wars or rumors of wars, other nations were whittling each
other to pieces. And these agonized neighbors, longing, with a great
longing, for world-peace, looked to the United States as the only
logical country in which a great cure-all for wars might reasonably be
expected to germinate. So their propagandists came to our shores and
started societies looking toward the establishment of brotherly love,
and thus was born the shibboleth of universal peace, with Uncle Sam
heading the parade like an old bell-mare in a pack train. What these
peace-patriots want is peace at any price, although they do not
advertise the fact. We proclaim to the world that we are a Christian
nation. _Ergo_, we must avoid trouble. The avoidance of trouble is
the policy of procrastinators, the vacillating, and the weak. For one
cannot avoid real trouble. It simply will not be avoided;
consequently, it might as well be met and settled for all time."

"But surely," Parker remarked, "California should subordinate herself
to the wishes of the majority."

"Yes, she should," he admitted doggedly, "and she has in the past. I
think that was before California herself really knew that Oriental
emigration was not solely a California problem but a national problem
of the utmost importance. Indeed, it is international. Of course, in
view of the fact that we Californians are already on the firing-line,
necessarily it follows that we must make some noise and, incidentally,
glean some real first-hand knowledge of this so-called problem. I
think that when our fellow citizens know what we are fighting, they
will sympathize with us and promptly dedicate the United States to the
unfaltering principle that ours is a white man's country, that the
heritage we have won from the wilderness shall be held inviolate for
Nordic posterity and none other."

"Nevertheless, despite your prejudice against the race, you are bound
to admire the Japanese--their manners, thrift, industry, and
cleanliness." Parker was employing one of the old stock protests, and
Don Miguel knew it.

"I do not admire their manners, but I do admire their thrift, industry,
and cleanliness. Their manners are abominable. Their excessive
courtesy is neither instinctive nor genuine; it is camouflage for a
ruthless, greedy, selfish, calculating nature. I have met many
Japanese, but never one with nobility or generosity of soul. They are
disciples of the principles of expediency. If a mutua