THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1906. AMERICA AND JAPAN.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8311, 14 December 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1906. AMERICA AND JAPAN.

Commenting on the situation whioh baa arisen owing to the exolnsion ot Japanese children from the ordinary State Schools in Sau Fraucisco, the London Times remarks that this is a matter upon whioh there Is n great amount of prejudice in California. There is, to begin with, it seems, a otrong particularist feeling in that State, whioh guea so far as to discriminate very harshly even against American oifclzens coming from other States of the Union. Race prejudice is, of course, much stronger against the Japanese, and is strongest of all among the trade unions, whioh are beat on destroying all competition. One ot the results of t,he great Are has been to extend this prejudice to the well-to-do classes, who are indignant because the wealthier Japanese have dared to compete for dwellings in the residential districts and have evon secured them by offering higher rents than white men were prerared to pay. It is this mass of bitter and unreasoning prejudioe that the Federal Government have to encounter, intrenched as iS is behind the State rights conferred by the Constitution. It is very difficult to delimit in practice the spheres of Federal and of State jurisdiction, although, as regards this o«se, it is certain that the Constitution never intended State right 3 to override treaty obligations. The questiou now seems, most unfortunately, to be whether the Federal Government have ' the power to compel the State Government to respect the international engagements entered into by the United States aa a whole. The

Japanese Government are fully awaie that what they complain of ia a purely local affair, and with that remarkable power of taking perfectly detached views whioh the Japaneie have manifepted tbey will doubtless give full weight to the consideration that in other parts of the Union Japanese subjects are properly treated. Still, they cannot l.e expected to oarry beyond a certain point their allowance for the municipal difficulties of another nution. If California persists, tho Japanese Government and people will come to the conclusion that treaty obligations are being set aside by the United States, and that the Japanese subjects are being treated with gross indignity, Japan is in a position to retaliate. She can say —if Japanese are not good enough to mix with Americans, then Americans are not good enough to mix with Japanese. The day she says that, a great and growing branch.of American commerce is likely to go by the board. A Chinese boycott on no great soale was found extremely inconvenient. A Japanese boycott will be very much more serious. Its effeuts would be very heavily felt by the offending State beoause San Francisco is the cen ; ;re of a great trade with the iiiast, and the home port for important lines of American steamers. It. is not always that the olfender bears the brunt of his mischief, and perhaps in the fact that in this case he will do so lies the Dest hope of a settlement of the question.