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and easily revert to day labor. The 6,000 employees of merchants and the 5,000 domestic servants include many who occasionally do farm labor, and even the 4,000 "merchants" are mostly keepers of insignificant shops, of whom two thirds have each less than $1,000 capital invested. There are 3,580 unassigned laborers, and 8,500 (mostly women and children) of "no occupation." On railroads, 1,500 are employed. Greeks and Mexicans have largely displaced them. Of the nonlaboring classes, there are 120 officials, teachers, and clergy, 1,000 "students" (many of them doubtless were temporary pupils, learning English).

United States. The number did not reach 1,000 until 1891, and since 1907 it has officially included no laborers, but has included numerous "picture brides," many of whom have engaged in labor for hire after arrival. These women also naturally presage a new population of native-born Japanese, who will be American citizens. They are the weak point in the "gentlemen's agreement." If there are 55,000 Japanese men in the state (or 100,000, as the Exclusion League guesses) the privilege of each to send his photograph to Japan and marry it to a wife means a possible immediate increase of the population to 110,000 (or 200,000) with the potential permanent increase of the progeny of these marriages. These wives, of course, also increase the tendency of the Japanese to seek more fixed occupations. The picture bride is not permitted to leave Japan until her photograph husband has provided a place for her. "Catch 'em wife" is one of the motives commonly assigned by Japanese for taking up land leases. To these must be added whatever Japanese slip in from Mexico. The Exclusion League insists that there is a constant stream of Japanese immigration to insignificant Mexican ports near the border, with no increase in the Japanese population of those ports and no sign of its absorption elsewhere in Mexico.

Statistically, the quality of the Japanese immigrants is good. They bring in more money per capita than any but the English and German immigrants; they have less illiteracy than the immigrants from Southern Europe; they are nearly all of vigorous age and in good health; they do not become dependents nor provide many serious criminals: they are intelligent, energetic, and self-reliant, well able to take care of themselves. If white immigrants of equal quality were available, they would be welcomed enthusiastically in unlimited numbers. The opposition to the Japanese is wholly racial.

The characteristic occupation of the Japanese in California is that of migratory farm laborers. On the estimate of 55,000 population, 20,000 were given as "farm hands." But of the 4,500 "farmers" many are on small temporary leaseholds

The total number of farms owned by Japanese in 1912 was 312, with an acreage of 12,726 and an assessed valuation of $609,605 (real value $609,605 (real value probably about $1,000,000). The number of farms had increased in three years from 208 to 312, and the acreage from 10,791 to 12,726. Japanese owned 218 town lots, with an assessed valuation, including improvements, of $235,675. This was an increase of $60,981 in three years. There were 319. recorded leases, in November, 1909, covering 20,294 acres, and 282 leases were recorded from that date to December 12, 1912, covering 17,596 acres.

These figures must, however, fall considerably short of the amount of land actually farmed by Japanese in California. Even the Japanese estimates allow 4,500 "farmers," and here are only 631 farms, including farms owned and leases recorded, for them to farm. The discrepancy may be accounted for in part by the existence of a form of contract-farming "on shares" which is technically rather an employment than a leasehold, but does put the sharecontractor in physical occupancy.

In the distribution of land ownership, the largest amount is in Fresno County, where 4,776 acres are owned by Japanese. The three central counties of the San Joaquin Valley (and of the state), Fresno, Madera, and Tulare, are the only ones in which the Japanese own more than 1,000 acres. In Tulare County there are 1,053 acres and in Madera 1,049. This is the raisin grape raisin grape district. The eight San Joaquin Valley counties contain 8,347

acres of the 12,726 owned by Japanese. Curiously enough, this district is not the one in which anti-Japanese agitation is most acute. Possibly this is because here is a region in which there is plenty of room. It is a great plain, with counties as large as Eastern states, and with a very cosmopolitan population, accustomed to making allowances for national and racial differences. The most intense feeling comes from a few circumscribed districts in Northern California in which even a comparatively few Japanese farms may produce a miniature of Hawaiian social conditions.

