two years ago there wasn't a Jap in San
Marcos County with the exception of a couple of shoemakers and a
window-washing outfit in El Toro."

"Well, those hombres aren't mending shoes or washing windows any more,
Miguel. They saved their money and now they're farming--garden-truck
mostly. There must be a thousand Japanese in the county now--all
farmers or farm-laborers. They're leasing and buying every acre of
fertile land they can get hold of."

"Have they acquired much acreage?"

"Saw a piece in the El Toro Sentinel last week to the effect that nine
thousand and twenty acres have been alienated to the Japs up to the
first of the year. Nearly all the white men have left La Questa valley
since the Japs discovered they could raise wonderful winter celery
there."

"But where do these Japanese farmers come from, Mr. Conway?" Parker
inquired. "They do not come from Japan because, under the gentlemen's
agreement, Japan restricts emigration of her coolie classes."

"Well, now," Bill Conway began judicially. "I'll give Japan the
benefit of any doubts I have as to the sincerity with which she
enforces this gentlemen's agreement. The fact remains, however, that
she does not restrict emigration to Mexico, and, unfortunately, we have
an international boundary a couple of thousand miles long and
stretching through a sparsely settled, brushy country. To guard our
southern boundary in such an efficient manner that no Jap could
possibly secure illegal entry to the United States via the line, we
would have to have sentries scattered at hundred-yard intervals and
closer than that on dark nights. The entire standing army of the
United States would be required for the job. In addition to the
handicap of this unprotected boundary, we have a fifteen-hundred-mile
coast-line absolutely unguarded. Japanese fishermen bring their
nationals up from the Mexican coast in their trawlers and set them
ashore on the southern California coast. At certain times of the year,
any landlubber can land through the surf at low tide; in fact,
ownerless skiffs are picked up on the south-coast beaches right
regularly."

"Well, you can't blame the poor devils for wanting to come to this
wonderful country, Mr. Conway. It holds for them opportunities far
greater than in their own land."

"True, Mr. Parker. But their gain is our loss, and, as a matter of
common sense, I fail to see why we should accord equal opportunity to
an unwelcome visitor