The Days of a Ma?i 



C1912 



Lodge 

 Resolution 



A slander 

 revived 



60,000 Japanese had already arrived at Magdalena | 

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

 situation which "constituted a m.enace ahke to CaU- 

 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. 



But Senator Henry Cabot Lodge now found an 

 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." 



Unfortunately a bubble, though once pricked, can 

 still be reinflated. In 191 7 "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 



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