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 JAPANESE FARMERS 
 IN CALIFORNIA 
 
 By COLONEL JOHN P. IRISH 
 
 "We hold these truths to be self- 
 evident: that all men are created 
 equal; that they are endowed by 
 their Creator with certain inalien- 
 able rights; that among these are 
 life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
 happiness." The Declaration 
 of Independence. 
 
 "Observe good faith and justice 
 toward all nations; cultivate peace 
 and harmony with all; religion 
 and morality enjoin this conduct, 
 and can it be that good policy does 
 not equally enjoin it?" George 
 Washington's Farewell Address. 
 
 Copies of this pamphlet may be obtained from John P. Irish, 
 1904 Adeline Street, Oakland, California. 
 
15- 
 
 z< 
 
 ON DECEMBER 17, 1919, THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCED 
 THAT ON AND AFTER FEBRUARY 25, 1920, IT WILL STOP ISSUING 
 PASSPORTS TO WOMEN WHOSE MARRIAGE TO JAPANESE RESI- 
 DENTS IN CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES HAS BEEN ARRANGED 
 THROUGH EXCHANGE OF PHOTOGRAPHS. THIS VOLUNTARY 
 MEASURE ADOPTED BY THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT ONCE AGAIN 
 PROVES ITS SOLICITUDE FOR THE MAINTENANCE AND PROMOTION 
 OF FRIENDLY RELATIONS WITH THE UNITED STATES 
 AND CALIFORNIA. 
 
 
-L 
 
 JAPANESE FARMERS IN CAUFORNIA 
 
 (An address by Colonel John P. Irish at the 52nd Convention of California Fruit 
 Growers and Farmers held at Chico, California, November I to 16, 1919.) 
 
 THE PRESENT vituperative discussion of the question of the 
 Oriental people in California, goes deeply into the whole subject 
 
 of productive labor on the land. When we treated our treaty 
 with China as a scrap of paper and by the Geary Act excluded thirty 
 thousand Chinese who were legally domiciled here, and by murdering 
 and destroying the property of other Chinese, drove them out, there 
 was created a shortage in farm labor, and this economic vacuum drew 
 in the Japanese, who came protected by a solemn treaty between their 
 government and ours. 
 
 The Japanese now here constitute a fraction of one per cent of our 
 population. Against this minute element many of our people are 
 being lashed into a fury of apprehension, hatred and rage. There 
 may be left amongst us those who are capable of calm consideration, 
 and to such I venture to address myself. 
 
 The present storm was started by Senator Phelan's statement 
 that an American company in Los Angeles had sold to Japanese 
 800,000 acres of land, on the Mexican side of the Imperial Valley. 
 The American company promptly proved this to be false, and proved 
 that it had sold no land there or elsewhere to Japanese. The Senator 
 then shifted the story to such a sale to Japanese by the Mexican Gov- 
 ernment. That government promptly denied such sale and submitted 
 proofs of the falsity of the charge. Not discouraged, the Senator 
 shifted again to the charge that Japanese women in this state are 
 having children and declared that the government ought to stop it. 
 
 A little retrospection ought to calm the temper of this discussion 
 and confine it to the truth. When San Francisco was shaken to its 
 foundations and levelled by fire, and thousands of its people had no 
 food or shelter, their cry for help went out to the world. The only 
 country that heard and heeded was Japan. That government imme- 
 diately sent a quarter of a million in gold to the relief committee, of 
 which Senator Phelan was a member. A few months later the San 
 Francisco School Board kicked all Japanese children out of the public 
 schools, and its secretary gave as a reason that the Japanese children 
 did nothing but study in school and in the examinations took the prizes 
 and promotions that the white children ought to have! 
 
 Soon after this an organized anti-Japanese movement began, 
 headed by an ex-convict. 
 
 The Legislature began to take notice and passed an act ordering 
 
 425716 
 
'*4 f 1 *:'',? JAPAN ES ;FARMER S IN CALIFORNIA 
 
 the State Labor Commissioner to thoroughly investigate th'e Japanese 
 in the state and make a report. To pay for this work the sum of 
 $10,000 was appropriated. 
 
 The commissioner took ample time in the investigation. He 
 relied on the testimony of scores of white witnesses in every locality 
 where Japanese were domiciled. He gave the name and address of 
 each of these white witnesses. His report, based on their testimony, 
 refuted every lie about the Japanese coined by the ex-convict and his 
 followers. Now that report was a public document, paid for by the 
 taxpayers' money. But the influence of the ex-convict with the State 
 Government was able to prevent its publication, and the taxpayers 
 who paid for it were not permitted to see it. In the foregoing is a 
 record of absolute fact. Is it a record of which any decent citizen 
 can be proud? 
 
 We have now entered upon another phase of the anti-Japanese 
 question, and in this phase the same old lies, refuted by that report, 
 are in use once more, and the politicians who eat their bread in the 
 sweat of the taxpayer's face, are shouting them from the housetops. 
 
 Since that report was made what have the Japanese been doing? 
 Nothing but working, and by their industry adding to the wealth of the 
 state. 
 
 In our country the normal flux and change of affairs always 
 following a war, has been displaced by abnormal conditions. The 
 hands of men are raised against our government. Anarchists advocate 
 destruction of our institutions. They destroy life and property by 
 bombs. The I. W. W. teach murder and arson as commendable 
 occupations. Organized labor under this radical leadership, strikes 
 destructively. In our own state tons of food have rotted on the docks 
 because the stevedores refuse to move it, and claim the right to mob 
 and murder any who will move it. Seventy-five per cent of the local 
 tonnage of this state is affected by water transportation, and all water- 
 borne tonnage has been forbidden for months by a strike which threat- 
 ens death to all who would take the strikers' place. 
 
 Are there any I. W. W.'s amongst the Japanese? No. Are 
 there any Japanese anarchists? No. Are there any Japanese bomb 
 throwers? No. Are there any Japanese mobs busy murdering men 
 who want to work? No. Are there any Japanese groups teaching 
 resistance to our laws and the destruction of our institutions? No. 
 Then what are they doing? They are at work. "But," cries the 
 alarmist, "they should not be allowed on the land." 
 
