ernor Hiram Johnson (son of Grove Johnson, who offered the earlier antiJapanese bill). The Raker bill was killed by Congress; the California Legislature finally laid over the proposal before it, and during '1915 Japanese agitation lapsed, California being engrossed in the affairs of the Panama-Pacific Exposition.

SENATOR PHELAN'S CRUSADE

The war followed, and anti-Japanese agitation was quelled on the ground that Japan was an ally of the United States; but with the dawn of 1919 it revived. Senator James Phelan of California launched a bombshell with the declaration that the "gentlemen's agreement' was not being lived up to, and, backed by the California Oriental Exclusion League, proposed a bill to exclude assimilable races." At the same time the league laid plans for a State-initiated law to forbid the holding of land by any Japanese, the holding of land in the name of a Japanese minor, or the ownership by a Japanese of stock in any corporation controlling land.

non

The storm of protest from the Japanese interests that followed was taken up by the Government of Japan. In the meantime, with Phelan backing the movement, various organizations ranked themselves behind the move, to be launched at a monster meeting in San Francisco on Sept. 2 of this year; among them were the Native Sons (a California fraternal order), labor unions, the American Legion and others.

Phelan, in the meantime, had laid his objections to further Japanese immigration before the Congressional Immigration Committee, of which Representative Albert Johnson of Washington is Chairman. In June of this year a trip to California by the committee to investigate at first hand was arranged; on July 8 the hearings commenced at Sacramento.

Hearings were later held in San Francisco, Fresno, Turlock and other parts of California. The committee divided itself into sub-committees, inspected Japanese settlements, such as Florin, in the Sacramento Valley, where the entire town is practically Japanese; pro

ceeded to Seattle to investigate there, and a report will be forthcoming at the next session of Congress. At the same time California lawmakers will demand a Federal immigration law to curb Japanese arrivals. The hearings covered in detail the settlement of farming lands, and Japanese landholders put in a vigorous defense; Colonel John P. Irish, a prominent farmer, defended the Japanese and their labor; V. S. McClatchy, a Sacramento editor, attacked the Japanese as a menace to the State, and charges flew thick and fast. K. K. Kawakami, a Japanese publicity agent, was accused of obtaining information from Japanese censors employed during the war; and Senator Phelan occupied a prominent part in the heated personal controversy. At the same time white melon pickers in Turlock, in the San Joaquin Valley, launched a strike, alleging that the Japanese laborers were working for a lower wage than an American could live on. The committee left California on July 24. In the meantime, Senator Phelan called the meeting of labor delegates, anti-Japanese bodies and other organizations to assemble on Sept. 2 and launch a unified anti-Japanese immigration move, and to initiate the proposed new State land law.

ATTITUDE OF COURTS

In the matter of Japanese immigration the Federal Administration has thus far held itself helpless to curb the State's actions, and has resorted to "moral suasion." What will occur in the coming year is a matter for speculation—and possibly the Supreme Court.

Following the war several Japanese who had served in the United States Army attempted to gain citizenship under the statute providing that aliens serving in the army might become citizens. Courts in Hawaii, where the Japanese population is far greater than in California, admitted such applicants; in California these applications were denied. Federal courts have differed; these cases have not yet reached the highest tribunal.

The Japanese say that they are willing and ready to be loyal to the United

States; that they have improved lands the white settler could not; that their rights should be the same as those of any other alien, and the Japanese Government holds that any other treatment is a direct blow at Japan's national honor. The anti-Japanese agitators hold that the Japanese would not become true citizens; that they would not be loyal; that they remain under call for Japanese military duty while in this country; that they cannot be competed with by white

labor, and that their growing power is an economic menace that threatens to "Japanize" California.

Out of the maze of charges and counter charges, political and other agitation, two factions have risen in the State with the anti-Japanese faction largely in the lead. Newspapers, according to policy, harp on the yellow menace" or urge conservatism, and in the meantime California is awaiting with interest the next move-locally and in Congress.

66

WHILE

a great deal is said regarding the Japanese immigration problem, one of the parties most concerned the Japanese Government-says very little, and its attitude toward the question has to be drawn from inference. That there should be racial discrimination is very exacerbating to a pride of which the nation is morbidly solicitous, but very few frontal attacks have been made on the exclusionists, negotiations as a rule being on the most suave and conceding lines.

One memorable instance of these rare attacks was when the Japanese Ambassador at Washington, the day after America broke off relations with Germany, informed the Secretary of State of the uncontrollable state of public feeling brought about in Tokio by the pending legislation in the Pacific Coast States-when, as a matter of fact, very little was being said on the subject at all. Another instance of an attempt to overcome discrimination was when the Japanese delegation introduced the "racial equality" resolution at the Paris Peace Conference. In the endeavor to have this passed it was even stated that it had nothing to do with the immigration question, which the Japanese Government recognized was economic rather

than racial, but the Japanese Foreign Minister at the time frankly and publicly said that its object-or one of its objects-had been to remove the bar to Japanese immigration in those countries which now prevent it.

