It is further agreed by second party that all beets grown under this contract, or all beets grown from seed procured from said first party, shall be delivered to the Sugar Company in manner as provided for in this contract, and that no part thereof shall be fed to stock or disposed of otherwise than by delivery to said first party in manner as herein set forth; and if the said party of the second part shall fail, refuse, or neglect to deliver said beets to said first party at the time when called upon to do so, then said party of the first part shall have the right and authority to go in and upon the said above-described premises and harvest, take, and deliver the same to its factory, employing all necessary labor and assistance therefor, and deducting the expenses thereof from the moneys to be paid to the second party for the beets so harvested, taken and delivered, and after all such expenses have been fully paid out of such moneys, then the surplus, if any, remaining is to be paid and turned over by said first party to said second party.

Said party of the first part agrees to pay freight charges on all shipments of beets moved by rail to its factory to an amount not exceeding 50 cents per ton, provided cars are loaded to capacity, and should the freight rate or charges on such shipment exceed the sum of 50 cents per ton, then the party of the second part shall pay the excess, and such excess shall be deducted by said party of the first part from the amounts due for deliveries of beets by said second party, under this contract. Any extra charges because of cars not being loaded to capacity or of heavy tares exceeding 5 per cent must be borne by the party of the second part.

This contract, and all its terms, provisions, and requirements, shall inure to the benefit of and be binding upon the successors and assigns of the parties hereto, but said second party shall not assign or transfer the same without the written consent of the party of the first part.

No agent of the party of the first part is authorized to vary or change the provisions of this contract in any respect whatsoever.

Executed in duplicate this_-_-__day of------, A. D. 190__.

The advantage of dealing with a single labor contractor for all of the handwork is apparent. The contractor agrees to do the work in the proper way at the proper time. He may employ the same men throughout the season, or the personnel of his force may be constantly changing. This does not concern the grower so long as the beets are properly grown and harvested.

The situation, however, is quite different if the grower undertakes to deal directly with his handworkers. He can then make contracts only with individuals, or, at best, if the men are Mexicans, with gang leaders." In either case the second party to the contract is irresponsible, and the grower is confronted with the possibility of losing his entire crop through the defection of his labor supply at a critical moment.

The principal labor problem of the grower, then, is to secure an adequate number of men to do the dirty, disagreeable handwork of the beet fields which continues for periods of only a few weeks or months at a time. There are other problems connected with beet growing, such as how to insure honest work, which will be taken up at the proper places in this report, but this problem is the allimportant one of the industry. How it has been met will be considered in detail by States later on, but certain general results may be indicated at this point.

In the first place, practically no " Americans," except those who work their own land, engage in the handwork. They will not accept it for the wages offered, as long as other employment can be found. Whenever they have been employed in the past, as in the earlier years of several beet-growing districts in California and elsewhere, they have left the industry after the first year or two. The extent to which this exodus was due to the underbidding of other races varies according to locality, and will be considered later.

In the second place, only the more recent immigrants and the lowest grade of nonassimilable native-born races, like the Mexicans of the American Southwest, are employed. Handworkers are almost exclusively recruited from the Japanese, Mexicans, German-Russians, and, to a much less extent in certain localities, the Portuguese, East Indians, and American Indians.

Sometimes the race employed is one resident in the community. At other times it is "imported" or attracted from other communities. Some of the Mexican handworkers in California, for example, are members of long-established colonies in the vicinity of the factories where they are employed. The German-Russians in Colorado, on the other hand, came for the most part from the beet-growing district near Grand Island, Nebr. In the early years of the industry they were imported by agents of the sugar companies. Later, after permanent colonies of the race were established in Colorado, voluntary immigration of friends and relatives of the colonists was found to be adequate to supply the increasing demand for hand labor.