 Why not? The Japanese have had but little independent access 
 to the good lands of California. ' They found the sand and colloidal 
 
 
JAPANESE FARMERS IN CALIFORNIA 5 
 
 clays of Livingston cursed and barren as the fig tree of Bethany! On 
 that infertile spot the Japanese wrought in privation and want for 
 years, until they had charged the soil with humus and bacteria, and 
 made it bear fruitful and profitable orchards and vineyards. Now 
 white men, led by these Japanese pioneers, pay high prices for land 
 that was worthless, and grapes purple in the sun and peaches blush 
 on the trees, where all was a forbidding waste until Japanese skill, 
 patience and courage transformed it. 
 
 The refractory hog wallow lands stretching along the east side 
 of the San Joaquin Valley, were abhorred and shunned by the white 
 man. But the Japanese Sakamoto, seeing that they were in the ther- 
 mal belt, began their conquest for citrus orchards. He persisted. He 
 won, and now vineyards and orchards cover the hated hog wallow 
 land from Seville to Lemon Cove. And Sakamoto is called a "men- 
 ace" to California! 
 
 These same experiences were repeated on the bad lands of the 
 state. 
 
 We now produce a rice crop valued at $30,000,000, on hard pan 
 and goose lands that were not worth paying taxes on. But it was 
 Ikuta, a Japanese, who believed those lands would raise rice, pioneered 
 that industry and produced the first commercial crop of rice raised 
 in the state. 
 
 The anti-Japanese agitator represents that people as parasites. 
 The fact is that wherever the Japanese has put his hand to the pruning 
 hook and plow he has developed nobler uses of the soil, and land 
 values have rapidly risen. 
 
 The statement is made, and was recently published in a "Chron- 
 icle" editorial, that when Japanese begin to settle in a farming district 
 that district is ruined for the occupation of whites, who get out of it as 
 soon as they can. Of course that is a falsehood. Its refutation is 
 seen at Livingston, where Japanese were the pioneers and now are 
 outnumbered eight to one by white settlers who have come there since 
 Japanese enterprise proved the value of the land. 
 
 In Sonoma County, near Santa Rosa, was a barren hillside so 
 infertile that it hardly produced weeds. On its highest part was a 
 spring. A Japanese secured a contract on it, dug out the spring, secur- 
 ing an increased flow, laboriously fertilized the sterile soil, and now 
 gets $800 per acre from it in strawberries. In the same county is an 
 area of sterile hardpan land called "Starvation Flat." A Japanese 
 has taken it, sunk a deep well and is slowly and laboriously conquering 
 the rebellious soil, and soon that area will be a picture of fertility and 
 prosperity, and anti-Japanese agitators will point to it, as they do to 
 
6 JAPANESE FARMERS IN CALIFORNIA 
 
 the strawberry garden on the formerly repulsive hillside, as proof that 
 the Japanese are usurping the best land in the state. The fact is that 
 from the reclamation of the tule swamps, promoted by Mr. Shima, to 
 nearly every acre owned by Japanese, they wrought upon the leanest 
 and the poorest land in the state, which white men would not touch, 
 and by toil and sacrifice made it as good as that which was naturally 
 the best. 
 
 Now it is proposed to expel them, not for their vices but for their 
 virtues, and every Japanese oppressed by brutal legislation and 
 expelled can hold his head high erect in his own country and say, 
 "I was excluded from California for my virtues, my industry, my 
 skill and the benefit I was to the land and its production." 
 
 The Japanese with wives are all married according to our laws. 
 The women are amiable, good wives, mothers and housekeepers. It 
 is false that they work in the fields. Their children, admitted to our 
 schools, will make good and useful Americans. But the cry is raised 
 that though only about one per cent of our population, they will out- 
 breed, outwork and outdo the other 99 per cent of white people. If 
 this be true it proves a degeneracy of the whites which would be a 
 just cause of alarm. The field is open. Economic law repeals all 
 statutes. The way to combat the Japanese is not by lying about them 
 and depriving them of the common, primitive rights of humanity, but 
 excelling them in industry, in foresight and enterprise. 
 
 ARTICLES I AND II OF THE TREATY BETWEEN JAPAN 
 AND THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 The subjects or citizens of the two High Contracting Parties shall 
 have full liberty to enter, travel or reside in any part of the territories 
 of the other Contracting Party, and shall enjoy full and perfect pro- 
 tection for their persons and property. 
 
 They shall have free access to the courts of justice in pursuit and 
 defense of their rights; they shall be at liberty equally with native 
 subjects or citizens to choose and employ lawyers, advocates and 
 representatives to pursue and defend their rights before such courts, 
 and in all other matters connected with the administration of justice 
 they shall enjoy all the rights and privileges enjoyed by native sub- 
 jects or citizens. 
 
 In whatever relates to rights of residence and travel; to the 
 possession of goods and effects of any kind; to the succession to 
 personal estate by will or otherwise, and the disposal of property of 
 any sort and in any manner whatsoever, which they may lawfully 
 
JAPANESE FARMERS IN CALIFORNIA 7 
 
 acquire, the subjects or citizens of each Contracting Party shall enjoy 
 in the territories of the other the same privileges, liberties and rights, 
 and shall be subject to no higher imposts or charges in these respects 
 than native subjects or citizens, or subjects or citizens of the most 
 favored nation. The subjects or citizens of each of the Contracting 
 Parties shall enjoy in the territories of the other entire liberty of con- 
 science, and,' subject to the laws, ordinances and regulations, shall 
 enjoy the right of private or public exercise of their worship, and also 
 the right of burying their respective countrymen according to their 
 religious customs, in such suitable and convenient places as may be 
 established and maintained for that purpose. ^ 
 
 They shall not be compelled, under any pretext whatsoever, to 
 pay any charges or taxes other or higher than those that are, or may 
 be, paid by native subjects or citizens, or subjects or citizens of the 
 most favored nation. 
 
