V University of California Berkeley ttl THE IMMIGRATION COMMISSION ABSTRACT OF THE REPORT ON JAPANESE AND OTHER IMMIGRANT RACES IN THE PACIFIC COAST AND ROCKY MOUNTAIN STATES FOR THE COMPLETE REPORT ON JAPANESE AND OTHER IMMIGRANT RACES IN THE PACIFIC COAST AND ROCKY MOUNTAIN STATES SEE REPORTS OF THE IMMIGRATION COMMISSION WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1911 THE IMMIGRATION COMMISSION. Senator WILLIAM P. DILLINGHAM, Representative BENJAMIN F. HOWELL. Chairman. Representative WILLIAM S. BENNET. Senator HENRY CABOT LODGE. Representative JOHN L. BURNETT. Senator ASBURY C. LATIMER." Mr. CHARLES P. NEILL. Senator ANSELM J. MCL/AURIN.& Mr. JEREMIAH W. JENKS. Senator LE ROY PERCY. c Mr. WILLIAM R. WHEELER. Secretaries: MORTON E\ CRANE. W. W. HUSBAND. C. S. ATKINSON. Chief Statistician: FRED C. CROXTON. Extracts from act of Congress of February 20, 1907, creating and defining the duties of the Immigration Commission. That a commission is hereby created, consisting of three Senators, to be appointed by the President of the Senate, and three Members of the House of Representatives, to be appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and three persons to be appointed by the President of the United States. Said commission shall make full inquiry, examination, and investigation, by subcommittee or otherwise, into the subject of immigration. For the purpose of said inquiry, examination, and investigation said commission is authorized to send for persons and papers, make all necessary travel, either in the United States or any foreign country, and, through the chairman of the commission, or any member thereof, to administer paths and to exam ine witnesses and papers respecting all matters pertaining to the subject, and to employ necessary clerical and other assistance. Said commission shall report to Congress the conclusions reached by it, and make such recommendations as in its judgment may seem proper. Such sums of money as may be necessary for the said inquiry, examination, and investigation are hereby appropriated and authorized to be paid out of the "immigrant fund" on the certificate of the chairman of said commission, including all expenses of the commissioners, and a reasonable compensation, to be fixed by the President of the United States, for those members of the commission who are not Members of Congress; * * *. a Died February 20, 1908. & Appointed to succeed Mr. Latimer, February 25, 1908. Died December 22, 1909. c Appointed to succeed Mr. McLaurin, March 16, 1910. LIST OF REPORTS OF THE IMMIGRATION COMMISSION. Abstract of Reports of the Immigration Commission. Emigration Conditions in Europe. Immigrants in Industries: Summary Report. (Two volumes.) Immigrants in Industries: Bituminous Coal Mining. (Two volumes.) Immigrants in Industries: Iron and Steel Manufacturing. (Two volumes.) Immigrants in Industries: Cotton Goods Manufacturing in the North Atlantic States Woolen and Worsted Goods Manufacturing. Immigrants in Industries: Silk Goods Manufacturing and Dyeing Clothing Manu facturing Collar, Cuff, and Shirt Manufacturing. Immigrants in Industries: Leather Manufacturing Boot and Shoe Manufacturing Glove Manufacturing. Immigrants in Industries: Slaughtering and Meat Packing Sugar Refining. Immigrants in Industries : Glass Manufacturing Agricultural Implement and Vehicle Manufacturing -Cigar and Tobacco Manufacturing. Immigrants in Industries: Furniture Manufacturing Copper Mining and Smelting Iron Ore Mining Anthracite Coal Mining Oil Refining. Immigrants in Industries: Diversified Industries. (Two volumes.) Immigrants in Industries: The Floating Immigrant Labor Supply. Immigrants in Industries: Recent Immigrants in Agriculture. (Two volumes.) Immigrants in Industries: Japanese and Other Immigrant Races in the Pacific Ceast and Rocky Mountain States. (Two volumes.) , Immigrants in Cities. (Two volumes.) The Children of Immigrants in Schools. (Five volumes.) Immigrants as Charity Seekers. (Two volumes.) Immigrant Delinquents and Defectives: Immigration and Crime Immigration and Insanity Immigrants in Charity Hospitals. Steerage Conditions Immigrant Homes and- Aid Societies Importation and Harbor ing of Women for Immoral Purposes Contract Labor and Induced and Assisted Immigration The Greek Padrone System in the United States Immigrant Banks. Changes in Bodily Form of Descendants of Immigrants. Statistical Review of Immigration to the United States, 1820-1910 Distribution of Immigrants, 1850-1900. Occupations of First and Second Generations of Immigrants in the United States Fecundity of Immigrant Women. Immigration Legislation: Federal Immigration Legislation Digest of Immigration Decisions Steerage Legislation, 1819 to 1909 State Immigration Legislation. Dictionary of European and Other Immigrant Races. The Immigration Situation in Other Countries: Canada Australia New Zealand Argentina Brazil. Immigration Conditions in Hawaii. rAlien Seamen and Stowaways. Peonage. Statements and Recommendations Submitted by Societies and Organizations Inter ested in the Subject of Immigration. (3) LETTER OF TRANSMITTAI. THE IMMIGRATION COMMISSION, Washington, D. C., Decembers, 1910. Sm: I have the honor to transmit herewith an abstract of the report of the Immigration Commission on Japanese and Other Immi grant Races in the Pacific Coast and Rocky Mountain States, which report was prepared under the direction of the Commission hy H. A. Millis, superintendent of agents. Respectfully, W. W. HUSBAND, Secretary. Hon. WILLIAM P. DILLINGHAM, U. S. Senate, Chairman The Immigration Commission. (4) CONTENTS. Page. Introductory Scope and method of investigation 11 European and Canadian immigrants 30 Chinese 40 Japanese 46 East Indians 62 Mexicans 68 Conclusions and recommendations 76 LIST OF TABLES. Table 1. Total population and number of foreign-born persons in continental United States and in each specified State of the Western division, by country of birth 9 2. Immigrants entering continental United States during the years 1901 to 1909, inclusive, by race 10 3. Total number of employees for whom information was secured, by sex and general nativity and race and by industry 13 4. Number and per cent of employees of each race for whom information was secured, by sex 21 5. Per cent of foreign-born employees in the United States each specified number of years, by sex and race 22 6. Number of households studied in selected farming localities of the Pacific Coast and Rocky Mountain States, by general nativity and race of head of household 25 7. Number of households studied, by general nativity and race of head of household and by occupation 26 8. Total number of persons for whom information was secured, by sex and general nativity and race of individual, and by occupation of head of household 27 9. Average wages per day earned by each specified number of farm laborers in California, by race 56 (5) JAPAiNESE AND OTHER IMMIGRANT RACES IN THE PACIFIC COAST AND ROCKY MOUNTAIN STATES. INTRODUCTORY. The immigration problem of the West takes a form somewhat dif ferent from that of the eastern and middle States, principally because of differences in location with reference to sources of immigration, comparative sparsity of population, and extent of resources remaining to be developed and exploited. The expense involved in direct immi gration to the West from Europe is so great that European immigrants are secured chiefly as a part of the general westward movement. On the other hand, the location and climate of New Mexico, Arizona, and California are such as to cause them to share with Texas most of the immigrants from Mexico, while the location of the three Pacific coast States, California, Oregon, and Washington, is such as to bring to them practically the whole of the eastern Asiatic immigra tion and the secondary movement from the Hawaiian Islands. The Rocky Mountain States, save New Mexico and Arizona, are so placed that they must compete with other States, since through them immi gration from all sources, save Canada, must come. Though the westward movement has been strong, as is indicated by the fact that in 1900 more than one-half of the native-born had come from States other than those in which they resided, the popu lation of most localities is still sparse. In 1900 the population of the 11 States and Territories comprising the Western division was only 4,091,349, or 5.37 per cent of the total for the continental United States. Though the movement of population westward has been very rapid since the census of 1900 was taken, the public lands, the large holdings capable of being subdivided and more fully utilized, the mines, smelters, lumber mills, fisheries, and general construction work present a demand for a much larger population than any of these States now has. One problem has been to settle the country more fully and to meet the demand for labor. Another has been presented by the immigration of certain races which have arrived at Pacific coast ports. The importance of the one is indicated by the activity of promotion committees at work in the Middle West and East in an effort to induce a larger movement of population west and the "recruiting'' of laborers practiced by railway companies, general contractors, beet-sugar companies, operators of mines and smelters, and, in sporadic cases, by California fruit growers. The importance of the other has made itself apparent in the general insistence upon the exclusion of laborers of certain races, which is already largely an accomplished fact. (7) 8 In 1900, 846,321, or 20.7 per cent, of the 4,091,349 persons reported by the census as living in the 1 1 States and Territories of the Western division, were foreign-born. Two per cent of the population and about one-tenth of the foreign-born had immigrated from Asia. About one-eighth of the total population and more than three-fifths of the foreign-born had immigrated from north European countries, the Germans with 135,459, the English with 102,656, the Irish with 83,532, and the Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes with 116,175 being the most conspicuous elements. Some 89,800 immigrants from Canada, or 2.2 per cent of the population, may be added to this group as being largely of the same stock. Beside these, there were 107,860 who had immigrated from south and east European countries, forming 2.6 per cent of the population of the Western divi sion. Among the latter the Italians were the most numerous, fol lowed by the various races of Austria, the Finns, and the Portuguese. Finally, 29,579 Mexicans had found a place in the population, con stituting 0.7 per cent of the whole. The table which follows shows the population of each State of the Western division, and of the continental United States, in 1900, together with the total number of foreign-born and the number of the same born in each specified country, and the percentage of each nationality in the United States residing in the Western division. The countries from which the immigration has been small are not included in the table. 6 be I! S I . -CCOiOC5t-* (N r-( i-l CO (N <> 00 (NCO .-I- t liOOCi^CC T THC<|t-HlC CO i-H T-H r 00 C II In 2 fe 10. The more important changes in the population since 1900 have been incidental to (1) A rapid influx from 1900 to 1907 of Japanese (with a few Koreans) from Japan or Hawaii, or both, until the number of that .race now residing in the Western division is in excess of 90,000, more than one-half of whom are in California and one-sixth in Washington ; (2) A diminishing number of Chinese, their decline being due to the exclusion law and a tendency exhibited by the members of that race to move to the eastern cities; (3) An influx of Mexicans continued until the number in the Western States has increased several fold; (4) A continued influx of English, Scandinavians, and other north Europeans, in part a direct immigration, in part a westward movement of industrial workers before the increasing number of south and east Europeans employed in industry in the East, and in part a westward movement of families, generally to locate on farms; (5) An influx of immigrants from southern and eastern European countries, the smaller part of them, except in the case of the ^North Italians, Spanish, Portuguese, and Dalmatians, coming directly from their native land, much the larger number coming from the States in the East to engage in common or semiskilled labor on the railways, in the mines and smelters, and other industries in which much unskilled labor is required and in which laborers are employed in large numbers. The percentage of the immigrants of each race, save the Japanese, arriving in the United States between July 1, 1900, and June 30, 1909, who gave some State of the Western division as their desti nation, is shown in the following table. The Japanese who arrived are not given, for the reports of the Commissioner-General of Immi gration do not include those who have come to the mainland from the Hawaiian Islands. More than 90 per cent of them have remained in the Western division. The number of Chinese destined to the Western division of States, as given below, is much too small, but correct data in this regard are not available for the reason that during the first three years of the period under consideration the Bureau of Immigration did not record the destination of Chinese entering the United States at the port of San Francisco. It should be added, also, that the figure given for Mexicans is not complete, for the reason that until 1908 the Bureau of Immigration did not record the number of Mexican immigrants entering the United States overland. There fore, the number admitted and the number destined to the Western division of States, during the period considered, are both too low. 11 TABLE 2. Immigrants entering continental United States during the years 1901 to 1909 , inclusive, 'by race. [Compiled from reports of the Commissioner-General of Immigration, 1901-1909.] Race. Total number entering continental United States, 1901 to 1909. Number giving Western division as destina tion. Per cent giving Western division as destina tion. Armenian .. 19, 333 769 4.0 Bohemian and Moravian 86 132 1 454 1 7 Bulgarian, Servian, and Montenegrin 81,958 4, 206 5.1 Chinese 15 149 8 804 58.1 Croatian and Slovenian 270, 157 16,908 6.3 Dalmatian, Bosnian, and Herzegovinian 25, 739 5,959 23.2 Dutch and Flemish 69, 934 4,190 6.0 East Indian 3,843 2,908 75 7 English 332 113 44 179 13 3 Finnish 117,311 11,503 9.8 French 89 566 12,415 13 9 German 626,256 35,910 5.7 Greek 171,648 9,290 5 4 Hebrew . . . 891,995 5,461 .6 Irish... 333, 335 15,234 4.6 Italian North 311 303 66 098 21 2 Italian, South 1,568,914 9,906 1.9 Lithuanian 135 37' ? 484 4 Magyar 291,370 963 .3 Mexican 9 3 083 a 4 492 19 Polish 745, 306 2,990 .4 Portuguese 56 301 8 763 15.6 Roumanian 68,011 352 .5 Russian 63, 257 4,390 6.9 Ruthenian 115 36 408 4 Scandinavian . ... 477,860 51,818 10.8 Scotch 108 38 13 456 12 4 Slovak 300, 027 1,976 .7 Spanish 36 108 7,383 20 4 Syrian 43. 560 790 1.8 Turkish 11 433 195 1.7 Welsh 16,376 1 , 655 10 1 a 17,486 Mexicans were recorded as destined to Texas during the period considered. SCOPE AND METHOD OF INVESTIGATION. The investigation conducted by the Commission in the West was planned to include (1) a study of the industrial and social conditions of immigrants in the more important industries, (2) a study of selected immigrant races in some of the larger cities, (3) a special study of agricultural laborers and of immigrant farmers, and (4) a detailed examination of Japanese, Korean and East Indian immi gration in its various phases, the emphasis to be placed upon the last named because it presents a problem peculiar to the Pacific coast and with reference to which the fullest possible information was to be desired. No special investigation of Chinese immigration was planned. Most of the Chinese now in the United States have resided here so long and have lived and worked under such conditions that an investigation of them along the lines adopted for other races would not show the effects of a free or of a restricted immigration, nor would the data be comparable with those collected for other races. The difficulties involved in ,the administration of the exclusion law have been so great that the Chinese laborers were very suspicious of the motives of the Commission's agents so that it was found difficult in most places to secure any data of value from them. The slight 12 investigation made of Chinese immigration was, therefore, purely incidental to the investigation of industries in which they are or have been employed. The most important industries of the West from the point of view of the number of men and especially the number of immigrants employed, are steam railroad transportation, with a probable total of 75,000 employees; metalliferous mining and smelting, with a total of between 125,000 and 150,000; coal mining, with a total of more than 36,000 in 1908; the lumber industry, with 57,657 in 1905; electric rail way transportation, with almost 20,000 in 1907; general construction work, the growing of sugar beets and manufacture of beet sugar, and hop, fruit, and vegetable growing, especially in California, with their allied industries ; and the fishing industry of the Northwestern States and Alaska. These industries, together with others of less importance but which were of interest in connection with certain phases of the problem, have been investigated. The investigation included the collection of individual schedules from the employees of the selected establishments ; the testimony of employers, foremen, and others with reference to certain points ; and pay rolls in so far as such data would supplement those obtained in other ways, and where the pay rolls were in such form that they would be suitable for tabulation. The industries investigated, the total number of persons for whom sched ules were obtained, and the number of each race, by sex and nativity, in each industry upon which a special report is submitted, as well as the length of residence in the United States of employees, are shown in tbp tables following. seoqg e spoo uo^oo pus 'S8II8UUBO qsij 'S8U8UUB3 S : i-H lOl-H ^H O5 CO ^H Ol 1-1 CO *^ r-l :Si : ci os a U l 14 -"" -i w 'O (> ro ?3 S" jaqtnnq MOO spoo3 uo^oo -oj pus I 9 jmaj ' IMCO *< ^H .-i ;D co oo ;o t- i -^.;5'3-iH -;i ? oo -i-i o cc >o OJ O O CC ^H rH < IN t- Oi (M O5 a ^H t^ 00 W * O IM i-H < iOO t^- ^t* T i t-i CC 00 CC SO CO O <*4 Qk IQ M D >C C4 iH ^,-00 88 :MM co^iN oo o r-i' ii j! t ; I I 16 <-( CO C^ ^< U 10 ii' m ** 4 *e tal nativ born, by enian 17 o e* . . M t>. co (N 00 l-l CO *-HO O5 c^i c ^fl 1-1 S^^ CMS^CMCM 0^ CM^CM General nativity and race. : 8 : : . C8 c , . , i ! i i ': ' i i i i : i i i i i i : i i ': i ! g : "s . . ; ! o . . Idi IgU i r 19 ss^ H i-H O> Q CO rH 5 '-SIS t-- O rH rHCO -CO rH fN ' rH . rH (N 1C S 1 rH i-H O CO 00 ^ t- 50 < 00 CO * (N (N ; ^ J !, '-" H ^ rH "# C rH rH CO rH I Tf O5 * : >C CO JtNOi^Or- *O>C^^OCOCO 1C COr-H M I S 00 CO Tfi (N IN < rn, by n ian ian an n , Fr , Ot -3 gi-s-si-S||^.| fl i^ ja : |-s'Si^i j -s |lllaS)*1iiS-||2i ) alai'S aati' i<*~aa-~r,>^~-v> 2P* o si S C S flUIiaassia ^^ 2 D8SUS.S&S--g S : i^g^g !WjSSS - ! saoqg sno 5 '3uraiH i '8trnnj>^ spooS uo^oo oocreqoj PUB sa^Sio RWruj qs^' aequmu it^oj, O - :s-; ; : %* CO Tt< 1C 00 I-H OS 1C < o.-i:o H-H ) C --I Q -H 1C 00 .5 .l Magyar 6 94 Mexican . ... Montenegrin . . . Negro Norwegian 11 Persian Polish 2 334 3 43 ""~27~ 2 Portuguese Roumanian . Russian Ruthenian Scotch Scotch-Irish Slovak 3 11 21 22 2 Slovenian . Spanish Swedish Syrian Turkish Welsh 3 14 i West Indian (other than Cuban) \ustralian (race not specified) Austrian (race not specified) South American (race not specified). . . Swiss (race not specified) 2 Grand total 75,830 4,882 80,712 100.0 100.0 100.0 Total native-born of foreign father 9,265 27,419 48,411 1,189 2, 786 2,096 10,454 30, 205 50, 507 12.2 36.2 63.8 24.4 57.1 42.9 13.0 37.4 62.6 Total native-born Total foreign-born o Less than 0.05 per cent. TABLE 5. Per cent of foreign-born employees in the United States each specified number of years, by sex and race. [By years in the United States is meant years since first arrival in the United States. No deduction is made for time spent abroad. This table includes in each section only races with 80 or more reporting. The totals, however, are for all races.] MALE. Number Race. reporting complete data. Under 1. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5 to 9. 10 to 14. 15 to 19. 20 or over. Armenian . . . 80 11.3 15.0 7.5 10.0 12.5 23.8 15.0 2.5 2.5 Bohemian and Moravian 156 2.6 3.8 13.5 17.9 7.1 18.6 9.0 7.7 19.9 Bulgarian 126 1.6 42.9 31.7 7.9 4.0 7.9 2.4 .8 .8 Canadian French 175 1.1 1.1 1.7 .0 1.1 6.9 10.3 17.7 60.0 Canadian, Other 1,388 1.9 2.7 3.5 3.4 1.8 12.9 11.7 12.2 49.9 Chinese 628 .5 .6 .6 .0 .2 1.6 2.4 3.2 90.9 Croatian 1,484 1.6 5.2 11.9 13.1 8.6 35.4 11.1 8.0 5.1 Dalmatian 670 1.3 10.3 26.9 15.2 10.9 23.4 5.4 2.7 3.9 Danish 433 .9 2.3 4.8 3.5 6.5 14.1 6.7 16.4 44.8 Dutch 122 4.9 4.9 11.5 7.4 13.1 14.8 10.7 9.8 23.0 East Indian 394 5.1 26.4 47.7 18.8 1.5 .0 .0 .0 .5 English.. 3,304 2.7 5.9 8.7 5.7 4.5 12.1 6.5 9.9 44.1 Finnish 803 1.9 2.4 7.7 7.1 7.8 30.3 14.3 14.6 13.9 French 347 3.5 6.3 6.1 5.2 4.9 22.8 8.4 12.1 30.8 German 2,081 1.8 5.0 6.2 3.7 2.7 14.4 5.3 11.5 49.4 Greek 2,558 2.4 17.8 29.4 19.5 10.6 18.9 .8 .2 .4 Herzegovinian 294 3.1 12.2 24.1 23.1 11.6 20.1 3.4 1.0 1.4 Irish . . 3,125 1.3 3.4 6.7 4.8 5.3 15.1 10.9 10.0 42.4 Italian North 4,451 3.2 10.0 18.8 13.3 9.1 25.9 7.9 5.7 6.1 Italian, South.. 2,025 2.9 8.7 16.5 12.7 8.9 29.7 9.2 6.8 4.6 Japanese 8,314 .9 5.3 12.9 22.9 15.7 33.4 7.7 1.0 .2 Korean 214 .0 .9 9.3 35.5 34.1 19.2 .0 .0 .9 Lithuanian . . . 86 1.2 1.2 3.5 8.1 3.5 40.7 12.8 15.1 14.0 23 TABLE 5. Per cent of foreign-born employees in the United States each specified number of years, by sex and race Continued. MALE Continued. Race. Number reporting complete data. Per cent in United States each specified number of years. Under 1. i 2. ; 3. 4. 5 to 9. 10 to 14. 15 to 19. 20 or over. Magyar 210 6,115 409 1,027 427 581 377 757 106 467 1,180 269 1 752 1.9 14.2 2^0 2.8 1.0 10.3 2.9 1.9 1.7 3.2 (i.3 1.1 1.1 1.5 6. 2 | 9. 5 11.8 14.3 6. 6 30. 1 7.0 11.4 5.2 11.9 8. 6 ! 10. 2 18.8 i 17.8 4.4 8.2 8. 5 ! 22. 6 6.4 ! 9.9 3.5 13.2 32. 7 24. 2 4.3 , 5.1 16.1 ; 54.8 4.9 7.6 14.3 11.2 31.5 8.1 16.4 6.4 9.5 4.5 11.3 4.7 10.9 7.1 3.8 14.0 3.7 10.5 7.3 13.4 5.6 8.7 6.5 4.0 3.7 7.5 4.7 9.2 5.6 3.8 7.5 4.9 33.8 24.3 16.4 22.6 25.1 22.5 20.7 12.2 33.0 25.5 31.0 13.4 19.8 6.5 7.9 8.6 8.2 .5 5.6 10.5 9.1 6.9 5.2 5.7 13.5 12.7 3.3 7.1 .0 3.4 8.6 4.4 .5 9.0 9.4 10.5 5.8 8.3 7.5 10.7 9.3 3.0 15.3 .0 6.6 6.7 4. a .2 28. 8- 10.) 25.1 6.1 50.7 1.9 22.9 6.9- 4.5 39.8- .0 59.5 Mexican . . Montenegrin Norwegian Polish Portuguese Russian Scotch Servian Slovak Slovenian.. . Spanish Turkish 93 407 Welsh. .. Total 48,229 3.ti 7.8 13.5 12.2 8.3 22.9 7.6 6.4 17.8 FEMALE. Armenian 91 14 3 7 7 4 4 12 1 8 8 37 4 12 1 2 2 1 i German 300 2.3 17.0 12.7 1.7 2.3 28.3 9.3 10.7 15.7 Italian North 426 7 3 15 5 11 9 2 6 3 6 1 8 7 3 9 4 Italian, South . 291 2.4 12.0 9 6 6.9 6.5 31 6 14 8 10 6 2 Japanese Mexican 114 93 15.8 1.1 7.9 1.1 16.7 8 6 29.8 7.5 14.0 6 5 9.6 41 9 3.5 11 8 1.8 9 7 .9 11 8. Portuguese 334 1.5 10.5 13.5 12.3 9.3 25.4 6.0 8.4 13.2 Total 2.08*1 5.1 11.4 10.9 8.7 6.5 25.3 8.8 9.0 14.3; TOTAL. Armenian 171 12 9 11 1 5 8 11 1 10 5 31 13 5 2 3 1 8- Bohemian and Moravian Bosnian 160 80 2.5 12.5 3.8 21.3 13.1 35.0 17.5 7.5 8.1 5.0 18.8 11.3 8.8 1.3 7.5 1.3 20.0 5.0 Bulgarian 126 1.6 42.9 31.7 7.9 4.0 7 9 2 4 .8 .8- Canadian, French 180 1.1 1.1 1.7 .0 1.1 6.7 10.0 17.8 60. f> Canadian, Other 1,421 1 9 2.8 3.4 3.3 1 8 12.9 11.9 12.5 49.5 Chinese 629 .5 .8 .6 .0 .2 1.6 2.4 3.2 90. & Croatian 1,488 1.6 5.2 12.0 13.0 8 5 35 3 11 1 7 9 5.2 Dalmatian 672 1.3 10.3 26.8 15.3 10.9 23.5 5.4 2.7 3.& Danish 446 1.1 2.2 4.7 3 6 6 3 14 1 6 5 16 8 44.6 Dutch 122 4.9 4.9 11.5 7.4 13.1 14.8 10.7 9.8 23.0 East Indian 394 5.1 26.4 47.7 18 8 1 5 .5 English 3,360 2.6 5.8 8.7 5.6 4.5 12.0 6.6 10.1 44. Finnish 803 1.9 2.4 7.7 7 l 7.8 30 3 14 3 14.6 13. & French 403 3.5 6.5 8.2 5.5 5.5 22.1 8.9 11.4 28.5 German 2,381 1 9 6.5 7.1 3.5 2.6 16 1 5.8 11.4 45.1 Greek 2,561 2.4 17.8 29.4 19.4 10.5 18.9 .9 .2 .4 Herzegovinian 296 3.0 12.2 24.0 23 11 5 20 3 3 4 1.0 1.7 3,198 1.3 3.3 6.7 4.7 5.2 15.0 10.8 10.1 42.9- Italian, North 4.877 3.5 10.5 18.1 12.9 8.9 25 9 7.9 5.9 6.4 Italian South 2 316 2 8 9 1 15 6 12 8 6 30 9 9 7 2 4 8 Japanese 8,428 1.1 5.3 12.9 23.0 15.7 33.1 7.7 1.0 .2 Korean 216 .0 .9 10.2 35.2 33.8 19.0 .0 .0 .9 Lithuanian 86 1.2 1.2 3.5 8.1 3.5 40.7 12.8 15.1 14.0 Magvar 216 2.3 6.0 9.7 13.9 10.6 33.8 8.8 8.3 6.5 Mexican . . . 6. 208 14.0 11.7 14.2 11.1 7.3 24.5 8.2 4.4 4.4 Montenegrin 409 .7 6.6 30.1 31.5 13.4 16.4 5 .5 .2 Norwegian . 1.038 2.0 6.9 11.3 8.0 5.5 22.7 5.5 9.1 29. Polish 429 2 8 5.4 11.9 16.3 8 6 24 9 10 5 9 3 10.3 Portuguese. . 915 1.2 9.3 11.4 8.5 7.5 23.6 8.0 9.7 20. & Russian 420 10.0 19.8 17.9 11.2 4 5 19 3 6.2 5 7 5.5 Scotch . . . 784 2.9 4.5 8.2 4.3 3.8 12.0 51 8.7 50.5 Servian 106 1.9 8.5 22.6 11.3 7.5 33.0 5.7 7.5 1.9 Slovak Slovenian 470 1.191 1.7 3.2 6.8 3.7 9.8 13.2 4.7 11.1 4.7 9.1 25.3 31.1 13.4 12.6 10.6 9.2 23.0 6. fV Spanish Swedish 290 1,774 10.0 1.1 30.7 4.3 22.4 5.0 6.6 3.7 5.5 3.8 13.8 19.8 3.1 7.2 3.1 15.2 4.8' 39.8 Turkish. . . 93 1.1 16.1 54.8 14.0 7.5 6.5 .0 .0 .O Welsh ... . 