William Jennings Bryan to Woodrow Wilson

One of the members suggested yesterday that California might permit land ownership by the citizens of those nations which permit Americans to own land within their jurisdiction. I answered that the objection to it was that it allowed our land laws to be determined by the land laws of other nations adding that while the present laws of Japan prohibited foreign ownership the law was evaded by long term leases some as long as nine hundred and ninety nine years and that Japan had passed a law not yet in effect extending ownership on certain terms to foreigners. It occurs to me however on reflection that as a last resort it might be wise for you to advise the passage of such a bill instead of a bill containing the words “ineleigible to citizenship”. It might carry them through the present crisis and give time for diplomatic effort without seeming to. In other words it might meet the exigencies of the case and give us time to negotiate with the Japanese for the prevention of further ownership. The offer that has been suggested is as follows: quote. No alien shall be permitted to own or lease lands in California provided however that this prohibition shall not apply to the citizens of any nation which grants free and unrestricted right of land ownership to the citizens of this country. End quote. Such a law could not be objected to by the Japanese because in the law they now have under consideration they use the same condition for the protection of their citizens. As I said before this law could only be temporary in its effect because Japan would probably remove her restrictions in order to give her citizens access to the land unless we could by diplomatic negotiations prevent it. But as a temporary settlement of the question it commends itself to my judgement and I would like to have your opinion on the proposition as soon as possible.