 The subjects or citizens of either of the Contracting Parties resid- 
 ing in the territories of the other shall be exempted from all compulsory 
 military service whatsoever, whether in the army, navy, national guard 
 or militia; from all contributions imposed in lieu of personal service, 
 and from all forced loans or military exactions or contributions. 
 
 There shall be reciprocal freedom of commerce and navigation 
 between the territories of the two High Contracting Parties. 
 
 The subjects or citizens of each of the Contracting Parties may 
 trade in any part of the territories of the other by wholesale or retail 
 in all kinds of produce, manufactures and merchandise of lawful com- 
 merce, either in person or by agents, singly or in partnerships with 
 foreigners or native subjects or citizens; and they may there own or 
 hire and occupy houses, manufactories, warehouses, shops and prem- 
 ises which may be necessary for them, and lease land for residential 
 and commercial purposes, conforming themselves to the laws, police 
 and customs regulations of the country like native subjects or citizens. 
 They shall have liberty freely to come with their ship and cargoes 
 to all places, ports and rivers in the territories of the other, which are, 
 or may be, opened to foreign commerce; and shall enjoy, respectively, 
 the same treatment in matters of commerce and navigation as native 
 subjects or citizens, or subjects or citizens of the most favored nation, 
 without having to pay taxes, imposts or duties of whatever nature or 
 under whatever denomination, levied in the name, or for the profit, of 
 the government, public functionaries, private individuals, corporations 
 or establishments of any kind, other or greater than those paid by 
 native subjects or citizens, or subjects or citizens of the most favored 
 nation. 
 
8 JAPANESE FARMERS IN CALIFORNIA 
 
 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, 
 ARTICLE VI, SECTION 2. 
 
 This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall 
 be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be 
 made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme 
 law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, 
 anything in the Constitution or laws of any state to the contrary not- 
 withstanding. 
 
 # * * * 
 
 FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT. 
 
 All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject 
 to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the 
 state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law 
 which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the 
 United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or 
 property without due process of law, nor deny to any person within 
 its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. 
 
The Stolen Letters 
 of Senator Phelan 
 
 How Did He Get Them? 
 
 The Campaign 
 of Lies 
 
 Governor Stephens for 
 
 Negro Colonization 
 
 of California 
 
 By JNO. P. IRISH 
 1904 Adeline Street, Oakland 
 
 (COPIES FREE) 
 
 Senator Phelan was the first witness before the 
 House Committee on Immigration, in its recent 
 investigation of the Japanese question. He 
 began by an abusive attack upon me, which he 
 renewed during the two and a half hours he was 
 before the Committee. I was called next, and 
 then Senator Phelan grabbed his hat and ran 
 from the room. 
 
 During his examination, Senator Phelan ex- 
 hibited three private letters, all written by Mr. 
 Kawakami, one to Governor Stephens, one to 
 me, and one to Dr. Sidney Gulick. When asked 
 by the Committee how he came into the illegal 
 possession of these letters, he refused to answer. 
 When pressed to tell, he said, "They may have 
 been lifted from the mail." 
 
 I explained to the Committee that the letters 
 to Governor Stephens and me were trap letters, 
 not mailed, but left to be stolen by some thief in 
 the employ of Senator Phelan who was suspected 
 of robbing Mr. Kawakami's mail. The letter 
 to Dr. Gulick had been regularly mailed. 
 
 On my second appearance before the Commit- 
 tee, I said that the people were not interested 
 in the origin of those letters, but they were in 
 knowing how Senator Phelan got illegal pos- 
 session of them. As he said they "May have 
 been lifted from the mail," he cast suspicion 
 
upon the postmasters of San Francisco and Oak- 
 land, his appointees, and personal and political 
 confidants and co-religionists, and they could be 
 purged of the suspicion of robbing the mail for 
 him only by the Committee compelling him to 
 tell how he got the letters. I said to the Com- 
 mittee that "There are gentlemen running for 
 the Senate, for which Senator Phelaii is al-o a 
 candidate, and if, as his reply opened the door 
 to suspect, his appointees are robbing the mail 
 to serve his purpose in the Japanese matter, 
 they may also rob the mail to help him in 
 politics. His postmasters are therefore entitled 
 to be purged of the suspicion he put upon them, 
 and that can be done only by the Committee 
 compelling him to tell how he got the stolen 
 letters." 
 
 The Committee agreed with rue. and sum- 
 moned him to appear and tell. He refused to 
 appear before the Committee again, and has 
 contented himself with writing a letter to the 
 chairman, in which he again refuses to tell, and 
 says they were procured for him "by a <r< -ntle- 
 man." 
 
 In this letter Senator Phelan attacks Kawa- 
 kami, who is so far his superior mentally and 
 morally that the difference between them is 
 polar. 
 
 He also renews his attack upon me. So Sen- 
 ator Phelan is trying to divert public attention 
 from his contemptible predicament by chal- 
 lenging me to a personal controversy in which I 
 decline to engage. Such controversy I have, only 
 with my equals, not my inferiors. 
 
 I put the real issue to the people of Califor- 
 nia, which is, do Senator Phelan's postmasters 
 rob the mail for him? He is their accuser. 
 am not. This issue I propose to keep before tl 
 people by every means of publicity I can find. 
 
 It is of public interest that the Senator hi 
 enriched the vocabulary with three term^ ilhi 
 trative of his morality. When he was Mayor 
 San Francisco it was his sworn duty to fr 
 quently count the taxpayers' money in the eit\ 
 vaults. Of that money the City Treasurer <tol< 
 $200,000. On his trial Phelan was called as 
 witness, and when asked if he actually count 
 the money, he replied that he had "hefted tl 
 coin bags." 
 
 As to his stolen letters, now he says they wei 
 given to him by a gentleman, and "May hav< 
 been lifted from the mail." 
 
 Hence we have this Phelanesque addition 
 the vocabulary: 
 
 "Gentleman" A man who supplies the Sei 
 ator with stolen letters. 
 
"Hefting" Counting iron washers as gold in 
 *he City treasury. 
 
 "Lifting from the mail" Robbing the mail 
 .rf private letters for the Senator's benefit. 
 
