ABSTRACT
The division of powers between the federal and state authority in the United States, although for the most part satisfactory, has now and then resulted in a situation highly embarrassing to the national government and altogether incomprehensible to foreign nations. 1 Twice within a period of seven years, in 1906 and again in 1913, California took advantage of the absence of federal jurisdiction over aliens within her borders and involved the government at Washington in international complications of a most serious nature. For at least half a century prior to this time the people of the state had shown themselves to be more than ordinarily sensitive when the question of color was involved, and in the two incidents just mentioned the problem was basically one of prejudice against the Japanese as a race. In the San Francisco school imbroglio of 1906, when this feeling for the first time came to a head, Roosevelt bludgeoned the state into submission and promised relief through the Gentlemen's Agreement. Dissatisfied with Roosevelt's high-handed methods and the solution proposed, successive legislatures considered bills designed to annoy and restrict orientals. Every session during the six years prior to 1913 witnessed the introduction of anti-alien land bills and other intentionally discriminatory measures. 2 In fact, the situation became so delicate that Roosevelt and Taft had to intervene to force a Republican majority to withhold action. 3
