In the orange-growing districts of southern California the majority of the Japanese "camps," or living quarters, are located in the towns, and the men are sent out in small groups to the surrounding small ranches as orders are received for them by telephone. Some bosses conduct several "camps" each. In other districts and on the larger ranches the "gangs gangs" of Japanese occupy bunk houses furnished by the ranchers, and are boarded by the gang leaders. A great many of the large ranchers keep a Japanese "bookman" or "boss" on the place all year for the express purpose of supplying laborers to that ranch only. There are three ways usually resorted to by the Japanese contractors for their own remuneration: (1) They may deduct a commission (generally 5 per cent) from the wages of each man; (2) they may board their men at a fixed rate, depending on the profits from so doing for their compensation; or (3) they may conduct stores to supply the men with provisions, etc., the profits from this trade repaying them for their trouble.

This organization under "bosses" or leaders was first introduced into the agricultural labor system of California in the early days by the Chinese, when the Chinese contracting companies had large numbers of men, well organized. The "gang" system still obtains among the Chinese and also among the more recently arrived and less numerous Koreans. East Indians also work under leaders, but their groups are small and not as effectively maintained as the "gangs" of Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans.

The convenience to ranchers of this organization of Asiatics has been one of the most important things in helping the Asiatics to displace white men where the latter were formerly employed, and to prevent the employment of white men where Asiatics were already established in the industry. This "gang" system has greatly appealed to employers in all agricultural communities requiring large numbers of hand workers, and in some industries where the work is especially disagreeable and exceedingly large numbers are required, as in the beet fields and vineyards, it has come to be looked upon as absolutely essential to the continuation of the industry.

There is also a marked difference between the accommodations required for Asiatic laborers and for white laborers which has entered into the problem of securing men.

PROBLEM OF BOARD AND LODGING.

The matter of providing board and lodging for ranch laborers has been an important problem in connection with the labor supply.

In most agricultural districts the regular employees are provided with lodging. While this is usually true of temporary employees also, it sometimes happens that no provision whatever is made for the temporary laborers and occasionally none for the regular help, they being expected in such cases to provide lodging for themselves or to sleep in barns and other ranch buildings wherever they can find place, or, as some do, sleep out on the ground. In the southern California orange-growing districts near cities and towns very often no provision is made for board or lodging, as the ranches are small and require men for only a few days at a time and secure them from among the laborers living in the towns, but larger ranches farther

from towns, generally provide lodging quarters. Some ranches in the State have for their white help model bunk houses with individual rooms and modern equipment, including heat, lights, running water, reading rooms, shower baths, etc. But the majority of the ranches have only passable lodging facilities even for their regular white employees, and some quarters are very poor, dilapidated affairs, with only rude bunks built along the sides of a single room, thus allowing no privacy whatever to the men. With a few exceptions it is necessary for the employees to provide their own bedding and to care for their own rooms, which, as a result, are usually very untidy and uninviting. The temporary white employees are usually crowded into these rough bunk houses with the others or occupy other old buildings or shift for themselves. In a few districts, especially where family groups are engaged in fruit work, the temporary workers bring tents with them or rent them from employers.

The Asiatic immigrants-Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, and East Indians-usually occupy old, dilapidated buildings, or small, rough quarters which are commonly known as "Chinese bunk houses" or "camps," for in the older districts they are the old quarters erected for the Chinese when that race predominated as ranch laborers. Occasionally the oriental help have good, new buildings erected for their use, but generally their quarters are old, or, as is often the case, they are given the old bunk house when a better one is erected for the white help or when an old house on the ranch is abandoned by the owner for a new one. The orientals have been willing to put up with conditions which would not be endured by most white men. The average bunk house and accommodations for white employees on California ranches are bad, but for the Asiatic races they are very much worse. In fact, white men generally attribute their poor accommodations to the presence of Asiatics who will usually put up with any living quarters, for if white men complain or leave because of poor lodging arrangements, the Asiatics are present to fill their places. The providing of good lodging facilities is an expense to the farmer, and if comfortable lodging quarters are not provided, reliable white men can not be had when other employment is open to them. Some employers prefer Asiatics, because by hiring them they can save this expense of providing good lodgings.