410 1.5 5.1 7.6 3.7 4.9 8.0 3 7 6.6 59. Total 50, 31 5 3.7 7.9 13.4 12.0 8.3 23.0 7.6 6.5 17.6 24 The investigation of agriculture as planned embraced a study of farmers of different races in California, Oregon, Washington, Colo rado, and Utah, of Mexicans in Arizona and New Mexico, and of agricultural labor in intensive farming. The investigation of agri cultural labor embraced a study of sugar-beet growing in all of the Western States in which the industry finds a place, the growing of liops in California and Oregon , and the growing of different kinds of fruits, vegetables, and grapes in California, together with the closely Dallied packing, canning, and wine-making industries. In general, the methods used were the same as in the investigation of the various industries before mentioned except that it was necessary to place more emphasis uj>on the collection of data from other sources and less Tipon the collection of personal schedules from laborers. However, individual schedules were obtained from 9,846 agricultural laborers, principally in California, while more detailed schedules were ob tained from 733 others. With the exception of beet sugar, no effort was made to cover an industry in its entirety, but localities in which the best opportunities for the study of immigration were offered were selected for careful investigation. The original plans of the commission included a study of immi grant families in several cities in the Western division of States, but the inquiry was finally limited to Los Angeles, and a report based Swedish 31 1 .... 4 21 6 Total j 27 15 856 93 175 68 25 I 55 20 20 24 15 24 20 28 41 36 50 23 97 The investigation covered all of the industries in which Japanese and East Indians have in any considerable number found employ ment. It included an investigation of Japanese farming in all of the States in which many of that race are occupied and of Japanese business in eleven cities. In investigating Japanese business, data as to households and families were collected, together with informa tion regarding the business conducted, such as the amount of capital employed, the approximate value of annual transactions, the rental value of the property occupied, the number, occupations, races, and wages of employees, the provision made for boarding and lodging employees, patronage by white and oriental races, and, if in mer cantile trade, the proportions of oriental and other products dealt in. These schedules were collected in six cities where the number of Jap anese in business was sufficiently large to warrant it, and in collecting schedules an effort was made to secure them from representative per sons. As much supplementary information as possible was obtained, and the business inquiries were made of a few members of other races engaged in branches of business in which Japanese competition had been keenly felt. From 395 of the 3,000 or more East Indians indi vidual schedules were obtained, and 24 groups containing 79 laborers of that race have been studied in detail. Of the 90,000 or more Jap anese, 8,442 laborers were studied by means of individual schedules; family schedules were obtained for 360 groups of wage-earners in cities and those engaged in independent business, for 530 households 26 of farmers, their partners, and' farm laborers employed by them, and for 45 groups of laborers working in coal mines or lumber mills, and as section hands. In addition to this material, information from individual and family schedules for 1,517 foreign-born Japanese, not included in connection with other reports, was used in discussing several features in the general summary of Japanese in the Western States. The number of individual schedules collected and tabulated in connection with the various reports is shown in Table 3 (p. 13). The number of household groups for which schedules were obtained, together with the number of persons in these households, is shown in the following tables: TABLE 7. Number of households studied, by general nativity and race of head of house hold, and by occupation. General nativity and race of head of household. Total num ber of households. 1 ? J 2 17 46 28 30 209 31 175 209 125 890 37 11 87 27 28 31 Number where head of household is Fanner or farm laborer. In business for self or wage-earner in city. Native-born of foreign father, by race of father: Danish . 1 ? ! 2 17 46 German Norwegian . ... Portuguese Swedish Foreign-born: Danish Finnish '"28 30 163 French . . . "'46' 31 "'92' 59 530 German German-Russian Hebrew 175 117 66 360 37 Italian North Italian, South .. . Japanese Mexican Norwegian . . . 11 55 Portuguese 32 27 28 Russian Slovenian i~ Swedish Total ol,996 933 1,063 a In addition to this number a study has been made of 24 groups of East Indian laborers in lumber trails and -rope factories, and of 45 groups of Japanese (5 groups of coal miners, 13 groups of railroad laborers, and 27 groups of laborers in lumber mills). .27 28 n3 * |1 Is I fl 3 m 29 The results of the western investigation are submitted in a number of reports, the titles of which are shown in the classified list presented below. The most general of the results of the western investigation are briefly stated in the following pages of this report. JAPANESE AND EAST INDIANS. Japanese. PART I. THE JAPANESE IMMIGRANTS IN THE PACIFIC COAST AND ROCKY MOUNTAIN STATES. II. THE JAPANESE IN CITY EMPLOYMENTS AND BUSINESS IN THE PRINCIPAL CITIES OF THE PACIFIC COAST AND ROCKY MOUNTAIN STATES. Introduction. San Francisco, Cal. Los Angeles, Cal. Sacramento, Cal. State of Washington (with special reference to Seattle). Portland, Oreg. Denver, Colo. Salt Lake City and Ogden, Utah. State of Idaho. East Indians. III. THE EAST INDIANS ON THE PACIFIC COAST. AGRICULTURE. PART I. IMMIGRANT LABOR IN AGRICULTURE AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES OF THE WESIV ERN STATES. Immigrant labor in California agricultural industries. Immigrant labor in the beet-sugar industries in the Western States. Immigrant labor in the hop industry of California and Oregon. Immigrant labor in selected agricultural and allied industries in Calk fornia: Immigrant labor in the deciduous-fruit industry in the Vaca Valley. Immigrant labor in the garden and deciduous-fruit industries of Santa Clara County. Immigrant labor in the orchards about Suisun. Immigrant labor in the citrus-fruit industry. Immigrants in the Newcastle district. The celery industry of Orange County. Immigrants in the Imperial Valley. Immigrant labor in fruit and vegetable canneries. The wine-making industry. II. IMMIGRANT FARMERS IN THE WESTERN STATES. Introduction: Immigrant farmers in the Western States. Immigrant farming in selected localities: California Immigrant farming on the reclaimed lands of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. Japanese farmers of Los Angeles County. Japanese tenant and landowning farmers of the Florin district. Immigrants in the fruit industries of Newcastle district. Japanese farmers in the Pajaro Valley. Japanese berry growers and gardeners about Alviso and Agnews. Japanese truck gardeners about Sacramento, with comparisons with the Italians. North Italian farmers of Sonoma County. Italian vegetable gardeners of San Francisco County. Scandinavian farmers in Santa Clara County. Scandinavian farmers in San Luis Obispo County. German and German- American farmers of Anaheim, Orange County. Portuguese farmers about San Leandro. 30 I*ART II. IMMIGRANT FARMERS IN THE WESTERN STATES Continued. Immigrant farming in selected localities Continued. Other localities Immigrant farming about Seattle and Tacoma, Wash. Japanese and Italian farmers in Oregon. Japanese and German-Russian farmers of northern Colorado. South Italian truck gardeners near Denver, Colo. Japanese farmers of northern Utah. III. IMMIGRANTS IN FRESNO COUNTY, CAL. DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRIES. ART I. IMMIGRANT LABORERS EMPLOYED BY STEAM RAILWAY COMPANIES IN THE PACIFIC COAST AND ROCKY MOUNTAIN STATES. II. IMMIGRANT LABORERS EMPLOYED BY STREET RAILWAY COMPANIES OPERAT ING IN THE CITIES OF THE PACIFIC COAST AND ROCKY MOUNTAIN STATES. III. IMMIGRANT LABOR IN THE METALLIFEROUS MINING, SMELTING, AND REFINING INDUSTRY OF THE WESTERN STATES. IV. IMMIGRANT LABOR IN THE COAL AND COKE INDUSTRY OF THE WESTERN STATES. V. IMMIGRANTS IN THE LUMBER AND SHINGLE INDUSTRIES OF OREGON AND WASHINGTON. VI. IMMIGRANT LABOR IN OTHER INDUSTRIES IN THE WESTERN STATES. Immigrant labor in the manufacture of cement. Salmon canneries on the Columbia River and Puget Sound. Immigrant laborers in the Alaskan fish canneries. Immigrant labor in the manufacture of cigars and cigarettes in San Fran cisco, Cal. Immigrant labor in the powder factories of California. Immigrants in Los Angeles. EUROPEAN AND CANADIAN IMMIGRANTS. In their economic and social positions there is a more or less clearly defined difference between the immigrants from the British Isles, France, Germany, the Scandinavian countries, and Canada, on the one hand, and those from the south and east European countries on the other. The Mexicans, the Chinese, Koreans and Japanese, and the East Indians constitute three distinct groups. The smaller groups from western Asia also stand by themselves. It seems best to deal first of all with European and Canadian immigration and then with each of the Asiatic races and the Mexicans separately. By so doing the immigrant races which are found almost entirely in the Western division are segregated and may be given the emphasis which the circumstances demand. The difference between the north European and Canadian and the south and east European groups is closely connected with the fact that the former represents the older, the latter, with minor exceptions, the newer immigration. Many Germans, English, Irish, Scotch, Welsh, and English Canadians, and a smaller number of French and Scandinavians were among the earlier settlers of the Western States. These settlers have been followed by others who immigrated directly, and frequently as families, with the expectation of becoming permanent residents, and by still others who have migrated along with a larger number of natives from the eastern and middle States. With the exception of the more recent non-English- speaking immigrants who have come directly to the Western States very little and no essential difference is found between these north European immigrants, their offspring, and the Americans born of 31 native father. Here and there colonies of Germans, of Swedes, and of Danes are found. All of these races have their own societies; most of them exhibit a strong tendency to progress in certain directions as the Scandinavians from industrial occupations to farm ownership, and the races of the British Isles in industry and trade but occupy the same industrial and economic position as the native-born. They and the natives constitute the great majority of the business and salaried classes and as wage-earners occupy most of the skilled and better remunerated positions in industry. The less capable and steady and the newer immigrants without industrial training find a place as unskilled laborers. With the south and east Europeans, however, the situation is dif ferent, particularly where the majority of the representatives have immigrated to the United States and the locality within recent years. With minor exceptions, which are becoming more numerous, they occupy lower industrial, economic, and social positions and stand apart from the natives and Americanized north Europeans, who constitute the majority of the population. In the industries investigated in the West it was found that the Italians, Greeks, Slavs, Finns, and other less important south and east European immigrants, together with the Mexicans and Asiatics, constitute the great majority of those employed in general construc tion work, as section hands on the railways, common laborers in railway shops and smelters, and a large percentage, when not a majority, of the common laborers in lumber yards and mills, in the underground work in coal and ore mines, and in salmon fisheries. The inferior position occupied by them in the large industries has been made evident in the industrial reports submitted by an occu pational tabulation of the employees. A large number of Italians and of members of a few other south or east European races have immigrated directly to the West dur ing recent years. A much larger number have gradually worked their way west or have been " recruited" by employment agents and "bosses" in cities of the Middle West or obtained by advertising from places farther east. With the exception of the Poles, a majority of all south and east European races which were employed in large numbers in industries investigated have been in the United States less than ten years, and in the cases of the Dalmatians, Greeks, Herzegovinians, North Italians, Montenegrins, and Russians more than half have been here less than five years. More than a third of several other races have resided in this country less than five years. A rather large number of Italians, Slovaks, and Slovenians have been in the United States as long as twenty years, but the great majority of the south and east European immigrants have been introduced into these industries within the last fifteen years. In general, they have entered the less desirable occupations which have been gradually vacated by the natives and north Europeans as these races have found more remunerative places in industry or have withdrawn to engage in business or farming. They have supplied the demand for unskilled labor at the prevailing or slowly advancing wages which were insuf ficient to retain the former employees. This gradual movement during the last twelve or fifteen years has brought about a radical change in the racial composition of the labor supply. 32 Few instances of race displacement by Europeans working at a lower wage have been found. Indeed, with the rapid expansion of industry, the immigrants introduced for construction work have at times been paid more than those previously employed, the numbers of the latter being insufficient to meet the increasing demand, but such instances are unusual. In most cases when more men have been needed they have been available from the more recent immigration at the prevailing wage. Italians and Greeks have been employed as section hands on the railroads, as laborers about mines, smelters, coke ovens, and lumber mills at a lower wage than other white men, including the Slavs, but to such a limited extent as to be unimportant. Generally they have been paid the u white man's wage." These south and east European races have on several occasions been introduced as strike breakers, as, for example, in the coal mines of Colorado, New Mexico, and Washington, and in the metalliferous mines of Colorado. In such cases they have made possible the reten tion of the old scale of remuneration, because of the failure of the strikes, and have discouraged the efforts of the trade unions. The numbers introduced for such purposes have, however, been relatively few, and their use in this connection is an exception to the general conditions of their advent in western industry. Although there has been little underbidding by them, the effect of the introduction of the south and east European races into the indus tries has been important. The availability of such a supply of unskilled laborers has, on the one hand, assisted greatly in the expan sion of industry, while, on the other, it has seriously retarded the advance of wages in those occupations where such labor could be advantageously used. A striking example of this retardation is found in the rate of wages of section hands on the various steam railways, which has varied little during the last fifteen years, while the wages of others have materially increased. Japanese and Mexicans have been largely employed at this work, but the recent European immi gration has also played an important part in the situation. Wages of Japanese have advanced materially, but those of the south and east European and Mexican races have increased only slightly. The statement that the employment of immigrants has retarded the advance of wages is further substantiated by the fact that in those localities where south and east European immigrants are largely employed the rate of wages is noticeably lower than in those where natives and north European immigrants predominate in the labor supply. An example of this is afforded by a comparison of the earn ings of street-railway employees in various communities. In one locality in the State of Washington where natives and north Euro peans constituted the majority of those employed, wages for main tenance of way and construction laborers varied from $2.25 to $2.50 per day, while in another community near by, where Italians and Greeks were largely employed, similar labor received a wage varying from $1.75 to $2.25. In three California localities where the south and east European element predominated in the construction and maintenance of way " gangs," the prevailing wages ranged between $1.75 and $2.25 per day, while in two localities where natives and north Europeans were largely employed the rates varied between $2 and $2.50 and $2.25 and $3 per day, respectively. Other instances 33 of this retardation might be cited from the various industries, as, for example, the wages earned by coal miners in northern Colorado and the employees of ore mines and smelters in Montana, where the natives and north Europeans are generally employed, which wages are considerably higher than those paid for similar work in other localities where a large percentage of south and east Europeans are employed. The influence of the trade unions in this connection should be noted, however, for in both the Montana and the Colorado districts men tioned union organization is strong and has been chiefly responsible for securing and maintaining the higher rates of wages which obtain there. But the maintenance of higher rates has been accomplished in a large measure by attracting skilled men of the older immigration from nonunion districts and keeping out, by means of public sentiment, and in some cases by other means, the cheaper immigrant labor from south and east Europe. On the other hand, in exceptional instances high wages have been secured by means of organization in localities where the more recent immigrants predominate. A striking example of this condition is found in the Wyoming coal fields, where 85.9 per cent of the employees were foreign-born, and of these 39.9 per cent south and east Europeans, and 20.6 per cent Orientals. In spite of this preponderance of the last-mentioned races union rates obtain similar to those in effect in northern Colorado, and the wages and earnings of the miners are high. Conditions in Wyoming are, how ever, somewhat unusual. In general, it is true that the lack of union organization and the prevalence of relatively low wages are coextensive with the predominance of south and east Europeans in the labor supply. As noted above, the immigrants from south and east Europe have found unskilled work in the expanding industries of the West. Their influx and the gradual withdrawal of natives and north Europeans from the less remunerative branches of work have developed rather sharp occupational differences between the various races employed and corresponding differences in their earnings. A comparatively small' percentage of the south and east Europeans are engaged in skilled occupations in the large industries, and those who are so employed are for the most part Xorth Italians, Slovenians, and Slovaks, who have been in this country somewhat longer than the others of the same general group. The slight occupational progress shown is largely traceable to their recent immigration. They have not the knowledge of American methods of industry and the familiarity with the English language which are essential in skilled or super visory positions. These obstacles have been less easily overcome by members of this race group because of their tendenc} r to "colonize" and their consequent treatment as separate groups by employers. In fact, it is the avowed policy of many employers who use south and east Europeans to a considerable extent to keep them segregated as much as possible in order to avoid any display of race antipathy and to simplify supervision. The few members of these races who occupy supervisory positions are in most cases foremen of "gangs" of men of their own race, in which capacity they are very effective because of their knowledge of the language and habits of the men the} 7 oversee. 6853411 3 34 The progress of the various races employed in the industries of the West toward assimilation is indicated in some measure by the pro portions who have learned to speak English. Comparing them on the basis of length of residence in the United States, it is clear that a fairly distinct line may be drawn between the north European races on the one hand and the south and east Europeans on the other. This difference is most marked among those immigrants who have been in the United States less than five years. Approximately four- fifths of the members of non-English-speaking north European races who have resided in this country less than five years speak English, as opposed to less than half of most of the races of the other group. It should be noted, however, that of the south and east Europeans the Finns, Dalmatians, and Croatians show the greatest progress, while the least advance is noticeable among the Russians, Slovaks, Herzegoviniuns, and North and South Italians. Among those who have resided in the United States from five to nine years there is not so marked a difference between the members of the two race groups. Approximately nine- tenths of the north Europeans speak English, while some four-fifths of the Russians, the Croatians, the Ilerzegovinians, the Creeks, and the I\ Montenegrins have gained a command of our tongue. The proportions of the other south and east European races who speak English are somewhat lower, only about three-fifths of the North and South Italians having acquired the language. Practically all of the north Europeans the length of whose residence in this country has been ten years or over speak English. Moreover, approximately nine-tenths of the members of the most important south and east European races of similar length of residence speak English. Among the older immigrants those reporting the least progress are Poles, Portuguese, Slovaks, and South Italians. Thus it is evident that the wide difference as shown between the north Europeans and the south and east Europeans during the first four years of residence in this country, tends to disappear in later years and that the south and east Europeans are much handicapped in the beginning is very clear. They are given the most unskilled and disagreeable work, when first employed, and are usually placed in " gangs " of their own race, under bosses who speak their native language. Where this is not the case they are avoided by their fellow-workmen of other races who speak English, while few of their own race have been in the country long enough to become familiar with our language. Thus they have little chance to associate with English-speaking people at their work, and it is commonly true that this segregation is carried into their home life. The single men, and the married men whose wives are abroad, are often herded into "bunk houses " in race groups, and boarded as race groups either by private individuals or oy the employers. Furthermore, the men with families usually " colonize " and have little to do with other races than their own. Such segregation is usually voluntary on their part, but whatever its cause may be it is a serious hindrance to assimilation. The races from south and east Europe speak lan guages more radically different from English than the Teutonic speech of the north Europeans, who besides having the advantage of 35 a similarity in language associate freely among themselves and with the natives, both at work and in their social life. Moreover, they more frequently have families with them and have children at school. English thus tends to become the language used in the home. In general literacy, the north European races and the Finns show as high a standard as that of the native-born laborers, practically all being able to read and write, while other races have a large per centage of illiteracy. The races from south and east Europe, other than the Finns, with the largest percentages of literates, are the Slovenians, the North Italians, the Greeks, and the Montenegrins, approximately nine-tenths of whom read and write, while those with the largest percentage of illiterates among them are the South Italians, the JPortuguese, the Russians, and the Croatians, of whom between one-third and two-fifths can not read and write. Seasonal labor is demanded in several industries, notably railway maintenance of way, lumbering, fishing, and some parts of coal and ore mining. Recent immigrants who are unmarried, or whose wives have not yet left their native lands, are mostly engaged in this work. Most of these are drawn from south and east European races. Small proportions of the Greeks, Montenegrins, Russians, and Dalmatians so employed are married, and few of these have their wives with them. Those races, however, many of whose members have been in the United States for a comparatively long period of time, show a greater proportion of married men, and a greater number of their wives in the United States. Important among these are the Italians, Slovaks, Slovenians, and Finns. Men of these races who have fami lies usually find their way into the more settled kinds of unskilled labor, such as that ordinarily offered at coal or ore mines and in the smelters. Of the few south and east Europeans who* have risen to skilled or supervisory positions, a majority are married and have their wives in the United States. Their occupations are such as to encourage marriage, and, moreover, they are early immigrants in most cases and have thus had more time in which to bring their wives from their native land, if they did not do so at the time of immigration. The natives, north Europeans and English Canadians, on the other hand, are found principally in the skilled and supervisory occupations and in the more regular kinds of general labor, and are for the most part men with families. Furthermore, practically all of the married immigrants in this group have their wives in the United States. With the exception of a few youths and a number of men of migratory habits, members of these races who are employed in the industries studied may be regarded as settled laborers from the point of view of conjugal condition. Not only are the north European and English Canadian immigrants a more settled class of labor and superior in point of literacy, but they show also a much greater civic interest than do the south and east Europeans. Comparing only those who have been in the United States for similar periods of time it is found that a much greater proportion of the former group than of the latter have taken out first papers, or have become fully naturalized. The difference is marked among those whose period of residence is relatively long showing that the north Europeans develop civic interest much more generally than do the south and east Europeans. 