service and in business establishments managed by their own countrymen. Smaller numbers have been found in coal and ore mining, meat packing, and salt making. They have done comparatively little in the building trades, altho they have done some cabinet work, especially for their own countrymen. They have not done so much inside factory work, like cigarmaking, as did the Chinese earlier, probably in part because of hostile race sentiment. Very many of the Japanese laborers are those who are ready to migrate from one section of the country to another, in order to meet the seasonal demand for laborers.

On the Pacific Coast, it may be roughly stated, during the year 1909 about 10,000 were employed by railway companies, some 6,000 or 7,000 of these as section hands. Probably 2,200 or more were employed in lumber mills, 3,600 in salmon canneries in Alaska, Washington and Oregon; in the mines of Wyoming, Utah, southern Colorado and New Mexico, probably not far from 2,000; while one or two hundred were employed in three smelters in Utah and Nevada. Probably some 30,000 were employed during the summer months in California as farm laborers, and 9,000 or 10,000 in the other Western States. The number engaged in city trades and in business on the Pacific Coast would probably be estimated at from 22,000 to 26,000.

Japanese Workmen

In the report made by the Immigration Commission there were certain observations regarding the Japanese in industry, which may be briefly summarized:

STRIKE-BREAKERS

The first employment of the Japanese in a good many cases has been as strike-breakers. This is especially true of coal mining in southern Colorado and Utah in 1903 and 1904, and later in the case of the smelting industry in Utah in 1907. Usually, however, they have been introduced to replace Chinese, or when the employers found it difficult to get a sufficient number of white men to work as common laborers at the rate of wages which had previously obtained.

JAPANESE CONTRACTORS

The Japanese have been more readily employed because they were so easy to engage through the Japanese contractors, without inconvenience to the employers. These bosses usually undertake to provide any number of men required, to keep their time, pay them off, do interpreting, etc. Generally they receive an interpreter's fee of $1.00 per month, and often make a commission on their earnings. In addition to that, of course, they secure certain advantages by dealing themselves directly with the men.

WAGES

Usually the Japanese have worked for lower wages than have the members of any other race excepting the Mexicans and at times the Chinese. In the lumber industry other races have usually been paid higher wages than the Japanese doing the same kind of work, altho in some of the lumber mills in Vancouver, as learned by the personal investigation of the writer, the Japanese, where they have a rigid organization, have been paid higher wages than either the Chinese or the East Indians.

In 1907, where the Japanese were working in the mines they were finally accepted as members of the United Mine Workers, and in that way they secured the benefit of the standard wage from collective bargaining on the part of these unions with employers. Generally speaking, where serving as construction laborers on the railroads, they have received less than other races excepting the Hindus and the Mexicans. When the feeling arose against the Japanese on account of their arriving in so large numbers, and it seemed likely that hostile action would be taken, their contractors became much more skilful in bargaining, and gradually worked their wages up until frequently the difference between their wages and those paid to white men was very slight.

EFFICIENCY

Altho the Chinese and the Mexicans are sometimes preferred, the former, usually, on railroads, it seems that the road masters and section foremen generally prefer the Japanese to either Italians, Greeks, or Slavs, as section hands. Also in the railway shops they are usually given a higher rank than the Mexicans or Greeks, and at times, than the Italians. In salmon-canning, as has been noted above, the Chinese are considered much more desirable, and even the Filipinos are often preferred. Preference for the Chinese is not merely on account of the hostile feeling for the Japanese, but because they are more trustworthy in keeping their contracts and in doing their work with care. Usually when contracts are made with a Chinese contractor a stipulation is put in that the number of Japanese laborers shall be restricted to

a certain percentage named; generally they are not to exceed the number of Chinese.

RACE FEELING

In spite of these conditions, and the advantage that they sometimes have, they have in many cases found it difficult to advance. They are not employed, generally speaking, in the lumber industry, altho they have been employed in a good many individual establishments. Often in other industries where large groups of men are brought together, especially where the different races must work in association, the race prejudice against the Japanese is found to be a hindrance.

Because of the attitude of other laborers, and the fact that the Japanese have to be directed largely through an interpreter, they have usually been employed in unskilled work. Only rarely have they been given positions of supervision, or put into places of responsibility.

AGRICULTURE

There seems, on the whole, to be no tendency further for the Japanese to be engaging in manufacturing industries; rather they are turning more generally to agriculture, as will be seen, tho many go also to the cities.

It is possible that not far from 30,000 Japanese were engaged in agriculture in 1909, in California alone, during the summer months. In most of the specialized intensive agriculture which prevails in many regions, they have a permanent position, occupying practically that held by the Chinese twenty years ago in similar industries. The Japanese do

practically all of the hand work in growing the various berries, two-thirds of that in the sugar-beet fields, possibly one-half of that in the vineyards, and a somewhat smaller part of that in the fields where vegetables are raised, and in the orchards. Generally speaking, in the raising of hops, they are not employed in so large numbers, and on general farms they are comparatively seldom employed. Usually, they are not given the care of teams, and do only hand-work. Wherever there has been specialized seasonal farming, the Japanese, being readily organized into gangs under a single contractor, are easily moved from place to place, and in consequence secure a large part of this specialized seasonal work. As already intimated, the Japanese have an advantage, as had the Chinese earlier, in that, where large numbers of men are to be employed for comparatively short periods of time, it is customary for the Japanese or the Chinese to board themselves and to take lodgings that would not be accepted by other laborers. This fact, with their organization, has made it easier for the grower to deal directly with the contractor and secure these people.

They were first engaged as fruit pickers about 1888 or 1889. By 1895 they had found employment in lines in which the Chinese had been engaged in every locality in California as far south as Fresno. Since 1900 they have gone into southern California, and since 1904 have been found in most localities in that part of the State also.

The Japanese have in many cases displaced the Chinese, and in some instances, at any rate, the white" laborers. Usually at the beginning the Japanese worked for lower wages per hour, altho very fre