JAPANESE AND OTHER IMMIGRANTS RACES IN THE PACIFIC COAST

AND ROCKY MOUNTAIN STATES.

INTRODUCTORY.

The immigration problem of the West takes a form somewhat different from that of the eastern and middle States, principally because of differences in location with reference to sources of immigration, comparative sparsity of population, and extent of resources remaining to be developed and exploited. The expense involved in direct immigration to the West from Europe is so great that European immigrants are secured chiefly as a part of the general westward movement. On the other hand, the location and climate of New Mexico, Arizona, and California are such as to cause them to share with Texas most of the immigrants from Mexico, while the location of the three Pacific coast States, California, Oregon, and Washington, is such as to bring to them practically the whole of the eastern Asiatic immigration and the secondary movement from the Hawaiian Islands. The Rocky Mountain States, save New Mexico and Arizona, are so placed that they must compete with other States, since through other States immigration from all sources save Canada must come.

Though the westward movement has been strong, as is indicated by the fact that in 1900 more than one-half of the native-born had come from States other than those in which they resided, the population of most localities is still sparse. In 1900 the population of the 11 States and Territories comprising the Western division was only 4,091,349, or 5.37 per cent of the total for the continental United States. Though the movement of population westward has been very rapid since the census of 1900 was taken, the public lands, the large holdings capable of being subdivided and more fully utilized, the mines, smelters, lumber mills, fisheries, and general construction work present a demand for a much larger population than any of these States now has. One problem has been to settle the country more fully and to meet the demand for labor. Another has been presented by the immigration of certain races which have arrived at Pacific coast ports. The importance of the one is indicated by the activity of promotion committees at work in the Middle West and East in an effort to induce a larger movement of population west and the "recruiting" of laborers practiced by railway companies, general contractors, beet-sugar companies, operators of mines and smelters, and, in sporadic cases, by California fruit growers. The importance of the other has made itself apparent in the general insistence upon the exclusion of laborers of certain races, which is already largely an accomplished fact.

In 1900, 846,321, or 20.7 per cent, of the 4,091,349 persons reported by the census as living in the 11 States and Territories of the Western division, were foreign-born. Two per cent of the population and about one-tenth of the foreign-born had immigrated from Asia. About one-eighth of the total population and more than three-fifths of the foreign-born had immigrated from north European countries, the Germans with 135,459, the English with 102,656, the Irish with 83,532, and the Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes with 116,175 being the most conspicuous elements. Some 89,800 immigrants from Canada, or 2.2 per cent of the population, may be added to this group as being largely of the same stock. Beside these, there were 107,860 who had immigrated from south and east European countries, forming 2.6 per cent of the population of the Western division. Among the latter the Italians were the most numerous, followed by the various races of Austria, the Finns, and the Portuguese. Finally, 29,579 Mexicans had found a place in the population, constituting 0.7 per cent of the whole. The table which follows shows the population of each State of the Western division, and of the continental United States, in 1900, together with the total number of foreign-born and the number of the same born in each specified country, and the percentage of each nationality in the United States residing in the Western division. The countries from which the immigration has been small are not included in the table.

[Compiled from the reports of the census of 1900, Vol. I, Population, Pt. I, pp. xx, xxi, and 732. Population of Hawaii not included.]

The more important changes in the population since 1900 have been incidental to

(1) A rapid influx from 1900 to 1907 of Japanese (with a few Koreans) from Japan or Hawaii, or both, until the number of that race now residing in the Western division is in excess of 90,000, more than one-half of whom are in California and one-sixth in Washington;

(2) A diminishing number of Chinese, their decline being due to the exclusion law and a tendency exhibited by the members of that race to move to the eastern cities;

(3) An influx of Mexicans continued until the number in the Western States has increased several fold;

(4) A continued influx of English, Scandinavians, and other north Europeans, in part a direct immigration, in part a westward movement of industrial workers before the increasing number of south and east Europeans employed in industry in the East, and in part a westward movement of families, generally to locate on farms;

(5) An influx of immigrants from southern and eastern European countries, the smaller part of them, except in the case of the North Italians, Spanish, Portuguese, and Dalmatians, coming directly from their native land, much the larger number coming from the States in the East to engage in common or semiskilled labor on the railways, in the mines and smelters, and other industries in which much unskilled labor is required and in which laborers are employed in large numbers.

The percentage of the immigrants of each race, save the Japanese, arriving in the United States between July 1, 1900, and June 30, 1909, who gave some State of the Western division as their destination, is presented in Table 2. The Japanese who arrived are not given, for the reports of the Commissioner-General of Immigration do not include those who have come to the mainland from the Hawaiian Islands. More than 90 per cent of them have remained in the Western division. The number of Chinese destined to the Western division of States, as given in the table, is much too small, but correct data in this regard are not available for the reason that during the first three years of the period under consideration the Bureau of Immigration did not record the destination of Chinese entering the United States at the port of San Francisco. It should be added, also, that the figure given for Mexicans is not complete, for the reason that until 1908 the Bureau of Immigration did not record the number of Mexican immigrants entering the United States overland. Therefore, the number admitted and the number destined to the Western division of States, during the period considered, are both too low.

TABLE 2.-Immigrants entering continental United States during the years 1901 to 1909, inclusive, by race.

[Compiled from reports of the United States Commissioner-General of Immigration, 1901-1909.]

a 17,486 Mexicans were recorded as destined to Texas during the period considered.

SCOPE AND METHOD OF INVESTIGATION.

The investigation conducted by the Commission in the West was planned to include (1) a study of the industrial and social conditions of immigrants in the more important industries, (2) a study of selected immigrant races in some of the larger cities, (3) a special study of agricultural laborers and of immigrant farmers, and (4) a detailed examination of Japanese, Korean and East Indian immigration in its various phases, the emphasis to be placed upon the last named because it presents a problem peculiar to the Pacific coast and with reference to which the fullest possible information was to be desired. No special investigation of Chinese immigration was planned. Most of the Chinese now in the United States have resided here so long and have lived and worked under such conditions that an investigation of them along the lines adopted for other races would not show the effects of a free or of a restricted immigration, nor would the data be comparable with those collected for other races. The difficulties involved in the administration of the exclusion law have been so great that the Chinese laborers were very suspicious of the motives of the Commission's agents so that it was found difficult in most places to secure any data of value from them. The slight