A DEFIANT CITY.

Evening Star, Issue 13002, 22 December 1906, Page 2

A DEFIANT CITY.

Two claeses - tri messages are pouring out from i the ruins of Salt FtOncikco. They differ in tofco, both on 16 matter and manner, from those which last April and May wbfC being flashed around the world. Then the heart Of the nations went out to the gay and beautiful city which had been stricken with a dual visitation of earthquake and fire. People of every loud and tongue vied with each other in their Sympathy, and were only partially stayed in v giving it practical expression by the Special tCqubkfs of tho Chief Esecfiiive of the'TTnitod Slates. Amid the anxiety and interest then displayed there was not. Wo think, altogether Wanting the hope that the. cruel and devastating lessons of Apr” 18, 19; 80j and 21 would purge much, it not all, of that old aria too generous leaven of corruption and licentiousness that were the city’s scandal and shame. It is therefore with unfeigned regret that wo record the too obvitmfl iruth that, speaking generally, San Francisco is a disgrace and affront to our common civilim-tion. It is a city, physically, of splendid sunshine and cloriou* skies, but morally it is one. of dfendfnl night and unspeakable abominations. Since lire swept away its business and industrial centres, the hundreds of thousands of dollars cheerfully Subscribed by generous men and Women for the homeless, wdrkletsis, and moneyless have been mnhipalated by a gang of boodlers, whose underlings have brow-beaten and bullied (bo tmfoHunabe whom, hilt for tho accident of misfortune, they would never have ventured to approach. The city lias been in the hands of a horde of callous, soulless ruffians, who have used the chaos of the community as a means—an easy means—-to plunder and rob and grow rich. Comparatively unknown and low-clato individuals, from tho Mayor down to the City Hall tout and saloon loafer, have laid themselves out. U> plunder on a wholesale scale. Men who yesterday wore humble persons working for a penurious livelihood to-day own motor cars, and real estate, and hank accounts. Tbo Press, or rather that section of it which has not been " silenced,” publicly 1 accuses by name the supervisors and officials who have done three things. “ Prostrate San Francisco,” says tho ‘Daily Commercial News* of October 27, u is ruled by Thugs and bad charocieiß of iiil kinds.” Murder is so rorntnori as to he hardly noticeable ; outrages on the person, daylight robbery, brutal assault, a flaunting of vulgar Vice—thfso and their like are the everyday tale of that sin-stained c,imp. Yet it is this city Which hds insolently, arrogantly, and defiantly, even to the point of risking war, declined to recognise as her moral, intellectual, arc! racial equals the children of civilised Japan. There has rarely been in the history of American impudence so impudent a violation of every canon of eond taste, decency, and Sanity as is tvpifled by this amazing resolution of tbo San Francisco Board of Education, of the San Francisco Press, and, presumably, her people. The in every seneb clean Japanese children (SO these any) shall not attend the same schools as Americiin children, who are supposed to be white. The cultured Eastern States, the Universities of Harvard and Yale, the Colleges and High Schools of Pennsylvania, and Maasachusett-.i receive on equal terms the youth of Japan ; but a city whoso moral and municipal rottenness “ smells to heaven ” grandiloquently projects herself into tho arena, and in the full sight of geds and men pansionalely declares she will never—no, never-i—permit the manners and minds of her children to be contaminated by association in. tho day .school with a handful of Japanese. She stands for racial purity. And this tragic farce she Itoasts she will persist in even to tho shedding of blood, W c can, when we calmly review this phase of the question, appreciate in part that intense indignation of the rest of tho American people which has lierai reflected with characteristic vigor and plaiitntfes by President Roosevelt.

Unfortunately, neither indignation nor treaties nor arguments Will prove of much avail unless the unexpected hap|>ens, arid the Press and officials of San Francisco recede from their infatuated and indefensible attitude. To defy the united forces of Japan and of their own Government, as well as the disgust of mankind, is, however, too heroic a pose to he Rot. The San Francisco editors are fairly revelling in tho situation. All the world is looking iit them. Was ever anything so surprisingly delightful? And the editors, we may be nuro, will live up to the situation—every man and woman of them. Luckily, their position is as safe as it is unique. President Roosevelt cannot place Ban Francisco under martial law for all time in older that ninety-three Japanese children shall not bis moloited and the keepers of Japanese restaurants hot boycotted. He inay threaten to do this, hut we fail Id see how he can pnt it into practice. If California docs not give way, or will not find a way out of the position she Ims wantonly Created, what is the alternative? The President cannot compel tho schools to admit the children when authorities, teach ers, and their white companions are hostile to them ; but even could he do eo. Would the game be worth tho candle either to the United States or Japan, and incidentally to the poor little youhgstelß themselves? The position is most awkward for Mr Roosevelt. Arid its awkwardness and distress are enhanced through tlie impossibility of making Japan, and Franco, and Germany, and other Powers understand that lie is helpless to obtain justice for japan in. any State of tho American Union when that Stale distinctly tellhim that it will not budge without force. At this hour Japan is resting content in the assurances ot President Roosevelt. This faith was expressed concisely by Mr Kurino, the Japanese Ambassador in Paris, who signed the Treaty between the United States and Japan in 1894. He is reported to have said: “ I have confidence in the “friendly disposition towards Japan of the “ United States Government and the bulk “of the American people, and I believe “that the perfect impartiality of President “Roosevelt and his Advisers will lead them “to admit the justice of the Japanese “claims. Tho establishment of a distinc- “ tion of race against the Japanese, com “ trary to Die stipulations of a treaty, ” closely affects tho vital interests Of their “ country. But ho sensible man in japan “thinks of having recourse to any other “than diplomatic means for settling the “ question at isiue.” It is not hard to perceive the ground Of Mr Kurino's faith, arid it if* hot difficult to delect his Seeming inability, which he shares with other outsiders, to grasp the nature of the President's task. Something more, as Mr Roosevelt knows only tori well, than American impartiality end loyalty to treaties are wanted in the United States iti order to emerge in safely from the San Francisco iiingle. Whnt is wanted is a frank confiesioa from the San Francisco authorities that they have, in their igfeorance, been guilty of making tlieli* nation ail dffehen arid a scorn to the world. And this, it teems, these rim Francisco defenders of

American JWUtfriaftly of a pure and spotless youth aro not prepared to make, l"hey iritefid, if the latest advices are reliable, to defy fciroir Government, in which event, We repeat,-we cannot see how President Roosevelt, eaten with the Army and Navy to help hhri. cart compel submission, and therefore “satisfying the honor of japan.” ! the one gleam of hope— though it is far from, a reliable one—is that the decision of the United States Circuit Court, before whom the S--1Q Francisco Board of Education have been cited to show cause why a certain Japanese pupil should not be reinstated at the Pacific Heights Grammar School, may be at final. If it is not, we candidly admit we cannot predict what will or will not happen;