The distribution of leaseholds is very different from the distribution of ownership. The largest mass of leaseholds is in the three counties of San Joaquin, Sacramento, and Contra Costa, in the delta of the confluence of the two rivers. These immensely rich reclaimed lands are largely farmed by Japanese, who raise on them prodigious crops of potatoes, asparagus, and other vegetables. Here is the headquarters of Mr. George Shima, the "potato king," the richest Japanese in California, who controls several thousands of acres of island and delta lands, and operates his own fleet of river boats to handle his crops. Mr. Shima employs a small army of Japanese, Chinese, and Hindus. He has engaged in extensive speculative operations on the potato market, in addition to selling his own crop. He is an active member of the Stockton Chamber of Commerce, and a large investor in city real estate and other properties. When the present projects for the reclamation of the extensive swamps of this region are completed, with the possible introduction of rice culture, doubtless the district will be still further Orientalized.

The only other centres of large Japanese lease holdings are in Placer County in Northern California, Monterey County on the central coast, and Merced County in the sweet-potato district in the middle of the Valley.

The amount of land owned or leased by Japanese in southern California is infinitesimal, and there is very little organized anti-Japanese sentiment in that section. The Japanese in southern California are nearly all laborers and, this being the non-union section of the State,

the labor-class opposition to them is not so effective as in the closely unionized Northern cities.

The typical object-lessons of conditions as they might become are small districts, like the Vaca Valley, north of San Francisco Bay, or the Florin and Elk Grove districts, near Sacramento, where the Japanese have "taken the country" to the extent of moving in in such numbers that white men, by race repulsion, are moving out. These conditions, if they became general, would spell the Hawaiianization of California. The present fact is that they are confined to a few spots, and the Japanese authorities offer their good offices to induce the dispersion of these.

Compared with the total industries and farms of the state, these Japanese enterprises are, of course, insignificant. If it were not for the race question, they would be forgotten. But it is quite otherwise with farm labor. Here the principal production of the state is really dominated by the Japanese. On the farms operated by Japanese, of course practically all the labor (96 per cent.) is also Japanese. On the farms operated by white farmers, according to an investigation made in 1909, of the total labor employed, 54 per cent. was white, 36 per cent. Japanese, and the remaining 10 per cent. Chinese, Mexicans, Hindus, and Indians. On the large farms the percentage of Japanese was much larger, and on the small farms much smaller, than this average.

But the most striking fact is the classification of occupations. For instance, counting the farms of white farmers alone, nearly nine tenths of the berries, two thirds of the sugar-beets, more than half of the grapes and nursery products, 46 per cent. of the vegetables, and more than one third of the citrus and deciduous fruits, were raised by Japanese labor. At the other extreme, of hops only 8 per cent. and of hay and of grain only 6 per cent. were raised by Japanese labor, and of miscellaneous crops less than 20 per cent. On farms where whites were employed exclusively, no berries nor nursery products were grown, and little vegetables, except beans.

In other words, while the Japanese do an inconsiderable part of the business

of California, and very little of those sorts of farming which California has in common with other states, they practically dominate the labor of the characteristic agricultural and horticultural productions of California.

The explanation is found in the peculiarly migratory conditions of California farm labor. The fruit crops are seasonal. They require a great deal of labor for a short time every year, and very little labor the rest of the year. Fortunately, the seasonal demand varies with the different fruits. There is a harvest of some sort going on somewhere in California practically every month of the year. Oranges, for instance, ripen in midwinter, grapes in the fall, deciduous fruits in the summer, and berries in the spring. There is plenty of work, but not continuously in any one place. If farms are large, producing much fruit and few human beings, this work can. only be done by migratory labor. Much of the work, also, like thinning sugar beets, or cutting raisin grapes, must be done squatting. Oriental labor adapts itself to both these conditions, and since the Chinese have grown old and few, the Japanese have taken their places. Naturally, also, as soon as an occupation becomes known as a "Jap job" (like "niggers' work" in the South) the quality of white men who can be induced to enter it becomes distinctly lower. The darker race can monopolize almost any occupation it enters, even without underbidding, simply by the retirement of white men from it. White men shun an occupation in which Orientals are generally engaged, just as they shun a neighborhood in which Orientals largely reside. Indeed, underbidding is the least part of the Japanese problem in California. In the squatting occupations, in which the Japanese surpass white men in efficiency, they also earn more money. In other occupations, the difference in wages is probably not much greater than the difference in efficiency.