36 In general, similar classes of differences were found, though less extreme, between these two groups in the cities in which investiga tions were made. With the exception of the Greeks, Italians, Slove nians, Dalmatians, Bohemians, and the Russian Hebrews, the great majority of the south and east Europeans are laborers, while the occu pational distribution of the north Europeans and their offspring is not essentially different from that of the native-born of native parents. The Greeks and Italians are numerously represented in petty business, and they and the Slovenians and Dalmatians are very conspicuous in conducting restaurants and similar establishments. In San Francisco, where the Italian colony is the largest on the Pacific coast, the North Italians have become an important element in the larger kinds of business and in the professions of the city. Most of the South Italians, however, are fishermen and on the whole occupy a distinctly inferior position. With the exception of the Greeks, all of the south and east Europeans have a large percentage of their families with them ; many of their representatives have resided here for years, some have risen from the ranks of common labor, the great majority of them speak English, and with few exceptions show a tendency to leave the colonies of their own people for better residence districts. As a rule the children differ little from those of American stock, unless brought up in colonies such as those of the Russians in Los Angeles. The most conspicuous feature perhaps is the extent to which these various races have organized benevolent societies for the care of those who meet with misfortune. While these societies are frequently indicative of the fact that the race is far from being Americanized and while they frequently retard the process of- assimilation, they encourage thrift and cause to rest upon the charitable institutions of the communities a much smaller burden than that imposed by the Irish and the native races. According to the census of 1900, a 27.31 per cent of those gainfully occupied in the Western division were engaged in agricultural pur suits. A large percentage of all of the north European races and their native-born offspring, the Irish and French excepted, and the Cana dians, other than French, have exhibited a strong tendency to aco.uire farms. Of those one or both of whose parents were born in Great Britain, 25.64 per cent, in Ireland 15.07 per cent, in Canada (English) 24.39 per cent, in Germany 23.05 per cent, and in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark 28.3 per cent, were engaged in agriculture, the majority of them as farmers on their own account. Those of British descent constituted 39.4 per cent of all the farmers and overseers in Utah, 15.9 per cent of those in Idaho, 13.3 per cent of those in Wyoming, and 10.9 per cent of all in the Western division. The Germans constituted 11.8 per cent of the class in Washington, 10.7 per cent in Oregon, 9.7 per cent in Colorado, 10 per cent in California, and 8.7 per cent in the entire Western division. The Scandinavian element constituted 20.9 per cent in Utah, 10.8 per cent in Idaho, 9.1 per cent in Washington, and 6.5 per cent of those in the entire division. With the rapid migration of that race in more recent years, the percentages given for the division as a whole, and for Washington and Oregon particularly, have doubtless materially increased. The Canadians, being fewer in number, the Irish, not exhibiting a tend- a United States census, 1900, special reports. Occupations. Tables 31 and 41. 37 ency to engage in farm work, and the French, being both few in num ber and not attracted to farm life, are not conspicuous as farmers. The north European immigrants engaged in farming have in many instances engaged in business or in industry as wage-earners in the West, and then after accumulating some capital have taken up government land (in Montana and Idaho) or have purchased farms. A large number have moved from farms in the Central States along with a large number of natives of native parentage to acquire new homes in the West. This is especially" true of the Scandinavians, who in recent years have moved in large numbers from the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Wisconsin to Washington and Oregon, or, to a less extent, to other States of the Western division. Here and there the Germans, Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes are colonized to a certain degree. These cases are exceptional, however, and are almost invariably connected with a colonization scheme which has been adopted for disposing of large tracts of land. With the exceptions stated, the farmers of these classes scattered throughout the com munities engage in very much the same kinds of farming as the natives, and though, as a rule, married to persons of the same gen eral race group, are thoroughly Americanized. The only feature requiring comment is the strong tendency of the Danes to engage in dairy farming. The only south Europeans engaged extensively in farming in the West are the Italians and the Portuguese. North Italians acquired land near San Francisco before 1870, and near Portland, Tacoma, and Seattle somewhat later. They have been conspicuous as small farmers in the vicinity of Denver for twenty years or more. In this latter instance a large percentage are from the southern prov inces of Italy, and in comparatively recent years the same element has settled to some extent on farms farther west. Yet the Italian farmers are predominantly from the northern provinces. In all of the cases mentioned these farmers are primarily growers of " green vegetables." The gardeners supplying the San Francisco and Den ver markets are very largely of that race and they share chiefly with the Asiatics the Sacramento, Portland, Tacoma, Seattle, and other markets of less importance. In addition to these gardeners the Italians are settled on the land in many localities in central California, where they are closely identified with grape growing and wine making, the production of such vegetables as beans, and, less exten sively, fruit growing. It is impossible to estimate the total number of Italian farmers or the acreage controlled by them except in certain communities. In 1900, a farmers, dairymen, gardeners, etc., of Ital ian parentage, numbered 2,599 in the West, more than two- thirds of them in California, this number being 8.08 per cent of the entire num ber of Italians gainfully occupied in this division. If the agricultural laborers are added, the percentage of the whole is 20.51. With the rapid influx of the members of that race during the last ten years, the number of those who have located upon the land has greatly increased, for the Italians from the northern provinces have exhibited as strong a desire to settle upon the land as any European race, excepting per haps the German- Russian, immigrating to the West. The Italian farmers, except in a few California communities, are closely colonized. This is partly due to the fact that in most places United States census, 1909, special reports. Occupations. Table 41. 38 they are engaged in market gardening. The areas suitable for that purpose are limited, and the necessary cooperation in marketing has emphasized colony life. Clannishness, which exhibits itself in various ways, has also had its effect. Most of the Italian gardens are con ducted as partnership enterprises, and generally the Italian farmers have begun farming after a few years' employment as wage-laborers by purchasing a share in a partnership already organized or by gain ing a partnership in process of formation for cultivating leased land. In this way the majority of those who have engaged in truck farming have been able to establish themselves upon the land in much less time than the north European immigrants who come without capital. In other kinds of agriculture engaged in by Italians this cooperation is only less marked. However, they usually purchase land in sever- alty as soon as through extraordinary thrift they are able to accumu late a part of the purchase price. Thus the Italians usually engage in intensive farming requiring much hand labor rather than in diversified or general farming, and in this, as well as in the frequency of colony life and the partnership form of organization, differ from the native and north European farmers. They also differ in that the wives and older children do much more of the work in the fields and in that because of their thrift their housing is usually below the standard set by the commu nity and the premises and housekeeping are frequently neglected. The Italians are good farmers. While in growing certain kinds of vegetables they do not obtain as large crops as the Chinese, they have developed their gardens to a great degree of fertility, and as vine- yardists they take high rank. In Sonoma County, and less con spicuously in other counties of California, they have converted grazing land and tracts previously used for general farming into productive vineyards and orchards and contributed greatly to the wealth and development of the community. The Portuguese have immigrated to only a few sections of the United States, among these being California, which in 1 900 reported 12,068 of the total of 30,632 in the continental United States. a Por tuguese from the Azores have been immigrating to California in small numbers for more than fifty years. The first settlers were largely of the sailor class. Later these were followed by farmers immigrating directly and still others coming to the mainland from the Hawaiian Islands, where at different times a large number have been induced to go to work on the sugar plantations. Still others in comparatively recent years have moved west from settlements in the eastern States to join friends or to find better opportunities for farming. Though some of the newer arrivals have worked as common laborers and a comparatively large number have been employed as stevedores, deck hands on the " river boats/' and in similar capacities, the Portuguese men have engaged mainly in agricultural pursuits, usually as laborers for their countrymen, then as tenant, and then as landowning farmers. In some communities where land has been available at a low price the second step indicated has been eliminated. The Portuguese farmers have tended strongly to colonize in certain localities, and the great majority are found in central California and within 100 miles of San Francisco, where most of them have entered the United States. A large number are engaged in dairy farming and o United States Census, 1900. Population, part 1. 39 many are occupied in growing potatoes and the coarser vegetables. Such interests are usually combined with general farming, however. The Portuguese are excellent farmers, and frequently, while improving their land, obtain two or three crops from the same field in the course of the year. In their thrift, investment of savings in more land, in the character of their housing and standard of living, they are very much like the Italians. In some instances, however, their housing is of a distinctly better type. The one important differ ence between the two races, besides the kind of crops usually pro duced, is found in the fact that the Italians cooperate in leasing land, while the Portuguese are very individualistic and seldom rent or own land in partnership. Because of this circumstance and the fact that the members of this race, unlike the Asiatics and German-Russians, have not been induced to settle upon the land as a solution of the labor problem, the Portuguese, in spite of their perseverance in their efforts to establish themselves as independent farmers, have usually made slower progress in this direction than the Italians, Japanese, and German-Russians. Few of the other south European immigrants are engaged in agriculture. A few Greeks have become tenant farmers, but without much success. About Watsonville, Cal., a comparatively large num ber of Dalmatians have engaged in apple growing, but this instance perhaps stands alone. In fact the immigrants from the south Euro pean, and the east European countries as well, the Italians and Portu guese excepted, have come to the West too recently to have established themselves. Moreover, in most cases the number of transient laborers is large as compared to the number who have come to this country to make their permanent home. The principal exception to this is found in the German-Russians, an agricultural people, who have come to this country to escape heavy taxation and military service and in search of better land. Within some twenty years several thousand have come to Fresno County, Cal., where they have worked at unskilled labor to begin with, though a comparatively large number have been able to establish themselves as farmers, which is the goal practically all have in view. The acreage controlled by them is roughly estimated at 5,000. In Colorado there are perhaps between 800 and 900 tenant and landowning farmers of this race, occupying for the greater part holdings in excess of 60 acres and not infre quently much larger tracts. This farming has developed within the last ten years and has been incidental to the growth of the beet- sugar industry. The sugar companies have brought large numbers of families of this race from Nebraska to do the hand work involved in growing sugar beets. From laborers doing the hand work on a piece basis they have rapidly advanced to tenant and to landowning farmers. Their advance is in part to be ascribed to their great industry, the labor of all members of the family except the smallest children, to their very great thrift, to the liberal advances of capital made by the sugar companies, and the credit extended to them freely by the banks. Not even the Japanese have made as rapid advance as the German- Russians. A comparatively small number of German-Russians are engaged in tenant farming in one locality in Idaho also. They, too were brought to the community (from Portland) by the manu facturers of beet sugar, and settled upon the land. In their housing and the labor of children the German-Russians rank lower than the 40 south European immigrant farmers, and in their thrift they are perhaps equaled by none. Whether aside from their economic con tribution they will prove to be an asset to the communities in which they live only the lapse of time will show. Except in the case of the Italians and Portuguese few of the Euro pean immigrants become agricultural laborers in the West, and in the case of the non-English-speaking those who are so employed work very largely for their countrymen as "regular hands." Also, in the case of the Italians and Portuguese, the opportunities for acquiring land by lease or purchase have been so good that thus far laborers of these races have been employed almost entirely by their countrymen. The Portuguese farmers employ their own countrymen largely, and, as a rule, at lower wages than those generally prevailing in the community. This is still more characteristic of the Italians, of whom few work for members of other races except when they are employed in large numbers about dairies. Because of the strong desire to live with their countrymen and be able to have the food and wine to which they are accustomed, they are frequently found working for $1 per day of twelve hours or more upon Italian farms in com munities where the current wage per day of ten or eleven hours for the same work is $1.50. CHINESE. Though a few thousand Armenians are found in the West, most of them in Fresno County, Cal., and perhaps a thousand Syrians in Los Angeles, most of the Asiatic immigration has been from eastern Asia China, Japan, Korea, and India. For reasons already given, no special investigation was made of the Chinese. Such data as were obtained were secured incidental to the investigation of other races and of industries in which Chinese are or have been employed. A few points concerning their number, occupations, and related mat ters may be commented on briefly, however, chiefly for convenience in discussing Japanese immigration, upon which most emphasis was placed in the investigation made in the Western division. According to the census, the number of Chinese in the continental United States in 1900 was 93,283. Of these, 88,758 were males and 4,525 were females. In all probability the number of adult males was somewhat larger than the figure reported, as it is almost impossible to enumerate all but a negligible percentage of the foreign-born males living under such conditions as were at that time found among the Chinese. It is impossible to estimate the number of persons of that race now in the United States, as many have died or returned to China since 1900, while others have returned from China to this country, and men, women, and children of the eligible classes to the number of 19,182 have been admitted to the United States between July 1, 1900, and June 30, 1909. a Moreover, it is acknowledged by those familiar with the administration of the law that some foreign- born have secured admission as " native sons " while others have been smuggled across the Canadian or the Mexican boundary. However, it has become evident from the investigation conducted by the Com mission that the number of Chinese in all of the cities of the West, and the number engaged in the different industries in which they have found employment in the past, have materially decreased within the last decade or so. It is unlikely that the migration from the Coast See reports of the Commissioner-General of Immigration, 1900 to 1909. 41 States, mainly from California to the East, and the more general distribution of Chinese throughout the country explains entirely the decreasing number of persons of that race, including the native- born, found in the West. The immigration of Chinese laborers to this country may be said to date from the rush to California in search of gold sixty years ago. Within ten years a relatively large number of persons of that race, more than 45,000 in fact, found a place in the population of that State. Before the close of the decade of the sixties, they had engaged in a variety of occupations, as the absence of cheap labor from any other source, their industry and organization, and the rapid growth of the country placed a premium upon their employment. The largest number (some 20,000 in 1861) engaged in gold mining; sev eral thousand, many of them imported under contract, were employed toward the end of the decade in the construction of the Central racific Railroad, which was to form the first of the transcontinental railways making possible an influx of laborers from the East. Other Chinese engaged in gardening, laundering, domestic service, and hand labor in the fields, while still others found employment in factories and workshops or engaged in business for themselves. As domestic servants in San Francisco, in 1870, they numbered 1,256 out of a total of 6,800, their number being exceeded by that of the Irish only, of whom 3,046 were reported. Chinese laundrymen numbered 1,333 in a total of 2,069 reported. As laborers in domestic and personal service they numbered 2,128 in a total of 8,457. According to the census for 1870, they numbered 296 of 1,551 persons employed in San Francisco in the manufacture of boots and shoes, 1,657 of the 1,811 employed in the manufacture of cigars, 253 of 393 employed in the manufacture of woolens, and 110 of 1,223 employed in the manufacture of clothing, a total of 2,316 of a grand total of 4,978 employed in these four industries. a These were the chief branches of manufacture in cities in which they found employment. With the development of salmon canning in Oregon and Washington dur ing the eighties and still later with the development of the same industry in Alaska, they were for many years employed almost exclusively in canning, under contract, the fish caught by white fishermen. They also constituted a large percentage, when not a majority, of the " powder makers" and general laborers employed in powder factories. For twenty years, beginning in the late sixties, several thousand found employment as construction laborers upon the new railways constructed from time to time and as section hands upon those already constructed. They also found employment as general laborers, engine wipers and boiler washers, and in other occupations calling for little skill in railroad shops. Of still greater importance, however, was their employment, beginning previous to 1870, as hand laborers in the orchards, fields, hppyards, and vineyards of California north of the Tehachepi, and in the canneries and other establishments incidental to conserving and marketing the crops produced. In 1870 they numbered 1,637 in a total of 16,231 farm laborers reported by the census for California. Though the estimate o United States census, 1870, Population and Social Statistics, p. 799. These figures may include small numbers of Japanese, of whom there were but 55 in this country at that time. 42 made by the California bureau of labor in 1886, that Chinese constituted seven-eighths of the agricultural laborers of the State, was doubtless a great exaggeration, they did most of the hand work, such as hoeing, weeding, pruning, and harvesting, in all localities in the central and northern part of the State in which intensive farming was carried on. Their presence and organization at a time when cheap and reliable white laborers were difficult to obtain made pos sible the high degree of specialized farming which came to prevail in several localities. They occupied a much less conspicuous place in the harvest work involved in general farming. Being inefficient with teams, and white men being available for such work in most localities, they were practically limited to hand work. In other States than California they found little place in agricultural work, the largest number being employed in the hop industry of the Northwest. In fact, until in the eighties few of the Chinese resided outside of Cali fornia. This race never gained a place in coal mining except in Wyoming, where they were employed in the mines developed after the completion of the Union Pacific Railway. The ease with which the Chinese found employment and the place they came to occupy in the West is explained by several facts. First of all, they were the cheapest laborers available for unskilled work. The white population previous to the eighties was drawn almost entirely from the eastern States and from north European coun tries, and, as in all rapidly developing communities, the number of women and children was comparatively small. According to the census of 1870, of 238,648 persons engaged in gainful occupations in California, 46 per cent were native-born, 13 per cent were born in Ireland, 8 per cent in Germany, 4.8 per cent in England and Wales, 2 per cent in France, and 1.4 per cent in Italy. The Chinese, with 14 per cent of the total, were more numerous than the Irish. The Chinese worked for lower wages than the white men in the fields and orchards, in the shoe factories, the cigar factories, the woolen mills, and later in most of the other industries in which the two classes were represented. As a result of this, a division of labor grew up in which the Chinese were very generally employed in certain occupa tions while white persons were employed in other occupations requir ing skill, a knowledge of English, and other qualities not possessed by the Asiatics, and sufficiently agreeable in character and surround ings to attract white persons of the type at that time found in the population of the West. Upon occasion, too, the lower cost of pro duction with Chinese labor caused more of the work to fall into their hands as they became well enough trained to do it. Instances of this are found in the manufacture of cigars and shoes in San Francisco. Chinese labor was well organized and readily available, for the cigar makers, shoemakers, and tailors, as well as the launderers, were organ ized into trade guilds with an interpreter and agent or " bookman" in each white establishment in which they were employed. Agri cultural laborers were secured through a "boss" and employed under his supervision. The same organization was found in fish canneries, where the work was done under contract at so much per case, also in the fruit and vegetable canneries in fact in all industries in which more than a few men were employed. The hiring and supervision of men in this way was convenient and of great advantage to the employer in such industries as were seasonal in character. In agri- 43 culture, where several times as many men were wanted for a limited period as during the remainder of the year, this organization of labor placed a great premium upon the Chinese as employees. In the manufacture of cigars, some manufacturers state that Chinese were found to be much slower than women and youths, while in the manufacture of boots and shoes they never attained to highly skilled work. In other industries, however, they were very generally regarded as efficient workers for all kinds of hand work. This is especially true of fish, fruit, and vegetable canning and of all kinds of hand work in orchards and vegetable gardens. Though unprogressive and slow, they accomplished much work through industry and long hours, and by the exercise of care the quality of the work performed was of a high order. Finally, to mention only the more important of the facts giving rise to an effective preference for Chinese for such work as they were employed to do, in canneries, on the ranches, and in other places where the employees ordinarily could not live at home, they found favor because they involved the least trouble and expense. They provided their own subsistence where white men, if they did not live close at hand, would ordinarily be provided with board. Lodgings were easily provided for the Chinese, for whatever may be said con cerning their standard of living as a whole, they are gregarious and are less dissatisfied when " bunked" in small quarters than is any other race thus far employed in the West. After much ineffective state and local legislation in California the further immigration of Chinese of the laboring class was for bidden by the first of the federal exclusion laws enacted in 1882. There had been opposition to the Chinese in the mining camps of California as early as 1852, this finally leading to the miners' license tax collected from them alone, in the cigar trade in San Francisco as early as 1862, and in other trades in which the Chinese were engaged beginning somewhat later. For the opposition many reasons were assigned, but the most important appears to have been race antipathy based upon color, language, and race traits, which has frequently found expression where numerous Chinese and white men of the laboring classes have been brought into close contact. This feeling found expression not only in San Francisco on numerous occasions, but in many other towns in California, in Tacoma, where Chinese have not been permitted to reside, and in the riots at Rock Springs, Wyo., in 1882. In public discussion many reasons were advanced rightly or wrongly for excluding the Chinese, but that the opposition was more than a part of a labor movement is evidenced by the fact that many ranchers who were employing Chinese at the time voted " against Chinese immigration" at the election held in California in 1879, at which time the matter of Chinese exclusion was submitted to popular vote. It has been estimated that the number of Chinese in the United States at the time the first exclusion act went into effect (1882) was 132,300. a The number of Chinese laborers did not diminish percep tibly for several years after this. More recently, because of the a Coolidge, Chinese Immigration, p. 498. The number reported by the census for 1880 was 105,465, of which number 75,132 were in California, 9,510 in Oregon, 5,416 in Nevada, 3,379 in Idaho, 3,186 in Washington, and the remaining 8,842 in other States. 