n would relinquish all claim to further immigration of
Japanese to the other States of the Union. The United States was to pay
Japan a war-indemnity of two billion dollars, in installments, exclusive
of the sums previously levied in the Pacific States. San Francisco was
to be Japan's naval port on the Pacific coast, and the navy-yard and
arsenals located there were to pass into the hands of the Japanese. The
Philippines, Hawaii and Guam were to be ceded to Japan.

A universal cry of indignation resounded from the Atlantic to the
Rockies in answer to these humiliating terms of peace. To acknowledge
defeat and keep the enemy in the country, would be sealing the doom of
American honor with a stroke of the pen. No! anything but that! Let us
fight on at any price! At thousands of mass meetings the same cry was
heard: Let us fight on until the last enemy has been driven out of the
country.

But what is public opinion? Nothing more than the naive feeling of the
masses of yesterday, to-day and perhaps the day after to-morrow. The
terrible sacrifices claimed by the war had not been without effect. Of
course there was no hesitation on the part of the old American citizens
nor of the German, Scandinavian and Irish settlers--they would all
remain faithful to the Star Spangled Banner. But the others, the
thousands and hundreds of thousands of Romanic and Slavonic descent, the
Italian and Russian proletariat, and the scum of the peoples of Asia
Minor, all these elements, who regarded the United States merely as a
promising market for employment and not as a home, were of a different
opinion.

And these elements of the population now demanded the reestablishment of
opportunities for profitable employment, insisting upon their rights as
naturalized citizens, which had been so readily accorded them. Scarcely
had the first storm of indignation passed, when other public meetings
began to be held--loud, stormy demonstrations, which usually ended in a
grand street row--and to this were added passionate appeals from the
Socialist leaders to accept Japan's terms and conclude peace, in order
that the idle laborer might once more return to work.

And this feeling spread more and more and gradually became a force in
public life and in the press, and unfortunately the agitation was not
entirely without effect on those elements of the population whose
American citizenship was not yet deeply rooted. However indignant the
better elements may hav