As a rule the burden of solving the problem of hand labor has been forced upon the sugar companies. The culture of the sugar beet is an intensive one, and the cost of production per acre is high in comparison with that of most other crops. Furthermore, the value of the raw beet is so small in proportion to its bulk that long transportation is out of the question. For these reasons the sugar factory can not rely on the open market for its supply of beets, but on the contrary, must draw them from the near vicinity, and from growers with whom it has contracts for definite acreages. If the factory is located in a settled district the company must persuade the farmers of the district to take up the beet growing; if the enterprise involves the development of new territory, the company must induce farmers. to come into it from elsewhere or it must grow its own beets. In any case the burden of providing an adequate labor supply falls upon the sugar company because it has the greatest interest at stake. The grower under contract has only a part of his land in beets, as a rule, and he is ready to withdraw that part and devote it to some other crop if the difficulties of growing beets become too great."

The factory, on the other hand, must be absolutely sure of a sufficient supply of beets to permit operation on a profitable scale. To do this, the sugar company must see to it that there is an adequate number of laborers to do the hand work in the fields.

Native-born Americans and Americanized Europeans.

"The independence of the beet grower is accentuated by the fact that he has almost nothing invested in the industry. He may have special implements that cost him $50, or even $75, but such an investment is but a trifling barrier to the man who becomes dissatisfied after an experience in beet growing." (Beet-sugar industry in the United States, S. Doc. No. 22, op. cit., p. 1.)

The pages following will deal with the present hand-labor situation in California and Colorado and the history of its development. Conditions in the two States named will be discussed separately, because of the great development of the beet-sugar industry in these States. Conditions in the remaining States of the division will be taken up as a whole, because in them the number of plants is smaller and the importance of the industry much less than in California and Colorado.

IMMIGRANT LABOR IN THE GROWING OF SUGAR BEETS IN CALIFORNIA.

The beet-sugar industry of California is one of the most important industries in the State, both as to the value of its product and the number of persons employed. Historically, the beet-sugar industry has been continuously prosecuted in California for a longer period of time than in any other of the Commonwealths. In point of the aggregate acreage of its beet fields California stands third among the States of the Union, being exceeded only by Colorado and Michigan.

The total area devoted to the culture of the sugar beet in California in the year 1909 was 75,123 acres. The proportions of this acreage cultivated by sugar companies and by others under contract with the sugar companies are shown in the following table:

• Excluding two districts, one of which is contributory to a factory newly opened in 1909, the other to a factory abandoned in 1909.

Tenants in part of this district only reported. Total number not known.

It will be seen from the foregoing table that approximately onefourth of the acreage is grown directly by the sugar companies. The remaining three-fourths is grown by others under contract with the company, either by farmers who own the land they work or by tenants who lease land from the sugar companies and private land

owners.

GROWERS' CONTRACTS.

As already explained (see p. 91), the terms of the growers' contracts vary somewhat as to prices, but they uniformly include certain stipulations, viz: (1) That the grower shall buy his seeds from the company. This provision insures a greater yield from a given quan

• Exclusive of that contributory to two factories, one of which was newly opened in 1909, the other of which was abandoned at the close of the season.

tity of seeds and a more uniform quality of beets than would be possible if the seeds were bought on the open market. The seeds furnished by the company are carefully selected by its agricultural experts and are sold to growers at prices varying from 10 to 15 cents per pound. (2) That the grower shall care for his beets under the direction of the agriculturists of the company. The purpose of this provision is to secure the maximum yield per acre. The company must secure an adequate supply of beets each season. It is to its interest, therefore, to see to it that the contracted acreage is utilized in the best possible way. (3) That the grower shall not begin to harvest his beets until directed by the factory to do so and that he shall then harvest them in a specified manner."

