese protested strongly, and, as usual, to the Japanese government. The "school question" became an international issue. An investigation by the federal government and a conference between President Roosevelt and local officials of San Francisco followed. By force of circumstances the Japanese government agreed to restrict the issuing of passports to laborers who wished to emigrate, and an immigration bill, then in conference committee, was changed so as to authorize the President to suspend the immigration of Japanese and Korean laborers from our insular possessions and from Canada and Mexico. This authority was employed by the President in his famous order of March 14, 1907, refusing admission to the continental United States to "Japanese or Korean laborers, skilled or unskilled, who have received passports to go to Mexico, Canada, or Hawaii and come therefrom." The Agreement with Japan. -The agreement with Japan, in effect since 1907, contemplates "that the Japanese government shall issue passports to the continental United States only to such of its subjects as are non-laborers or are laborers who, in coming to the continent, seek to resume a formerly acquired domicile, to join a parent, wife, or children residing here, or to assume active control of an already possessed interest in a farming enterprise in this country." Accordingly the classes of laborers entitled to receive passports have come to be designated "former residents," "parents, wives, or children of residents," and "settled agriculturists." After the promulgation of the President's order of March 14, 1907, the provisions of this agreement were applied in the granting of passports to Hawaii as well as to the mainland. The Japanese Government has acted in Good Faith. Though slow progress was made in carrying this agreement into effect and "the system did not begin to work smoothly in all its details until the last month of the fiscal year,' 1907-08, the agreement has given and still gives an effective method of restricting the immigration of Japanese and Korean laborers to the United States. The 1 Annual Report of the Commissioner General of Immigration for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1908, pp. 125–126. 2 Report of the Commissioner General of Immigration, 1908, p. 126. |