Speech #590144557

It should also be borne in mind that under our law Japanese can not become citizens. and therefore neither the United States nor the State of California would be chargeable with a duty toeducate in order to prepare the future citizen for the duties and responsibilities of citizenship. Even admitting that the treaty of 1894 does give to Japanese subjects equal opportunities for education in the public schools as our own citizens. still the board of education in segregating the children of Japanese parentage from the white children has violated no treaty and done no wrong. The Civil Code of California. section 1662. reads as follows: (School.) Trustees shall have the power to exclude children of filthy or vicious habits. or children suffering from contagious or infectious diseases. and also to establish separate schools for Indian children and for children of Mongolian or Chinese descent. When such separate schools are established. Indian. Chinese. or Mongolian children must not be admitted into any other school. In accordance with this statute. many years ago n separate school wa2 established in San Francisco and has since been maintained for the education of Chinese children. called the oriental school. Since this separate school was established. in accordance with the positive mandate of the statute that " Indian. Chinese. or Mongolian children must not be admitted to any other school." the San Francisco school board had no alternative. it was obliged. under the law. to assign the Japanese children to the oriental school. Some unfavorable comment has been caused because there were only 93 Japanese children affected by the order of the board assigning them to the oriental school. 25 of whom were native born. If there were but 9 such children. the case would be the same. it was the duty of the board to assign them to the oriental school. This school is centrally located. as well equipped and with as competent teachers as any in the city. Chinese have been attending the oriental school for years. and nobody has discovered that their segregation was " a wicked absurdity." Was it legal and proper for California or the school authorities of San Francisco to segregate the nativeborn school children of Mongolian descent. establish separate schools for them. and forbid them to attend the schools maintained for white children? There is not a particle of doubt that the San Francisco school board had a perfect legal right to do this. In Roberts v.