Page:Race distinctions in American Law (IA racedistinctions00stepiala).pdf/181

 *calf to state that if there was failure to protect persons and property, then the entire power of the Federal government within the limits of the Constitution would be used promptly and vigorously to enforce the observance of our treaty, the supreme law of the land, which treaty guaranteed to the Japanese residents everywhere in the Union full and perfect protection for their persons and property, and to this end everything in my power would be done, and all the forces of the United States, both civil and military, which I could lawfully employ, would be employed." Mayor Schmitz and a number of prominent men of the city hurried across the continent to confer with the President. A troublesome point of constitutional law was involved. It was admitted that public education is distinctly a State function. A treaty is declared by the Federal Constitution[10] to be the "supreme law of the land." Is a treaty the "supreme law of the land" in the sense that the President or Supreme Court can treat as invalid a State statute which contravenes it, or must the Federal government bow in submission to that State statute even though it is counter to a treaty obligation? The treaty of 1894 with Japan accorded to the Japanese residents in the United States the rights and privileges of the "most favored nation." The State of California had declared that Mongolian children, among which were Japanese, might, at the discretion of the Board of Education, be required to go to separate schools for their race. The children of the other "most favored" nations were permitted to attend the regular public schools. Is admission to the regular public schools one of the rights and privileges guaranteed to Japanese children by the treaty, which cannot be limited by a