The Labour Unions of America, said to include two millions
of workmen, have, it is reported, voted unanimously that Japanese must be totally excluded from the United States, and intend at once to press that view upon President Roosevelt and Congress. They have, of course, no present power of dictation, as the agricultural free- holders far outnumber them ; but there is no evidence that the freeholders differ from them in opinion, and the vote, if true, is at all events a striking premonition of a diffi- culty which as time advances may become acute. It is by no means certain that either the Japanese or the Chinese will bear for ever industrial exclusion from the thinly popu- lated countries bordering on the Pacific. The difficulty is the greater because it rests upon dislikes and apprehensions as old as history, and no statesman has as yet been able to suggest any kind of compromise. Aliens of the same colour can and do merge themselves among the peoples they visit, but the brown aliens are kept separate by prejudices and con- victions which seem incurable.
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