Board, which is usually a necessity if white men are employed, is also an extra cost, and moreover an inconvenience which has caused many ranchers to employ Asiatics, and is one of the main reasons for the small rancher's preference for Asiatics. To the ranchers the matter of providing board is of greater concern than providing lodging. Practically all regular white employees are boarded by the ranchers. On small farms the employer often boards the "hired man" at his own table, or employs a married man who lives in the community, or one who lives in a house on the ranch. But on large ranches separate provision is made for feeding the men. Usually the first floor of the bunk house serves as kitchen and dining room, and a cook is employed to prepare the meals. These cooks in the majority of cases are Chinese. Temporary white employees are often boarded with the regular men, although occasionally they "batch." The pickers in the orange orchards near towns generally board at the restaurants in town. The temporary white cantaloupe workers in

the Imperial Valley are boarded by the employer, a cook being hired for that purpose. In hop picking, where an unusually large number of white persons are employed, there are usually family groups who board themselves, but in some of the large hop yards restaurants are provided for boarding the single men. The cost of board to white. men on ranches is reckoned at 50 to 75 cents per day.

A few members of the white immigrant races, and the Indians and Mexicans generally, board themselves.

The majority of the seasonal workers in California are immigrants from Asia-Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, and East Indians who are never boarded by white employers unless employed as domestics. On ranches leased to Chinese, the Chinese employers board their countrymen and also any Japanese and Koreans working for them. Japanese farmers usually board their countrymen working for them, charging them from 20 to 30 cents per day for board. Of 35 ranches visited in one district, the Japanese employers charged their men 20 cents per day on 6, 22 cents on 2, 224 cents on 1, 23 cents on 12, 25 cents on 13, 28 cents on 1. East Indians never eat food prepared by members of other races. Where "gangs" of orientals are employed through a "boss," the "boss" usually boards the men either on a cooperative basis at the actual cost, or, as is often the case, he charges a fixed rate (usually between 25 and 30 cents per day), thus deriving profit from this privilege of boarding the men. From the above figures it is seen that board costs white men more than it does the Asiatics.

Ranchers were found who had employed Chinese exclusively in the early years because they had no provision for boarding white men, and such provision for the employment of regular white teamsters was not made until the effects of the Chinese exclusion laws began to be felt. And one of the reasons often given for leasing to Japanese now is the desire of white owners to avoid boarding the help.

DIVISION OF WORK AND RACES EMPLOYED.

The agricultural laborers in these specialized industries of California can be classed under two heads: (1) The regular men who find employment on a given ranch throughout a large part of the year, and (2) the temporary seasonal workers whose number varies according to the work to be done. The regular work consists of (1) the work with teams, and (2) the hand work done by regular employees. The work with teams consists of the plowing, cultivating, hauling, etc. On ranches conducted by American farmers the great majority of the teamsters are Americans and Americanized north Europeans. There are considerable numbers of Italians and Portuguese engaged in teaming, being employed largely by farmers of their own race. Much of this work requires adaptability and skill. The members of Asiatic races are not good teamsters and are rarely employed as such, except on those ranches, conducted chiefly by Asiatics, where white men do not care to work. While "miscellaneous white men have always constituted the majority of the regular teamsters, the numbers of other races have been constantly increasing and sometimes displacing white men. This displacement by Asiatics has been due primarily to the increasing acreage leased to them. Since the early days of farming in the State some Chinese have been em

ployed as teamsters by white employers, and more recently some white ranchers have employed Japanese, but the large number of these oriental races engaged as teamsters has been due to their rapidly growing prominence as tenant farmers. The Chinese and Japanese tenants employ their own countrymen as teamsters except where such work is done by the white owners or their men. In the Newcastle district, the lower Sacramento and San Joaquin district, and the Vaca Valley, where Asiatics lease the greater part of the land, they do a great part of the teaming and other regular work. In all of the districts where the Japanese are engaged in the leasing of strawberry land, they do most of the team work. In the fruit and grape industry about Fresno, the hop yards of the lower Sacramento and the American River districts, the celery industry of Orange County, the cantaloupe and truck farms of the Imperial Valley, and in the citrus fruit industry, also, the number of Japanese teamsters has been gradually increasing, mainly through leasing, but partly by being hired by white ranchers.

