That wages are higher in the sugar-beet industry is easily proven without statistics by the fact that the classes of laborers employed in it desert the railroads and other employments and flock to it as soon as the beet season opens. When the season is over, or when there is a scarcity of hand work during the season, as for example, between the thinning and the first hoeing or between the last hoeing and the harvesting, the men go back to the railroads and other work. The beet worker, therefore, is in a high degree a migratory laborer.

The reason for the high wages paid by the beet growers is the necessity they are under of drawing men away from regular employment like that offered by the railroads, or from more pleasant seasonal work in orchards and on ranches. In some districts, moreover, there is little work other than that of the beet fields to be had, and the places where it can be found are too remote to permit resort to them during slack times in the beet season. In such districts the wages paid beet workers must be high enough to make up for considerable unemployment and will therefore be higher than in districts more advantageously situated with reference to the general labor market. This consideration partially explains the difference in prices quoted in the two schedules shown above on page 40.

Not only is the rate of pay for an average worker in the sugar-beet industry higher than that in most other industries employing immigrant labor, but the opportunities of the ambitious worker are greater. In railroad work he is paid so much per day for a day of ten hours. In the beet fields he is generally paid on a piece basis, if he will accept that form of payment, and he can work eleven, twelve, thirteen, or fourteen hours, or longer if he chooses. Moreover, during his periods of employment he usually works on Sunday. The grower is anxious to get his thinning and hoeing done before his labor supply is called elsewhere and therefore favors Sunday work. During the "campaign" the factory runs night and day for seven days in the week, and Sunday harvesting, if not a necessity, is at least a convenience.

Just how many hours a day the average beet worker labors can not be definitely ascertained, but it is safe to say that it is at least eleven, and there is strong probability that it averages more. In addition to working longer hours than is usual in other employments, the beet worker who is paid on a piece basis tends to work with greater intensity. His wages vary visibly with his product. If he increases or decreases the latter his earnings increase or decrease proportionately and immediately. In the wage statistics presented all of those who receive more than $2 per day are piece or contract workers, while the great majority of those who receive less than that sum are employed by the day.

Turning now to a comparison of the earnings of the three races. most important in the industry, it appears that the Japanese have the highest average. More than half of them earn between $1.75 and $2, while 37.4 per cent earn more than this rate as against 8.5 per cent who earn less. In all 91.4 per cent earn between $1.75 and $3. The average of the Mexicans ranks second among the foreign races employed. Their largest wage group earns between $1.50 and $1.75 and includes 52 per cent of their number. Only 6 per cent earn less, while 42 per cent earn more than this amount. Their second largest wage group is that with earnings of $2 but less than $2.50 with 36

per cent of the total number included. Ninety-four per cent of the Mexicans thus earn between $1.50 and $2.50 per day when working. The average for the East Indians is somewhat lower than for the Mexicans. Of them 94.5 per cent make between $1.50 and $2 per day. Their largest wage group, however, is that earning between $1.75 and $2. It comprises 63.9 per cent of their total number. The second largest group includes 30.6 per cent who are paid between $1.50 and $1.75 per day. The East Indians are usually paid $1.50 or $1.75 per day for work in the beet fields. This explains the large number present in these two wage groups. The greatest range of earnings is found among the native-born and other foreign-born, the former tending toward the higher rates, the latter toward the lower. These races, however, are of little importance in the beet fields and need not be considered in detail.

In contrasting the earnings of the different races employed account must be taken of the fact that the Japanese commonly work longer hours than either the East Indians or the Mexicans. The Japanese, moreover, are quicker workmen and capable of closer and more continuous application than the other races. Their greater desire to adopt American standards of life and especially their greater eagerness to become independent farmers and business men, go far toward explaining their greater industry. The average Mexican, by way of contrast, is said to be almost entirely lacking in ambition; and the caste system of the East Indians, as well as their training in their native land, would seem to unfit them for rapid progress out of the ranks of common labor.

RACE CHANGES.

In the history of race changes in the sugar-beet industry of California three races play the important parts. These are the Chinese, Mexicans, and Japanese. In addition to these races two others must also be considered, viz, the "whites" and the East Indians. The former never gained much of a foothold in the industry; the latter are only just beginning to do so.

