- chievous, not to say cruel, character of the statute in question,
and how inconsistent such legislation is with the great principle of the equality of citizens before the law." Mr. Justice Harlan added that he did not wish to be understood as criticising the system of separate public schools for the races, but that his censure was directed at the penal provision of the Kentucky law involved in this case, which he considered unconstitutional, and so vitiating the whole statute.
EXCLUSION OF JAPANESE FROM PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF SAN
FRANCISCO
The second incident, which opened the question of the separation of the races in schools and which led to international comment, was the exclusion of the Japanese children from the public schools of the city of San Francisco. A law was enacted by the California Legislature[6] on March 12, 1872, which provided that school trustees should have the power to establish separate schools for Indian children and for the children of Mongolian and Chinese descent, and, when separate schools were furnished, to keep Indian, Mongolian, and Chinese children from attending any other school. The law was amended[7] in 1880, 1885, 1891, 1893, 1895, and 1903, but the provision for separation of the races remained essentially unchanged. This law was not enforced until 1901, when the labor vote became predominant. Then, according to Secretary Metcalf,[8] who investigated the conditions, the labor unionists began a crusade to exclude the Japanese laborers from California, as the Chinese had already been excluded. On May 6,
