The Days of a Man 1913 



their presence many of their neighbors strenuously 

 objected, for good reasons or bad. 



The statute finally enacted limited land ownership 

 in California to persons "eligible to become citizens 

 at of the United States." 1 Meanwhile, Bryan, as 

 Secretary of State, had been asked by President 

 Wilson to go to Sacramento and protest against the 

 passage of the bill. At Bryan's request I met him at 

 the state capital, where I found that he especially 

 wanted to see me in regard to Fur Seal matters. But 

 the alien law seemed more pressing, and we both were 

 formally elected by the lobbyists of Sacramento as 

 members of "the third house." 



Actions of an individual state, if not in violation of a 

 treaty or the Constitution, lie outside the federal juris- 

 diction. Whether the statute in question conflicts 

 with national authority no one can tell until it is 

 tested in the courts. At Sacramento Bryan made an 

 able appeal against a state's tampering with inter- 

 national affairs, the introduction of further com- 

 plications into relations already difficult; he moreover 

 placed the administration fairly on record as friendly 

 towards Japan. But Governor Hiram W. Johnson 

 (whose hold over the legislature was complete) forced 

 the bill through. 

 Effect on The immediate result was to aggravate the internal 

 politics of Japan, because the people of that country 

 naturally feel sore over every discrimination against 

 them. Agitators at home attacked the Japanese 

 government for not being more firm in its dealings 

 with the United States, and for not making sharper 



1 By an act of Congress framed to exclude the Chinese from citizenship many 

 years before the Japanese had appeared in numbers, eligibility was limited to 

 persons of American, European, or African origin, unless born in this country. 



C448 n 