 The people of this State are now aware that 
 their Senator is a very sneaking sort of a coward, 
 who dared not face a Committee of Congress 
 which came here at his request. 
 
 The Federal Penal Code, Sec. 195, Chapter 8, 
 makes the embezzling, or stealing, or "lifting" a 
 letter from the mail by a postal officer or 
 employe, a felony, punishable by a fine of $500 
 and imprisonment for five years. 
 
 The law makes the receiver of that which is 
 stolen equally criminal with the thief. The 
 reader may now estimate the legal plight of 
 Senator Phelan, with his "lifted" letters. 
 
 THE CAMPAIGN OF LIES 
 
 The following parallel is presented to impress 
 the reader with the persistence of the campaign 
 of atrocious lying by which our people are to be 
 stampeded into supporting the Inman-Phelan 
 initiative which dishonors and disgraces the 
 State. I ask the decent people of California 
 how long can a society endure whose public 
 opinion rests upon the rotten foundation of 
 Satanic lying? 
 
 THE LIE 
 From the "Examiner," July 28 
 
 "JAPS REFUSE AID TO SICK, SAYS 
 SAILOR 
 
 Captain of Schooner Declares He Could 
 
 Not Get Medical Assistance for 
 
 Crew on Island 
 
 Burial of American Seaman on South Sea 
 
 Island Not Allowed by the 
 
 Japanese Authorities 
 
 Charging gross injustice to, and inhuman 
 treatment of American sailors by Japanese naval 
 authorities of the island of Panope in the South 
 Sea group, Captain K. O. Bauer and ten mem- 
 bers of his crew with the schooner Lottie Ben- 
 nette made port yesterday. 
 
 According to Captain Bauer, he was forced to 
 put into the Japanese controlled island in April, 
 when a mysterious disease broke out among the 
 members of his crew. Nearly all of the crew 
 were kept to their bunks by the disease, and the 
 first mate, J. W. Boswell, died. 
 
 According to Captain Bauer, the Japanese 
 naval authorities were extremely discourteous 
 and refused to permit the sick American sailors 
 
 to be taken ashore i'or treatment, or to supply 
 fresh vegetables to the ship. 
 
 Not alone were the Americans refused a land- 
 ing, but the captain was ordered to put to sea 
 immediately in the face of a northwest gale. 
 The Japanese even refused permission for the 
 Americans to bury the first mate, and they were 
 compelled to bury him at sea. 
 
 The disease was a peculiar malady. The men 
 were first stricken with a high fever. Then 
 later their legs became swollen and turned blue. 
 The swelling continued to their waistlines. 
 
 Sailing from Tulage in the Solomon group of 
 islands in the South Seas 118 days ago, the vessel 
 carried a cargo of copra to the Burns Philp Com- 
 pany. When a few days out from Tulage the 
 first mate became ill. As the winds did not 
 permit a return to the port of sailing, the cap- 
 tain continued on his course, but as other mem- 
 bers became stricken with the disease and the 
 first mate died, he sought assistance at the island 
 of Ponape. 
 
 Three members of the crew were still ill when 
 the little schooner put into this harbor yester- 
 day. 
 
 According to port officials here, this is the 
 most flagrant case yet recorded against the 
 Japanese authorities. It is pointed out that one 
 of the first courtesies of the sea is to give haven 
 to stricken sailors. 
 
 Captain Bauer intends to report his charges to 
 Washington." 
 
 THE DENIAL 
 From the "Commercial News," July 29 
 
 JAPANESE DID NOT MISTREAT U. S. 
 SAILORS 
 
 Regarding the story published in yesterday's 
 editions of the two big ( ? ) morning dailies con- 
 cerning the alleged mistreatment by Japanese of 
 sailors on the schooner "Lottie Bennett," the 
 "Commercial News" is in receipt of the follow- 
 ing communication, which explains itself: 
 
 "San Francisco, July 29, 1920. 
 "Editor 'Commercial News' 
 
 "Dear Sir: 
 
 "As owners of the schooner "Lottie Bennett," 
 we desire to correct any misapprehension which 
 may have arisen through the published state- 
 ments of some of the crew of this vessel relative 
 to treatment accorded cur vessel in the Caroline 
 Islands. 
 
 "The Japanese authoiities extended to our ves- 
 sel every courtesy and assistance at Ponape. A 
 
doctor from the Japanese warship, together with 
 the Government Health Officer, extended to the 
 sick members of the crew every attention, and 
 medical supplies were generously given to the 
 ship free of cost. The launch from the Japa- 
 nese warship in Ponape harbor assisted the 
 vessel when it appeared likely she would strand 
 on one of the reefs at the entrance of the harbor. 
 
 "The statement has been published that the 
 Japanese refused to permit burial of the de- 
 ceased mate, but we would like to point out that 
 the mate died thirteen days before the arrival 
 of the schooner at Ponape, and was buried at 
 sea. 
 
 "In view of the generous treatment accorded 
 us as American owners of the ship by the Japa- 
 nese authorities at Ponape, we feel constrained 
 to ask that you would be good enough to correct 
 any erroneous impression which might have 
 arisen through the published statements already 
 referred to, which have no foundation in fact. 
 
 "With thanks in anticipation, we are 
 
 "Yours truly, 
 
 "BURNS-PHILP CO. OF SAN FRANCISCO, 
 INC. Per D. W. Cross." 
 
 The refusal of succor to sick or shipwrecked 
 sailors is a crime against humanity that stirs all 
 men to anger and protest. The "Examiner" 
 selected the lie with ingenuity that would do 
 the devil credit. Its lie was read by thousands, 
 the disproof by few. I ask my fellow citizens, 
 do you wish to ally yourselves with the cam- 
 paign of lies? 
 
