JAPAN AND AMERICA.* Tun Federal Council of the Churches of
Christ in America, at the request of Christian missionaries in Japan, recently appointed a Commission on Relations with Japan to inquire into the possibilities of removing the various "causes of offence" which have brought that "old and haughty people" more than once of late years within measurable distance of war with the United States. This Commission very wisely made up its mind that its most immediate need was that of correct information. It therefore engaged Dr. H. A. Millis, Professor of Economies in the University of Kansas, to visit the Pacific coast—where most of these "causes of offence" 'originate—and make such an investigation as would enable the Commission to proceed with intelligent sympathy in the 'performance of its task. His report is now published under the title of The Japanese Problem in the United States. It is a conscientious and valuable document which deals with two main questions—one relating to the admission of Japanese immigrants to the United States, the other to the treatment accorded them on the Pacific slope, and especially in Cali- fornia, which has always been the storm-centre. Dr. Millis gives an interesting account of the part played by .." Japanese cheap labour" in the development of various industries on the Pacific coast—notably in railways, lumber mills, salmon canneries, and agriculture. The wide- spread opposition. to Japanese settlers in California he finds to be based on the facts that "they are a coloured race; are racially different ; have inherited the prejudice against the Chinese; have given rise to economic conflict; are accused of frequent breaches of contract, and of being ambitious, cocky,' and clannish." He holds that there is not much prospect of the Japanese being assimilated to the American type; though they have many personal qualities which make for rapid assimilation, but that the much-discussed evil of race mixture, • which played so great a pert in the orations of 1913, is "pretty much of a 'bogie.'" The great majority of Westerners strongly favour the exclusion of all Asiatic labourers, but the passing of any general exclusion law would be illogical and an affront to Japan. The solution, of the problem is probably to be found in a general Immigration Act which shall not die- criminate against any nation, either Asiatics or European, and shall permit of the naturalization of all aliens who are 'considered worthy to settle in the United States.
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