Ogden there are 4 shops, but elsewhere in the Rocky Mountain States they are few and of little consequence. In San Francisco, where there has been much friction between the Japanese and the white races, the Japanese shops are seldom patronized by white persons, and the number of Japanese shops has increased and diminished with the increase and decrease in the size of the Japanese population. The number of shops in 1894 was 2; in 1899, 6; in 1904, 21; in 1909, 18. In most of the other cities mentioned, however, the number of Japanese shops has increased more rapidly than the population of that race, and they not only are sufficient to meet the needs of the Japanese patrons, but find a large percentage of their patrons among the other races, and especially among the members of the laboring classes who live in or near the districts occupied in part by the Japanese. The increase in the amount of this white patronage has made possible a part of the progress shown in this trade.

The great majority of the Japanese barber shops are of the same type as those characteristic of the districts in which they are located. With few exceptions, the most important of which is a shop in Los Angeles in which 12 white barbers are employed, they have only 1, 2, or 3 chairs, the proprietor usually working alone, or with the assistance of his wife or that of 1 employee. A total of 143 men were employed in the 46 shops in Seattle, 20 in the 9 in Tacoma, 31 in the 10 in Portland, about 50 in the 26 in Sacramento, 33 in the 18 in San Francisco, about 100 in the 44 in Los Angeles, 14 in the 12 in Fresno, and 8 in the 4 in Ogden. It is evident from the number of persons thus engaged in these cities that the trade has assumed greater proportions in Seattle, Los Angeles, and Sacramento than elsewhere. The agents of the Commission investigated the trade in these three cities, taking schedules for competing white shops as well as for the Japanese.

In Seattle the competition of the Japanese barbers, because of the rapid increase in number and the low prices charged, has been keenly felt-more.so, perhaps, than in any other trade. The barbers of this race are competing with a large number of small shops of the same general character and a smaller number of larger shops, the former conducted by the members of various white races, the latter chiefly by Americans and located in the older business district adjoining the Japanese quarter of the city. Of 10 Japanese shops investigated, 2 reported that 30 per cent of their patrons were white persons; 2, 50 per cent; 2, 60 per cent; 1, 80 per cent; and 3, 90 per cent. White persons constitute perhaps two-thirds of the patrons of the Japanese shops, taken as a whole.

Since 1902 the prices charged by the Japanese barbers have been determined by a union which they then organized. Previous to 1907 the price for hair cutting was 15 cents; for shaving, 10 cents; but upon reorganization of the union at that time the former price was raised to 25 cents. Moreover, in some shops white customers are charged 15 cents for shaving. With the increase. in the number of these Japanese shops the union scale in white shops has been lowered from 35 cents to 25 cents. Moreover, some of the "downtown" shops have reduced the price for shaving from 15 cents to 10 cents, in order, it is said, to meet the Japanese competition. Some of the white barbers on First Avenue South have changed locations because

of the severe competition. In the several white shops investigated, all located near Japanese shops, the barbers were paid a percentage of their gross earnings, with a minimum wage guaranteed. Nineteen of the barbers employed in these shops reported their average earnings as about $16, while 24 reported their average earnings as about $18 per week. The Japanese barbers working for wages are paid less. Those employed in the 10 shops investigated received either $45 or $50 per month without, and from $15 to $30 per month with, board and lodging, the cost of which may be reckoned at from $10 to $12 per month.

In Los Angeles the Japanese shops are freely patronized by other races as well as by Japanese, the proportions of the latter varying for the 8 shops investigated from 1 to 90 per cent and averaging between 48 and 49 per cent. Some of the patrons are negroes and Mexicans, and practically all reside near the Japanese shops, which, with the exception of two, are located in the two districts of the city in which the Japanese have settled in large numbers. The prices charged by the Japanese barbers are uniformly 15 cents for hair cutting and 10 cents for shaving, which, with few exceptions, have been the rates charged at other shops located in the same districts. In a few shops conducted by other races, however, the prices charged have been even less. The union prices in the larger shops in other parts of the city are 25 cents for hair cutting and 15 cents for shaving, while the prices in still other shops are 20 and 10 cents. The patronage of Japanese shops is almost entirely local in character, however, and the effects of any competition equally restricted. The Japanese barbers in the majority of the shops are paid $30, $35, $40, or $45 per month with board and lodging, but those in other shops, following the general rule in this trade, are paid 60 per cent of their gross earnings without board and lodging. In 5 white shops located near some of these Japanese establishments 10 barbers earned on the average $61 per month on the same percentage basis, while 1 was paid $10 per week. Thus the white and Japanese proprietors compete on about equal terms as regards wages and prices. Yet the former complain of the loss of business, and some have closed their shops. The explanation of the loss of business is evidently due to the increase in the number of shops and the change which has taken place in the character of the population of the two districts in which the Japanese have settled.