 The "Examiner's" story was made out of 
 whole cloth, as the captain of the ship must have 
 made the truthful report to the owners of the 
 
 NEGROES PROPOSED TO TAKE THE 
 PLACE OE THE JAPANESE 
 
 Even their enemies admit the industry, obedi- 
 ence to law and skill as farm workers of the 
 Japanese. The Board of Control and Governor 
 Stephens admit that oui<, 24,000 Japanese farm- 
 ers and farm workers in 1919 produced $67,000,- 
 000 of food products from the soil, not one 
 dollar of which would have been added to the 
 commonwealth without them. But the Gov- 
 ernor, the Board of Corjtrol and the anti- Japa- 
 nese agitators they lead propose to drive the 
 Japanese farmers out o? the State. Who will 
 take their place? Already a substitution is 
 planned. 
 
 A negro paper called "The California Free 
 Lance," devoted its entir j issue of April 1, 1920, 
 to advocating the colonisation of the State with 
 
 Southern negroes. At the top of the first 
 column on the front page of that issue appear 
 the following letter of Governor Stephens aj 
 proving the plan: 
 
 "MORE NEGRO LABOR ON FARMS 
 
 By Governor Win. D. Stephens 
 Written Especially for the California Free Lance 
 
 Workers are what we need, and opportunity 
 was never so widely open to the negro as it is 
 today. A very large number of colored workers 
 are well fitted for farm labor, and it would be 
 better for them, and a measure of aid to our 
 agricultural interests, if they could be diverted 
 from the cities into the country. The farm 
 laborer situation is difficult in this State, and 
 steps might well be taken to shift to the country 
 those colored men who are residing in large 
 cities, under conditions unsuited to them. Our 
 negro workers could themselves help to solve 
 this problem. Any effort initiated on their 
 part undoubtedly would meet with active en- 
 couragement. Some adaptation to new condi- 
 tions would be necessary, but this could easily 
 be brought about through co-operation between 
 negro workers and the employing farmers of 
 our State. 
 
 I regard this matter of shifting workers who 
 are misplaced in cities to the farms of our State 
 as a matter of importance, and I invite the 
 earnest attention of the negro people to it as 
 one primarily in their interest as well as being 
 for the best interests of our State." 
 
 The Governor's letter is followed by one from 
 a member of Inman's Anti-Japanese Executive 
 Committee. 
 
 In his letter to Secretary Colby, Governor 
 Stephens puts all his emphasis upon the need 
 of expelling the Japanese because we cannot 
 assimilate them. When he has helped fill the 
 State with Southern negroes, will the Governor 
 proceed to assimilate them? 
 
 I assure my fellow citizens that anti- Japa- 
 nese agitators are trying to stampede them into 
 an act of dishonor that will involve the State 
 in a mesh of difficulties of the most serious 
 nature. 
 
 Do you want to persecute the clean and inte 
 gent and orderly Japanese into exile, in ord< 
 to replace them with Southern negroes? 
 is what you are asked to do. Choose ye. 
 
COMMITTEE OPPOSING 
 
 THE 
 
 ANTI-JAPANESE 
 INITIATIVE 
 
 In the official pamphlet of instructions to voters 
 the anti-Japanese initiative heads the list of initia- 
 tive measures upon which the voters of this State 
 will act in November. There will also be found 
 
 THE ARGUMENT AGAINST THE ANTI- 
 JAPANESE INITIATIVE BY JNO. 
 P. IRISH, APPOINTED BY THE 
 LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR 
 
 "This initiative raises questions of cold law, 
 to which I invite the very thoughtful attention 
 of the voters. 
 
 "Our treaty with Japan provides that the 
 Japanese here 'may own or hire and occupy 
 houses, manufactories, warehouses, shops and 
 premises and lease land for residential and com- 
 mercial purposes.' In its economic definition 
 commerce consists of Production, Transmuta- 
 tion and Exchange. Production is the ranking 
 element because without it there can be no 
 commerce. The treaty protects the right of 
 Japanese to hire or own manufactories, for trans- 
 mutation, warehouses, ^necessary to exchange, 
 and to lease land for commercial purposes. 
 Land employed in agricultural production is em- 
 ployed in a commercial purpose. The treaty is 
 intended, then, to give the Japanese privilege 
 to enter upon complete commerce, and therefore 
 protects their right to lease land for production. 
 Any other interpretation twists the plain 
 language of the treaty into vain repetition. Con- 
 sidered in the light of the fourteenth amend- 
 ment to the Constitution of the United States, 
 which says: 'No state shall deny to any person 
 within its jurisdiction the equal protection of 
 the law,' we find the initiative in conflict with 
 our own Constitution, since it proposes a discrim- 
 
inatory classification of aliens, conferring upon 
 one class the protection of the law which it 
 denies to another class. 
 
 "This discrimination applies also to the 
 leasing of land denied to Japanese and per- 
 mitted to other aliens. It also applies to the 
 feature of the initiative which subjects Japanese 
 minors who own land to the guardianship of the 
 Public Administrator, but exempts other alien 
 minors who own land from such guardianship. 
 
 "These proposed discriminations against 
 classes of aliens, were adopted by the people of 
 another state by the initiative and were voided 
 by the U. S. Supreme Court as unconstitutional. 
 That court held that 'equal protection of the 
 laws, is applicable to all persons, without regard 
 to any differences of race, color or nationality' 
 and that discrimination under the pretense of 
 'promoting the health, safety, morals and wel- 
 fare,' is unconstitutional, and denies 'the very 
 essence of personal freedom and opportunity it 
 was the purpose of the amendment to secure.' 
 And 'if such freedom could be refused upon the 
 ground of race or nationality, the prohibition 
 of the denial to any person of the equal pro- 
 tection of the laws would be a barren form of 
 words.' 
 
 "In the foregoing I have stripped the initi- 
 ative of its cryptic and involved language and 
 technicalities, so that it is naked in its two 
 purposes: First, to forbid the leasing of land to 
 Japanese and Chinese; and Second, to take 
 land-owning minors of those races from the 
 natural guardianship of the parents and commit 
 them to the control of the Public Administrator. 
 All the other confusing propositions of tl 
 initiative respecting holdings in corporations 
 etc., are subordinate to these two. Landownei 
 are warned that if the State can forbid the 
 to lease to a certain class, it can also comp( 
 them to lease to a certain other class. Th< 
 must resist this invasion of liberty." 
 
 To that argument no answer has been made b) 
 the anti-Japanese agitators, because it is so sel 
 evident that it cannot be disputed. 
 
