The Days of a Ma?i 



60,000 Japanese had already arrived at Magdalena 



Bay, and more were coming "on every ship," a 



situation which "constituted a menace alike to Cali- 



fornia and to the Panama Canal." But no passenger 



boat has ever touched at the bay, which is as far 



from the Panama Canal as it is from New York, and 



the Japanese government had no more relation to the 



local cannery than to any other factory in America 



where a few Japanese may be employed. 



Lodge But Senator Henry Cabot Lodge now found an 



Resolution opportunity to proclaim the Monroe Doctrine anew, 



and at his urgent insistence the Senate passed the 



"Lodge Resolution" warning Japan that the United 



States would look with disfavor on any effort to 



establish a foreign naval station at Magdalena Bay. 



This absurd and irrelevant document was never 



signed by President Taft, however, and is therefore 



null and void. In a personal letter Mr. Taft assured 



me that he had accurate knowledge of the situation, 



explaining that Lodge's move was based on erroneous 



information and adding, ; 'I believe that I also am 



part of the United States government.' 1 



A slander Unfortunately a bubble, though once pricked, can 



still be reinflated. In 1917 "an intelligent shipbuilder 



who does not want his name mentioned reported 



that he had been there and seen thousands of Japan- 



ese, fishing all the morning in Magdalena Bay, and 



drilling all the afternoon, and such wonderful drilling 



as you never saw in all your life, perfect, and they 



had modern rifles.'' These statements appeared in a 



circular headed "Fish, Broomsticks, and Rifles" 



sent to members of the Sixty-fifth Congress under date 



of April 21, 1917, by Dr. A. L. Boyce of New York. 



In his communication Boyce complains that while 



C 41 3 