From the superficial American standpoint, the Japanese are probably less popular than the Chinese whom they displaced. They are less docile and less fitted to that status of human mules which the American wishes the Oriental to

occupy. Their moral and business standards, also, are more difficult for the white man to comprehend. It is a common observation that the Chinaman's only virtues are business virtues, whereas the chief faults of the Japanese are business. faults. Therefore, the American business man, understanding no standards but business standards, judges the Chinese by his virtues and the Japanese by his faults.

American and Chinese civilizations are built on contract. Japanese civilization is built on personal honor and loyalty. So when the American business man sees the Chinese keeping his contract, he discovers in him the one virtue he knows how to appreciate. But when a Japanese finds himself in a contract which changed conditions have now made burdensome, he wonders uncomprehendingly how an honorable gentleman could desire to impose on him terms which are now unjust. And the honorable gentleman understands only that the Japanese wants to sneak out of an honest bargain. The two moral standards are incommensurable. The Japanese who may evade a business obligation but who will sacrifice his life to a punctilo of honor or patriotism - he is a mystery. But the Chinese who will rob his government, or perjure the member of a rival tong to the gallows, but whose business word is inviolable he is easy to understand.

When not in the fields, the California Japanese congregate in the "Japtown' districts of the principal cities. "Japtown" is usually adjacent to the dwindling Chinatown, which it partly absorbs. But the Japanese build decent houses, admitting light and air, and with chimneys to let out the smoke. Their shops resemble American stores, and sometimes grow to be considerable establishments. There are moving picture shows, pool rooms, and other places of amusement. Sanitary conditions are usually good, and the general look of life is bright and cheerful. They are a polite, vivacious, and delightfully likable people. And the bitterest antiJapanese agitator in California has never once suggested that they are an inferior race. They are of a different and physically unassimilable race; that is all.

Anti-Japanese agitation began in California almost as soon as there were enough Japanese to agitate against. It was the natural successor to the anti-Chinese sentiment. The large landowners were and still are pro-Chinese and consequently pro-Japanese. The laboring classes in the cities have always been bitterly anti-Oriental. anti-Oriental. The sentiment grades all the way up from sand-lot demagogy to the finest racial patriotism. The sand-lot standard is represented by the Asiatic Exclusion League, whose president is Mr. Olaf A. Tveitmoe, recently released from the Leavenworth penitentiary on bonds, pending his appeal from conviction for complicity in the McNamara dynamiting. This League, organized in 1905, claims a membership of more than 100,000, but much of this is probably the readymade list of affiliated organizations. Doubtless it contains many excellent men, but the character and methods of its leadership discredit its cause. Such of the antiJapanese agitation in California as is artificially stirred up has its source in this League. But the general spontaneous sentiment is, of course, far deeper and sounder than this.

For ten years, alien land bills have been introduced in every session of the legislature, and in most sessions there have been school bills and other intentionally offensive measures. Executive pressure, in Washington and Sacramento, has always eliminated the miscellaneous bills, and then the land bills have divided into two classes, one discriminating against the Japanese and the other applying to all nations alike. Japanese representations have always beaten the discriminatory measure, and British corporation influences have then beaten the non-discriminatory measure. It is an old game of seesaw; but every two years it stirs up first California, then Japan, then Washington, and finally the world.

Meantime, the discriminatory measure, excluding "aliens not eligible to citizenship" from land owning, has become the law of the state of Washington, without arousing any excitement. The non-dis-. criminatory measure, excluding aliens who have not taken out their first papers, was

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already the Federal law for the District
of Columbia and the public lands, and,
with one different provision, for the terri-
tories.
tories. It is the law of Illinois, Idaho,
Kentucky, Minnesota, and Missouri.
With the addition that actual resident
aliens, during their residence, may also
hold land, it is the law of Oklahoma and
Texas, and of the territories.

