Items of Interest November 13, 1915 Issue

Items of Interest

Agricultural or farm schools are urgently needed in the Philippine Islands, according to the director of education, who says that at least one such school should be found in every province, and that equipment should be purchased and capable teachers employed to put not less than one special course in farming in every one of the 300 intermediate schools now in existence. Considerable has already been done in the way of making a real start along this line. Day schools, known as settlement farm schools, and dormitory schools for older pupils, are now being organized in several of the provinces, and these schools are being furnished with essential equipment. Filipino teachers are rapidly replacing American intermediate teachers, so that now they constitute two thirds of the intermediate teaching force. The American teachers are being pushed up into the higher lines of instruction and supervision, and here they will be needed for a number of years, as it will be a long time before the native teachers will be prepared to handle secondary instruction alone.

The Arizona antialien labor law, enacted by the initiative vote of the people, has been declared unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court, thus affirming the decision of a special circuit court. Because several foreign governments had protested against the law, and because of its similarity to the land legislation in California, which restricts the ownership of real estate by Japanese, many lawyers looked forward to this decision for the indications it might give of the view the highest court might take of the California law if it ever got into litigation.

Justice Hughes said: "It is sought to justify this act as an exercise of the power of the state to make reasonable classifications in legislating to promote the health, safety, morals, and welfare of those within its jurisdiction. But this admitted authority, with the broad range of legislative discretion that it implies, does not go so far as to make it possible for the state to deny to lawful inhabitants, because of their race or nationality, the ordinary means of earning a livelihood. ... The authority to control immigration—to admit or exclude aliens—is vested solely in the Federal Government. The assertion of an authority to deny to aliens the opportunity of earning a livelihood when lawfully admitted to the state would be tantamount to the assertion of the right to deny entrance and abode, for in ordinary cases they cannot live where they cannot work. And, if such a policy were permissible, the practical result would be that those lawfully admitted to the country under the authority of the acts of Congress, instead of enjoying in a substantrial sense and in their full scope the privileges conferred by the admission, would be segregated in such of the states as chose to offer hospitality."

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