 To support that argument this Committee 
 organized. Its purpose is to publish the truth 
 expose the falsehoods by which it is attempted 
 stampede the people into support of the anti-Jap- 
 anese initiative, and incidentally to elect to office 
 
several politicians whose sole claim to support is 
 their abuse of the Japanese. 
 
 Believing that the sore needs of the country 
 demand a higher form of politics than the abuse 
 and misrepresentation of the orderly, intelligent, 
 industrious and law-abiding Japanese, who were 
 our useful allies in the world war, and who are 
 here by our invitation in a treaty made with their 
 country, we declare our position to be, that without 
 increase in their number by immigration, the Jap- 
 anese who are here have earned and deserve the 
 respect and support of our people, and that to expel 
 them by persecution will inflict great moral and 
 economic injury upon California. Such being our 
 position we invite the men and women of this State 
 to join our standard and support the honor and the 
 Christian civilization of California by opposing this 
 unjust, unnecessary, un-Christian, illegal and in- 
 human initiative, and leaving the settlement of any 
 issue involved, to the Federal Government, where 
 it belongs. 
 
 As the most powerful advocates of the expulsion 
 of the Japanese are on record as proposing to 
 colonize the State with Southern negroes, we unite 
 with the thinking people of California opposing 
 such an exchange, as involving an unspeakable peril 
 to the women of the State. 
 
 The sub-committee on discussion is authorized 
 to challenge the anti-Japanese organization to a 
 public, joint discussion of the Japanese question, 
 with our representative, in order that the people be 
 no longer misled by ex parte statements lacking in 
 the element of truth. 
 
 THE COMMITTEE 
 
 Names and Addresses 
 
 Bertha E. Kori Rev. James L. Gordon 
 
 702 Bonnie Beach Place 1st Congregational Church 
 
 Los Angeles, Calif. Post and Mason Sts. 
 
 .1. H. Irish San Francisco, Calif. 
 
 2509 Hearst Ave. Wilmer Sieg 
 
 Berkeley, Calif. %Calif. Fruit Distributors 
 
 Miss Alice Barrett f ox 602 > 
 
 Greenwood, Calif. Sacramento, Calif 
 
 Alexander Fiore Dr - David Starr Jordan 
 
 521 L St. P. O. Box 449 Stanford University, Calif. 
 
 Sacramento, Calif. C. M. Wooster 
 
 Miss Margaret B. Curry 32 Phelan Bldg. 
 
 616 Buchanan St. San Francisco, Calif. 
 
 San Francisco, Calif. Frank A. Guernsey 
 
 California Federation of President Farmers and 
 
 Women's Clubs Merchants Bank 
 
 Emily R. H. Bell Stockton, Calif. 
 
 (Mrs. J. E. Bell) A. C. Stevens 
 
 \lmond Hill Lafayette Apartments 
 
 Saratoga, Calif. Berkeley, Calif. 
 
Carson C. Cook 
 
 Gen. Mgr. Rindge Land 
 and Navigation Co. 
 
 Stockton, Calif. 
 Miss Alice M. Brown 
 
 2015 C Street 
 
 Sacramento, Calif. 
 Marion S. Alduton 
 
 Secty. Housewives Union 
 No. 1, Santa Clara Co. 
 
 Palo Alto, Calif. 
 James Tyson 
 
 The Charles Nelson Co. 
 
 230 California St. 
 
 San Francisco, Calif. 
 Frank R. Buckalew 
 
 2408 S. Atherton 
 
 Berkeley, Calif. 
 Francis B. Kellogg 
 
 610 Auditorium 
 
 Los Angeles Calif. 
 M. L. Durbin 
 
 Walnut Grove 
 
 Sacramento Co., Calif. 
 Mrs. L. M. Eskridge 
 
 1480 Larkin St. 
 
 San Francisco, Calif. 
 Mrs. Clara Mahoney 
 
 968 Ellis St. 
 
 San Francisco, Calif. 
 L. M. Landsborough 
 
 Florin, Calif. 
 A. R. Rideout 
 
 Whittier, Calif. 
 Florence L. Stephens 
 
 Attorney at Law 
 
 629-630 Western Mutual 
 Life Bldg., Third and 
 Hill 
 
 Los Angeles, Calif. 
 Chas. E. Virden 
 
 Gen. Manager Calif. Fruit 
 Distribution 
 
 Sacramento, Calif. 
 Mrs. Luretta Black 
 
 Yolo, Calif. 
 
 Box 16 
 G. P. Hurst 
 Hurst & Hurst 
 
 Woodland, Calif. 
 Mrs. A. E. Thurber 
 
 Napa, Calif. 
 Geo. S. Nickerson 
 
 Civil and Hydraulic Eng. 
 
 Forum Bldg. 
 
 Sacramento, Calif. 
 Grosvenor P. Ayers 
 
 3334 Clay St. 
 
 San Francisco, Calif. 
 W. D. Buckley 
 
 Stockton 
 
 JNO. 
 
 Mary Roberts Coolidge 
 Dwight Way End 
 Berkeley, Calif. 
 
 Asa V. Mendenhall 
 225 Dalziel Bldg. 
 Oakland, Calif. 
 
 Mrs. G. W. Percy 
 169 Santa Rosa Ave. 
 Oakland, Calif. 
 
 Mrs. Arthur Baird 
 
 1625 St. Andrews Place S 
 Los Angeles, Calif. 
 
 Rev. Henry Stauffer 
 The Huntley Apartments 
 1207 W. Third St. 
 Los Angeles, Calif. 
 
 Miss Virginia E. Graeff 
 1633 Jones St. 
 Hollywood, Calif. 
 Educational Hollywood Ar 
 Association. 
 
 W. S. Alexander 
 Gen. Ins. Broker 
 506 Underwood Bldg. 
 525 Market St. 
 San Francisco, Calif. 
 
 Mrs. Fred. Wyman Vaughi 
 2211 California St. 
 San Francisco, Calif. 
 