Such incidents as these give the impression that Japan desires her children to enjoy free entry everywhere. So, as a matter of fact, she does, but it is very doubtful whether she desires to see her emigrants denationalized. The Japanese Government itself takes no part in the agitations regarding the right of naturalization, even while it resents as keenly as any popular party a discrimination which implies inferiority. The care with which Japanese Consuls abroad see that the children of Japanese parents are not lost to the empire cannot always be very agreeable to the Japanese parents, and would not fail to arouse resentment and rebellion if equal care were not taken to see that the children enjoy the full benefits of their American birth, especially in such matters as land-holding rights. They are willing to "have it both ways," but regard with displeasure the prospect of emigrants' children being more loyal to the land of their birth than to Japan. Yet they know that it must be so.

The same considerations in a less in

tense form used to trouble the German Government with regard to German emigrants. There was the same attempted remedy the acquisition of colonies that proved unattractive and there was the same practical remedy-the development of an industrial system which concentrated the national power and deferred the day of a hunger migration.

The whole of the Japanese problem lies in California. The economic and climatic conditions of British Columbia and of Australia are far less attractive, and the interests already acquired are insignificant by comparison.

Physically, linguistically and socially. the Japanese in America are set apart much more than the Germans were, and in the event of war between America and Japan the immediate blow to the Japanese interests would be so dramatic that no dreamt-of gain could compensate. Nevertheless, the press in Japan is industriously getting the public in the habit of contemplating a war with America as a possibility. Especially free is it with accusations against Americans in Eastern Asia, and the Government has lately requested foreign newspapers in Japan not to translate anti-American articles!

But the German-American having proved no asset at all to the Fatherland in war, the Japanese authorities have as little faith in the Japanese-American. The Military Party, which still runs the Government, probably desires war less than anybody, but it believes in the rattling of the sabre, and will rattle it as readily on a point of national dignity as on any other.

But while the talk of war with America is fed by the California debate, its object is rather to get enormous defense estimates passed and to convince America that Japan's special position" in Eastern Asia is too thorny for serious dispute. American capital is welcome in Eastern Asia, but it must be under the aegis of Japanese militarism.

This brings us to Eastern Asia as a field for Japanese emigration. Japanese themselves prefer South America, but the Government does very little to encourage what only means a loss of sub

jects, and the Japanese so unfailingly become disliked where they go in large numbers that such colonies are only a vexation. In Korea and South Manchuria, as well as in Eastern Siberia, there is still virgin soil of the best quality. It is attractive enough for Japanese settlers (though its climatic rigors are far less agreeable than the softness of California), but the trouble begins when it comes to marketing the produce, for though the land is far from full the native cultivator is an invincible competitor. The Japanese feels no more gratitude to the native competitor for his industry than the Californian does to the Japanese, but he cannot turn him out, and consequently Japanese immigration is but slow. Whether it will be any faster in the newly opened regions of Siberia remains to be seen. However, though in ten years no more people have gone to Korea than can be replaced by natural increase in one year in Japan, the Japanese population on the mainland increases, and remains intensely Japanese. It is the militarist ideal, and even a cultural ideal, to have a great Japanese Empire in Eastern Asia, of which the islands constituting Japan proper shall be only an outpost.

Popular education among such a biddable people as the Japanese has been able to make a religion of loyalty, but it cannot make people emigrate to places that they do not like, even for the sake of empire. The Japanese showed perfect willingness to die in Manchuria. They have yet to show a willingness to live there. But with the strategic and economic control of all Eastern Asia in her hands, and the direction of the spare American capital ready for investment in Asia, the Japanese Government may be able to make Manchuria, Eastern Mongolia, Eastern Siberia and Korea sufficiently attractive to absorb the whole natural overflow of Japan.

In the meantime the Japanese Government is pulled many ways, to its own great embarrassment. The Japanese can never be really happy in California, because they cannot have police boxes there. If they are happy without them they cease to be Japanese.

Kobe, Japan, Aug. 22, 1920.

HE present struggle between the metal workers and the employers

of Italy may serve as the ther

mometer of the general labor situation of that country. It is a known fact that the metal employes exceed by far those of any other industry except farming. The distribution of the metal and mechanical workers throughout the kingdom makes it difficult to present exact statistical figures, but it is conservatively estimated that there are between 400,000 and 500,000.

tivities are

This huge mass of workers is divided into four syndicalistic organizations, which, however, have nothing of syndicalism but the name. In fact, their acinspired by political aims; their attitude is political, and the results of their struggles depend on politics. These four organizations are the following: Federazione Italiana Operai Metallurgici, or Federation of Italian Metal Workers, with headquarters in Turin. Its membership comprises between 200,000 and 300,000 organized workers from all the provinces of Italy. This is the largest of the four organizations, but it is the least imbued with political spirit. It has, however, a spirit of reform, and is the most compliant with the General Confederation of Labor. The Secretary is Bruno Buozzi, a Socialist member of the Cham

ber of Deputies.

Close to the F. I. O. M. is the U. S. I. (Unione Sindacale Italiana, or Italian Syndical Union), whose membership is between 70,000 and 80,000 workers.