44 wider distribution of the Chinese among the States, the decreasing number in the country, the large percentage who have grown old, a strong sentiment against employing Asiatics in manufacture, and the appearance of the Japanese, a change has taken place in the occupations in which the Chinese engage. During the nineties, with the growth of the fishing industry on the Pacific coast, the number of Chinese engaged in cannery work has grown, but owing to the increasing difficulty involved in securing them and the higher wages which they have come to command since 1900, an increasing number of Japanese and, very recently, Filipinos, have been employed. During the year 1909 some 3,000 Chinese were employed in can neries in Oregon, Washington, and Alaska, most of them migrating ,from San Francisco and Portland. The number of Japanese em ployed was approximately the same. Both races are employed in the great majority of the establishments, a Chinese ordinarily having the contract for the work done, employing his countrymen for the more skilled work, and Japanese, under a Japanese "boss," and other persons for the less skilled occupations. The Chinese command much higher wages than the Japanese. In fruit and vegetable canning in California perhaps 1,000 or more Chinese are employed. Of 750 men employed in six asparagus canneries on the Sacramento Kiver, nearly all are Chinese secured through one Chinese "boss." Most of the others are employed in two canneries operated by Chinese companies. In other canneries European immigrants of the newer type, chiefly Italians, Greeks, and Portuguese, have been substituted for them. In some instances where Chinese were formerly employed but were discharged by their employers because of the feeling against the race or because of public criticism, Asiatics are not now employed. Few Chinese are now employed in railway work. As section hands they had all but disappeared ten years or more ago, and the number still employed in railway shops is small. As they grew old and their numbers diminished so that they could not furnish a large percentage of the laborers required their departure was hastened by the well- organized Japanese, who took employment at the same wages (and less than was paid to other races), though the Chinese are almost universally regarded as better "help" than the Japanese except in such occupations about the shops as require adaptability and pro- gressiveness. The Chinese were in part replaced by other races before Japanese became available, and where this was done it was generally at a higher wage, except in the case of the Mexicans, than the Chinese had received. The Chinese engaged in agriculture were very largely replaced by Japanese. The Chinese engaged in the growing of sugar beets were underbid and displaced by the more progressive and quicker Japanese and have all but absolutely disappeared from the industry. In the hop industry the Japanese underbid the Chinese as the Chinese had the white men. Because of this fact and the further fact that the Japanese had the same convenient organization and were more numerous, the Chinese have come to occupy a comparatively unim portant place in that industry. The same is true in the deciduous- fruit industry, though Chinese lease orchards and in almost every locality are employed in comparatively large groups on some of the older ranches. The largest amount of land is leased by them and 45 the largest number of them are employed for wages in the orchards and on the large tracts devoted to tne production of vegetables on the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. In a few localities they migrate from place to place for seasonal work, but such instances have become exceptional. Nearly all work in the same place throughout the year. Moreover, as the Japanese have advanced the Chinese have leased fewer orchards and withdrawn to grow vegetables or have gone to the towns and cities. Though the number employed in agricultural work is by no means small, they are no longer a dominant factor in the labor supply, and especially in that required for harvesting the crops. The place once occupied by them has for several years been occupied by the Japanese. The number of Chinese engaged in mining has for many years been small, some 40 in coal mining in Wyoming as against several hundred formerly employed there, and several hundred as against many thousand in gold mining in California. Many Chinese are living in the small towns of the West, engaged in laundry work, petty business, and gambling, or rather conducting places for gambling. The laundries are patronized chiefly by white people, the shops by Chinese, and the gambling places by Chinese and Japanese. In San Francisco they are much less conspicuously employed in domestic service and manufacture than formerly. Most of those engaged in domestic service are high-priced cooks in private families and in saloons. They now have a scarcity value. The most recently published estimate made by the assessor for the city and county or San Francisco of the number of Chinese engaged in manu facture (in San Francisco) was, for 1903, 2,420, the branches of manu facture having more than 100 being cigar making, with 800 Chinese in a. total of 1,300; clothing, with 250 in a total of 1,050; shirt making, with 300 in a total of 1,500, and shoemaking, with 250 in a total of 950. Their numbers in all of these cases are smaller than formerly. In shoe and cigar making many were discharged during the seventies and eighties because of public criticism or fear of boy cott. When white persons were substituted it was, in some cases at least, at a higher wage and for a shorter work day. At present the Chinese employed are among the low paid laborers in " white shops." The same is true of those employed in powder factories, where the number is much smaller than formerly. The assessment roll for 1908 shows' 20 cigar factories, 3 broom fac tories, 1 shoe factory, and 5 overall factories conducted by Chinese in San Francisco. By far the largest number of Chinese, however, some 1,000, are employed in the 100 Chinese laundries. The other branches of business are of comparatively little importance save the art and curio stores, which are conducted by business men from China. Of the Chinese in other cities much the same may be said, except that they occupy no important place in manufacture and that they frequently conduct cheap restaurants, patronized largely by workingmen. In Portland they also conduct numerous tailor shops. On the whole, the Chinese have not shown the same progressiveness and competitive ability either in industry or in business for them selves as the Japanese. They have, however, occupied a more impor tant place in manufacture, especially in San Francisco, where, until within the last twenty years, little cheap labor has been available from other sources. 46 JAPANESE. The Japanese laborers have fallen heir to much of the work and the occupational and social position of the Chinese, whose diminishing numbers in the Western States since 1890 have been mentioned. The history of the Japanese in this country can be understood in certain respects only when connected with that of the Chinese whose immi gration was earlier and who, in decreasing numbers, have continued to work along with the members of the newer race. Until 1898 the number of Japanese immigrating to the continental United States had never reached 2,000 in any one year. In 1900 the total number in the continental United States, excluding Alaska, was reported by the census as 24,326. From 1899-1900 to 1906-7 the number arriving from Japan, Mexico, and Canada varied between 4,319 (in 1905) and 12,626 (in 1900), while between January 1, 1902, and December 31, 1907, 37,000, attracted by the higher wages, better conditions, and better opportunities to establish themselves as farm ers or as business men, came from the Hawaiian Islands to the main land. For the greater part of this time these immigrants had come regardless of the avowed wishes of the Japanese Government, for the great influx in 1900 gave rise to a demand that the Chinese exclusion law should be amended so as to apply to Japanese and Koreans as well. As emigration to the continental United States was discour aged, however, the Japanese subjects emigrated to Hawaii, where their labor was desired on the sugar plantations, and then came in large numbers to the mainland. During 1906 and 1907 there was a similar movement from Mexico also, where several thousand laborers had been sent by the emigration companies under contract to work for corporations. A similar movement of less importance has also taken place between British Columbia and the United States, prima rily because the latter presented better opportunities than the former. The influx of Japanese laborers has been controlled and reduced to small proportions during the last two years. This has been accom plished not by an exclusion law but by a series of measures which permits the greater part of the administrative problem to rest with the Japanese Government. Since 1905 there has been a general and organized demand on the Pacific coast, and particularly in California, for the exclusion of Jap anese laborers from the continental territory of the United States. The separation of Japanese from white children in the public schools of San Francisco, and other manifestations of anti-Japanese senti ment, together with a number of anti-Japanese measures under con sideration by the legislature of California precipitated an acute situation, in 1906 and 1907. On the other hand it developed that the Japanese Government had for some time looked with disfavor on the emigration of its working population to distant countries, and an understanding was therefore reached between the Jap anese and the United States Governments that the former should thenceforth issue passports to only such members of the laboring class as had been residents of this country and were returning here, were parents, wives, or children of residents of this country, or had an already possessed right to agricultural land. The granting of pass ports to "nonlaborers" remained as before. The immigration law was amended by Congress so as to give the President power to order 47 that where a race was entering the continental United States from any country to the "detriment of labor conditions" such immigra tion should not be permitted except upon passports for the United States properly granted by the government to which the bearer owed allegiance. The President exercised the authority vested in him and, by order dated March 14, 1907, denied admission to "Japanese and Korean laborers, skilled or unskilled, who have received passports to go to Mexico, Canada, or Hawaii, and come therefrom" to the conti nental territory of the United States. More recently (1908) the num ber of passports to be granted in any one year to Japanese emigrating to Canada has been limited to 400 by agreement between the Japanese and Canadian Governments, while the Japanese Government has also suspended the practice of the emigration companies of sending con tract laborers to Mexico. It should be added, also, that the Japanese Government by its own initiative has applied the same regulations to the issuing of passports to the Hawaiian Islands as to the mainland. Thus, by agreement, it is understood that Japanese laborers, except as above noted, shall not enter the territory of the United States, and the Canadian and Mexican borders have been protected by practically refusing to permit emigration to the neighboring countries. All of the data gathered by the agents of the Commission show that since the summer of 1907 very few Japanese have entered the Western States except those who came directly from Japan and were regularly admitted at the immigration stations. During the year 1907-8 the number of Japanese who were admitted to the continental United States was 9,544, and among them there were many of the class not presumed under the agreement to receive passports, but, as explained by the Commissioner-General of Immi gration, "the system did not begin to work smoothly in all of its details until the last month of the fiscal year." 6 During the two years which have since elapsed, however, the numbers admitted have been very much smaller 2,432 and 1,552 for the two years, respectively. Of the 2,432 admitted in 1908-9, 768 were former residents, leaving 1,664 who came for the first time. A compara tively small number who were admitted came with passports to which, according to the understanding of the Bureau of Immigra tion, they were not entitled, while some were admitted who did not possess passports to this country properly made out. c The great majority of the much-reduced number admitted, however, have been of the nonlaboring class 1,719 of the 2,432 admitted in 1908-9. Though a large percentage of the nonlaborers take work as wage laborers upon their arrival in this country, and the classes excluded are not just the same as under the Chinese exclusion law, the regula tion is undoubtedly effective at present in preventing any " detriment to labor conditions." A large percentage of those who have come recently have been the wives and children of Japanese already in this country. The number of Japanese males of the laboring class departing from the United States is in excess of the number who are admitted at the ports. a Section 1 of immigration act, approved February 20, 1907. l> Report for fiscal year ended June 30, 1908, p. 126. c See Report of Commissioner-General of Immigration for fiscal year ended June 30, 1909, p. 100. 48 The percentage of students who have come has been comparatively large, but the great majority of these have accepted employment and have not pursued a regular course of study, except, possibly, in English in a night school. The primary motive behind the immigration to this country has been economic a desire to earn the highest wages they could command and then to return to their native land with savings which would place them in a better economic position, or, more recently, upon the part of a rather small minority, a desire to establish them selves as farmers and business men and settle permanently in this coun try. The advantages offered by this country, as well as the unpleasant features, have long been known through those who have returned to Japan, through correspondence, and through numerous handbooks and guides to "America which have been published in the Japanese language. Moreover, the way has been smoothed and migration made convenient, emigration for some years induced, and the stream enlarged by the emigration companies. On this side, also, the con tractors, operating boarding houses or cooperating with boarding- house keepers, and probably in some instances under agreement with emigration companies, have found employment and smoothed the way for the newly arrived immigrants. These are the more important facts, which, together with the less attractive prospects for laborers in Formosa, Korea, and Manchuria, have given rise to a strong desire on the part of the Japanese of the agricultural, industrial, and small shopkeeping classes to emigrate to the United States. The number of Japanese, including the native-born, in the conti nental territory of the United States in the summer of 1909 is roughly estimated as between 95,000 and 100,000. Whatever the number may be, at least five-sixths of them are in the 11 States and Territories constituting the Western division. Though a large percentage of the Japanese are migratory and the number in a State varies during the year, it is safe to say that half or more than half of the Japanese in the continental territory are in California and 16,000 or more in Wash ington, where the great majority have arrived, the next largest num bers being in Colorado and Oregon. It is in part the congestion thus indicated which has given rise to the problem connected with the immigration of Japanese laborers. Yet the number of Japanese men in California in 1909 was perhaps between 6.5 and 7 per cent of the total number of males 16 years of age or over, while in 1870 the Chinese were 14 per cent and in 1880 a still larger percentage of all persons employed in the State. Perhaps 7,000 of the 95,000 or 100,000 Japanese in the United States are adult females, practically all of whom are married women, many of them coming as "picture brides'' or being married upon arrival in this country. Most of the women have come to the United States within the last five years, and inasmuch as the majority are the wives of farmers and business men, their immigration marks the progress of the Japanese from the position of migratory laborers to settled residents, usually farming or engaging in business for them selves. The number of children under 16 years of age is perhaps in excess of 4,000, and the majority of these are native-born and of immature years. Like the earlier immigration of the Chinese and the present immi gration of most of the south and east European races, the majority of the Japanese immigrants have been of the agricultural class 49 small farmers, farmers' sons, and a few farm laborers. The number of industrial wage-earners, clerks, professional men, and shopkeepers has been much smaller, while the number of men coming with capital has been very small indeed. Moreover, the majority have left their native land for Hawaii or continental United States when young men, say under 25, though the number who have been engaged in farming" or in business on their own account and have reached maturer years before emigrating is not small. The great majority of the Japanese in this country have been employed in railroad and general construction work, as agricultural laborers, cannery hands, lumber-mill and logging-camp laborers, in the various branches of domestic service and in business estab lishments conducted by their countrymen. Smaller numbers have been employed in coal and ore mining, smelting, meat packing, and salt making. In the building trades they have done little save in making repairs and in doing cabinetwork for their countrymen. They have found little place in manufacturing establishments in cities. In contrast to the Chinese, they have found little employ ment in shoe, clothing, and cigar factories. That they have seldom been considered for " inside" work of the kind in which the Chinese were formerly extensively employed, is explained by a number of facts. A hostile public sentiment, with the boycott in the back ground, was sufficient to cause many of the employers to discharge their Chinese employees. This experience with Chinese labor has caused most employers to look elsewhere than to the Japanese for laborers needed in such industries. More important, perhaps, is the fact that, coincident with the immigration of the Japanese, cheap labor of other kinds has become available in the large number of Italians, Russians, Porto Ricans, Spaniards, and others finding E laces in the population of San Francisco, where most of the manu- icturing is conducted. The labor of these classes, and especially of the women and children, has been cheaper than that of the Japa nese for the making of cigars and work of that character. Finally, in machine shops, foundries, and similar places, they have seldom been given employment, for these trades are well organized and there has been strong opposition by union men to the employment of Asiatics as helpers or as common laborers. Many Japanese laborers migrate from one locality and from one industry to another during the year. However, the following state ment snows roughly the occupational distribution of those in the West during the summer of 1909. Approximately 10,000 were employed by the steam railway com panies. Between 6,000 and 7,000 of these were employed as section hands and members of ''extra gangs/' constituting between one- seventh and one-sixth of the laborers in the maintenance-of-way departments in the Western division. Most of the others were employed as laborers and helpers in railway shops and about round houses and stations, though a few were employed in the department of bridges and buildings in the Northwest. More than 2,200 were employed in 67 of the 1,400 or 1,500 lumber mills of Oregon and Washington, which, altogether, employ something more than 35,000 men. Some 3,600 were employed in salmon canneries in Alaska, Washington, and Oregon, where the number was larger than that of any other race, while a few hundred engaged in fishing along the (58534 11 4 50 coast of California. The number of Japanese employed in the mines of Wyoming, Utah, southern Colorado, and northern New Mexico was something less than 2,000 in a total of some 27,000 to 30,000 employed in the four States. Something less than 200 were employed in three smelters in Utah and Nevada and an approxi mately equal number in an iron and steel plant at Pueblo, Colo. Several hundred, all told, including those employed in constructing irrigation ditches in the arid districts, were engaged in genera] con struction work. Perhaps during the summer months the number engaged as farmers and farm laborers in agricultural pursuits in Washington was 3,000. in Oregon 1,000, in Idaho 800, in Utah 1,025, in Colorado possibly 3,000, in California 30,000, with smaller num bers in the other States and Territories of the Western division. The numbers employed by street-railway companies in Los Angeles, in two salt refineries near San Francisco, and otherwise outside of towns and cities, were comparativelv small, though amounting to several hundred all told. As opposed to these, the number engaged in city trades and business in the West may be estimated at from 22 ; 000 to 26,000. Any general statement concerning the employment of Japanese is likely to prove misleading, because the circumstances have differed from industry to industry and from one