 Ellen Moore 
 
 60 S. Orange Grove Ave 
 Pasadena, Calif. 
 
 Geo. W. Turner 
 Los Gatos, Calif. 
 
 Mrs. Philip H. Dodge 
 R. F. D. 2. 502 B. 
 Santa Cruz, Calif. 
 
 Raymond L. Buell 
 301 Gladys Ave. 
 Long Beach, Calif. 
 
 Geo. A. Atherton 
 Delta Lands 
 Stockton 
 
 Hon. Leroy Wright 
 San Diego 
 
 Fred C. Rindge 
 Stockton 
 
 Dr. H. H. Guy 
 
 2515 Hillegass Ave. 
 Berkeley, Calif. 
 
 Dr. H. B. Johnson 
 2600 Piedmont Ave. 
 Berkeley, Calif. 
 
 P. IRISH, CHAIRMAN, 
 Oakland. 
 
The 
 
 Anti-Japanese 
 Pogrom 
 
 Facts versus 
 
 the Falsehoods of 
 
 Senator Phelan 
 
 and Others 
 
 By Colonel John P. Irish 
 
 Let it be repeated that the present anti- 
 Japanese agitation, like the anti-Chinese move- 
 ment of years ago, has the same psychology as 
 the Russian anti-Jewish pogrom, which always 
 starts with the lie that Jews have murdered 
 Christian children to use their blood in the 
 rites of the Synagogue. The leader of the 
 anti-Japanese pogrom is Senator Phelan. An 
 election is approaching. He has made no rec- 
 ord of any benefit to the state in the Senate; 
 so he must divert attention from his useless- 
 ness as a senator by attacking the Japanese and 
 trying to stampede the state by lying about 
 them. 
 
 It is my purpose to take up his public state- 
 ments and those of his helpers in this ignoble 
 work, and prove them false, not by my word, 
 but by official and other indisputable authority. 
 
 Senator Phelan began his pogrom by pub- 
 lishing that an American company had sold to 
 Japanese 800,000 acres of land on the Mex- 
 ican side of the Imperial Valley. 
 
 The American company at once proved this 
 [ i 1 
 
to be a lie. It had not sold land anywhere to 
 Japanese. 
 
 Mr. Phelan then changed his statement and 
 charged that the Mexican government had sold 
 800,000 acres of land adjoining our boundary 
 to Japanese, and that this was a violation of 
 the Monroe Doctrine! 
 
 The Mexican government immediately re- 
 plied with proof that it had not sold land any- 
 where to Japanese, and as Senator Phelan 
 had claimed that under the Monroe Doctrine 
 the United States can dictate to the states of 
 Central and South America what private par- 
 ties may own land in their jurisdiction, Presi- 
 dent Carranza very promptly and properly 
 repudiated the Monroe Doctrine. 
 
 In November, Mr. Phelan published in the 
 Chico "Enterprise" that he had been ap- 
 proached by a Japanese who presented a letter 
 from our Ambassador to Tokio, and who pro- 
 posed that we should surrender the whole 
 Imperial Valley to the Japanese. 
 
 But the Senator had furnished a clue to test 
 the truth of the story by naming a letter from 
 our Ambassador, and soon changed the story, 
 and in its new form it was published in the 
 "California Cultivator" of January 31, 1920, 
 as follows: 
 
 "When I left Washington an American rep- 
 resenting powerful Japanese organizations said 
 to be backed by the Japanese government, 
 proposed that Americans be ousted from the 
 Imperial Valley and it be turned over to the 
 Japanese." 
 
 Notice that in this last version no names are 
 mentioned, and no clue given, not even finger 
 marks. As no Japanese and no American can 
 be thought of to be fool enough to go to Mr. 
 Phelan with such an idiotic proposition, the 
 statement has the face of a lie in both versions. 
 
 In November he made a speech to the 
 Chamber of Commerce of Oakland. After 
 some vagrant vituperation of the Japanese, he 
 ventured upon a specific statement to call atten- 
 tion to the "horrible condition of Merced 
 County, overrun by Japanese who own there 
 
 [2 ] 
 
>000 acres of the best farm land in the 
 .ounty." 
 
 I immediately wrote to the Recorder of 
 Merced County to let me know the acreage 
 owned by Japanese. In reply he sent me the 
 1919 report of the County Assessor, just 
 made to the State Controller. The Assessor 
 says there are 1 85 Japanese in Merced County. 
 They own 395 acres of farm land and 36 town 
 lots. There are 2 7 Japanese children in the 
 primary schools and two in the high school. 
 The white neighbors of the Japanese all say 
 they are good people to do business with, and 
 unobjectionable. 
 
 On the 18th of last December Mr. Phelan 
 made an anti-Japanese speech to the Com- 
 monwealth Club in San Francisco, in which he 
 said that Japanese births in California were 
 three to one white birth. 
 
 The official report of the State Board of 
 Health, sent to me by Mr. Ross, Registrar of 
 Vital Statistics, shows for 1919: 
 
 White births 50,898 
 
 Japanese births 4,378 
 
 The records of the Board of Health show 
 more white births in the single year 1919 than 
 Japanese births in the full ten years preceding. 
 His speech on that occasion strung other lies 
 on this birth rate lie, like beads on a string. 
 
 In their statements made to the Committee 
 on Immigration of the United States Senate, 
 both Senator Phelan and Mr. McClatchy said 
 that there were in California 20,000 picture 
 brides and that "they usually each give birth 
 to a child once a year." The official report of 
 the California Board of Health for 1919 re- 
 cords 4378 Japanese births in the state for 
 that year. So that of the imaginary picture 
 brides, 20,000 in number, reported by Phelan 
 and McClatchy, more than 16,000 must have 
 been asleep at the switch. 
 
 After Governor Stephens refused to call an 
 extra session of the Legislature to pass anti- 
 Japanese laws, Phelan said in Washington that 
 the Governor had received a letter from the 
 Japanese Association warmly thanking him for 
 his refusal, and Phelan published the letter. 
 
 [3 ] 
 
 I wrote the Governor's office asking if he 
 had received such a letter. The answer was: 
 "Phelan* s statement is an absolute lie." 
 
