fields, they constitute only 10 per cent of the factory force, or fewer than 20 men. In a second district (with 200 men) they have a monopoly of the field work, but constitute only one-third of the 300 employees of the factory. In the third district, on the other hand, although the Mexicans (some 75) are outnumbered in the fields ten to one by the Japanese, they number at least 300 of the 550 employees of the factory.

The difference indicated in the local distribution of the Mexicans between the two branches of the beet-sugar industry is due to several conditions. In the district last mentioned they evidently prefer the factory to the field, for although there have been shortages in the supply of field workers so serious as to necessitate the importation of Japanese from other sections of the State, they have never constituted more than a small proportion of the field force. The reason for the preference of these Mexicans for factory work is doubtless due in a large measure to the fact that the wages in the factory are good compared with those for field work," being $2 and $2.40 per day of twelve hours, and are paid on a time rather than on a piece basis. The sugar company, on the other hand, can afford to employ the Mexicans. for the dirtier, more disagreeable, work of the factory, inasmuch as the Japanese now come to the community in numbers sufficient to provide an ample supply of field hands and the Mexicans can be obtained more cheaply than the white men for the kind of factory work they do. In this factory Mexicans are paid from 173 cents to 20 cents per hour, while the white employees receive from 20 cents up, about one-half receiving 20 cents an hour and the remainder receiving more. Another point to be remembered in this connection is, as will be noticed in greater detail in a subsequent section, that the Mexican, though generally considered inferior to the Japanese for field work, is preferred to the latter in the factory, the preference being based partly on an anti-Japenese sentiment among white employees and partly on the superiority of the Mexican for work involving heavy lifting.

Among the white persons employed, three southern European races should be given separate mention because of their special importance in isolated cases. These races are the Portuguese, the Italians, and the Greeks. The Portuguese are important chiefly in a single factory which is located in a Portuguese community. In this factory fully 80 per cent of the 125 or 150 employees are Portuguese. This fact is explained by the prominence of the race in the labor supply of the community and by the policy of the company in employing members of the race in the factory in order to placate the large number of Portuguese beet growers in the locality. Experience has shown the sugar company here, as elsewhere, that it is politic to yield in some degree to the sense of proprietorship which a race conspicuous as beet. growers often comes to have over the work in the factory. The Italians nowhere constitute so large a proportion of the working force as the Portuguese just mentioned, but in two factories they are of considerable importance. In the first of these a large number are employed for the heavier and more disagreeable of the common labor. In the second, 36 out of 118 men reported were Italians, all of whom

See table on p. 132.

were engaged in rough, unskilled labor. Greeks were found employed at a factory in the Sacramento Valley. Their work here was of the heaviest and most disagreeable kind, being confined chiefly to the handling of lime rock, etc., in the yard. In the factory "white labor " only was used, most of the men being native-born. The remainder of the "miscellaneous whites" employed in the beet-sugar factories of the State includes native-born Americans and representatives of practically every European race which immigrates to America. The majority of them are nonresidents, without families, who supplement the work of the beet factories with other seasonal or regular employnient elsewhere. They are therefore part of the great migratory labor supply of the State. A few orientals-Japanese, Chinese, and East Indians are employed in isolated cases, but their numbers are very small.

Accurate data were gathered from different factories to show the number of years of residence in the United States of each alien race or racial group employed in the industry. These data covering common laborers and mechanics only, have been compiled in the following table, which it is believed is fairly representative of the State as a whole.

TABLE 42.-Number of foreign-born male employees in the United States each specified number of years, by race: California.

[By years in the United States is meant years since first arrival in the United States. No deduction is made for time spent abroad.]

Taking the "total number of foreign-born" first, it appears that beginning with those who have resided in the United States one year, there is a fairly even distribution until the division which includes those of from five to nine years of residence is reached. This group includes 181 men, or slightly more than one-quarter of the total of 695. After it, the most important group is the last division, which comprises employees who have resided in this country for twenty

Except as to the proportions of each race employed-a matter already discussed.

years or more. Considering the table in detail, it will be seen that the members of the northern European races have been in the country longest. Nearly half of the English-speaking and the Scandinavian races and over half of the Germans have resided in the United States for twenty years or over, while only 20 of the 135 persons reported in the table for these races have lived here less than five years. The next race in length of residence is the Portuguese, 28 per cent of whom have resided in the United States twenty years or over and 72 per cent five years or over. Here it should be remembered that the chief stronghold of this race in the beet-sugar industry is in a locality which has been the home of a Portuguese colony for more than thirty years.

The races which follow the Portuguese in the table, the Italians, Greeks, Spanish, and Austro-Hungarians, have come to this country almost entirely within the past decade, the immigration being rather evenly distributed throughout the period. The few GermanRussians reported had all come within the past five years.