Japan had an absolute law against alien ownership until April 13, 1910, and in effect has it yet. The law of that date was not to go into effect until confirmed by imperial ordinance, and that ordinance has not yet been issued. Even in the event of the issuance of the ordinance, the right will be extremely limited. Only foreigners actually resident in Japan, during their residence, and such foreign corporations registered in Japan as shall receive the permission of the Minister of Home Affairs shall acquire land. Even these shall not acquire it unless their countries grant the same rights to Japanese, and not then unless their countries are designated by imperial ordinance, which has not been done. In no case, even after the proclamation, shall they acquire land in the districts of Hokkaido, Formosa, or Karafuto (in other words, the territorial outposts of Japan, in which there are race problems), or in any district which may be designated by imperial ordinance as "necessary for national defense." So the repeal of the alien land law of Japan is, so far, purely theoretical, and even if it is ever put into effect, the rights under it will be extremely limited and always revocable.

All these things pass without notice, unless they happen in California. But the mere introduction of a bill in the California legislature, identical with the laws of the United States and of other states and nations, including Japan, at once stirs up riot and rumors of war and threats of retaliation, and sets all the foreign offices in the world by the ears. Which only confirms California's own opinion that it is the focus of what is potentially the greatest race problem in the world.

What California does not so easily appreciate is that, on the present actual situation, the practical problem is not

acute at all, and that to precipitate unnecessary action on the insignificant fraction of the problem within its immediate jurisdiction may jeopardize the far larger permanent responsibility, in which California needs the coöperation of the Nation and of the world.

Whether ten thousand acres of Japanese farms shall become twenty thousand is

not overwhelmingly important. That the two chief races of mankind shall stay each on its own side of the Pacific, there to conduct in peace and friendship the commerce of goods and ideas, and of the things of the spirit, but without general interpenetration of populations, or commingling of blood that is precisely the greatest thing in the world.

TRADE SCOUTS WHO CAPTURE

MILLIONS

THE CONTRAST BETWEEN THE AMERICAN CONSULAR SERVICE TEN YEARS AGO AND NOW AS SEEN IN TWO TRIPS AROUND THe world

H

BY

LEWIS R. FREEMAN

AVE you noticed the difference," asked the representative of a Massachusetts shoe company with whom I shared a compartment on a train a little more than a year ago "have you noticed the difference in the way that Europe looks at American manufactures to-day and the way she regarded them five years ago? When I first began coming over here, for a salesman to open up by saying that he was selling American goods was to start with a handicap. We found it better to show the goods first and explain that they were of Yankee manufacture afterward. In other words, what we sold was sold in spite, not because, of the fact that it was American-made. To-day the 'U.S. A.' mark is a help."

He attributed this gratifying improvement in our trade showing partly to the greater attention that American manufacturers are giving to foreign demands, partly to the passing of foreign prejudices against goods of American manufacture, and partly to the very valuable help rendered by the Consular Service.

"Of course," he continued, "the greatest aid of the Consular Service has come I through its keeping our exporting departments informed regarding foreign needs;

but it is surprising how much a live consul - if he is willing can do toward getting a salesman started right in a new place; and most of them now-a-days seem more than ready to do all they can. The United States consuls of to-day are much more useful than those of ten years ago; and it's a lucky thing, too. The consulates are the advanced outposts in this coming campaign of ours for a proper share of world's trade, and we've got to have the best men obtainable."

The American consul of to-day is a far more useful Government servant than the one of ten years ago, and it is true also that the change comes most opportunely. There is indeed big work ahead.

Back in the 70's and 80's and even the 90's, when American export trade consisted of little beyond the fortuitous overflow of our fields and ranges and one or two manufactured articles — such as sewing machines, reapers, etc., the chief responsibility of our consular officials in all but the greater European commercial centres was the somewhat indefinite duty of "upholding the dignity" of the Stars and Stripes in various corners of the earth. In those times a consular appointment - especially in one of the lower grades -was regarded by office-seekers who were

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