Previous to 1891 the handwork was done exclusively by Chinese. Up to that time only two factories had been put into operation. Both of these were within a day's journey of San Francisco. In 1891 the third factory was opened in southern California. It was located near a large resident Mexican population and the hand workers were drawn from this race and from such white men as applied for work. In 1897 the fourth factory (also in southern California) began operation. Here, as in the previous case, Mexicans and whites" were employed for the handwork of the fields. Three new factories were opened in 1898, but one of these was successor to one of the factories in operation previous to 1891. The change in location of this establishment also marks a change in the race employed at handwork, the Chinese being superseded by Japanese. The two remaining factories were opened in southern California. In both cases Chinese were employed at first altogether with white men and Mexicans, and in both cases they disappeared from the industry within three or four years. With the exception of a few Chinese who were tried in the beet fields contributory to a factory opened in the San Joaquin Valley in 1906, few laborers of this

race have been employed in the industry since 1902. Long before that date they had been outnumbered by their competitors, the Mexicans and Japanese. The chief causes of the disappearance of the Chinese from the industry are two: (1) The exclusion laws, (2) underbidding on contracts by other races.

In the

The exclusion laws had a twofold effect on the situation. first place they prevented the total number of Chinese in the State from increasing, and thereby prevented an increase of the available supply of beet workers from this source. Secondly, they resulted in a gradual increase of the average age of the Chinese in California. As the Chinese became older they became too slow for the work in the beet fields and drifted into easier, if not more profitable, occupations. In the Salinas Valley, for instance, they went into potato growing to a considerable extent. When Chinese were tried in 1906 in the district referred to in the preceding paragraph they were found to be too slow to be satisfactory. The same complaint, however, was made of the Chinese employed in the earliest years of the industry, and was probably due to their inexperience and reluctance to adopt new methods.

The second cause, underbidding by other races, has operated along with the first (the exclusion laws). The first beet-sugar factory in California was opened in 1872. The common labor in both factory and field was done by Chinese for the first 15 years. In 1887, under a new management, the Chinese in the factory were replaced by white laborers. This step was taken mainly because of a strong anti-Chinese agitation in San Francisco and vicinity. The Chinese remained in the beet fields, however, some 14 years after they were discharged from the factory, there being no objection to their employment at this kind of labor. The Japanese finally displaced them in 1902 after two seasons of underbidding, and have since controlled the handwork in this community.

The second factory in California began operations in 1888. Chinese were employed in the fields for the first ten years. They were displaced by Japanese, as already stated, about the time this factory was abandoned in favor of a new one built nearby. The Chinese had then been in the industry for ten years. Although their numbers were decreasing as the demand for their labor increased, the principal cause of their displacement seems to have been underbidding by the Japanese. At first some of the latter worked under Chinese bosses, while others became contractors and hired more men of their own race to do the work. Within two years the beet fields were controlled by the Japanese, although it is said that the amount of underbidding on contracts was never more than 5 or 10 per cent. In the two remaining communities which employed Chinese as beet workers the displacement seems to have been due both to the growing scarcity of the Chinese and the influx of Japanese.

White men have been employed as hand workers in at least five districts. In no case have they remained in the industry more than two or three seasons. Experiments have been made with them in the Sacramento Valley and in southern California at intervals ranging back from 1907 to 1891 for different localities. The explanation of their early disappearance from the industry in every district in which they have been employed is found in the nature of the work and the

effectual underbidding of other races. White men would not do the work for the prices offered. Japanese and Mexicans would. White men are never employed exclusively. In fact, they never formed at large part of the force in any district. When they left the beet fields for more remunerative or less disagreeable employment their places were filled by Japanese or Mexicans.

As a rule these white men were miscellaneous Americans and Americanized Europeans, but two exceptions should be noted. The first is that of a southern California district. Beet culture began in this district in 1898. For two or three seasons Swiss and Portuguese from the community worked together with Chinese and Mexicans. At the end of that time all four races began to give way to the Japanese, who now control the industry in that locality. The Swiss and Portuguese went back to their former occupations of dairying and vegetable raising. The second exception is that of a district. in the Sacramento Valley already mentioned in another connection. Here, in 1907, a number of German-Russians, the only white men tried, were brought in and an unsuccessful attempt was made to establish a colony of the race.