The Mexicans, who, as has been indicated above, are the most important single racial element in the beet-sugar industry in California, having immigrated in slowly increasing numbers for a decade. previous to the beginning of which only a few of the foreign-born Mexicans now employed in beet-sugar factories were residents of this country. This indicates that a large number of the foreign-born Mexicans employed in the industry in its earlier years have taken up other work, or, more likely, returned to Mexico. Nearly half of the alien members of the Mexican race have entered the United States within the past five years. Two-thirds of the remainder have resided here from five to nine years, while the others claim a residence of ten years or over. The Chinese reporting have lived in the United States for twenty years or over, as would be expected in view of the exclusion laws.

When these facts are compared with similar data for labor employed in the growing of sugar beets in California an important contrast appears. As has been shown, the immigrants found in the beet-sugar fields are rather recent arrivals in the United States, more than half having entered the country within the past five years. Not more than one-tenth have been here longer than a decade. In the factories, on the other hand, if the Mexicans are excluded from the comparison, it will be found that more than twothirds of the foreign-born employees are residents of over five years' standing, more than one-half have resided here ten years or longer, and that almost one-third have been here twenty years or over. As for the Mexicans, the length of residence of the foreign-born members of that race employed in sugar-beet factories is but slightly greater than that of those employed in the hand work of the beet fields. In the former case, as indicated above, nearly half the men reported have been residents for five years or less, while only onesixth have lived in the country ten years or more. In the case of the field laborers three-fifths have resided in the United States five years or less and a little more than one-tenth have been in the country ten years or over.

The Mexicans, however, comprise only one-fifth of the total force of laborers employed in beet-sugar factories in California, and if

the table on page 129 were properly weighted to compensate for the disproportionately large number of Mexicans there included, it would be found that throughout the industry as a whole the foreign-born laborers in the beet-sugar factories of California have been residents of the United States for a much longer time than the immigrant laborers of the beet fields.

Earnings.

An examination of the earnings of individuals employed in the beet-sugar factories of California shows that there is a considerable variation between those of the several races represented. This is due entirely to differences in occupations. It is true that there is often discrimination in the rates paid different persons doing the same kind of work, but this discrimination is always individual, never racial. In a group of men engaged in the same occupations Mexicans and white men, for example, may all receive the same wages or some of the Mexicans may even receive more than some of the white men.

Northern Europeans and Americans, i. e., "American laborers," hold the more responsible positions requiring a knowledge of the English language and American methods of work or mechanical skill; while southern European races, like the Italians and Greeks, and the Mexicans are given, as a rule, only the roughest and most disagreeable work, such as handling lime and shoveling beets. The Mexicans, for reasons which will appear later, are almost entirely excluded from the higher paid positions.

In nearly every factory insurance against accidents is compulsory. The premium is usually 1 per cent of the wages received, which is said to cover only the cost of the insurance to the sugar company and is deducted from wages. The insurance policy provides for half pay in case of time lost as a result of accident, for a full year's pay in case of accidental death while working in the factory, and for proportionate amounts for the loss of limb or sight. Fatal accidents are not common. One company reports two within eleven years, while another reports two for its entire existence of sixteen years. Minor accidents, however, are rather frequent. One company which operated for its fourth season in 1909 has made the practice of withholding a half month's pay from each employee until the end of the season. This, it was claimed, was necessary to prevent the men from leaving before the end of the "campaign." Board and lodging are never furnished to sugar-factory employees in California as part of their wages. One sugar company, however, maintains a hotel where its employees may secure accommodations at the rates which prevail in the community if they so desire.

After the "campaign" is over the common laborers who are retained work only nine or ten hours a day as a rule, usually at the rate per hour received during the campaign." Mechanics, clerks, etc., work the prevailing hours for men in their occupations. These more or less regular employees, however, are not included in the earnings table below and little need be said of them here.

The following table of earnings was compiled from a representative selection of laborers of different races employed in different factories and, it is believed, will afford a trustworthy index to the wages earned in the industry in California as a whole. The table

includes common laborers and mechanics only. The supervisory and clerical force, the chemists, and foremen are excluded.

TABLE 43.-Number of male employces 18 years of age or over carning each specified amount per day, by general nativity and race: California.

Wages for common labor range in general from $2 to $2.70 per day; wages for work requiring some experience, such as machine tending, vary as a rule from $2.70 to $3.50, and wages of over $3.50 a day are paid only to skilled mechanics, carpenters, electricians, blacksmiths, coppersmiths, boiler makers. Mechanics' helpers are classed here as common laborers.

Turning to the "grand total," at the end of the table, it is found that almost 90 per cent earned between $2 and $3.50 per day. Of the total of 1,335 employees, 796, or 59.6 per cent of the total number, earned between $2 and $2.50 per day; 236 laborers, or 17.7 per cent, earned from $2.50 to $3; and 167, or 12.5 per cent, from $3 to $3.50. Of the laborers not included in these groups, 94 were paid $3.50 per day or over, while only 42 earned less than $2; 1,293 laborers, or 96.9 per cent of the total, received over $2 per day. It appears from the foregoing that the general rate of earnings per day is somewhat higher than the average rate in the fieldwork in California. The work in the factory, moreover, is more regular than that in the field. The data in the table are compiled in two main divisions, the first being for native-born laborers, and the second for foreign-born. The