California and the Japanese. A Compilation of Arguments Advertised in Newspapers by the American Committee of Justice in Opposition to the Alien Land Law, Together with the Memorial Addressed to Congress by the Said Committee
Oakland, CA: American Committee of Justice, 1920. 16 pp; stapled wrappers. A good copy with dust soiling to wrappers, dampstain to one corner of first two leaves, chipping to rear wrapper. Text clean. Published earlier the same year under the title "Arguments Against the California Alien Land Law." The American Committee of Justice was an anti-exclusionist organization founded by newspaper editor John Powell Irish (1843-1923). A list of the organization's members appears on the first two pages of this pamphlet, which reprints position statements placed in California newspapers by the Committee of Justice to counter anti-Japanese sentiment and oppose the Alien Land Law of 1920, which forbid "aliens ineligible for citizenship" from owning or leasing agricultural land. The Committee did not oppose restricting further immigration, but argued for the just treatment of those already in California both in the interest of "the American tradition of honor and fair play," and, more practically, because "to persecute them off the land will make the shortage of farm labor more acute, reduce our food supply, and inflict economic injury to the state." Item #17808