Irrigating, hoeing, weeding, repairing boxes, trays, etc., preparatory to the harvest, and similar work, on a large ranch can be dovetailed together so as to engage a fairly constant number of men throughout the year. On most of the ranches conducted by white farmers this regular handwork is done by "miscellaneous white" men, and in the south by some Mexicans also, and on Italian, Armenian, Portuguese, and German-Russian ranches by the members of the same race as the owner. As much of this work, under the conditions which generally obtain, is unattractive to white men, Chinese have for years, and Japanese have more recently been employed, especially on the larger ranches, to do a great deal of this regular handwork. The employment of Asiatics-some Koreans and East Indians as well as Japanese and Chinese-has been more extensive in the regular handwork than in the teaming. And on those ranches leased to orientals, as mentioned above, practically all of the regular handwork is done by members of the same race as the tenant. The amount of regular intensive handwork in connection with celery and strawberry growing is greater than in most of the other crops, and practically all of it is done by Japanese.

The temporary work which presents the difficult labor problem connected with these intensive crops, is all handwork, usually connected with the harvesting of the crop. The seasonal character of this work, the lack of other work for these men in the agricultural communities for the rest of the year, the disagreeable character of much of this handwork, and the general lack of proper living accommodations are some of the important facts having a bearing upon the present racial composition of the laborers engaged in temporary ranch work.

The majority of the temporary or seasonal workers of the State are immigrants, including Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, East Indians, Mexicans, Italians, Portuguese, Armenians, German-Russians, and Dalmatians. In some industries in certain districts the greater part of the temporary laborers are natives and north Europeans, locally known as "Americans" or "miscellaneous whites." In the cantaloupe industry of the Imperial Valley white men predominate as pickers and -VOL 24-11- -3

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packers, but there are a number of Mexicans and also several hundred Japanese in the work, a large part of the crop being controlled by Japanese tenants who hire their countrymen exclusively. In citrus fruit picking in southern California the Japanese have come to predominate in several localities within the last few years. An estimate for twelve of the localities visited gives the number engaged in picking citrus fruits as follows: One thousand two hundred white men, 1,880 Japanese, 60 Koreans, 40 Chinese, 10 East Indians, and 275 Mexicans.

This shows the proportions in which these races are employed. Of 893 seasonal workers on 29 ranches visited, 128 were white men, 658 Japanese, 87 Mexicans, and 20 Chinese, but no doubt more than the usual percentage of Japanese were employed on these few ranches. Within the last five years the Japanese have also become established in many of the citrus fruit packing houses in the south, having displaced white persons. Of 816 persons employed in 20 packing houses visited, 488 were white persons, 52 were Mexicans, 259 were Japanese, and 17 were Chinese.

In the Tulare County citrus district, Japanese have only recently gained a foothold and have not yet come to predominate. The number of white men and Japanese are more nearly equal, and in some localities the white pickers greatly outnumber the Japanese. All of the packing is done by white persons. In most of the deciduous fruit districts of the State the picking is controlled by Japanese and other oriental races, but some white men are so employed in all localities. In cutting fruit for drying, white persons-usually women and girls are employed. Cutting fruit is usually paid on a piece basis and has not proven attractive to Japanese, as they are slow cutters and can not make as large earnings as they do in other work. For the seasonal work in the Pajaro Valley some 700 or 800 Japanese and between 800 and 900 Dalmatians are added to the resident workers for the summer and autumn work. The Dalmatians are mainly employed by their countrymen for harvesting apples, while Japanese work for other white farmers and for their own countrymen. In the grape industry of Fresno County, Asiatics have always predominated in the seasonal work of picking-first the Chinese, but now the Japanese. During the busiest season, when the raisin grapes are being picked, some 7,000 to 10,000 pickers are employed. Between 4,000 and 5,000 of them are Japanese, some 600 to 800 German-Russians (two-fifths of them women and children), approximately 500 East Indians (all men), between 200 and 300 Digger Indians from the mountains, some 200 or 300 Koreans, who ordinarily work with Japanese and can not be distinguished from them, while 500 or so are Chinese still remaining in the work. Some Mexicans, Armenians, and Italians are found. Occasionally, natives and north Europeans pick grapes, but this is rare and usually they work for only one

season.

In the Lower Sacramento and San Joaquin districts in the seasonal hand work in both the orchards and in the fields devoted to vegetable growing, Asiatics are employed almost exclusively, except on ranches conducted by Portuguese and Italians, where they share the seasonal work with laborers of those races. The Japanese outnumber the other orientals in this work. There are many Portuguese and