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employers found it difficult to get a sufficient number of the white men to work as common laborers.

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 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 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 percentage of Japanese laborers shall be restricted to a certain amount named. Generally they are not to exceed the number of Chinese.

RACE FEELING

In spite of these conditions, and the advantage that they sometimes have, they have in many cases found. it difficult to advance. They are not employed, generally speaking, in the lumber industry, altho they have been employed in a good many special establishments. Often in other industries where large groups

of men are brought together, especially where the different races must work in association, the race prejudice against the Japanese is found to be a hindrance.

Because of the attitude of other laborers, and the fact that the Japanese have to be directed largely through an interpreter, they have usually been employed in unskilled work. Only rarely have they been given positions of supervision, or put into places of responsibility.

AGRICULTURE

There seems, on the whole, to be no tendency further for the Japanese to be engaging in manufacturing industries; rather they are turning more generally to agriculture, as will be seen.

It is possible that not far from 30,000 Japanese were engaged in agriculture in 1909, in California alone, during the summer months. In most of the specialized intensive agriculture which prevails in many regions, they have a permanent position, occupying practically that held by the Chinese twenty years ago in similar industries. The Japanese do practically all of the hand work in growing the various berries, two-thirds of that in the sugar-beet fields, possibly one-half of that in the vineyards, and a somewhat smaller part of that in the fields where vegetables are raised, and in the orchards. Generally speaking, in the raising of hops, they are not employed in so large numbers, and on general farms. they are comparatively seldom employed. Usually, they are not given the care of teams, and do only hand-work. Wherever there has been specialized seasonal farming, the Japanese, being readily organ

ized into gangs under a single contractor, are readily moved from place to place, and in consequence secure a large part of this specialized seasonal work. As already intimated, the Japanese have an advantage, as had the Chinese earlier, in that, where large numbers of men are to be employed for comparatively short periods of time, it is easy for the Japanese or the Chinese to board themselves and to take lodgings that would not be accepted by other laborers. This fact, with their organization, has made it easier for the grower to deal directly with the contractor and secure these people.

They were first engaged as fruit pickers about 1888 or 1889. By 1895 they had found employment in lines in which the Chinese had been engaged in every locality in California as far south as Fresno. Since 1900 they have gone into southern California, and since 1904 have been found in most localities in that part of the State also.

The Japanese have in many cases displaced the Chinese, and in some instances, at any rate, the white laborers. Usually at the beginning the Japanese worked for lower wages per hour, altho very frequently, inasmuch as they worked at piece-rates and longer hours, their daily wage was higher.

ADVANCE OF JAPANESE LABORERS

During late years the wages of Japanese laborers have advanced rapidly, both in the agricultural industries and others. Wherever there has been a strong demand for labor, the Japanese have been quick to take advantage of the opportunity. In this regard their organization under contractors has aided them materially, especially in connection with the supply of

seasonal labor. In very many cases it is reported that the Japanese are untrustworthy, and that after they have taken a contract, at a certain fixt wage per day, just before the time of the maturing of the crop, when it is too late to secure other labor, they have struck for higher wages and have forced the employers to pay more than the contract wage. By the adoption of measures of this kind, in certain cases they have been able to force their wages even above those of white men; but ordinarily, if they have received more than white men, it has been because they have worked longer hours, or because the work in its character was especially disagreeable. More frequently they have worked at the same rate, and occasionally, even in late years, at a lower rate. The following brief table, giving the average wages per day earned by a specified number of farm laborers in California, by race, throws light upon the wages received by the different races:

AVERAGE WAGES PER DAY EARNED BY EACH SPECIFIED NUMBER OF FARM LABORERS IN CALIFORNIA, BY RACE

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