establishment to another. Reserving agricultural pursuits for later comment, however, the following general statements may be made as a result of the inves tigation of the several industries in which the members of this race are employed: (1) In a number of instances the first employment of the members of this race has been to break strikes. This is true of coal mining in southern Colorado and Utah, where they were first employed in 1903-4, of smelting in Utah, where they replaced Greeks striking for higher wages in 1907, and in the shops of one railway compan}^. In the great majority of instances, however, they have been introduced to replace Chinese or when employers were experiencing difficulty in finding an adequate number of steady white men to work as com mon laborers and as helpers at the rate of wages which had obtained. Seldom have other classes been discharged in large numbers to make room for the Japanese; on the contrary, Japanese have usually been employed to fill places vacated by others because of the more remunerative or agreeable employment to be found elsewhere. (2) A premium has been placed upon the substitution of Japanese rather than of other immigrant races by the fact that they were made easily available by the Japanese contractors, and that because of the position of the contractors, their employment involved the least inconvenience to the employers. Almost without exception the Jap anese employed in the industries of the West have been secured through Japanese "bosses" who undertake to provide the number of men required, and frequently keep the "time" of the men, and pay them off, in return for an interpreter's fee of $1 per month (generally collected), a commission on their earnings (usually 5 per cent but sometimes less), and the privilege (generally exercised) of supplying the men with such goods as they do not purchase at local stores. These contractors have had a supply of labor available; other cheap largely the cities of the Middle West, which involves competition with the laborers must be "recruited," largely through employment agents in 51 industries more conveniently reached from these supply centers. This organization of the Japanese laborers must be emphasized above all other things in explaining the demand for them. (3) The Japanese nave usually worked for a lower wage than the members of any other race save the Chinese and the Mexican. In the salmon canneries the Chinese have been paid higher wages than the Japanese engaged in the same occupations. In the lumber indus try all races, including the East Indian, have been paid higher wages than the Japanese doing the same kind of work. As section hands and laborers in railway shops they have been paid as much as or more than the Chinese and more than the Mexicans, but as a rule less than the white men of many races. In coal mining they have been employed chiefly as miners and loaders and have worked at the com mon piece rate, but in Wyoming, where they have been employed as "company men," they were paid less per day than the European immigrants employed in large numbers until their acceptance as members of the United .Mine Workers in 1907 gave them the benelit oTHie standard rate established by bargaining between the union and the operators. As construction laborers they have usually, though not invariably, been paid less than the other races employed except the East Indians and the Mexicans. Competition between the races engaged in unskilled work appears generally to have hinged upon the rate of wages paid rather than the efficiency of the races employed. (4) During the period when the Japanese were arriving in this country in largest numbers, the question of differences in wages between the white races and the Japanese began to solve itself to such an extent that gradually the variation became trifling and there were instances where there was no diversity in the wages paid each. This is accounted for partly by the skillful bargaining of the few large contractors who have supplied the great majority of the laborers for work in canneries, on the railroads, in the lumber mills, and for other industrial enterprises, partly by the fact that there was an increasing demand for Japanese labor in other industries, which one after the other had been opened to them. (5) Though regarded as less desirable than the Chinese and the Mexicans, roadmasters and section foremen usually prefer Japanese to the Italians, Greeks, and Slavs, as section hands. In the railway shops they are usually given higher rank than the Mexicans and Greeks and sometimes the Italians as well. They are versatile, adaptable, and ambitious, and are regarded as good laborers and helpers. In salmon canning, on the other hand, they are univer sally regarded as much less desirable than the Chinese and are inferior to the Filipinos who have recently engaged in the industry in Alaska. Not only are the Japanese less experienced in the industry than the Chinese, but they are considered less reliable in contractual relations and do not have the highly developed instinct of workman ship which causes the Chinaman to be regarded as the most careful and the most trustworthy laborer. The distinct preference for Chinese is shown by the fact that some of the largest salmon packers stipulate in the contracts made with Chinese contractors that the Japanese employed shall not exceed a certain number, or that they shall not exceed the number of Chinese. The industry almost from its inception has been dependent upon Asiatic labor (for the work in the canneries) 52 and the numerous European races engaged in fishing have seldom been tried as "cannery hands." In the lumber and other industries there is greater difference of opinion. On the whole, however, the Japanese have been regarded as satisfactory laborers at the wage paid. In salt refineries and in some other places where the labor conditions are hard, they find favor because they are willing to accept such conditions. (6) Regardless of these considerations, however, in most branches of industry the Japanese have found it difficult to make much advance. In the lumber industry the great majority of employers have never engaged them at all. In some instances this is explained by the race antipathy of the employer, and more frequently by that of the white employees, who object strongly to the employment of Japanese, save possibly in the yards and along the streams where there is work other men refuse to do. In several instances the members of the commu nity have exhibited their opposition to the employment of this race by demanding their discharge and, upon occasions, threatening violence. The same situation is found in most industries in which the Japanese have been employed where large groups of men are brought together at one place and the work is of such a character that the members of different races must work in close association. While exceptions are found in a few other industries, it is mainly in the salmon canneries and in railway work that a hostile public opinion has had little effect upon the employment of Japanese. (7) Chiefly because of the attitude of other laborers .and the fact that many of the Japanese do not understand English and must be set at work in groups with an interpreter, the Japanese have generally been engaged in unskilled work. In the lumber industry a few have advanced to semiskilled positions, but they have not made the prog ress attained by the members of the same race in British Columbia, where skilled white men have been more scarce. In fact, in Washing ton and Oregon few Japanese have been employed except in the " yards." Nor have they found a place in catching fish for the can neries as they did in British Columbia, while in the canneries they are, as a rule, employed to do the unskilled work during the busiest season, while the Chinese are employed more regularly and.fill the positions requiring skill. The Japanese likewise occupy the lowest positions in the fruit and vegetable canneries, and are engaged principally in preparing fruit and vegetables for canning. In the coal mines, with the exception of Wyoming, they are employed as miners and loaders occupations in which the great majority of the new immigrants are employed, because the work is less regular and more disagreeable than in the other occupations. Likewise in the three smelters where they are employed they share the commonest labor with Greeks and other recent immigrants from south and east European countries. The Japanese have made greater progress in railway shops, perhaps, than in any other nonagncultural employment. Though most of those employed in shops are unskilled laborers, they have risen somewhat in the scale of occupations and in several instances are found occupying positions which, with their versatility and capacity, might serve them as stepping-stones to skilled work. These, in brief, are the more general facts relating to the employ ment of Japanese in nonagricultural industries. The Japanese who found their first employment in the canneries and as section hands and general construction laborers have shown a strong tendency to 53 leave such employment for agricultural work or for occupations in the cities. The explanation of this movement is' found partly in the higher earnings .which might be realized, in the better conditions of living which might be found, and in a very evident tendency exhib ited by the Japanese to rise to the occupational and economic position they had enjoyed in their native land. In this way the large number who have engaged in agricultural pursuits or in city trades upon their arrival have been added to by those who were leaving their employ ment in other industries. As a result of this movement the number of Japanese engaged in railroad and general construction work, and in coal mining in all of the States save Utah, has been decreasing, especially since restrictions were placed upon the immigration of laborers from Japan and Hawaii. Their places have been filled by an increasing number of European immigrants, as a rule at higher wages. Business having been in a more or less depressed condition throughout the West since the end of 1907, the partial substitution involved has not caused much difficulty. It may be said further that none of these industries, save salmon canning, has been materially assisted by or has become dependent upon Japanese labor. In the salmon can neries Chinese and laborers of other races than Japanese are desired. With the beet-sugar industry in several States and certain other agri cultural industries in California it is different, for the farmers in many localities have for years relied upon Asiatic labor until a situation has developed in which the substitution of other races will involve incon venience and will require radical changes in order to make the neces sary readjustment. In 1909 it is probable that not far from 30,000 Japanese were engaged in agricultural pursuits in California during the summer months. As laborers they occupy a dominant position in most of the intensive, specialized agriculture which has come to prevail, and espe cially in that which involves much hand work and is seasonal in char acter. They occupy substantially the position held by the Chinese twenty years ago in the same and similar industries, less important then, but which now give rise to products representing possibly one- half of the entire amount marketed. The Japanese do practically all of the hand work in the berry patches, two-thirds of that in the sugar- beet fields, perhaps one-half of that in the vineyards, and a somewhat smaller part of that in the fields devoted to raising vegetables and in the orchards. In the hop yards they do not generally predominate except in the training and care of the vines and in picking in some localities, while on general farms they find little employment. On farms conducted by white men they do very little of the work with teams and have as their share the smaller part of the hand work in orchards and vineyards except during the busiest seasons, whether during cultivation or harvest, when they occupy a much more con spicuous position, and their dominancy is in part due to this fact. Because of differences in climate, elevation, and soil, much special ization in farming has developed where the problems of transportation and labor could be solved. First the Chinese and then the Japanese have been organized and easily moved from one community to another, so that no great restriction has been placed upon a special ization which has called for many laborers at one time and relatively few at another. Moreover, it has been possible, as in the beet-sugar industry and in vegetable growing along the Sacramento and San 54 Joaquin Rivers, to engage extensively in agricultural enterprises in advance of a settled population of any considerable dimensions. As a consequence of these several facts, many California communities have a degree of specialization in agriculture which makes it necessary to induce many persons to come from other localities to assist for a time in the farm work. The need is made all the greater by the fact that in marketing the products frequently much additional labor is required to "man" packing houses, canneries, or wineries. At Vaca- ville 4,000 persons must come from other localities to assist in picking, packing, and drying the fruit. At Watsonville 2,000 laborers are required from other localities to assist with the strawberry and apple harvests, which are separated by a period of many weeks. At Fresno from 3,000 to 4,000 extra laborers are needed for three weeks in the autumn to harvest the raisin grapes, while others are required in the packing houses and wineries. About Oxnard for several weeks 2,000 extra men are needed. Numerous other instances might be given for they are fairly general of a specialization by communities which requires for a time a labor force larger than that which is normally supported by the community, involving the necessity of securing " extra help' 7 from other localities. These facts are important, also, in connection with the problem of lodging and board, which, in less extreme form, is met with wherever "farm hands" are employed. In these specialized industries, where a large number of men are required for a few weeks, the problem becomes difficult and the necessary migration places a great emphasis upon an organization which will give the farmer the number of men desired at the time needed, without the inconvenience of keeping the "time" of each man and paying him frequently and individually for the work done. The problems thus indicated the Chinese and Jap anese have solved. They are accustomed to hand labor; have usually been without family, and could easily migrate from one community to another; have been provided with comparatively cheap lodgings and have boarded themselves, when white men, as a rule, must be pro vided with board; and have been organized so that it was possible for the grower to secure the number of men desired, and have them supervised, and paid off and discharged, as a group. The Japanese first engaged in California agriculture as fruit pickers at Vacaville near the close of the eighties. By 1895 they had found employment in which the Chinese had been engaged in every locality in California as far south as Fresno. Since 1900 they have made their appearance in southern California and since 1904 they have been employed in most of the localities in that part of the State. In some instances the Japanese have been employed where a new industry was being introduced, as, for example, the growing of sugar beets in certain sections of the State; in others they have taken the places vacated by Chinese, who were diminishing in number; while in other cases they have displaced the Chinese or white men by underbidding or by their superior organization. In- most of the localities in which Chinese were employed at the time the Japanese came to the com munity as about Vacaville, Fresno, and on the Sacramento River they were soon extensively displaced by the Japanese, who had the same organization, were younger, more adaptable, and more agree able, and who, when they did not work for a lower wage, did more work. In a few instances where white men had been employed to 55 replace the Chinese, who became scarce and difficult to secure, the white men were displaced also by Japanese. The citrus-fruit industry of southern California is an excellent example of one in the develop ment of which Asiatic labor had taken little part, but in which within the last six years so many Japanese have found employment that they now do perhaps one-half of the picking and by no means a small percentage or the packing. Their wage per hour has been less than that paid to white men, and generally to Mexicans, and frequently when picking at piece rates they have been paid less than pickers of other races. Moreover, they have been easily obtained from ' i camps " maintained by " contractors," who are paid upon the completion of the work or later for such work as the men under their control do. The lower wage, the ease in providing living accommodations, and this convenient organization, together with a tendency for white per sons who have followed this occupation to leave when work may be obtained elsewhere, explain the rapid advance the Japanese have made. Though it is probable that there has been little or no net dis placement of white persons in the industry, they have been displaced very extensively in certain localities. Thus the dominant position of the Japanese has been gained as a result of the decreasing number of Chinese, and because of the fact that they have been well fitted to maintain and to extend the scheme of things developed through the employment of the Chinese, and because they were cheap laborers. The emphasis, however, must be placed upon the first facts rather than upon the fact that the Japanese have been cheaper laborers than the other races available for employment in most parts of the State, The wages of Japanese laborers in California have advanced rapidly since their first employment. Indeed, their wages increased rapidly between 1 900 and 1906, when the largest numbers were being added to the labor supply. The agricultural industries of the State, and of the other States of the West producing beet sugar, were rapidly expanding and giving rise to an increasing demand for such labor as the Japanese could furnish. They have also found employment in other industries, which, beginning about 1898, made effective com petition for Japanese engaged in California agriculture. Further more, the Japanese have been quick to take advantage of oppor tunities offered to secure an increase of wages, and in this tneir organization under contractors has been of material assistance, especially in recent years when much complaint has been made of the increasing wages and uncertainty of the supply of seasonal labor on account of the attitude of the Japanese. As a result of this rapid increase of Japanese wages and the slow increase in the wages of white men, the difference in the wages the classes have been paid has dimin ished until now the variation is trifling. In fact, since the restriction of Japanese immigration, they are occasionally paid higher wages than white men doing the same work. These cases are very exceptional, however. For regular work in most communities the Japanese were found in 1909 to receive less pay than white men, or, if they were paid as much on a day basis, they worked longer hours or the work was especially irksome. In many districts the Japanese received less pay for harvest work than did white men, but in other communities all races received the same wages for similar work. Frequently, how ever, their earnings are very much larger than those of the other races, because of the piece-rate system which prevails in the cultivation and 56 harvest of sugar beets, in the picking of grapes, in training the vines and in picking hops, and in much of the other agricultural work. On piece rates they work much more rapidly than most other races and usually work longer hours as well, with the result that their earnings in the hop yards, sugar-beet fields, and vineyards have been found to average considerably more than those of any other race. This bears upon the subject only in so far as it explains the large number of Jap anese who have sought such employment. In explaining the results of their competition with other races, pertaining to wages, the day wages and the piece rates alone should be compared. Nor do averages based upon figures collected from different communities have any particular significance in connection with this matter. They are of importance, however, in showing the general level of wages which prevails in agricultural as compared to that which prevails in other employments. The averages earned by unskilled laborers, with and without board, are shown in the following table. It should be added that board for white ranch hands is commonly reckoned at either 50 or 75 cents, and for Japanese at from 23 to 30 cents per day. TABLE 9. Average wages per day earned by each specified number of farm laborers in California, by race. Race. Farm laborers employed regularly. . Farm laborers employed temporarily. With board. Without board. With board. Without board. Number. Average wage per Number, day. Average wage per day. Number. Average wage per day. Number. Average wage per day. Chinese 108 $1. 406 26 66 $1.559 1.534 1.667 1.623 1.422 1.889 35 $1.454 99 253 $1. 743 1.441 East Indian Italian . 101 93 1. 108 22 1. 396 863 85 181 40 1.121 1.421 Japanese 2,654 82 286 1.615 1.721 1.855 Mexican Miscellaneous white.. 411 1.311 199 53 1.286 The Japanese agricultural laborers were at first almost all of the migratory class engaged in seasonal work only. Gradually, however, like the Chinese and other races beginning in the same way, an increasing percentage of them have found employment in the same locality throughout the year. A small percentage, also, as among the Chinese, have come to engage in occupations requiring work with teams. Most of these, however, are farming for themselves or employees of farmers, for among the Japanese as well as Chinese, Italians, and Portuguese, there is a strong tendency to employ only persons of their own race to fill all positions. Within ten years the Japanese have become conspicuous as farmers. In California, according to the returns made by the secretaries of Japanese associations, which, where checked, have been found to be approximately correct, the members of this race in 1909 owned 16,449| acres of agricultural land and leased 137,233^ acres more, 80,232 acres of it for cash and 57,001^ for a share of the crop. The corresponding figures for 1904 were 2,442 acres owned and 54,831 leased, 35,258J for cash and 19,572J for a share of the crop. This does not include so-called "contract leases," where a part of the work 57 involved is covered by a contract for the season or a period of years. The amount of land controlled by Japanese in several other States in the West was in 1909 approximately as follows: Colorado, 20,000 acres; Idaho, 7,072; Utah, 6,000; Washington, 7,000; Oregon, 3,500; more than 90 per cent of it being under cash or share lease. In Colorado most of this land is used for the growing of sugar beets and potatoes; in Utah, sugar beets and vegetables; in Idaho, sugar beets; in Washington and Oregon, vegetables and berries; in California, vegetables, berries, deciduous fruits, grapes, celery, melons, hops, and other crops requiring much hand labor and usually intensive cultivation. The investigation shows that the farms tend to fall under the control of any capable race which controls the supply of labor where much labor is essential, as it is in the growing of sugar beets, berries, vege tables, and fruit of different lands. A large part of the leasing by Japanese, like the less extensive leasing by the less progressive Chinese beiore them, has been incidental to their dominant position in the labor supply. This explains nearly all of the leasing of lands in Colorado, Utah, and Idaho, where it has been chiefly incidental to the growing of sugar beets, the Japanese, like the German-Russians, advancing rapidly from contract labor for the hand work to a share of the crop in return for the hand work; from a fairly independent share lease to an independent cash lease. Much of the leasing in California is explained in the same way. This is true of the growing of deciduous fruits and vegetables, where in several instances the majority of the orchards and farms have been leased by Japanese in general, the same evolution in the form of tenure taking place as noted above. In other cases, however, the leasing and the ownership of land by Japanese is merely an index of their comparative ability and has no close relation to their position as laborers. This is true generally of the leasing of land in Washington and Oregon, of some in Utah and Colorado, and of much of the leasing and the purchasing of land in California. Among other things shown by the investigation of Japanese farming were the following: (1) That because of the convenience of the tenant system and the difficulty farmers have experienced at times in securing laborers, there has been a strong inducement to lease land to a member of the race most prominent in the labor supply; (2) That a further inducement has been found in the fact that both Chinese and Japanese, and the latter particularly, in their anxiety to establish themselves as farmers, had offered such high rents that leasing his land gave the owner the best returns, allowance being made for the diminished risk ; (3) That with the exception of one or two localities, the Japanese have been the most effective bidders for land and have overbid the Chinese, the Italians, and native white men, and, moreover, have sometimes been effective bidders because they would reduce land to cultivation which white men would not lease on such terms; (4) That much of the leasing is closely related to a labor contract in which the tenant does certain stipulated kinds of work in return for a share of the crop, but that there has been a strong tendency for the Japanese to work for a greater degree of independence until they became cash tenants or landowners; 58 (5) That little capital has been required for a Japanese to become a tenant farmer because (1) of the formation of partnerships among them, (2) of the provision of necessary equipment by the landowner for the use of share tenants, and (3) of the advancing of money by shippers and others in competing for' the control of the crop, the result being that many of the Japanese farmers have required little or no capital to begin with; (6) That the leasing of land to Japanese, as to Chinese and Italians, has resulted in a displacement of laborers of other races because, on account of the disinclination of white persons to work for them or their own favoritism, they employ persons of their own race almost exclusively ; (7) That the Japanese farmers usually pay their Japanese laborers more than the local rate, but these wages are for a longer work day and for the better men they are usually in a position to select from those available; (8) That in growing strawberries, asparagus, and certain vegetables the Japanese farmers have increased the acreage in some instances until the industry has become unprofitable for them as well as others; (9) That because of the strong desire to remain independent of the wage relation and the limitations placed upon the occupations in which they may engage, the Japanese farmers in some instances appear not to have been discouraged in gaining control of land as long as there was a prospect of a small profit to be realized. Though in many localities the Japanese laborers were at first received with great favor, widespread dissatisfaction with them is now found and they are almost always disparagingly compared with the Chinese, who, because they are careful workmen, faithful to the employer, uncomplaining, easily satisfied with regard to living quarters, and not ambitious to learn new processes and to establish themselves as independent farmers, are used in the older agricul tural district as the standard by which others are measured. Indeed, while the largest number of Japanese were arriving and there was no great question of an insufficiency of numbers, there was a demand for a limited immigration of Chinese. Though many ranchers think that for social reasons it would be a mistaken policy to readmit the Chinese, they generally regard Asiatic laborers as indispensable to the prosperity and expansion of the agricultural industries which have become predominant in the State, and their almost unanimous preference is for Chinese rather than any other Asiatic race. Perhaps between 12,000 and 15,000 Japanese are employed in the 11 States and Territories comprising the Western division, as domestic servants in private families, and as help in restaurants, hotels, bar rooms, clubs, offices, and stores conducted by members of the white races, while some 10,000 or 11,000 more are engaged in business for themselves or are employed by those who are thus occupied, or are professional men and craftsmen working on their own account. Few are found in city employments other than those indicated. The 12,000 or 15,000 Japanese engaged in domestic service in its broad sense are chiefly in a few cities of the Pacific Coast States, the largest number being in Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. The greater number are domestics in private families, dishwashers and "general help" in restaurants, hotels, and saloons, and "day workers," i. e., persons who do work about the house or premises 59 and are paid so much per hour or day. A rather large percentage of the domestics in private families are " school boys," who work short hours for which they receive board and lodging and a small wage, depending upon the number of hours per day they work. The student class, the farmers' sons, and those who had not been gain fully occupied at home, have furnished the larger percentage of those engaging in these occupations. The work is less arduous than in the industrial employments, the conditions of living are very much better, and the opportunity to learn English and certain American methods are present. To some extent they have taken the places of the Chinese, who are gradually decreasing in number and are seldom available except as comparatively high-priced cooks. In few instances have they increased in number rapidly enough to displace white female servants, and though the Japanese have been regarded as the cheapest labor, until recently there has been a scarcity of servants even at increasing wages, and it should be added that the wages of Japanese servants increased rapidly during the decade of the nineties and in subsequent years when the largest number were arriving in this country. That their presence prevented a greater increase of wages for other classes there can be no doubt, for they have added greatly to the supply of labor available for such work. A comparatively large number of Japanese have found employ ment in restaurants and saloons in Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Their wages have been materially less than the union rates, but not always smaller than those earned by unorganized workmen. The convenience in obtaining them, their willingness to work regularly, and their superiority over many of the white men engaged in such unskilled and poorly paid work has caused them to be extensively employed. The number employed in saloons, how ever, and especially in San Francisco, has diminished rapidly, as many of the patrons have objected strongly to their employment at the lunch counters and as cleaners. This opposition has been effective, moreover, in preventing them from being employed as bell boys in other than exceptional cases in California hotels. In Port land and Seattle, however, where the anti-Japanese sentiment is not so strong as in San Francisco, they have been extensively employed in this capacity, not in an effort to substitute a cheaper class of laborers, but to obtain a more stable and more easily managed group. In all of the cities of the Pacific Coast States they have found employment as janitors, porters, and assistants in stores, where there has been much difficulty in obtaining desirable men at the comparatively low wages which such positions have paid. Their numbers have not been sufficiently large, however, to exercise any considerable effect upon the wages of other persons similarly employed. The number of Japanese business establishments in the Western division is in excess of 3,000 probably not much less than 3,500 two-thirds or more of which are in the State of California and more than one-half of the remainder in Washington. The number of persons occupied in conducting these establishments is perhaps between 10,000 and 11,000. Their character is roughly indicated by the number of each in five cities in Washington, seven cities in Cali fornia, Salt Lake City and Ogden, Utah, Denver, Colo., Portland, Oreg., and 11 towns in Idaho, from which data were gathered by agents of the Commission. Of a total of 2,277, 337 were Japanese 60 hotels and boarding houses, 232 restaurants serving Japanese meals, 187 barber shops, 149 restaurants serving American meals, 144 billiard and pool rooms, 136 tailor and dye shops, 124 provision and supply stores, 105 cobbler and shoe shops, 97 laundries, 86 curio and art stores, 44 employment offices, 32 contractors, 43 expressmen, 32 watch and jewelry stores and 26 photograph galleries. The other establishments were engaged in various branches of business enter prise. Most of these Japanese establishments have come into existence during the last seven or eight years as a result of the rapid increase of the Japanese population, a well-defined tendency exhibited by them to rise from the ranks of wage laborers, and an inclination more recently made manifest to seek " American " patronage and trade in some branches of business. The tendency to rise from the ranks of wage-earners has been made stronger by the fact that as such they have had little opportunity to advance to the higher occupations and to follow the trades some of them had acquired in their native land. The investigation sho\vs, in addition to the above facts: (1) That with few exceptions the Japanese business establishments are small, employ comparatively little capital, are conducted with the assistance of few employees, and have a comparatively small volume of annual transactions. (2) That in the larger cities where there are great numbers of Japanese many branches of business and many professions are repre sented; and because of clannishness, convenience in point of location and language, and the character of the goods carried in stock, and because of the feeling of opposition toward the Asiatics, with the result that they are not welcome at white establishments giving personal service, the majority of the wants of the Japanese are met by their countrymen engaged in business and the professions. (3) That while many of the Japanese establishments have been called into existence primarily to meet the needs of the members of that race, others have been started, mainly in recent years, for "American" trade, and are patronized almost exclusively by white persons. (4) That frequently in competing with white establishments the Japanese have underbid through a lower scale of prices. (5) That because of organized opposition in some instances, and of the small number of Japanese establishments as compared to those conducted by other races, the trades which have been seriously affected by Japanese competition have been few. (6) That in some instances the changes in the character of the population resulting from the settlement of Japanese who trade principally at shops conducted by their countrymen have seriously affected the business of shopkeepers and others located in or near Japanese colonies. (7) That few white persons are employed in Japanese estab lishments. (8) That usually, where there is competition between white and Japanese business men, the former maintain a shorter work day and a higher scale of wages than the latter. While the cost of food and drink consumed by Japanese farm laborers varies from about 23 to 30 cents per day, and by railroad laborers is about $8.50 per month, the expenditures of a large per- 61 centage of those living in cities are very much larger. They spend more for clothing than the members of most races similarly situated. On the whole their standard of living is higher than that of the Mexi can and the Chinese, and compares favorably with the standards of the south and east Europeans engaged in the same pursuits and earn ing like incomes. Yet the expenses of laborers without families have been much less than those of white men with families. The migratory laborers, usually with families or parents to support at home and with limited opportunities for investment here, send most of their savings abroad. The farmers, the business men and shopkeepers, and a small percentage of the nonmigratory laborers stand in striking contrast to these, for they usually invest most of their savings in the business carried on or in agriculture, or else put by their savings until they can find profitable investment for them. The Japanese are well organized into prefectural societies or trade guilds, and otherwise, and seldom become public charges. Though in several instances it has been necessary to deal with Japanese prostitution, they have not given much trouble on account of mis demeanors or crimes much less than the Mexicans and the Latin races. In certain respects the Japanese have shown a great capacity for assimilation, and very much more than the Chinese and the Mexicans of the peon class. In fact, they are extremely anxious to learn western ways and methods and conform at least to the externals of the civilization into which they have come. They have organized more schools for the acquirement of a knowledge of English than any other race, and in spite of their general colony life and slight associa tion with other races they have made more rapid progress in learning our language than the majority of the south and east Europeans, and much more than the Mexicans and Chinese, who have shown little interest in such matters. In dress and all superficial matters they conform to American ways, and though the majority adhere to the Buddhist faith, a large number, especially of the younger student class, are professed Christians and the missions are usually well sup ported. Yet there are race characteristics which may be firmly rooted how firmly only time and longer association with other races will tell. But whatever their capacities for assimilation, the general condi tions have been unfavorable to the Japanese laborer because of race feeling growing out of difference in color, characteristics, and ideals, because of the economic conflict which has taken place especially in California, and (this being not least important) because they came from the same quarter of the world as the Chinese and fell heir to their industrial position and general mode of life. The Japanese, along with the Chinese, are regarded as differing greatly from the white races they have lived among, but as no integral part of, and a strong public sentiment has segregated them, if not in their work, in the other details of their living. This practically forbids, when not expressed in law, marriage between them and persons of the white races, and where a considerable number of Japanese have appeared in a community race conflicts have frequently resulted. TV ith the exception of those who belong to the business classes, the Chinese native-born have found limitations placed upon them so that, regardless of any capacity they may have for Americanization, they 62 do not differ materially from and are treated as if foreign-born. It is not unlikely that, with large numbers of laborers, similar limi tations with similar results would be placed upon the native- born Japanese, none of whom has yet arrived at mature age. EAST INDIANS. East Indians of the laboring class were the last race to find a place in the population of the Pacific Coast States. Though the census of 1900 reports India as the country of birth of 2,050 persons resid ing in the continental United States, these were almost all of the student and business classes of East Indians and persons of other races who had been born in India, a large percentage of whom were located in the eastern States. The immigration of East Indian laborers may be said to date from 1905. In 1906 the number of 11 immigrant" and " nonimmigrant " East Indians arriving in the United States was 271; in 1907, 1,072; in 1908, 1,710. Beginning with 1908 the " immigrant" and " nonimmigrant" classes have been reported separately by the Immigration Bureau. In 1909 the num ber of "immigrants" was 337; in 1910 (July 1, 1909-June 30, 1910), 1,782. The number of East Indian laborers in the United States July 1, 1910, may be estimated at 5,000 or perhaps a little more. About 85 per cent of these are Hindus wearing the turban; the others are Mohammedans or Afghans. The first important immigration of East Indian laborers to the United States was from British Columbia, where as the result of the activity of steamship agents and the spread of Canadian " literature" in India and the efforts made to supply laborers under contract for work with British Columbia corporations, 5,179 came during the four years ending with 1908, when the further immigration of members of that race was effectively stopped by the denial of admission to those who did not come directly from their native land, and upon through tickets, and by another measure increasing the amount of money to have in possession from $25 to $200. The intent of the first provision becomes evident in view of the fact that there is no direct steamship connection between India and Canada. The immigration of East Indians from British Columbia is explained by several facts. They found the northern climate too severe, the white population was bitterly opposed to them, and the wages they earned as construction laborers and section hands on the railroads, as employees in the lumber mills, and as cannery hands on the Frazer River were much lower than the wages paid in the States of Washington and Oregon. The first East Indians coming from Canada found employment in lumber mills near the border at $1.60 per day, and when this fact was communicated to their friends and acquaintances in British Columbia who were earning from $0.80 to $1.25 per day, the influx began. The movement practically ended in 1908, however, because of the effective exclusion of the race from Dominion territory. Since then most of the immigration to this country has been direct from Asiatic ports, the great majority of them entering this country at San Francisco. During the first nine months of the calendar year 1910, 1,401 were admitted at the immi gration station there located, while 623 were denied admission., 63 The number of East Indians entering the United States has been affected somewhat by the attitude of the immigration authorities toward them. In 1908 many were turned back on the -ground that they were likely to become public chanres, and the same has been true recently in the administration of the law at the port of San Francisco, where during the four months, June to September, 1910, 482 were admitted and 421 rejected on the ground that they were likely to become public charges, as against 919 admitted and 68 rejected for the same cause during the preceding five months of the year. The more severe interpretation of the law has met with almost unqualified approval, for the East Indian laborers are regarded as the least desirable, not to say the most undesirable, immigrants who have come to the Pacific coast. While 4,90.1 have been admitted to this country during the four years ending June 30, 1910, 1,597 have been denied admission at the ports. In this connection it should be added that a large percentage of those who have applied had already been passed upon when admitted to Canada, while recently many are reported to have been turned back upon examination when about to leave Asiatic ports. Of the 1,597 rejected during the four years mentioned, 750 were rejected on the ground that they were likely to become public charges, 447 because afflicted with trachoma, 112 because of loathsome* or contagious disease, 177 on surgeon's certificate of mental or physical defect which might affect their ability to earn a living, 73 on the ground that they were contract laborers, 2 because idiotic, 2 because criminal, and 34 because they were polygamists. During the four years 15 were deported for various reasons. 6 In spite of the large number rejected, the move ment of East Indians to the Pacific coast has not been so discouraged but that the number has tended to increase under the present immi gration law and its interpretation. r l he comparatively small num bers who have thus far come only mark the beginning of a much larger immigration if the members of this race are successful in establishing themselves as laborers in this country. Of 473 East Indians from whom personal schedules were obtained, 85 per cent had been farmers or farm laborers in India. a Of the others a few had been soldiers, an equal number business men, and a somewhat larger number wage-laborers in other than agricultural work. Without exception they arrived in this country with little money and most of them appear to have come with the expectation of accumulating a sum of $2,000 and then returning to their native land. A by no means small percentage, however, complain of British oppression in their native land. They have come without their families, but now that a few have decided to remain permanently in this country they state that the immigration of families will soon follow. In this country the East Indians, with rare exceptions, have engaged in the roughest, most unskilled labor outside of factory walls. Whether with a longer residence they would rise to higher positions as they did in British Columbia lumber mills remains to be seen. As yet their employment, with few exceptions, has been limited to u yard work" in lumber mills, as section hands in several See reports of the Commissioner-General of Immigration, 1907, 1908, 1909, 1910. 64 places but chiefly in Nevada, as railroad construction laborers, as hand laborers in the sugar-beet fields in California, as hand laborers in grape and fruit picking, weeding, and hoeing, and as unskilled laborers in a pottery and in a quarry. The only instance known in which they have been employed at work in a building was in a rope factory in Portland. A few Mohammedans have vended peanuts, while several small groups have manufactured tamales at their homes and sold them upon the streets of Oakland and San Francisco. Since 1906 East Indians have been employed as yard laborers in the lumber mills of the Northwest, chiefly about Bellingham, Tacoma, Grays Harbor, and Astoria. They have been paid higher wages than the Japanese, but as a rule somewhat lower wages than " white men," the East Indians not being recognized as of the white race. Their wages have been fixed by the lumber companies at comparatively high rates, because of the strong hostility exhibited toward them by laborers of other races, who have feared that they would undermine their wages. The average wage per day of 53 East Indians was $1.67. The average yearly earnings of 38 were $451 for an average of 10.2 months in employment, as against $516 for 48 Japanese for an average of 11.2 months in employment. Because of lower wages or of more irregular work, or both, their annual earnings were found to be lower than those of any other race for the members of which such data were obtained. In a few instances they have been regarded as worth the wage paid them, but in most instances the employers have regarded them as dear labor at the price, because physically weak as compared to " white men," slow to understand instructions, and requiring close supervision. Because of this fact and the wide spread opposition to them they are not so extensively employed in lumber mills as formerly. In fact most of the members of the race have migrated from Washington and Oregon to California in search of a warmer climate and of work in the fields and orchards, which they find more agreeable. At present perhaps four-fifths of the 5,000 or more are found in the one State, and none are found else where than in the three Pacific Coast States and Nevada. The East Indian laborers coming from the north made then 1 appear ance in California late in the year 1907 to work in railway construc tion. They are known to have been employed as laborers in construc tion gangs on five railways being built in the State. In all of these instances they were paid somewhat less than the members of the white races, but were generally found to be too weak, because of being underfed, and too slow to be worth the price when other laborers could be secured at somewhat higher wages. In only one case were they retained in employment for more than a short time and that has been upon a railway still in process of construction. They have not been extensively employed as section hands. In one instance they were employed to some extent for a few months and then discharged. In the spring and summer of 1909 only 73 were reported in a total of 34,919 section hands employed on railways in the Western division. As section hands they have sometimes been paid higher wages than other Asiatics, but with few exceptions have been regarded as the least desirable of all races employed. Unless of the soldier class, they have been found to be physically weak, unintelligent, and slow to acquire a knowledge of the work to be done. 65 Under these circumstances most of the East Indians have drifted into agricultural work in California, where there has been the greatest dearth of cheap labor because of the extension of specialized farming and fruit growing and the diminishing number of Chinese and Japanese available as wage laborers for seasonal work. In 1908 they made their appearance in orchards, vineyards, and sugar-beet fields, and on the large farms devoted to the production of various kinds of vege tables in northern and central California. In 1909 three small groups made their appearance in southern California. 