The prices paid for beets in California are usually calculated according to the sugar content. In 1909 the most general price was $4 per ton for beets testing 15 per cent of sugar. To this price was added 25 cents for every additional per cent of sugar, and from it was deducted 30 cents for every per cent of sugar less than 15 per cent down to and including 11 per cent. Beets testing under 11 per cent were accepted as if testing 11 per cent, when weighing under 5 pounds. In three instances, however, the price paid for beets was a flat rate. In the first two cases it was $5 per ton for beets f. o. b. the factory or railroad cars; in the second it was $4.50 per ton if delivered by the ranchers in wagons, and $5 per ton if delivered by the railroad. In the first two cases, however, the sliding scale of prices was also used to some extent. In the third case the flat rate superseded the sliding scale some ten years ago. The change was made because of difficulties arising out of the widely different percentages of the sugar content of beets grown by different farmers on adjacent and similar lands.

REGULAR FIELD LABOR.

In California, as elsewhere in the Western Division, the force of regular field laborers-teamsters, traction engineers, and the like—is usually recruited from Americans and Americanized Europeans. In two localities, however, Portuguese are employed. In the first of these they are members of a Portuguese colony in the vicinity; in the second they are recent immigrants from the Hawaiian Islands. The wages paid for teamwork vary from $35 to $45 per month in addition to board and lodging.

HAND WORKERS.

It is estimated that in all between 6,000 and 7,000 men were required to do the hand work in the beet fields of California in 1909. Of this number fully 4,500 were Japanese, about 1,000 were Mexicans, probably 600 East Indians, and the remainder members of miscellaneous races including some German-Russians and Portuguese and a few Chinese."

Thus it is evident that the Japanese at present control the hand work in California. They comprise approximately two-thirds of

See "Agreement for Hand Labor on Beets," p. 90.

This estimate is based upon data furnished by the several sugar companies.

the total number of hand workers. Their only important competitors are the Mexicans and East Indians, who are employed in much smaller numbers. This competition, moreover, is local rather than general. The Mexicans, for the most part, are found in the southern part of the State. A large proportion of the total number for the State are employed in the districts contributory to three factories. In one of these districts the Mexicans have a practical monopoly of the industry, in a second they form three-fourths of the force, but in the third they are outnumbered 10 to 1 by the Japanese.

Outside of southern California, Mexicans constitute but a very small percentage of the hand workers, and this in only three districts. Here their presence is of recent date and is accounted for chiefly by an extraordinary demand for labor or by the desire of employers to secure competition against the Japanese. The Mexicans of California, it should be remembered, live largely in the southern part of the State and are drawn north only by unusual opportunities for labor there or by lack of work in the south. They prefer the climate of the south, and in recent years there has been no lack of work for them in that section of the State.

The East Indians are even less widely distributed than the Mexicans. The latter were in the State when sugar-beet growing began, but the East Indians are very recent immigrants. They did not become an important element in the labor supply of the beet fields until 1908 and their conspicuous importance in that year is due to the large number of them employed in a single district. This district is located in an irrigated section of a river valley where malaria is widely prevalent during the hot months of the growing season. It has been no uncommon thing for fully 25 per cent of the working force of both field and factory to be incapacitated for duty by this disease. For this and other reasons the labor problem in this district has been an exceedingly difficult one. Of the races employed in hand work the Japanese appear to be the most susceptible to malaria, while the East Indians are said to be the most nearly immune. In 1909, 425 East Indians, or about four-fifths of the total number of hand workers of that race in the State, were employed in this district. The remaining one-fifth were divided among three districts, one of which was in southern California. In two cases East Indians were hired for the first time in 1909.

When account is taken of the large number of East Indians already in California, some of whom are now working on the railroads, and the present rapidly increasing immigration of the race to this State, it seems quite probable that more and more of them will find their way into the beet fields.

The Japanese were found in 1909 in every beet-raising district in the State save one in southern California. In this instance Japanese had been employed in small numbers, never more than thirty or forty in any year, for seven or eight seasons. It is said that the laborers of this race avoided the district in the first place because of the unfavorable issue of contracts taken for hand work in 1897. This year proved to be the most unprofitable one then on record for the beet growers, and the Japanese contractors are said to have lost heavily. The result is that this district has never been a "Japanese