STEAM FROM THE CAULDRON

Ever since the passage of the Japanese Exclusion amendment to the new immigration bill, the unfortunate reactions which most persons anticipated at the time have been developing precisely as foreseen. Tokio news dispatches report numerous and violent mob demonstrations, and foreign correspondents tell of various petty discourtesies indicative of a feeling of bitter resentment on the part of minor officials. The latest bit of popular protest is the suicide of a active before the gates of the American Embassy.

Although this hostile reaction on the part of Japan was wholly to be expected as a natural result of somewhat stupid senatorial bluntness, that fact makes the present situation no less tense, or the ultimate outcome no more discernible. As it is almost a foregone conclusion that the United States will not revoke its discriminatory legislation, interest centers about Japan's probable course of action when her protest is turned aside. As present indications suggest, that course will be one of fiery demonstration on the part of the nation and more or less half-hearted attempts at repression by the government.

Japan herself is at present in no coalition to back up her objections with armed force; but if, as seems not unlikely, the mob spirit runs beyond control, and results in the killing of isolated American citizens, the initiative will be transferred from the government at Tokio to that at Washington. In such an event, the spectacle presented by the United States will be that of a powerful nation, which has already badgered a smaller neighbor to the point of desperation, forced into aggressive action to preserve its national prestige--with the unpleasant conviction in the background that the entire incident could have been avoided by a slight exercise of consideration and diplomatic fact.