white persons are members are of a business nature, as, for example, the "Fife Vegetable Growers' Association," in the State of Washington, the "Sacramento Grocers' Union," and the "Chamber of Commerce of Sacramento.

Among themselves the Japanese are well organized. Most important are the "Japanese Associations," which exist in every urban center in which Japanese have settled in any considerable number. The local associations are branches of more general organizations, as, for example, the "Japanese Association of Colorado," the "Japanese Association of Oregon," and the "Japanese Association of Washington." These areas often correspond to the consular districts, and the associations are used to some extent by the Japanese consular service as administrative organs, as, for example, in the issuing of certificates of various kinds.

These associations have as their members the better-known Japanese of the communities in which they are organized. Most of the farmers and business men and some of the laborers have membership in them. Their objects, as stated in their constitutions, are general and vague. The Japanese Association in San Francisco sets forth its aims as: (1) To elevate the character of Japanese immigrants; (2) to promote association between Japanese and Americans; (3) to promote commerce, agriculture, and other industries; and (4) to further Japanese interests. They, in fact, interest themselves in whatever concerns the welfare of the Japanese. For example, the San Francisco organization came into existence for the purpose of protecting the "rights" of the Japanese immigrants, who felt that unduly harsh treatment was accorded them when San Francisco was threatened with the bubonic plague in 1900. Later, in protecting the Japanese from violence, "plain-clothes men" were employed upon the streets. So were they in Denver also during the anti-Japanese movement of a few years ago. The Japanese Association of Fresno was instrumental in closing the oriental gambling dens and houses of prostitution located in that city. They do whatever comes to hand, and in many localities have been of great value in promoting morality and orderly living as well as in preserving harmony between conflicting interests.

A large number of Japanese immigrants are members of prefectural societies, organizations of immigrants from the same prefectures in Japan. These societies are of a general and benevolent and social nature. Some provision is made for caring for members in case of sickness or misfortune. They also serve in some degree as a center of the social life of the Japanese. In San Francisco 27 prefectures in Japan are represented by as many prefectural societies, 24 in Seattle, 12 in Los Angeles, 8 in Sacramento, and smaller numbers in other communities.

In addition to these more widespread and general organizations, the Japanese have united in several localities for various purposes. The organizations among farmers, shopkeepers, and business men have been noted earlier in this report. Here and there mutual aid societies are conducted which collect dues, usually $1 per month, and in turn provide for the members who are sick or in financial distress. The Japanese Benevolent Society of San Francisco was organized in 1901, with the object of making more complete provision for the

care of sick, injured, or unfortunate Japanese. It is of the nature of a charity organization society, organizing the relief-giving agencies of the race rather than dispensing material aid. However, in the period 1901-1908 some $7,000 was expended in caring for the unfortunate and in transporting persons back to Japan. A hospital is conducted in San Francisco by the organization. Japanese hospitals are found in Vacaville, Ogden, and in many of the places in which a few hundred or more Japanese have settled. Though they are without any great fraternal organizations, such as those found among the Portuguese, the Danish, and several other of the European races, the Japanese in a more or less organized way care for those who are in need of assistance. Seldom have the Japanese become public charges or been charity patients at public hospitals. Perhaps no race of equal numbers in this country has imposed upon the public charitable institutions as little burden as the Japanese.

With regard to criminal acts, the record of the Japanese immigrants is very good. With the exception of the cases of excessive gambling and of the operation of houses of prostitution in one or two localities few charges of misdemeanor or of criminality have been brought against them. For example, in San Francisco from 1900 to 1907 less than 100 Japanese were reported among the commitments, a remarkably small number if the size of the Japanese population of that city and the number of Greeks, Italians, and others committed are considered. Gambling is rather prevalent among the Japanese, both among those who live in isolated groups, as for example the employees of the salmon canneries or agricultural laborers and the residents of Japanese quarters in the cities. The gambling places are frequently conducted by Chinese or by other persons. A notable example of this exists in Fresno, Cal., where a number of Chinese dives were conducted until the fall of 1908. In the early summer of that year an agitation against them was initiated by the better element among the Japanese, who enlisted the native clergy and the press in their fight, with the result that the gambling houses were finally closed for several months, beginning in August, 1908. A few Chinese gambling houses, however, were opened in May, 1909, and were still in operation at the time of the investigation. Gambling is an evil which is often to be found in the Japanese just as it is found in other "camps" where any large number of laborers live and work together. In connection with the whole matter of law and order it should be noted, however, that the general attitude of the white people is that it is not important what the Asiatics do among themselves so long as violation of law or disorder does not endanger or inconvenience the members of other races.

This spirit is clearly shown by the circumstances surrounding the agitation and temporary suppression of the Japanese houses of prostitution in Fresno in 1908. The better element among the Japanese initiated the movement against these as well as against the Chinese gambling houses, which were largely patronized by the Japanese. In securing the desired reforms, however, they were consistently opposed by the chief of police and a considerable part of the native population, and not until the moral sense of the better native element was aroused by the appeals of the clergy and the progressive newspapers was action taken. The action was, however, temporary, and, although all the

Japanese societies protested against the reopening of the vicious resorts, several have been allowed to continue their business and were in operation in 1909. Here, in Vacaville, and in some other localities the attitude of the citizens toward law and order seems to have been lowered somewhat by the failure to enforce a single standard of ob

servance.

