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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. L. No. 1284 



sible, but seemingly inevitable, by their com- 

 mon possession of the great ocean, and of the 

 human propensities for adventure, travel and 

 gain. 



In another connection I have called atten- 

 tion to the variety of meanings which nat- 

 urally attach to such phrases as " The Prob- 

 lem of the Pacific," "The New Pacific," etc' 



The wording of the topic, assigned to me in 

 this symposium, when read in the light of 

 the above reflections and along with the other 

 topics of the program, suggests the direction 

 my remarks should take. To the eyes of sci- 

 ence, the situation as touching the peoples of 

 the north Pacific area is this: Some 500,- 

 000,000 Asiatics are being brought into ever 

 closer contact with some 6,000,000 Americans, 

 the Asiatics being so placed geographically 

 that scores of millions of them have about the 

 lowest per capita allotment of any peoples on 

 the earth of some of the primary material 

 necessities of human life, while the Americans 

 are so placed as to give them about the high- 

 est of such allotment. 



That economic equilibrium will tend to 

 establish itself between these two peoples is as 

 certain as that two bodies of salt water of 

 diiferent density will tend to come to an 

 equilibrium if in contact with each other. 



There are two ways in which this equili- 

 brating tendency may work itself out. (1) It 

 may proceed in accordance with the brute in- 

 stincts of self-preservation and self-realiza- 

 tion. This is the way of material force work- 

 ing as modern commercialism and modem 

 militarism. Frequently as the resemblance 

 between these two gigantic forces has been 

 noticed, it yet seems not to have been suffi- 

 ciently brought home to many of us. (2) 

 The other way in which the equilibrating 

 tendency may realize itself is in accordance 

 with the human reason for self-preservation 

 and self-realization. This is the way of 

 modem intelligence and rationality; in other 

 words, of modern science. 



Perhaps some one will question the warrant- 



2 "The Problem of the Pacific," Bull. No. 8, 

 Scripps Institution for Biological Besearch, Uni- 

 versity of California, June 14, 1919. 



ableness of including all the Chinese, Japan- 

 ese and Koreans, as I did a moment ago, 

 when speaking of Asiatic populations, while 

 only the small portion of all North Americans 

 are included which live on the Pacific slope. 

 If question of this sort be raised, my reply is 

 that being naturalists, we are bound to think 

 in terms of nature — especially of geography — 

 whenever we speak comprehensively of people; 

 and hence must look at population in relation 

 to the continental slopes, drainage areas, 

 oceanic and fluviatile waterways, etc., which 

 constitute their major physical environments. 

 The " North Pacific area " is clear enough of 

 definition geographically viewed: It includes 

 not merely the great north ocean itself, with 

 its islands, but also those parts of the ad- 

 jacent continents, Asia and North America, 

 whose rivers flow into the ocean. In an im- 

 portant sense this is a unit area of popula- 

 tional distribution as it is of physical geog- 

 raphy.3 



Pacific North America, as thus defined, 

 seems to be as natural a depositing ground for 

 immigrants from eastern Asia as Atlantic 

 North America is for immigrants from Eu- 

 rope. While manifestly it would be easy to 

 push such a criterion of unit area of peoples 

 too far, yet recognition of it to the extent of 

 its validity is of great practical importance. 



The fundamental nature of the issue be- 

 tween Asiatics and Americans is clearly re- 

 flected in the character of the American legis- 

 lative measures which have been proposed, and 

 in some instances made into law, against the 

 immigration of Asiatics. 



That the issue is not primarily one of race 



3 In Fundamental Geological Froilems of the 

 North, Pacifio Ocean Segio-n, contributed to the 

 symposium by George D. Louderback, occurs this: 

 ' ' The contrast between the geologic arid geographic 

 conditions of the eastern states and of the Pacific 

 states of the United States is marked, and their 

 geologic history is to a considerable extent ujire- 

 lated, while there are striking similarities between 

 the conditions obtaining along the eastern and 

 western coasts of the North Pacifio Ocean." This 

 is interesting and may be significant taken in con- 

 nection with my suggestion of a "unit area of 

 populational distribution. ' ' 



