to do will be done and all of the forces, military and civil, of
the United States which I may lawfully employ will be so employed ... to
enforce the rights of aliens under treaties." Here was reassurance for
the Japanese. But he also added: "The Japanese would themselves not
tolerate the intrusion into their country of a mass of Americans who
would displace Japanese in the business of the land. The people of
California are right in insisting that the Japanese shall not come
thither in mass." Here was reassurance for the Californians.

The words were promptly followed by acts. The garrison of Federal
troops at San Francisco was reinforced and public notice was given that
violence against Japanese would be put down. Suits were brought both in
the California State courts and in the Federal courts there to uphold
the treaty rights of Japan. Mr. Victor H. Metcalf, the Secretary of
Commerce and Labor, himself a Californian, was sent to San Francisco to
make a study of the whole situation. It was made abundantly clear to the
people of San Francisco and the Coast that the provision of the Federal
Constitution making treaties a part of the supreme law of the land,
with which the Constitution and laws of no State can interfere, would
be strictly enforced. The report of Secretary Metcalf showed that the
school authorities of San Francisco had done not only an illegal thing
but an unnecessary and a stupid thing.

Meanwhile Roosevelt had been working with equal vigor upon the other
side of the problem. He esteemed it precisely as important to protect
the Californians from the Japanese as to protect the Japanese from
the Californians. As in the Alaskan and Venezuelan cases, he proceeded
without beat of drum or clash of cymbal. The matter was worked out in
unobtrusive conferences between the President and the State Department
and the Japanese representatives in Washington. It was all friendly,
informal, conciliatory--but the Japanese did not fail to recognize the
inflexible determination behind this courteous friendliness. Out of
these conferences came an informal agreement on the part of the Japanese
Government that no passports would be issued to Japanese workingmen
permitting them to leave Japan for ports of the United States. It was
further only necessary to prevent Japanese coolies from coming into
the United States through Canada and Mexico. This was done by executive
order just two days after the school authorities of San Fra