The Japanese as a race are temperate. Though there is much drinking at restaurants and in "camps," instances are rare in which drunkenness has interfered with their efficiency in any branch of employment. However, some complaint has been made of the excesses of those who work in the Alaskan salmon canneries. These are of the most unsettled and reckless class of Japanese immigrants, and are inclined to excesses of different kinds. Where Japanese have been employed with other races in the same field of work, as for example as section hands on the railroads and as laborers in the cement works and smelters, they are regarded as far more temperate than the Mexicans or the races of south and east Europe.

Thus the Japanese have a comparatively small percentage of illiterates among them, are intelligent and eager to learn of American institutions, make fairly rapid progress in learning to speak English, and unusually good progress in learning to read and write it. They have not proved to be burdensome to the community because of pauperism or crime. Yet the Japanese, like the Chinese, are regarded as differing so greatly from the white races that they have lived in but as no integral part of the community. A strong public opinion has segregated them, if not in their work, in the other details of their living, and practically forbids, when not expressed in law, marriage between them and persons of the white race.

CHAPTER VIIL

PACIFIC COAST OPINION OF JAPANESE IMMIGRATION AND THE DESIRE FOR ASIATIC LABORERS.

For several years there has been strong opposition to the immigration of Japanese laborers to the continental United States, and not a little evidence of a desire not to accord to them and other Asiatics residing in this country all of the privileges and rights accorded to immigrants of the white races. Much which bears upon this phase of the matter has been noted in the preceding chapters of this report. It remains to mention still other matters necessary to give a more complete view of the situation.

It is a significant fact that the first strong note of opposition to the immigration of Japanese laborers came from a mass meeting called in 1900 to consider the reenactment of the Chinese-exclusion law, soon to expire.

It is true that the incoming of these laborers and the place they occupied in the industries of the State had been investigated by the California state labor commissioner shortly before," and that an. agent of the Federal Government had made an investigation in Japan of the circumstances under which the laborers emigrated from that country to the continental United States. It was in 1900, when an unusually large number arrived, however, that the first organized demand was made for the exclusion of the Japanese. At the mass meeting called in San Francisco, May 7 of that year, not only was a resolution adopted urging Congress to reenact the Chinese-exclusion law, but it was further resolved to urge the adoption of an act of Congress or such other measures as might be necessary for the total exclusion of all classes of Japanese other than members of the diplomatic staff. "Such a law," it was added, "has become a necessity not only on the grounds set forth in the policy of Chinese exclusion but because of additional reasons resting in the fact that the assumed virtue of the Japanese-i. e., their partial adoption of American customs makes them the more dangerous as competitors." The following January Gov. Henry T. Gage, in his first biennial message to the legislature of the State of California, called attention to the facts that the Chinese-exclusion act of 1892 would expire in May of the next year, and the convention between the United States and China might be terminated in 1904, while the recent acquisition of territory by annexation and war made it particularly necessary that acts of Congress should be passed and the convention revised so as to cover beyond question every part of the territory of the United

C

"See Ninth Biennial Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the State of California for the years 1899-1900.

c Report of mass meeting in San Francisco, Cal., May 8, 1900.

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States. While urging that action should be taken looking to this end, Governor Gage took occasion to add:

The peril from Chinese labor finds a similar danger in the unrestricted importation of Japanese laborers. The cheapness of that labor is likewise a menace to American labor, and a new treaty with Japan for such restriction, as well as the passage of laws by Congress, is desired for the protection of Americans. I therefore most earnestly appeal to your honorable bodies for the passage as a matter of urgency of appropriate resolutions instructing our Senators and requesting our Representatives in Congress for the immediate institution of all proper measures leading to the revision of the existing treaties with China and Japan, and the passage of all necessary laws and resolutions for the protection of American labor against the immigration of oriental laborers.

As a result of this appeal a joint resolution was adopted by the legislature and a memorial addressed to Congress, praying for the restriction of Japanese immigration. The legislature of Nevada the same year adopted similar resolutions.

Though the American Federation of Labor, at its annual convention held in San Francisco in November, 1904, resolved, in response. to a local demand, that the terms of the Chinese exclusion act should be extended so as to exclude Japanese and Korean as well as Chinese laborers, there was little discussion of Japanese immigration until in the spring of 1905. In spite of the fact that the Japanese Government for several years had discouraged the emigration of laborers intending to come to the continental United States the number immigrating directly to this country had increased in 1903 and 1904, while during the latter year, as a result of the inducements made by the Japanese contractors of the Pacific coast cities, a still larger number were migrating to the mainland from Hawaii. From these combined sources many Japanese laborers were arriving in the United States in 1904 and 1905. It was under these circumstances that the San Francisco Chronicle, on February 23, 1905, began the publication of a series of articles upon the Japanese question, calling attention to the number of Japanese already in the country, discussing the supposed evils connected with their immigration, and emphasizing the dangers of future immigration of that kind. The Japanese question at once commanded the attention of the state legislature of California and has had a prominent place in the discussions of that body at every session since that time. On the 1st of March following the state senate adopted a resolution, which was concurred in the following day by the assembly, demanding that action be taken without delay, by treaty or otherwise, to limit the further immigration of Japanese laborers. The same year similar resolutions were again adopted by the legislature of Nevada.

At this time the Union Labor party was in control of municipal affairs in San Francisco. On May 6, 1905, the board of education passed a resolution declaring its determination to effect the establishment of separate schools for Chinese and Japanese pupils. No action followed this resolution, however, for more than a year. The great fire following the earthquake of April, 1906, destroyed many of the school buildings of the city, and among them the one attended by the majority of the Japanese pupils. The difficulty of providing

a See Chapter II, p. 5 et seq.

Senate joint resolution, No. 10, California Statutes, 1905, p. 1060,