'Their* work has been of the most unskilled type, and limited to hoeing and weeding in field and orchard, and to harvesting of grapes, fruit, and vegetables. In only one or two instances were they found to have been employed with single horse plows. In the Newcastle fruit district and along the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, where a large part of the land is leased by Asiatics, they have found employment without much diffi culty because of a widespread desire to break the monopoly control of the labor supply by the Japanese, or because of the much higher wages than formerly commanded by other Asiatics. In most of the communities, because of then: dirty appearance and strange looks when wearing turbans, they have found it difficult to secure employ ment at relatively low wages. They usually go from place to place in small groups in search of work under the leadership of one of their number who acts as interpreter and business agent. In 1908 their wages varied from 25 to 50 cents per day less than was paid to Japa nese. In some instances when paid on a piece basis they worked at a lower rate than other races. This difference has tended to disappear, however, for the East Indians, when they have found employment in a community, have demanded as high wages as were paid to other Asiatics. In 1909 the difference had been reduced to 25 cents per day, and in some cases to even less. Though in some instances they have com mended themselves to ranchers, they have generally been regarded as distinctly inferior to laborers of other races and as not cheap labor at the wages which they have been paid. In few cases have they dis placed any other race; usually they have done the work not desired by other races or have been employed when other laborers were not avail able at the customary or even a higher wage. While in a few instances they have been retained on large ranches through the winter season as wood choppers, they have usually found employment only during the busiest seasons and during the winter have secured employment as construction laborers, have withdrawn to the cities to live in idleness, or have moved from place to place only to find little employment. Their industrial position is the most insecure of any race; in general they are looked upon as a possible source when laborers of other races are not available on satisfactory terms. Though in extreme need they have frequently offered to work: for very low wages and in some instances nave even demanded employment, their competitive ability, because of low efficiency and a general disinclination to hire them, has been comparatively small. With more experience and time, however, their position would doubt less become more secure and their competitive ability greater. Of 371 East Indian agricultural laborers, 45 earned $1 but less than $1.25 per day; 104, $1.25 but less than $1.50; 149, $1.50 but less than $1.75; 43, $1.75 but less than $2; 28, $2 but less than $2.50; 2, $2.50 but less than $3. Those receiving more than $1.75 per day were either 6853411 5 66 pieceworkers or " bosses/' who are paid somewhat higher wages than their fellow-workers and do not receive commissions, as Japanese "bosses" frequently do. These are summer wages and are much higher than are paid at other times of the year and for wood chopping. Nor are the wages paid a good index to earnings in the course of the year, for much of tne time is spent in idleness because of the irregu larity of their employment. The standard of living of the East Indians is lower than that of any of the races with which they compete, but, with better earnings, their standard as measured by expense rises. The East Indians are without families and the men live in groups of from 2 to 50, depend ing upon the size of the "gang" employed in a given place and also to some extent upon the number of castes represented among them. The agricultural laborers are provided with free lodging in "shacks/ 7 barns, or other outbuildings, or, more frequently, live in the open. They usually have no furniture and sleep in blankets upon the floor or ground. They generally cook upon a grate placed over a hole in the ground and frequently eat without plate, knife, or fork. Fre quently the members of several castes are found working in the same "gang" and lodging together, but the members of each caste form a "mess" and all food eaten must be prepared by a member of the caste. As a rule they will not purchase meat which has been prepared by other hands, and are thus usually limited to poultry and lambs butchered by themselves for their meat. In fact, they eat little meat. They subsist chiefly upon unleavened bread cooked as pancakes, upon vegetables, such fruit as they may happen to be harvesting, and milk when they can get it. Tea and coffee are some times used. Many kinds of food are abstained from, the articles upon the taboo list varying as between the "hat " (Mohammedan) and the "turbaned" Hindus, and from one caste to another. Living in this manner, their food rarely costs as much as $7.50 per month per man this, however, not including beer and whisky, which are freely consumed in. many of the groups. Of clothing, most of these migratory laborers do not have enough for a change, and "dressing up" usually consists of a change of headdress and putting on the coat, which most possess. The cost of clothing as estimated by various groups does not average more than $30 per man per year. Most of the lumber-mill laborers and the Mohammedan peddlers in the cities live better than the agricultural laborers. They usually live in "shacks" or basements which alone are rented to them, the group occupying one or two rooms. To the articles of food con sumed by the migratory laborers they add others, thus increasing the cost of subsistence. The average cost of subsistence for 79 mill hands in Oregon and Washington, living in several groups, was $1'2 per month. The outlay of the Mohammedan tamale makers and peddlers was even larger. The observance of caste in the selection, preparation, and eating of food has been noted. The strength of this is evidenced by the fact that when placed in jail for petit larceny or misdemeanors they have consistently refused to eat food not prepared by themselves or brought by their friends. At Auburn, Cal., one East Indian fasted for 10 days, after which he was permitted to have a stove and to pre pare his own meals. At Fresno some prisoners subsisted upon watermelons and food brought to them by their countrymen until 67 the inconvenience involved in retaining them in jail resulted in their being set free without trial. Caste and taboo are not so closely observed here as in their native land, but, as is evident, both are still strong factors in East Indian life. When employed at the wages already indicated the earnings of the East Indian men are much larger than the cost of their living. Almost all of the savings are immediately sent to India to support their families or to add to the fund they are engaged in accumulat ing. Few have as much as $50 worth of property in this country. In fact, they have frequently sent all their savings abroad and left themselves with nothing to live on in the event of unemployment. In one case their pitiable condition was relieved by assistance given by the British consul-general. Their poverty, precarious industrial position, and habit with reference to sending savings abroad, are likely at any time to cause great suffering among them or to cause them, though able-bodied, to become public charges. That they have not frequently become public charges heretofore is explained largely by the fact that they have been far removed from the com munity life. They find work and move in the community, but as yet have been no part of it. The percentage of illiteracy among the East Indians is larger than among any other immigrant race, not excepting the Mexican peons. Between one-half and three-fifths of them are unable to read and write. A larger percentage of them than of several races speak English, if comparison is limited to those who have immigrated within a period of five years. This fact, however, does not indicate capacity for assimilation, for a large percentage had resided in British Columbia before coming to the United States, while others had studied English in India or had come in contact with English-speak ing people in the army or elsewhere before leaving their native land. A few have taken out first papers as the first step toward acquiring American citizenship. Others have applied for papers but have been denied them upon the ground that they w^ere racially ineli gible for naturalization. The Bureau of Naturalization has instructed federal attorneys to "oppose the granting of naturalization to Hindus or East Indians," but in so far as known no case directly involving the right of East Indians to become naturalized citizens of this country has been decided by the courts. Recently the United States circuit court of appeals in the southern district of New York (180 Fed. Rep., 695) rendered a decision holding that a Parsee a native of India was eligible for citizenship, but the court made a clear distinction between the Parsees and the Hindus. The assimilative qualities of the East Indians appear to be the lowest of any race in the West. The strong influence of custom, caste, and taboo, as well as their religion, dark skins, filthy appearance, and dress stand in the way of association with other races. At the same time that their assimilative qualities are low, it is evident from the attitude of all other races toward them that they will be given no opportunity to assimilate. It appears certain that until many changes have been wrought the East Indians of the laboring class will find no place in American life save in the exploitation of our resources. Except for those of an idealistic turn of mind, a few who look upon our country as a place of refuge for the East Indian they believe to be oppressed in his native land, and a very few of the many whose 68 chief interests and point of view are purely industrial, the other races of the West stand opposed to the immigration of East Indians as to that of no other race. MEXICANS. The sections of the United States in which the great majority of the Mexican immigrants are found were formerly a part of the Republic of Mexico. How many persons of Mexican descent find a place in the population of this country can not be ascertained. The number of foreign-born Mexicans in 1900, as reported by the census, was 103,410. For various reasons the immigration has been far more rapid since 1900 than at any previous time, with the result that the number of foreign-born of that race is much larger than when the census of 1900 was taken. According to the reports of the Com missioner-General of Immigration, the number coming to the United States during the nine years between July 1, 1900, and June 30, 1909, was 23,991, but complete records of those who cross the border have not been kept. It has been estimated that the number immigrating does not exceed 60,000 per year, and the majority of those who come for the first time return to Mexico after a few months or a year. Though Mexicans are now employed as far east as Louisiana, and in railroad work as far north as Illinois, Kansas, and Wyoming, and though there is a small settlement of families of that race in San Francisco, most of them are found in Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico, in Colorado from Pueblo south, in the southern part of Nevada, and in California from Fresno south to the Mexican boundary. In the territory thus roughly defined, many colonies of Mexican families permanently settled in this country are found, as at El Paso, San Antonio, Tucson, and Los Angeles, in all of which cities the Mexicans are a conspicuous element in the population. Much smaller numbers are settled on small farms, for the greater part in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. But a far larger number are transient laborers, many of them alternating between their native land and the States of the Southwest, and living wherever their employment takes them. With few exceptions, the Mexicans of the peon class are engaged in unskilled work for wages. Their chief employments are as laborers in general construction work, as section hands and members of 11 extra gangs" in railroad maintenance of way, as common laborers and as helpers in railway shops, as laborers and to a less extent as underground workmen in coal and ore mining, as general laborers about smelters and ore reduction plants, and as seasonal farm hands in Texas, Colorado, and California. Smaller numbers are 'employed in brickyards, as hod carriers, and as helpers in the building trades, as cigar makers (as in San Francisco and El Paso), as cannery hands in southern California, and in biscuit and chili factories, laundries, and other establishments calling for a similar grade of ability. With few exceptions, their shopkeeping is of the pettiest kind, and conducted in the Mexican quarter. Nor have they in many cases risen from the rank of seasonal laborer to tenant or landowning farmer in the specialized agricultural industries in which they find a place. The Mexican being without ambition and thrift and being content with the wage relation and a dependent position, his progress, unlike that of 69 the Japanese, has been slow, and is occupational and practically limited to that of a wage-earner. The investigation of Mexicans conducted through the western office maintained by the Commission was limited to the 11 States and Territories comprising the Western division, which in 1900 had only 29,579 of the 103,421 Mexicans reported by the census. The results of the investigation of railroad work, coal and metal mining, smelt ing, and the sugar-beet industry and related agricultural work, briefly stated, will show the more important economic phases of Mexican immigration. From the data collected by the Commission it would appear that in the summer of 1909 Mexicans constituted about one-sixth of the section hands and members of " extra gangs" employed in the ll States and Territories embraced within the Western division. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe employed 2,598 Mexicans, 41 white men, and 33 Indians as section hands and construction laborers on its lines west of Albuquerque. The Southern Pacific Company employed Mexicans almost exclusively on its southern lines, the com mon laborers of the race numbering 2,714 in a total of 12,592 employed on the various lines comprising its system. Tlus Denver and Rio Grande employed 206 Mexicans of a total of 1,791, the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake, 397 of a total of 1,706. The majority of the less important railroads of New Mexico, Arizona, and southern Colorado employed Mexicans largely if not almost exclusively. Farther east the members of this race are employed on the Santa Fe, on the Rock Island, and several other railroads. Though a few of these section hands are paid as much as $1.75, the majority at the time of the investigation commanded only $1 per day, while as track walkers they received $1.25. Of 2,455 Mexican maintenance- of-way laborers from whom data were obtained, 86.1 per cent earned less than $1.25 (i. e., $1, $1.10, or $1.15), 8.6 per cent $1.25 but less than $1.50, and 5.3 per cent $1.50 or over per day. The Mexican's wage was found to be the lowest paid to maintenance-of-way laborers in the West and is lower than was paid to men of other races where such had been employed previous to securing Mexi cans. Their wages on one railroad were $1 and in the desert $1.25 per day, while the Japanese employed in the more agreeable places were paid $1.45. In several instances they have replaced at $1 per day Indians and Japanese who had been paid $1.25. It should be added, however, that, largely because of the more extensive employ ment of Mexicans as section hands in States to the east, the wages of most of them employed in the Southwest have been increased to $1.25 since the investigation of railway labor was made. But even at this wage the Mexican is still the lowest paid railroad laborer in the West and his wage is lower than that paid to other races and lower than that paid generally to Japanese before restrictions were placed upon the immigration of that race to this country. During recent years many Mexicans living far in the interior of Mexico have been brought to the northern part of the Republic to work on the railways and in the mines and smelters. Once near the boundary, they have found the wages in this country to be enough higher than those paid in Mexico to induce them to enter this country at El Paso, where they are sent chiefly to the various railway lines by the several employment agencies, some of which have been organized 70 to supply particular railroads with laborers of that race. At El Paso the Mexicans have been permitted to enter this country freely when without money if employment was to be obtained through these agencies. ^In some instances the agents act as supply companies, the railroad companies protecting their bills, and charge no commission, but rely on the profits from selling goods at comparatively high prices, while in other cases they charge an employment fee of $1, which, together with the charge made for subsistence of laborers while in El Paso and en route to the place of work, is deducted by the railway companies from the earnings of the laborers. The laborers are trans ported without charge by the companies whose lines enter El Paso and at party rates where such is not the case. The first-mentioned lines give free return transportation to those who remain in employ ment for several months and in one instance to their families as well after working for one year. This is an important consideration to the Mexicans, approximately 50 per cent of whom claim their trans portation back to El Paso. That there is not great exploitation of the Mexicans engaged in rail way work in the Southwest is evidenced by the fact that they do not leave the employment of the companies more frequently than they do to accept other work and that a large percentage of those who come to this country are returning to this branch of employment with their friends after a visit to their native land. In some instances it was found that foremen promised the men employment for them selves and friends upon their return. " Rustlers" are employed to meet incoming immigrants at the bridge over the Rio Grande at El Paso, but no evidence was secured of solicitation by agents in Mexico. The employment of Mexicans in the Southwest is largely in parts of the country which are sparsely settled and in which the climatic and other conditions are such that it has been difficult to secure and to keep laborers of any other race, including the Japanese. It was partly because of this fact, partly because of the lower wage for which they were willing to work, and partly because of roadmasters' prefer ences for them as laborers that within ten years their employment has become so general. That Chinese and white men of the older type are no longer available in any considerable number under present conditions and at any price is evidenced by the efforts made by one company to secure laborers at higher wages to supplement the Mexi cans upon its pay rolls. Moreover, when Italians, Greeks, and Japa nese have been employed, as they were in 1905, 1906, and 1907, the roadmasters and foremen have very generally, in fact almost uni versally, regarded them as less desirable than the Mexicans. The Mexicans are stronger than the Japanese, and more tractable and more easily managed than any of the races mentioned. Their short comings from the employer's point of view are drinking to excess and being irregular in attendance at work, especially after a pay day. Though comparatively few have risen to the rank of foreman, and though as a race they are unprogressive, they are sufficiently intel ligent to meet the requirements of common labor when working under close supervision. The Mexicans are also extensively employed in railway shops and about the roundhouses in the Southwest. In Mexico they are employed in most of the occupations finding place in the shops. In 71 the Southwest, however, except in one case where they were employed as strike breakers, they have been taken into the shops as unskilled laborers to made good the deficiency of Chinese and white men avail able for unskilled work, especially in Arizona and New Mexico. They work chiefly as common laborers, but also in smaller numbers as engine wipers, boiler makers, car repairers, blacksmiths' and machinists' helpers, and in similar occupations requiring compara tively little skill or ability but affording to those who have the neces sary ability the opportunity to rise to skilled positions. The extent to which the Mexicans have done this is indicated by the fact that of 492 reporting wages earned in railway shops only 3.8 per cent earned $2.50 or over per day, the rate which may be regarded as the mini mum for skilled work, while 65.9 per cent of them earned less than $1.50 and 58.1 per cent less than $1.25 per day. Most of them are paid $1 per day as common laborers, a smaller wage than is paid to Japanese similarly employed in railway shops. However, the Japanese are very generally found to be superior for shop work other than the heaviest common labor, for they are quicker, more intelli gent, more ambitious, and more progressive. That the Mexicans have shown somewhat more occupational progress than the Asiatics is explained partly by the difficulty in obtaining other men for some of the shops in which they are employed in the largest number of occupations, partly because there is less opposition shown by white employees to the employment of the Mexicans than of the Japanese. In the other departments of railway work, construction excluded, the Mexicans find little place. Few are employed in the department of bridges and buildings, for one reason because of the inconvenience involved in making separate provision for their lodging and sub sistence. The Mexicans also predominate in the unskilled work involved in the electric railway service of the Southwest. Data were obtained for 543 of them in southern California. Of these, 91.8 per cent were construction and maintenance of way laborers, the others car cleaners and unskilled laborers in the shops maintained by interurban electric railways. Their wages correspond closely to those earned in the steam railway service, as is shown by the fact that 75.6 per cent earned less than $1.25 per day. In one locality, where three-fourths of the track laborers were Mexicans and a part of the others were Japanese, these races were paid $1 to $1.15 per day of nine to ten hours, with lodging, wood, and water. In another locality near by North Italians were employed almost exclusively in similar work, three-fifths of them earning $1.75 but less than $2, the others $2 but less than $2.25, per day of nine hours. Taking the 14 companies investigated in the West, 75.6 per cent of the Mexicans earned less than $1.25 per day, while 61.7 per cent of the North Italians, 50.2 per cent of the South Italians, and 54.4 per cent of the Greeks races employed in the same occupations, and the races with the exception of the few Japanese and the Mexicans having the smallest earnings earned $2 but less than $2.25 per day. Coal mining is a much less important source of employment for the Mexican than the railroads, partly because the mine operators find more desirable laborers available, partly because they do not have as good facilities as the steam railroad companies for securing the immi grating laborers of that race. They are employed as coal miners in 72 comparatively small numbers in Oklahoma and other States to the east, but chiefly in the southern Colorado field and in New Mexico. Of 2,417 persons employed in coal mines investigated in southern Colorado, immigrant Mexicans numbered 115; of 1,143 on the pay rolls of mines located in northern New Mexico, they numbered 134. The number employed is smaller than formerly, for in southern Colorado they were employed in large numbers as strike breakers in 1903-4, but permitted to drift away after conditions became normal, because they were not regarded as being as good laborers as other races available, and especially the Italians. The Mexicans do not like to work underground nor do other men like to work with them because of the Mexican's carelessness and ignorance in the use of powder. Of 249, 129 were employed as common laborers in surface work and as wood choppers about coke ovens; 8 were employed as machinists and engineers or in higher capacities. The remaining 45 per cent were miners and loaders. As miners and loaders the pay rolls of the mines in northern New Mexico showed that because of less regular work their earnings were the smallest of all the races. Moreover, their daily earnings were $2.87, as against $3.26 for all of the races upon the pay rolls. Finally, their wages as laborers about the mines and coke ovens averaged $2.11 per day, as against $2.66 earned by the Italians and $2.54 earned by all races employed. Metalliferous mining and smelting offer to Mexicans a much larger field for employment, largely because of the fact that Arizona pro duces more than two-fifths of the copper output of the United States and that many of the mines are located near the Mexican border. New Mexico's mines and smelters are of less importance. In the metal mines of these States, and especially in those within a hundred miles or so of the Mexican boundary, a large percentage of Mexicans are employed. They and the Italians share the larger part of the simplest unskilled work. Of 609 Mexicans out of a grand total of 2,307 persons employed in mines investigated, only 2 were foremen, employed largely because of their position as " bosses" and inter preters, and only 20 were mechanics. As has been stated, they are the scavengers of the industry, picking up the positions left vacant by other classes and supplanting the least skilled and least reliable Europeans. In one district investigated they were nearly all paid $1.50 per day as common laborers, while very few of the native white men and Europeans employed were paid less than $2.75. In another district in which Mexicans and Italians were extensively employed as miners and in other occupations as well as laborers, the wage most commonly paid to most of those engaged in the first-mentioned occupation was $2.25, as against the $3.50 per day which was the wage commonly paid to miners in the district farther north, and in which the Mexicans occupied fewer positions. Of the Mexicans employed in the mines investigated, 6.9 per cent earned $1.50 but less than $1.75 per day, 44 per cent $1.75 but less than $2, 42.4 per cent $2 but less than $2.50. Thus, only 7 per cent earned as much as $2.50 per day. In contrast to them, 21.1 per cent of the native- born earned $4 or over per day and only 6.9 per cent earned less than $3.50. The earnings of the Italians alone of any race of numerical a Clark: Mexican Labor in the United States, Bull. 78, U. S. Bureau of Labor. 