Since the white men have left the industry two important causes (besides the nature of the work and the wage) have operated to keep them out of it. The first is the white man's taboo on "Jap work; the second is his lack of organization. In all industries where disagreeable work is performed for a considerable time by oriental races or very recent immigrants of any race, the "American laborer" comes to acquire a contempt for it, and a strong dislike for doing it. He regards it as too servile for an American to engage in. This taboo, however, would hardly suffice to keep Americans out of the industry altogether. Were it not for their lack of organization there is no doubt that many of them would turn to the beet fields for work in times of depression in other industries. As things are the laborer who is looking only for temporary employment and who must be dealt with individually is not a desideratum to the beet grower. The grower wants men who can be hired and worked in gangs," or men who, like the German-Russians in Colorado, work in the fields with their families and form a permanent labor supply. "American" laborers, especially on the Pacific coast, are extremely nomadic and are entirely individualistic in their relations with their employers and with each other. For these reasons the temporarily unemployed American laborer can not be relied upon to supply the needs of the beet grower.

Since the Japanese began to appear in considerable numbers in the beet fields in 1897 and 1898 their increase has been roughly proportional to the growth of the industry. Every district, with one exception, which has taken up beet growing since 1897 has employed them for the major part of the hand work, and they have secured control of this work in all but two districts growing beets prior

to 1898.

At the present time the supremacy of the Japanese seems to be threatened only by the East Indians. How effective the competition from this source may prove remains to be seen. The Mexicans in general have made little progress in the industry except in those Localities where they have predominated from the first. In some cases they have given way entirely or partially to the Japanese. In

others, it is true, they have lately been introduced to compete with the Japanese. In one of these cases, however, the competition was not long effective. The Mexicans were employed in thinning along with the Japanese, and worked on the same wage basis of so many cents per 1,000 feet, the rate varying according to the difficulty of the work. At first the Mexicans worked carefully and were content to make $1.50 a day. The Japanese, on the other hand, were able, by much less careful work. to make from $2.50 to $3 per day under advantageous conditions. The favor with which the growers naturally regarded the Mexicans alarmed the Japanese. Their leaders accordingly went to the Mexicans, it is said, and told them that they were foolish to be so careful with their work, pointing out the fact that they were making only $1.50 a day, while the Japanese "boys" were making twice as much. The Mexicans accepted the suggestion, and are now regarded in this community with as little favor as the Japanese.

The importance of the East Indians in the history of race changes in the sugar-beet industry is yet to be seen. At present they are largely employed only in one district, where beet growing did not begin until 1906. They were brought into this locality in 1908 to meet a labor scarcity and can hardly be said to have displaced laborers of other races. In 1909, 425 East Indians, 150 Japanese, and 25 Mexicans, Portuguese, and other hand workers were employed in this district. The thinning on the company land for the present season (1910) is being done by a Japanese contractor, who has been forced to employ East Indians for the most part because of the lack of sufficient laborers of his own race. Considerable anxiety is felt as to whether the East Indians will be numerous enough to supply the increased demand for their labor as the season progresses.

In this connection it is interesting to note also that a company which draws its beets from an area now requiring some 1,000 hand workers, practically all of whom were Japanese in 1909, is said to be considering the exclusive employment of East Indians in its own fields for the season of 1910.

INCREASE IN CONTRACT PRICES FOR LABOR.

Accurate data can not be obtained for contract prices paid for hand labor in the earliest years of the industry. It is certain, however, that there has been a gradual rise since 1900. The extent of the rise in the last decade it is impossible to determine accurately because of changes in the bases of payment and the lack of complete records. One company reports a 10 per cent increase since 1905. In 1900 a flat rate of $15 per acre was paid for the entire hand work. Comparing this with the present price of $17.75 for the average yield of 14 tons per acre in this district in 1909, an increase of 18 per cent is found. In another district the price for thinning is said to have risen from $2.50 to $4 per acre within the past ten years. Prices for the work of the entire season, however, are said to have averaged as follows:

1909. 1905

1900.

Per ton. $1.13

.95

1.00

The increase since 1900 in this case is obviously 13 per cent.