The Days of a Man 1913 



2. So to amend the statutes concerning naturalization as to 

 allow any permanent resident to become a citizen without re- 

 gard to race or nationality this for our own protection as well 

 as for that of the alien. Otherwise he is continuously subject to 

 the jurisdiction of the consul of his home government. 



Guarding In support of anti-alien legislation it was urged 

 the frontier tnat "California guards the frontier of Caucasian 

 civilization." Yet the Golden Gate leads to the 

 nation, not alone to California, and the methods 

 adopted should have national approval. Further- 

 more, as Japan and China must be our neighbors for 

 the next thousand years, it is above all vital that 

 the frontier be guarded with courtesy and friend- 

 ship. 



The New York World observed at the time : 



Nothing can be so ironical as history. In 1853 it took a few 

 shiploads of American sailors under Commodore Perry to force 

 Japan out of 200 years of hermitage into civilized intercourse 

 with the rest of the world. In 1913 it takes a few shiploads of 

 Japanese farmers under Governor Johnson to force California 

 out of a lifetime of civilized intercourse with the rest of the 

 world into the exclusions and discriminations of a hermit state. 

 Californian civilization has reached the same crisis in 1913 that 

 Japanese civilization had reached in 1853. Only it is traveling 

 in the opposite direction. 



This was of course a clever bit of satire, but, as 

 Roosevelt observed, the statute in question repre- 

 sents "the maximum of irritation with the minimum 

 of efficiency." 



From Sacramento I went directly to St. Louis, 

 where the American Peace Societ was in session. 



