as a rule, despise foreign races, and do not admit the superiority of alien civilizations as a whole, imitating only a detail here and there, often without acknowledgment and sometimes even without knowledge, the Japanese, on the other hand, have repeatedly been placed in such circumstances as to see the superiority of foreign civilizations as a whole, and to desire their general adoption. This has produced a spirit of imitation among all the individuals of the race. It has become a part of their social inheritance. This explanation largely accounts for the striking difference between Japanese and Chinese in the Occident. The Japanese go to the West in order to acquire all the West can give. The Chinaman goes steeled against its influences. The spirit of the Japanese renders him quickly susceptible to every change in his surroundings. He is ever noting details and adapting himself to his circumstances. The spirit of the Chinaman, on the contrary, renders him quite oblivious to his environment. His mind is closed. Under special circumstances, when a Chinaman has been liberated from the prepossession of his social inheritance, he has shown himself as capable of Occidentalization in clothing, speech, manner, and thought as a Japanese. Such cases, however are rare."

I have dwelt at length upon the peculiarity of Japanese character, because it has vital bearings upon the question of their Americanization. If the Japanese were mere copyists without individuality, we have little reason for expecting them to become valuable assets of the Republic. If, on the other hand, their personality is such as to prevent them from appreciating the superior points of foreign civilizations, we have no more reason for hoping to convert them into faithful members of our community. It is because the Japanese are endowed with

both distinct individuality and extraordinary susceptibility to environment that we feel justified in believing that their physical peculiarities will constitute no insurmountable obstacle to their Americanization.

True, their proverbial patriotism furnishes some Americans a cause for apprehension, but I hold that this quality, instead of proving a hindrance, will be found an auxiliary to our efforts to assimilate them. No immigrants, who come from a country where they enjoyed the benefits of an honest, efficient government, enter the portal of our country without casting longing eyes towards their native land. They alone fail to experience such feeling who left behind them a degenerate or backward state which they see no reason to be proud of. Of these two classes of immigrants which are the more desirable? To this question many divergent answers may be given, but to me it appears that those immigrants who formed, while in their native country, the habit of respecting law and government not only out of the sense of duty but out of sincere affection and devotion, would find no difficulty in appreciating a government which is founded upon the principle" that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Take, for example, the German immigrants. The Kaiser's subjects are no less loyal to the fatherland than the Mikado's subjects are devoted to the Land of the Rising Sun. Yet it is not many years after his arrival in this land of opportunity that the German becomes its ardent admirer. Time was when Germans in America maintained their own schools and newspapers and were regarded by the Americans as a "menace," yet to-day no one ventures to deny that the German population is an

invaluable asset to the country. Will the Japanese be like the German? To Americanize the Japanese it behooves us to treat them in accord with the American spirit. The Japanese do not want us alternately to praise them and revile them; what they ask is the observance on our part of the elementary principles of justice and fairness. "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" are what was held by our forefathers to be sacred, and to guard these precious possessions we did not hesitate to shed the blood of three generations. Men who conspire to violate these fundamental principles are running directly counter to the spirit of this Republic.

Whether our country has reached a stage where we should no longer receive immigrants without restriction, is a question which I cannot discuss here. One thing, however, seems certain: namely, that any alien, once admitted into our territories, must also be given opportunity to prove that he can be a faithful and worthy citizen of the Republic. To be more definite, our doors of citizenship must be open to all aliens, and especially those who come from countries which by dint of their achievements in the arts of peace and of warfare, have been admitted into the family of civilized nations. For the sake of our national solidarity and advancement, it is not advisable that any alien should be permitted to enter our country without at the same time affording him the privilege to become a citizen. Foreign people living within our jurisdiction with no hope of becoming American citizens, constitute a floating, unstable element in our national existence. They will not feel with us, nor will they think as we think. To them the woe and weal of our body politic are of little consequence, and the conduct of our public affairs is of no greater interest than the domestic affairs of their strange neighbours.

Nor is this all. When we single out aliens of a certain race or nationality as objects of discrimination in the matter of naturalization, we fix upon them the odium of inferiority and thus instill in their hearts a feeling of resentment. We look down upon them with contempt, and they reciprocate with disdain. We assume a suspicious attitude towards them, and they also look at us with suspicion. It is human nature, and cannot be avoided. The remedy is obvious. Open the doors of citizenship to them, encourage them to become worthy members of the commonwealth, and their hearts will glow with hope and they will strive to prove their right and fitness to become American citizens. For hope is a wonderful redeemer, lifting men out of abandonment, and kindling in their bosoms the fire of aspiration. Give the Japanese in America an equal opportunity with other aliens, and they will respond as whole-heartedly and loyally as any other foreigner under our flag. No problem can be solved by hate and prejudice, certainly not the Japanese question. No people can be assimilated by pressure and persecution, certainly not the Japanese, a people endowed with the keenest sense of honour and pride. The great assimilating power of the American nation is or has been, I believe, largely due to the fact that here in the land of freedom the immigrants are permitted to bask in the blessings of a liberal government and are unhampered by inequitable restraint. Why fetter the Japanese with discriminatory measures and drive them into a path which leads counter to the goal which we desire them to attain?

Be it far from me to contend that we should naturalize all aliens as they come. On the contrary, I urge that we should jealously guard our high standards of citizenship against all debasing influences. We should de

mand of every candidate for citizenship the fulfilment of all conditions requisite in making him a desirable member of the democracy. If the present naturalization law is too lax in this respect, it should be revised so as to safeguard the moral well-being of our country. What I protest against is the false notion that all Asiatics are "undesirables," while all Europeans are "desirables." Physiognomy, stature, and the colour of the skin have no more bearing upon the moral character and intellectual quality of a man than the pattern of garments he wears. There are just as many knaves and sharpers in other civilized countries as in Japan. If China has her Hatchet Men, Italy has her Black Hands. As sang an ancient poet:

"The world in all doth but two nations bear,-
The good and bad, and these mixed everywhere."

It is, however, fair to add that the Japanese community on either side of the Pacific has never had anything like the Hatchet Man or the Black Hand, whose atrocious methods of extortion have struck terror into the hearts of all denizens of the Bowery and of Chinatown. Neither have the Japanese established in any American city such filthy quarters as have been established by immigrants from certain other countries. There is no sound reason why the Japanese should not be naturalized.

In connection with the naturalization of the Japanese, the question of intermarriage is of special interest. Here and there the miraculous hands of love razed the barrier of prejudice and united men of Japan and our daughters in "the sweet bond of holy wedlock." Fortunately such unions have, as a rule, been successful. And why not? Despite wide difference in customs and manners, the tra