Formerly in Sacramento all of the Japanese shops were located in the "Japanese quarter," but in recent years several have been located in another district of the city. The white patrons of the 16 shops located in the first-mentioned district vary from practically none to 50 per cent, while those of the 10 located in the latter district vary from 50 to 80 per cent of the total. Partly because of the increase in the number of Japanese shops, and partly because of the lower prices which they have until recently charged, the barbers of other races complain of the competition. The prices charged at the Japanese shops have been determined by the union which has been maintained in the trade and previous to July, 1909, were 20 cents for hair cutting and 10 cents for shaving. In July, 1909, however, the former price was raised to 25 cents, so that now the Japanese prices are the same as those which have prevailed in the white shops of these districts of the city. In other shops not far away, however, the price for shaving

is 15 cents. The chief complaint on the part of other barbers, however, is the increase in the number of Japanese shops, which has resulted in the sharing of the trade among a greater number. It was found, however, that a large percentage of the shops conducted by other races had also been established during the few years in which the Japanese shops have increased in number most rapidly.

In Stockton and Fresno, where the Japanese have opened a number of shops and have secured a considerable patronage by white persons, the situation differs from the preceding in that for some time there has been an agreement between the proprietors of white union shops and the Japanese Barbers' Union as to the prices which shall be charged. The difference in details between the two cities are not material. In Fresno the white patrons, chiefly laborers, of the 4 small Japanese shops investigated, constituted from 10 to 80 per cent of the total number. Most of this patronage has been secured in recent years, and especially shortly previous to 1907, when the prices charged were much lower than those maintained by union white barbers. Until that time the price for hair cutting maintained by the Japanese union had been 15 cents, for shaving 10 cents, while the union white shops maintained the scale of 35 and 15 cents respectively. This difference in prices, with the increasing number of Japanese shops, caused a loss of patronage of some of the competing barbers. To prevent this an agreement was entered into in 1907 providing that the Japanese shops should adopt the union (white) scale for their white patrons. At the same time 25 cents and 15 cents were fixed upon as the prices to be charged Japanese patrons. Some months later, however, the price for hair cutting at Japanese shops was reduced to 25 cents for all patrons in order to meet the competition of some nonunion white shops which had been opened and in which this price obtained.

SHOE REPAIRING.

Shoe repairing is another trade in which the Japanese have made rapid progress in recent years in California. The first establishment was opened in San Francisco in 1890, but many if not most of the 189 shops which in March, 1909, were on the list of the Japanese Shoemakers' Union have been started in the last six years. The number in Los Angeles in 1904 was 2; in 1909, 17; in San Francisco in 1904, 60; in March, 1909, 72. The great majority of the shops are located in the cities about San Francisco Bay, but one or more are found in most of the towns of the northern part of the State in which any Japanese have settled. In the cities and towns of other States the number of shops is very small and of no particular significance.

The Japanese cobbler shops are small and the older handwork methods are followed in making repairs. Practically all, if not all, of the master journeymen, journeymen, and apprentices employed in the Japanese shops in California are members of the Shoemakers' Union to which reference has been made, and in 1909 numbered 298. In Seattle, Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and in all other localities in which the shoe-repairing trade was investigated

the Japanese prices were found to be lower than those which ordinarily prevail in the competing shops conducted by white craftsmen, most of them also foreign-born, in the same localities. This underbidding, together with changes in population, has given rise to much complaint of Japanese competition in such places as San Francisco and Los Angeles, where the number of Japanese shops in certain districts has become comparatively large.

In Los Angeles, where most of the cobbler shops established by Japanese are located in the older of the two districts in which the members of that race have settled, and in which as a result of the incoming of Japanese the composition of the population has changed, the proprietors of small cobbler shops located near by have lost much of their business. They have been adversely affected also by the competition of better equipped shops in other parts of the city. A large percentage of the patrons of the Japanese shops are white people, living or working in the vicinity of the shops. The chief inducement they have to patronize these shops is the lower prices which are charged for repairs. The price for half-soling men's shoes, hand sewed, is $1 or $1.25 at white, 90 cents at Japanese shops. Corresponding differences were found to obtain in the prices charged for other kinds of repair work.

