tive efforts not been put forth by the United States Government, they would soon have been coming in much larger numbers. Since the year 1905, however, there has been an insistent demand in the western States, particularly in California, for the exclusion of Japanese. It is urged that the Japanese (many of whom are adults) should be separated from white children in the public schools, and, as is well known, in many instances there have been manifestations of an anti-Japanese sentiment, a number of anti-Japanese measures even having been introduced into the State legislature in 1906 and 1907.

Hereby thereafter

Are the Jap

Moreover, the Japanese Government itself did not care to encourage the emigration of its citizens to the United States. In consequence, it was comparatively easy for the an arrangement, in anese Government should issue passports only to such members of the laboring class as had been residents in this country and were returning here, or were parents, wives, or children of residents of this country, or had already secured a right to agricultural land. The granting of passports to the non-laborers, that is to travelers, merchants, students, and others, remained as before. The immigration law of the United States was so amended as to give the President authority to exclude a race entering the continent of the United States from any country, to the "detriment of labor conditions." The President, under an order of March 14, 1907, denied admission to "Japanese and Korean laborers, skilled or unskilled, who have received passports to go to Mexico, Canada, Hawaii, and come therefrom" to the continental territory of the United States.

As is explained in another connection (p. 351), the passing of laws by California and Arizona which practically forbid Orientals to hold land in those States, has aroused to action the Japanese Government, and now (October, 1913) the question is under diplomatic negotiation between the two govern

ments.

CANADA AND JAPAN

In 1908 an agreement was reached between Japan and Canada by which the number of passports to be granted in any one year to Japanese emigrating to Canada was limited to 400, and the Japanese Government has also stopt the practise of the emigration companies, of sending contract laborers to Mexico. In these ways, also, the immigration of Japanese into the United States has been checked, inasmuch as rather large numbers who have come to Mexico and Canada were in the habit of coming either openly or secretly from both countries into the United States. Since the year 1909 the total number of Japanese is, on the whole, decreasing in this country, more emigrating than are immigrating. Especially is this true of the laboring classes.

OCCUPATION

The great majority of the Japanese immigrants were doubtless at home small farmers or agricultural laborers. Most of them, when leaving home, were young men under twenty-five. In this country the great majority have been employed in unskilled construction work on railroads, and elsewhere as agricultural laborers, cannery hands, lumber-mill and loggingcamp laborers. At times they engage in domestic

service and in business establishments managed by their own countrymen. Smaller numbers have been found in coal and ore mining, meat packing, and salt making. They have done comparatively little in the building trades, altho they have done some cabinet work, especially for their own countrymen. They have not done so much inside factory work, like cigarmaking, as did the Chinese earlier, probably in part because of hostile race sentiment. Very many of the Japanese laborers are those who are ready to migrate from one section of the country to another, in order to meet the seasonal demand for laborers.

On the Pacific Coast, it may be roughly stated, during the year 1909 about 10,000 were employed by railway companies, some 6,000 or 7,000 of these as section hands. Probably 2,200 or more were employed in lumber mills, 3,600 in salmon canneries in Alaska, Washington and Oregon; in the mines of Wyoming, Utah, southern Colorado and New Mexico, probably not far from 2,000; while one or two hundred were employed in three smelters in Utah and Nevada. Probably some 30,000 were employed during the summer months in California as farm laborers, and 9,000 or 10,000 in the other Western States. The number engaged in city trades and in business on the Pacific Coast would probably be estimated at from 22,000 to 26,000.

Japanese Workmen

In the report made by the Immigration Commission there were certain observations regarding the Japanese in industry, which may be briefly summarized:

STRIKE-BREAKERS

The first employment of the Japanese in a good many cases has been as strike-breakers. This is especially true of coal mining in southern Colorado and Utah in 1903 and 1904, and later in the case of the smelting industry in Utah in 1907. Usually, however, they have been introduced to replace Chinese, or when the employers found it difficult to get a sufficient number of white men to work as common laborers at the rate of wages which had previously obtained.

JAPANESE CONTRACTORS

The Japanese have been more readily employed because they were so easy to engage through the Japanese contractors, without inconvenience to the employers. These bosses usually undertake to provide any number of men required, to keep their time, pay them off, do interpreting, etc. Generally they receive an interpreter's fee of $1.00 per month, and often. make a commission on their earnings. In addition to that, of course, they secure certain advantages by dealing themselves directly with the men.

WAGES

Usually the Japanese have worked for lower wages than have the members of any other race excepting the Mexicans and at times the Chinese. In the lumber industry other races have usually been paid higher wages than the Japanese doing the same kind of work, altho in some of the lumber mills in Vancouver, as learned by the personal investigation of the writer, the Japanese, where they have a rigid organization, have been paid higher wages than either the Chinese or the East Indians.

In 1907, where the Japanese were working in the mines they were finally accepted as members of the United Mine Workers, and in that way they secured the benefit of the standard wage from collective bargaining on the part of these unions with employers. Generally speaking, where serving as construction laborers on the railroads, they have received less than other races excepting the Hindus and the Mexicans. When the feeling arose against the Japanese on account of their arriving in so large numbers, and it seemed likely that hostile action would be taken, their contractors became much more skilful in bargaining, and gradually worked their wages up until frequently the difference between their wages and those paid to white men was very slight.

EFFICIENCY

Altho the Chinese and the Mexicans are sometimes preferred, the former, usually, on railroads, it seems that the road masters and section foremen generally prefer the Japanese to either Italians, Greeks, or Slavs, as section hands. Also in the railway shops they are usually given a higher rank than the Mexicans or Greeks, and at times, than the Italians. In salmon-canning, as has been noted above, the Chinese are considered much more desirable, and even the Filipinos are often preferred. Preference for the Chinese is not merely on account of the hostile feeling for the Japanese, but because they are more trustworthy in keeping their contracts and in doing their work with care. Usually when contracts are made with a Chinese contractor a stipulation is put in that the number of Japanese laborers shall be restricted to