Roosevelt Warns Japs

President Roosevelt warns Japan that America will have to intervene if they cannot enforce their new labor policies.

Former President Theodore Roosevelt in the current issue of The Outlook, warns Japan that America will have to take the matter into its own hands if the Mikado does not prevent the coming hither in any appreciable numbers of Japanese of the laboring and small trading classes. He says it is the duty of America to wait to see whether Japan succeeds in enforcing this policy, “Whether we do or do not believe that it will be successful.” But he adds: “If the Japanese government proves unable to carry its policy through, the undoubtedly this government, by treaty or by legislation, must protect itself and secure the desired result on its own initiative. But in such a case it would be doubly incumbent upon us to take the action in the way that would provoke the least possible friction and cause the least possible hard feelings."

“Roosevelt Warns Japs,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed March 21, 2025, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/1884.