 There are men in San Francisco who know 
 the inside facts about this little comedy. When 
 those facts are made public, as they undoubt- 
 edly will be, the Senator will have to face an 
 embarrassing situation. In the meantime, it is 
 sufficient to say that the Governor never re- 
 ceived the letter. 
 
 Recently a questionable item in a naval 
 appropriation bill was before the Senate. Mr. 
 Phelan demanded its passage as necessary to 
 the defense of this coast, for he said, "the 
 largest Japanese warship lies in the harbor of 
 Honolulu." 
 
 A few days later the Associated Press pub- 
 lished from its agent in Honolulu that no Jap- 
 anese warship was in Hawaiian waters, nor 
 had been for a long time. Commenting on 
 this, the New York "Sun" said maybe Senator 
 Phelan does not know where Hawaii is! 
 
 The Senator has uttered other defamatory 
 statements, and every one is a lie. They are 
 as thick in his record as cooties in a battle 
 trench. I leave him now to attend to the 
 cases of his companions in falsehood and 
 exaggeration. 
 
 I dislike to say that Mr. V. S. McClatchy, of 
 the Sacramento "Bee," intentionally lies, but 
 his bitter prejudice and hatred have fed his 
 credulity until he has become a "carrier" of 
 falsehoods, as some people are "carriers" of 
 typhoid. Mr. McClatchy has published that 
 during the twelve months ending June 30, 
 1919, 9678 Japanese were found to be illle- 
 gally in this country and were arrested and 
 deported. 
 
 Now the official report of the Commissioner 
 of Immigration shows nine Japanese deported 
 for being illegally in the country, in the year 
 ending June 30, 191 8. 
 
 The Commissioner's report for the next 
 year, ending June 30, 1919, shows 117 con- 
 traband Japanese were apprehended and de- 
 ported. So for the full year covered by Mr. 
 McClatchy' s statement, the official report 
 [4] 
 
Shows only 126 Japanese illegally in the coun- 
 try and deported. I wrote the Commissioner 
 General of Immigration asking the foundation 
 for Mr. McClatchy's statement, and that offi- 
 cial seems to think that his official report, 
 above quoted, is sufficient answer. The cir- 
 cumstantial evidence is against the truth of 
 McClatchy's figures, since the arrest of so large 
 a number could not have escaped the notice 
 of the newspapers and of the Japanese Consul. 
 Mr. McClatchy follows his apocryphal figures 
 with the statement that "No account is taken 
 of the picture brides who arrived." This is 
 not true. They all had to land at the Immi- 
 gration Station and be registered, undergo a 
 physical examination, and their names and 
 those of their husbands recorded. 
 
 In Mr. McClatchy's statement to the Immi- 
 gration Section of the Commonwealth Club he 
 said the Japanese on landing at first drive 
 white labor out by working for low wages and 
 then proceed to conquer everything. This 
 statement is not true. I am a farmer and 
 know, as do all farmers, there was no white 
 labor to drive out. Instead of working for 
 low wages, the Japanese in California are paid 
 the highest farm wages in the world, and they * 
 a;e the most industrious and skillful land 
 people in the state. 
 
 The glaring falsehoods of Honorable John 
 S. Chambers I have already answered. The 
 lies in the newspapers are too numerous to 
 mention. One in the "Call" may suffice. That 
 paper, under infuriating headlines, published 
 that Japanese stevedores in loading an Amer- 
 ican cargo of vegetable oils had maliciously 
 punched holes in the tin containers with load- 
 ing hooks, and the oil leaked out, and this was 
 done to damage American commerce. The 
 owner of the oil in San Francisco and the 
 officers of the ship at once exposed the story 
 as a malicious lie, as did Lloyds, whose sur- 
 veyor in Kobe watched the loading and certi- 
 fied to the proper condition of the cargo. 
 Then it was shown by the same parties that 
 Japanese stevedores use no loading hooks. 
 But did the "Call" correct the lie? Not up 
 to date. 
 
 [5 ] 
 
 
 Another member of Phelan's pogrom gang 
 publishes that Japanese have leased ten mil 
 lion acres of land in the Sutler Basin. Go to 
 the maps in the office of the State Reclama- 
 tion Board and you find that in the wh le 
 Sutter Basin, from the mouth of Butte Slot "h 
 to the confluence of the Sacramento i 1 
 Feather rivers, there are only sixty thousc 
 acres. But people who don't know what 
 where Sutter Basin is, read that ten million 
 and rush to join the anti-Japanese pogrom. 
 Senator Phelan has published a study of 
 "hybrids," as he calls them, half Japanese i 
 half white children. I refuse to accept his 
 an expert opinion. 
 
 During the anti-Chinese pogrom there w 
 long and hot discussions ovei Chinese c 
 white hybrids, impossibility of . milation, . 
 But the multi-millionaire Chine Ah Fong, 
 Honolulu, had a bevy of chai ng daughi 
 by his wife, who was half and half Portugu 
 and Hawaiian. The Ah Fong girls were 
 toast of the Pacific, beautiful and acc< 
 plished, and they all married well, to wl 
 gentlemen, several of the husbands be 
 officers in the American army and navy. 
 
 It is demonstrated by the foregoing t 
 politicians are trying to stampede the peo 
 of California to do an act of dishonor aga 
 an industrious, cleanly, and law-abiding peoi 
 The proposed initiative measure has to go br 
 to the cruelties attending the expulsion of 
 Jews from Spain, to find an equal in crue 
 inhumanity, an<i: dishonor. It violates 
 treaty with -Japan nd the Fourteenth Amei 
 
 .-^ meiji fcp our own Constitution, and is a pro; .. 
 
 ' Offspring of the disgraceful lies from whict \t 
 .1 s4^nd tpr^mfetican honor, decen % 
 fair play^t |tahd for what is called r v 
 ristian civilisation and wonder if there 
 enough of its spirit in, Calif ornia to save 
 honor of the state. 
 
 JOHN P. IRISH, 
 
 1904 Adeline Street, ' 
 
 Oakland, California^^BB . 
 
 F 
 
 [6] 
 
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