This

organization is mainly centred

in Sestri Ponente, Piombino and Portoferraio, and the anarchist, Armando Borghi, is the exponent of its tendencies. Then comes the Unione Italiana del Lavoro, or Italian Union of Labor, which has about 80,000 members,

most of whom work in the Milan factories. Among the exponents of this union there are many noninterventionists. Mr. Bachi is the Secretary. Fourth and last is the Sindacato Nazionale Operai Metallurgici (National Syndicate of Metal Workers), or Sindacato Bianco (White Syndicate), whose membership is about 25,000 workers, all affiliated with the Popular or Catholic Party.

These four organizations, although antagonistic in politics, are more or less in agreement among themselves as to their economic aims. A proof of this agreement was given by them last June, when they sent a memorandum to their employers demanding higher wages. To be exact, three memoranda were sent: one from the F. I. O. M. and the Unione Italiana del Lavoro, the second from the Unione Sindacale, the third from the Sindacato Nazionale Operai Metallurgici. These memoranda showed no material difference on economic points. The only difference was on the "regulamentar " question, or question of control, this being the crucial problem of the labor situation. The demand of the Unione Sindacale on this point was that all rules and regulations be abolished-a step equivalent to the abolition of the controlling power of the employers. The Sindacato Bianco, furthermore, proclaimed the right of the workers to share the profits with the employers.

THE BREAKING POINT

The Federazione Sindacale Nazionale Industrie Meccaniche e Metallurgiche, or National Syndical Federation of Mechanical and Metallurgical Industries, whose President is Commissioner Jarach, acknowledged the receipt of these three memoranda, and appointed a commission to study their contents.

The result of this study was an interchange of views between the employers, through their representative, Mr. Rotigliano, counselor at law, and the F. I. O. M., through its representative, Mr. Buozzi, but they failed to reach an agreement. The employers made it clear at once that the industrial situation was such that acceptance of the claims embodied in the memoranda of the unions was absolutely out of the question. The F. I. O. M., on its part, insisted on supporting the right of the metal workers to a wage not lower than the average wage of all the other labor corporations, both private and State. Thereupon the employers made public an order of the day flatly refusing any compliance with the claims of the workers and setting forth five fundamental reasons for their refusal. They explained the special gravity of the metal and mechanical situation as compared with the situation of the other industries. The workers, including those associated with the Catholic Party, contested, one by one, all the contentions of the employers.

WORKS RUN ON SMALL PROFIT To make clear the conditions of many metal and mechanical industries in Italy the following data are given from the budgets published in the bulletins of the Prefectures of Turin, Milan and Genoa, and covering the first semester of 1920:

Piedmont-Fourteen firms, with a capital of 286,000,000 lire, carried, in the year 1919, a profit of 9.53 per cent.; 6 firms, with a capital of 18,000,000, closed their balances with a loss of 9.63 per cent. Lombardy-Thirty-five firms, with capital of 286,000,000 lire, earned a profit of 6.57 per cent.; 26 firms, with a capital of 63,000,000 lire, closed their balances with an average loss of 23 per cent.

a

Liguria-Thirteen firms, with a capital of 66,000,000 lire, shared an average profit of 10.67 per cent., whereas 5 firms, with a capital of 12,000,000 lire, closed their balances with an average loss of 15.68 per cent.

From these data the average profits distributed during the year 1919 were as follows: Piedmont, 7.93 per cent.; Lombardy, 1.09 per cent.; Liguria, 6.52 per cent. Very meagre dividends, one should say, especially in view of the fact that the Consolidated Loan yields, without

any risk from the investor, about 7 per cent.

VOTE TO TAKE POSSESSION

66

Following the publication of the employers' refusal, an extraordinary meeting was held in Milan on Aug. 18 by the sectional delegates of the F. I. O. M., then assembled for a special congress. In this it was voted to take possession of all the metal and mechanical factories, beginning Aug. 20, according to the ways and forms indicated by the Federal committee to the congress, which is sure that all the metal and mechanical workers will know how to defend in any way, by violence or otherwise, the right to work, also the right to enter and remain inside the iron works in the event of a hostile attitude on the part of the industrials."

The same motion asserted that the congress, in adopting this system, was convinced that it was defending not only the interests of the workers but also those of the nation.

In view of the attitude of the metal workers toward the application of this measure of obstruction and threatened sequestration, the association of employers, known as the Associazione Meccanici, Metallurgici, Affini, sent to all the firms of the group a notice embodying instructions for dealing with the emergency. This notice pointed out the necessity of considering the situation calmly and fairly, and of refraining from any act that might embitter it.

By Aug. 20 the workers' policy of sequestration was in full swing, not only in Milan but also in the iron works and navy yards of Italy. In considering the social importance of their action, it is necessary to distinguish between the method chosen for the fight and the aims that the workers wished to attain. Their weapon differs from the strike only in its more subtle and dangerous character. It means that they not only declare war against their employers on the score of wages and labor conditions, but also practically say to the employers, "This factory is not yours any more. The tools are not yours. Every working section of the factory is ours, and you