73 importance in the mines present no strong contrast to those of the Mexicans. Many Mexicans are employed in the smelter at El Paso and in the large number of establishments in New Mexico and Arizona. The number employed farther north, as in Colorado, has been small, for the smelters located there are too far removed from the source of supply at El Paso. In some of the smaller plants of Arizona and New Mexico Mexicans are employed almost exclusively, while in most of the larger establishments they are employed to do the greater part of the heavy, unskilled work. Of more than 1,400 men reporting data from two of these, for example, there were 922 Mexicans. Of 66 foremen, 6 were members of this race, as were 14 of 174 engineers and skilled mechanics, while of 1,279 gen eral laborers, 902 were Mexicans, 52 were natives of Mexican father and an unknown number of others were of Mexican descent. Thus it is seen that most of them were employed in the large number of occupations which call for little or no skill. More than 40 per cent of them were paid $1.50 per day. In fact, 45.5 per cent of those from whom data were obtained earned $1.50 but less than $1.75 per day, 66.8 per cent less than $2, which was the lowest wage paid any person of any other race, and 87.3 per cent less than $2.50 per day, while 97.4 per cent earned less than $3 per day. It was found that while the majority earned comparatively low wages because common laborers, whatever their occupations they were generally paid less than native white men and European immigrants engaged in the same or in similar occupations. While 87.3 per cent of the Mexicans earned less than $2.50, 85 per cent of tne other immigrants employed earned more than $2.50 per day. Other branches of employment in which the Mexicans are employed in the West are in the beet-sugar industry and the sea sonal "agricultural industries. In Colorado, in 1909, they consti tuted something more than 2,600 of the 15,000 persons engaged in the seasonal hand work involved in growing sugar beets, as against an approximately equal number of Japanese and two and a half times as many German-Russians. The Mexicans have been brought by the sugar companies by the train load from Arizona, New Mexico, and El Paso, where by liberal advertising some had been induced to come across the border, beginning ten years ago in southern Colo rado with the introduction of the industry and in northern Colorado in 1903. The remuneration is from $18 to $20 per acre for the hand work. The Japanese care for 11 or 12 acres each, the Mexi cans about 8. At the prices which obtain, the latter earn $2 or over per day while the season lasts. In California the number of Mexicans so engaged is about 1,000 of a total of between 6,000 and 7,000, the great majority of whom are Japanese. Though some have been transported to northern California to provide com petition with the Japanese, the great majority are employed in a few districts in the southern part of the State, and even here they have given way in some instances to the more ambitious Japanese or to the greater attractions of the factory work. Their connection with the growing of beets is practically limited to the hand work in the fields, for only 32 growers of that race were found in Colorado and 15 in California, as against 158 of the more ambitious Japanese in Colorado and 74 in California. As hand workers, some prefer the Mexicans to the Japanese; others prefer the Japanese to the Mexicans. 74 Mexicans have been employed to some extent in the beet-sugar factories of Colorado, but more extensively in those of California. Indeed, in 1909 it is estimated that they constituted about one-fifth of the approximately 2,500 employed in the factories of the latter State. They are found in the factories of the southern part of the State, and their work is unskilled, consisting chiefly of shoveling beets and the other heavy and dirty work involved in the manu facture of sugar. They earn from 17^ to 20 cents per hour for a twelve-hour day, while common laborers of the various white races are paid as a minimum 20 cents per hour, and about one-half of them are paid at still higher rates. The Mexicans are strong and satisfactory at this work, and this fact, together with the avail ability of Japanese for field work, has caused some companies to employ them in the factory rather than in the field. In southern California a large number of Mexicans are employed as seasonal laborers in the fields and orchards in picking grapes, walnuts, and, to a less extent, citrus fruit. In some localities prac tically all of these men have been engaged in railroad work, but have left it for the more remunerative work to be found elsewhere. They are recent immigrants, migratory and working in groups or "gangs." In other localities the majority are settled in colonies, and among them the native-born are a prominent element. The members of this race are also widely employed as teamsters. About Fresno, Tulare, and Visalia, farther north, several hundred Mexicans are employed, chiefly as grape and fruit pickers. In their various agri cultural occupations the Mexicans are paid higher wages than in railroad work s When not paid at the piece rates determined by the competition among the several races, their wages are almost invariably fixed either at the rate paid to white men or at the some what lower rate paid to the Japanese. As a rule the Mexicans have been regarded as fairly efficient laborers for agricultural work, but because the Japanese have a well-developed organization of labor which is a great convenience to the growers, are more versa tile, and in most communities more numerous and more capable of guaranteeing a supply of labor sufficient to do the work required, there has generally been an effective community preference for the Japanese as opposed to the Mexicans. From the summary made of the details relating to Mexicans in these industries the following facts are evident: (1) That the incoming Mexicans have afforded a supply of com mon labor in the Southwest in places and at a time when, because of expanding industry, the supply from other sources was inadequate at comparatively high wages; (2) That in most industries they are paid the lowest wage, and in transportation particularly are regarded as the cheapest at the price, and have been substituted, when possible, for the members of other races for unskilled work; (3) That in most industries they are regarded as satisfactory laborers ; (4) That they are largely migratory and easily made available for work where needed; (5) That their competition is practically limited to the most unskilled employments, and being without ambition and perse- 75 verence, and unprogressive, they do not to any extent compete in other walks of life; in brief, (6) That they are desirable as laborers in the exploitation of resources, and their competitive ability is relatively limited and does not appear to offer any ground for fear of a general displace ment of other races ; (7) That for geographic and climatic reasons, and because of a strong desire to return frequently to their native land, most of the Mexicans have remained in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, and southern California, but that they have been transported to a limited extent farther north to northern Colorado and to northern California for seasonal agricultural work with satisfactory results. Unless conditions change, any great increase in the number of Mexicans coming to the United States is not to be expected, in spite of the facts that those who go back upon visits frequently return with their families and friends and that some parts of Mexico have not yet been drawn upon. In the more populous districts the superior wages to be earned in this country have been generally known. Moreover, the industries of Mexico are expanding rapidly, and with this expansion and the diminishing importance of custom which accompanies it the wide difference between American and Mexican wages which has obtained is disappearing. With a wider distribution of Mexican labor in this country and higher wages than now prevail a larger immigration would, of course, be stimulated. Many of the Mexican laborers return from their visits to Mexico, bringing their families with them, and a good share of these families settle more or less permanently in this country. In this way the number of that race settled in Los Angeles has increased several fold since 1900, and the Mexican quarters of some other cities have grown only less rapidly. As implied in this statement, the Mexicans settle in colonies. With rare exceptions their houses are the poorest in these cities, are located in the least desirable districts, and are over crowded to a greater extent than those of practically all of the other immigrant races. An investigation of Mexican and other families in Los Angeles revealed the fact that their family incomes were the smallest, their standard of living the lowest, and their lack of thrift the greatest of the several immigrant races investigated. The cost of subsistence among the railroad laborers is approximately $8 per month, or less, if anything, than that of the Japanese similarly employed. In these cases, however, the laborers purchase most of their food supplies from the employment agents, and beans occupy as prominent a place in their diet as rice in that of the Asiatics. In the cities the cost of subsistence was found to depend directly upon how much was earned and available for spending. The assimilative qualities of the Mexican are slight. Because of backward educational facilities in their native land and a constitu tional prejudice on the part of the peons toward school attendance, the immigrants of this race have among them a larger percentage of illiterates than is found among any race immigrating to the western country in any considerable number. Of 5,682 wage-earners from whom data were obtained only 2,874, or 50.58 per cent, reported that they could read and write. Moreover, their progress in learning English is very slow. Of 2,602 wage-earners only 350, or 13.45 per cent, reported that they could speak English. Of 1,269 who had 76 resided in the United States less than five years only 7.1 per cent, of 757 who had resided here from five to nine years only 15.1 per cent, and of 504 who had resided here ten years or over only 29 per cent, could speak English. In connection with these data relating to literacy and ability to speak English it must be noted, however, that the Mexican is always inclined to give a negative answer, whereas the contrary is true of some other races. The progress of the Mexican children in the Los Angeles schools is below the average and they leave school early. A large percentage of the native-born can not speak the English language. Because of their strong attachment to their native land, low intelligence, illit eracy, migratory life, and the possibility of their residence here being discontinued, few become citizens of the United States. Of 978 wage-earners who had been in this country five years or over and who were 21 years of age at the time of their immigration, only 16 had become naturalized and only 17 had taken out their first papers. Of 326 who had been here ten years or over, 300 were aliens. The percentage of citizens among those settled in Los Angeles is very little larger. In so far as Mexican laborers come into contact with natives or with European immigrants they are looked upon as inferiors. Though Mexican teamsters frequently live and eat with white ranch hands, when Mexicans are employed in groups they eat by themselves or in some cases with the negroes. Marriages between Mexicans and Europeans or Americans are rare. Though it is apparent upon their return to Mexico that American ideas and institutions here left their imprint upon them, their progress toward assimilation has perhaps not been more rapid than that of the conservative Chinese. Because of a lack of thrift and a tendency to regard public relief as a "pension/ 7 as indeed it is commonly known among Mexicans in Los Angeles, many of the Mexican families in times of industrial depression become public charges. In Los Angeles in 1908 approxi mately one- third of the persons assisted by the city and county were of this race, though they constitute perhaps only one-twentieth of the population. In the same year there were approximately 20,000 arrests in Los Angeles, 2,357 being of Mexicans perhaps little more than a fair proportion of the total when differences in age distribu tion of the different racial elements in the population are taken into consideration. Mexicans, including the native-born, constitute a large percentage of the inmates of the penal institutions of Arizona. In the spring of 1909, 268 Mexicans in the territorial prison consti tuted 61 per cent, in the Pima County jail the 83 Mexican prisoners were 62 per cent, and in the Tucson city jail the 22 constituted 24.2 per cent, of the entire numbers imprisoned. The principal offenses of the members of this race are petit larceny and drunkenness, with fights among themselves. Thus it is evident that in the case of the Mexican he is less desirable as a citizen than as a laborer. The permanent additions to the population, however, are much smaller than the number who immi grate for work. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS. The immigration of Europeans to the Western States has not given rise to any problems which are not found in more acute form in the States of the East. For this reason nothing further need be said 77 concerning immigration from that quarter except that the West is in need of a larger population to settle the land, exploit its resources, and provide a supply of labor for the maintenance and expansion of its industries. The Mexican immigrants are providing a fairly acceptable supply of labor in a limited territory in which it is difficult to secure others, and their competitive ability is limited because of their more or less temporary residence and their personal qualities, so that their incoming does not involve the same detriment to labor conditions as is involved in the immigration of other races who also work at comparatively low wages. While the Mexicans are not easily assimilated, this is not of very great importance as long as most of them return to their native land after a short time. They give rise to little race friction, but do impose upon the community a large number of dependents, mis demeanants, and petty criminals where they settle in any considerable number. At present the Chinese laborers are excluded from the territory of the United States by law, and the Japanese and Korean laboring classes are as effectively excluded by agreement. Elsewhere the Commission has recommended that no change be made in the pres ent policy of the Government as regards the immigration of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean laborers. The East Indian laborers of the class who have been coming to the Pacific coast during the last few years are, from no point of view, desirable members of the community. The British Government has consented to regulations which have effectively excluded the laborers of this race from Canada, which measures have been closely connected with and partly responsible for the more recent immi gration of East Indian laborers to the Pacific Coast States. Else where the Commission has recommended that an agreement with Great Britain be sought, which would effectively exclude the same classes from the United States. The conclusions reached with regard to the desirability of permit ting Chinese, Japanese, and Korean laborers again to enter this coun try after such immigration has been restricted are based upon a num ber of considerations, in part social and political, in part economic. In the first place, while the laborers of these races have done much to develop certain industries, notably fish canning and intensive agri culture, and while their labor in other instances, as in domestic service, has been a great convenience, they have competed keenly and generally at a lower wage in certain industries, displacing laborers of other races to an extent and retarding a desirable increase of wages. Their immigration has been a detriment to labor condi tions, and while the great majority have been transient laborers, returning after several years to their native land, an increasing minority of the laborers have settled here indefinitely, and by engag ing in petty business, and especially in farming for themselves, have competed with the small business men of the cities and towns, as in the laundry and restaurant trades, and the small farmers of other races. This is especially true of the Japanese, who, because of their ambition, ability, and industry, and the limitations placed by others upon their progress as laborers, have made rapid advance in securing control of land and of certain petty trades, with a consequent dis placement of laborers of other races a/or! discouragement and loss of 78 profit to the members of different races engaged in these branches of enterprise. In brief, the immigration of those who first found employ ment as laborers has given rise to a competition not limited to the laboring classes. While the Chinese and Japanese as tenants have reduced to cultivation much land which has proved unattractive to others, they have also leased land for which there was a general demand, thus preventing the influx of other races and their settle ment as farmers. Furthermore, whatever the capacities of these races for assimilation may be, where any considerable number have appeared sooner or later a situation has developed which has greatly retarded or prevented the desired end, so that the Chinese who have been here for many years have been assimilated to only a slight extent as compared to the white immigrant races, and the more adaptable Japanese are encountering the same difficulties. Friction and race conflict have developed on several occasions which have imperiled the harmonious relations between the gov ernments to which the contestants owe allegiance. Trade relations have also been imperiled because of these conflicts incidental to the contact between the races. Whether the Asiatics have fewer assimi lative qualities than certain European immigrants or not, there is as a general phenomenon a feeling exhibited against them not exhibited against others, which tends to prevent the assimilation of those who remain here and which is a source of difficulty. Finally, it is not believed that the necessity exists for changing the present policy and permitting a limited or an unrestricted immigration of Asiatics to maintain industries which have been built up with the assistance of Asiatic labor. The continued need for that specific kind of labor presumed by some to exist, especially in the beet-sugar industry and certain branches of California agriculture, is not apparent. The present general policy of preventing the immigration of eastern Asiatic laborers is indorsed by practically all classes represented in the West, save those who assert the moral necessity of according the same treatment to all races with little regard to consequences which result from so doing and those who assert that this specific kind of labor is essential to the prosperity of such industries as those just mentioned. A few memorials have been presented to Congress requesting a limited immigration of Chinese; many assert the necessity of more Japanese if the Chinese, whom they prefer, are not forthcoming. If the present specialization of communities in growing sugar beets or only a few intensive crops, the present large holdings now found in many places, the present methods of securing laborers, and the existing wages, hours, and conditions of living and work for farm laborers are all to remain the same, Asiatic labor is of course necessary, for these have been given shape by the employment of labor of that kind. If it is essential that these conditions should remain as they are at present, then Asiatic labor is necessary to the maintenance of the industries. There is, however, the question whether, with the possibility of securing Asiatic laborers now in the country for work which is of such a character that the, employment of others does not seem feasible, changes and readjustments can not be made which will make it possible to substitute, without prohibitive cost, white laborers at the rate of a few, or, if need be, several thousand per year as Asiatic laborers become fewer as a result of the present policy 79 of restriction or exclusion ? In this connection the following features relating to certain agricultural employments, which aside from salmon canning alone have been dependent in any real sense upon Asiatic labor, are in point : (1) Though in some agricultural communities, as a result of the employment of Asiatic labor, certain occupations are not regarded as " white man's work/ 7 there is no work engaged in by Asiatics in the West which is not done, to some extent, by white men and in which white men do not engage in other parts of the country. (2) It is believed that the supply of white laborers available for ranch work could be greatly increased if the living conditions, which are confessedly bad in many cases, were improved. In a relatively large number of cases it has been found that where the living con ditions were good no difficulty had been experienced in securing the white laborers needed except for brier seasonal employment. Furthermore, it would appear that the greater efficiency of laborers thus obtained would frequently offset the extra outlay required. (3) The problem of the seasonal demand for labor, which is a con spicuous fact in certain industries, can, in a number of cases, be solved in part at least by fuller utilization of the white labor supply of the cities, which, with an abundant, organized, and convenient supply of Asiatic labor at hand, has not been used in many instances. At Vacaville, however, some 2,000 were obtained through employ ment agents for the fruit harvest in 1908. With the exception of a few communities most of the hops are now harvested by white people, who come for the picking season. One difficulty has been that the orchardists and other small growers have not been in posi tion to secure the white labor themselves because it has not been organized, or to guarantee work so as to make it attractive. In southern California, however, in several instances, the packing houses and the citrus fruit associations have " crews" of white pickers who are sent to the ranches where they are needed for harvest work. In some other industries, as in the deciduous-fruit industry, where the fruit is shipped "green," a similar organization is possible. In fact, some shippers now pack the fruit delivered to them. It would be pos sible to extend this system and maintain "gangs" of pickers and packers and send them to the places where needed. (4) Mexicans, German-Russians, and other white races can be used more extensively in the hand work in the beet fields until such time as the lands are subdivided and the growing of beets takes its place in diversified farming a condition which obtains at Lehi, Utah, where the families of American, English, and other farmers, with the assistance of regular farm laborers, do the work in the fields. (5) A greater diversity of crops and of industries in the community can be developed so as more nearly to equalize the demand for labor and to provide fairly regular employment for laborers where it is not now to be found. This fact has already appealed to some growers on the Sacramento River and has simplified the problem on certain ranches. (6) With a diminishing number of Asiatic laborers, there will be a tendency to subdivide the large vineyards and vegetable farms which have been conducted here and there as "estates" or by corporations. This would induce a settlement of families upon small farms, the members of the families would do most of the work, and this would 80 incline toward solving the problem of labor, for smaller holdings would naturally be accompanied by a greater diversity of crops. (7) A development such as that indicated and a diminishing number of Asiatics will increase the influx of families from the East and Middle West, which, without doubt, has been retarded by the presence of the Asiatics. (8) Finally, a larger influx of laborers and families, especially of the Italians and Portuguese, would follow the completion of the Panama Canal. While there has been much criticism of immigrants from southern Europe, in so far as it has been connected with the agri cultural class it is principally based upon the fact that they have been clannish and have usually worked for their countrymen. With increasing numbers there is no reason to believe that they would not be available as a part of the general labor supply, and prove to be fairly satisfactory laborers and small farmers. O