1913^ Sane Words 



protests. Matters were of course worsened on both 

 sides by undiscriminating indignation. A well- Zumoto's 

 deserved reprimand to local agitators was neverthe- '■^^"'"""'^ 

 less voiced by Zumoto, then editor of the Japan 

 Times, the English mouthpiece of the government. 

 Said he: 



The cries of war raised as a demonstration against the land- 

 ownership legislation in California are ill-advised. No amount 

 of local anti-Japanese agitation would have had any serious 

 effect on the Japanese interests but for the circumstance that 

 the Japanese are barred from naturalization by the Federal 

 laws. The Japanese nation has not yet made any serious effort 

 to obtain the right, and if we did, even at the present, we would 

 have a fair chance of success. Those who talk war are injuring 

 the cause of Japan. America is a democratic country, and has 

 the right to refuse citizenship to a people who have shown them- 

 selves incompetent to carry out a democratic government. The 

 first necessary qualification of the people for the task is that they 

 should be able to discuss national or international questions in 

 a calm, dispassionate way. The people who easily get hysterical, 

 lose their reason in passion, and are inclined to decide by force 

 those questions that can be decided by discussion lack the 

 political self-restraint without which a democratic government 

 is impossible. 



The practical importance of the measure was not 

 great. Land could still be bought in the name of 

 Japanese and Chinese children born in this country 

 and thus eligible for citizenship under the Federal 

 Constitution, as well as by corporations in which 

 Japanese or Chinese are stockholders. 



I questioned the legal right of a state to provoke 

 an international problem. In any event it seemed to 

 me that two things needed to be done : 



I. So to amend the Constitution that matters pertaining to 

 all aliens whose rights are assured by international treaties shall 

 rest with the central government. 



C 449 1 



