THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, JUNE 10, 1913. AMERICA AND JAPAN.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 10 June 1913, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, JUNE 10, 1913. AMERICA AND JAPAN.

The relations between the United States and Japan have been severely strained, owing to the State of California having passed restrictive antialien legislation. There are a considerable number of Japanese in California, and legislation denying to them the privilege of citizenship or of holding real estate was very naturally resented. As an American correspondent points oat, the fact that it is a fundamental condition of the country that State rights, as far as they go, are paramount over federal rights, is the position held by California, and it ia based on the original provision of the Constitution which recognised that the States and the individual government of each State existed before the Federal Government or the nation as a whole, and that the Federal Government is merely an authority existing by consent of the States to look after national affairs,,, but without authority to dictate to the several States e« to tfee lairs they shall make or how they shall administer them. Has tha State laws in very many raspoaUt jfciffer, aotehly as to marriage and dimrae, mmi punishlraena for mime& slaaa pnAibitina s tha sale of liqaer area by Boane*. It ia a queatioa, hewever, hew far a State *ay ge ia the aaifchag ar enforcement af laws tihaj fce«»me at iateneatioaal nsartSAee, sxl aHhoagh tha matter has esllMa* ft trer, hee» - teateflL vaioaj ft* mimd wftisft lad to the Cml War aiay ha arts* a tart, it is sretty eert«u> ttaat the ajmri mwgeiity ef the aftetes wanlA **w jsia •tfujut OatefWraia, at «—M«fcj, tie

that the base of the trouble on the j Pacific Coast is the labour element, which is willing to go to extreme lengths to avert competition in the country of the cheap Japanese labour. The fact, however, that thia is not felt at all seriously hi New York or other States where the Japanese have all the liberty in business they desire, is a strong factor in the persuasion of the Easterners that the are going too far. In addition to j the anti-Japanese feeling in California ! also, there is a considerable feeling against domination by the East. Same papers have been frank enough to state that the Pacific Coast hag nothing to gain from allegian«» U- a GovemmoTit at Washington, and that if the Civil War were fought now, the Southern States would have the hearty sympathy of the Coast people. It is difficult to see what the Californiana have to gain by suoh talk os this, especially in view of the early opening of the Panama Canal, and it is the general opinion that President Wilson's advice, coupled with the persuasive eloquence of Secretary of State Bryan, will have the necessary conciliatory effect upon the Coast people. The incident, all the same, throws an important light upon matters in California, and demonstrates the existence of a certain spirit of unrest among the citizens centred about the Golden Gate, which, whether due to local ambition,- or a social labourism, or narrowness in conception of national affairs, is surely not a desirable element to gain iieadway in the best interests of the .Union as a whole.