A Japanese boy worked in a Chinese restaurant in Minneapolis, where he received good wages and was able to save some money. In order to have social diversion, he learned to dance, and at a public ball became acquainted with an American girl with whom he fell in love. He wrote to Japan for permission to marry her, but was told that if he did so he would be disowned. Although his parents have offered to send him a Japanese bride, he has thus far refused to give up his American girl, and still hopes to marry her.

It can readily be seen from these examples that when these marriages take place on the lower levels of society the parties concerned face a serious handicap which it is hard for them to overcome. Prejudice usually thrives best among the more ignorant and lower classes, and those who are the victims of this prejudice are seldom able to rise above it. So keenly do some of these Japanese-American couples feel the power of social disapproval that they rarely appear together in public. If they enter the same street car, they will occupy different seats. In communities where Japanese children are popular, the Japanese-American children are likely not to enjoy this same popularity, but are sharply discriminated against by the American children living in their neighborhood.

In order that intermarriage prove successful it is not only necessary that there be congeniality and a sufficient income to make possible the maintenance of a good standard of living, but is also of the highest

importance that those who enter into such marriages should possess a personality and strength of character that can win friends in spite of prejudice and rise above the petty insults and social discrimination they must face. The problem of mutual adjustment is naturally a more difficult matter when the contracting parties are members of a different race. The real difficulty is, however, that the problem is only half settled when an adjustment is satisfactorily made. Public opinion will not allow it to remain a merely personal matter. The social code has been violated, and the penalty of outraged social feelings must be paid. What this means in bitterness of heart and in lifelong unhappiness varies according to the character of the persons involved and the locality in which they live, but it is something from which they can never entirely escape.

Nevertheless, in spite of all the arguments that might be brought against intermarriage, we must be prepared to take a broader view of the problem than is ordinarily done. Race prejudice, or national prejudice, or even color prejudice, will not ultimately be allowed to say the final word. In these modern times the whole world is being brought more closely together. What this will mean in the breaking down of national lines and in the furthering of the process of amalgamation, only the future can reveal. The following statement by Dr. Conklin, professor of biology in Princeton University, expresses clearly a scientific view of the problem which is of deep significance in

connection with the increasing contact of the peoples of the East and West:

In the human species the only absolute barrier to the intermingling of races is geographical isolation. Every human race is fertile with every other one, and though races and nations and social groups may raise artificial barriers against interbreeding, we know that these artificial restraints are frequently disregarded and that in the long run amalgamation does take place. . . .

Whether we want it or not, hybridization of human races is going on and will increase. Partition walls between classes and races are being broken down; complete isolation is no longer possible, and a gradual intermixture of human races is inevitable. We are in the grip of a great world movement and we cannot reverse the current, but we may to a certain extent direct that current into the more desirable channels.

There is a popular belief that hybrid races are always inferior to pure-bred ones, but this is by no means the case. Some hybrids are undoubtedly inferior to either/ of the parents, but, on the other hand, some are vastly superior; only experience can determine whether a certain cross will yield inferior or superior types. Society can well attempt to prevent those crosses which produce inferior stock, while encouraging those which produce superior types.

It is this fact which makes the problem of immigration so serious. In general, immigration is regarded merely as an economic and political problem, but these aspects of it are temporary and insignificant as compared with its biological consequences. In welcoming the immigrant to our shores we not only share with him our country but we take him into our family and give to him our children or our children's children in marriage. Whatever the

present antipathies may be to our racial mixture we may rest assured that in a few hundred years these persons of foreign race and blood will be incorporated in our race and we in theirs. From the amalgamation of good races good results may be expected; but fusion with inferior races, while it may help to raise the lower race, is very apt to pull the higher race down. How insignificant are considerations of cheap labor and rapid development of natural resources when compared with these biological consequences.1

1 Conklin, E. G., Heredity and Environment in the Development of Men, pp. 417-19.

CHAPTER X

THE JAPANESE IN AMERICA AS A RACE PROBLEM

THE Japanese invasion of America, while insig

nificant as far as numbers are concerned, has brought this country face to face with a serious problem which does not admit of an easy solution. It has meant the coming of a people too different from ourselves to gain ready acceptance on terms of social ! equality, and yet too proud to occupy a position that would imply their inferiority. Similar invasions on a much larger scale by European immigrants have confronted us with various problems. But however low their social and economic status may be, the Europeans at least belong to nations that have much in common with us and against whom there exists no such deepseated prejudice as is generally felt for the Asiatics. It is this that differentiates our oriental problem from the general immigration problem and makes it difficult to apply the same policy to both.

A calm recognition of facts makes clear the inevitability of Americans' preference for European immigrants. America and Europe are bound closely together by common ties of blood, customs, and traditions. America is what it is today largely because of what it has received from Europe. For more than a century an increasing stream of European immigrants