In San Francisco, where the Japanese shops number more than 70 in a total of perhaps 1,000, the cobblers of other races located in some districts complain of underbidding by Japanese and of the increase of the number of cobblers, among whom the smaller amount of repair work since the fire of 1906 has been shared. The agents of the Commission found that the Japanese shops located in the city blocks in which many members of that race reside had white and Japanese patrons in about equal numbers, but that white persons constituted from 85 to 95 per cent of the patrons of the shops located elsewhere. Though the price charged for half-soling shoes is $1.25, as against 90 cents in Los Angeles, the practically uniform prices of the Japanese cobblers were found generally to be lower than the varying prices of the white cobblers, most of whom are foreign-born, with almost every prominent European race represented among them. The net incomes of 17 Japanese cobblers investigated varied from $40 to $80, and averaged $61.76 per month. The net earnings of an equal number of white cobblers whose shops were in the same localities varied between $400 as a minimum and $1,200 as a maximum, and averaged slightly less than $800 ($799.06) per year.

Most of these Japanese shoemakers were engaged in the same craft before immigrating to this country. The craft was well organized in Japan, and in this country a corresponding organization was effected in 1893, when the number of shoemakers of that race in California was about 20. This organization not only fixes a scale of prices to be charged, usually minimum prices, but controls the location of shops and protects and furthers the interests of its members in various ways. In opening shops no two (Japanese shops) may be located within 1,000 feet of each other. A member of the union opening a shop in a locality where no Japanese shop is in existence may be assisted by a loan of money from the organization not to exceed $50 in all. The union also maintains a supply house in San Francisco

and several thousand dollars of the "business fund," accumulated from dues paid, are invested in the stock of goods carried. Most of these goods are purchased from two firms in the East and are sold to the members of the organization at an advance of 10 per cent on the cost. Finally, this organization controls apprenticeship to the trade, and maintains a system of fraternal benefits along the lines commonly followed by craft organizations. The advantages in competition derived from the organization are apparent."

TAILORING, CLEANING, AND DYEING.

In the cities and towns in which Japanese business was investigated by the agents of the Commission, there were 136 tailor shops, cleaning and dye shops, and dressmaking establishments. The great majority of these have been started in recent years. In San Francisco the number of such establishments was 5 in 1899, 15 in 1904, and 52 in 1900; in Los Angeles, 2 in 1904, and 16 (2 of which were dressmaking establishments) in 1909; in Seattle, 4 in 1900, 12 in 1905, and 45 in 1909. In the smaller cities and towns, such shops as have been established have been opened in recent years. Practically all of these shops are small and the majority are devoted to cleaning, dyeing, and pressing clothes as their main business. Of the 45 shops in Seattle only 5 have more than 5 employees each. In San Francisco 54 proprietors and 101 wage-earners a total of 155-were employed in the 52 shops, while the corresponding number for the 16 shops in Los Angeles was about 40.

These small shops are located in the districts settled in part by Japanese and compete with many shops of a similar character conducted by the members of other races. In Seattle white persons constituted from 10 to 90 per cent of the patrons of 7 shops investigated. The corresponding figures for 4 shops in Los Angeles were 20 to 50 per cent, for 7 in San Francisco 10 to 100 per cent. The percentage of white patrons of a shop depends largely upon its location, for the business is almost entirely local in character, and upon the relative importance of tailoring as opposed to dyeing, cleaning, and pressing. Few white persons have suits made by Japanese tailors, while a large percentage of the Japanese do in San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles, and a smaller percentage in Sacramento. The competition of Japanese tailors has not been seriously felt except in those cases, as in Sacramento, where as their shops have been established a part of the Japanese patronage which had been given to a limited number of white tailors has been transferred to them. In Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, however, these shops have secured a large percentage of the cleaning and pressing of suits for white persons residing near by. In Los Angeles this is usually done at the prices which have prevailed in the same localities-50 cents per suit for pressing and 75 cents for cleaning and pressing. In San Francisco the same prices with correspondingly low prices for other work, prevail in the

a A fuller account of the Kako Domei Kwai, or Japanese Shoemakers' Union, and of the circumstances under which the first cobblers immigrated to California and opened shops, will be found in "The Japanese in city employments and business in San Francisco, Cal."