PART II.-THE JAPANESE IN CITY EMPLOYMENTS AND BUSINESS IN THE PRINCIPAL CITIES OF THE PACIFIC COAST AND ROCKY MOUNTAIN STATES.

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PART II-THE JAPANESE IN CITY EMPLOYMENTS AND BUSINESS IN THE PRINCIPAL CITIES OF THE PACIFIC COAST AND ROCKY MOUNTAIN STATES.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.

The agents of the Commission made an investigation of the occupations, business, and social life of the Japanese in several cities in the Pacific Coast and Rocky Mountain States. The investigation in San Francisco was made between November, 1908, and May, 1909; in the other localities between March, 1909, and the 1st of July of the same year. In Seattle, San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Fresno, and Watsonville, the general investigation was supplemented by the taking of schedules. Family schedules were taken for wage-earners and business men and their families. Business schedules also were taken for Japanese and some of the competing establishments conducted by white men, and individual schedules were obtained from their employees wherever possible, as in the industrial investigations. From the family schedules data were obtained for 887 foreign-born male Japanese, 232 foreign-born female Japanese, and 66 males and 80 females native-born of Japanese foreign-born father, residing in the 6 cities mentioned above. Business schedules were obtained for 92 Japanese establishments in Los Angeles, 91 in San Francisco, 86 in Seattle, 55 in Sacramento, 21 in Fresno, and 19 in Watsonville, while in the first 4 of the cities mentioned a smaller number of schedules were taken for white business establishments in trades where Japanese competition was asserted to work injury to white competitors.

This business schedule among other things contained inquiries concerning the kind of business conducted in the given establishment, the date at which it was started, the approximate amount of capital employed in it, the amount of the capital borrowed (including the cost of goods in stock but unpaid for), the approximate value of annual transactions, the annual rental value of the property occupied, the occupations, races, sex, and wages of employees, and the number of hours worked per day and per week, the percentage of patronage by white and by oriental races, and, if in mercantile trade, the proportions of oriental and other goods dealt in. In the case of the Japanese this schedule was employed as a supplement to the family schedule taken, which contained inquiries relating to family income, property, and other matters, affording possibilities of checking some of the entries in the business schedule.

The data obtained in this way are presented in a number of special reports, while the more significant facts are incorporated in Chapter V of the "General report on Japanese immigrants in the United

States." The special reports are as follows: "Japanese in city employments and business in the State of Washington, with special reference to Seattle; ""Japanese in city employments and business in San Francisco, Cal.; " "Japanese in city employments and business in Los Angeles, Cal.; ""Japanese in city employments and business in Sacramento, Cal.; ""Japanese in city employments and business in Portland, Oreg.; ""Japanese in city employments and business in Salt Lake City and Ogden, Utah;" "Japanese in city employments and business in Denver, Colo.; " and "Japanese in business in Idaho." In addition to these, sections of the reports on "Immigrants of Fresno County, Cal.," "The Japanese of the Pajaro Valley," and "Immigrant labor in the deciduous fruit industry of the Vaca Valley," deal with the members of the Japanese race in business in Fresno, Watsonville, and Vacaville, respectively.

In the reports on San Francisco, Los Angeles, Sacramento, and Seattle, which follow in the order named, the statistical tables based upon the schedules collected are not inserted in the text, but reference is made by number to these tables, which are published at the end of the special report to which they relate. The statistical data must not be regarded as having any degree of finality, but as illustrative and indicative. Some of the returns made are taken from books kept, while most are estimates, and therefore in some instances no doubt vary considerably from the true amounts in spite of an almost universal effort made by the persons questioned to furnish the agents with accurate data. Where a return has appeared questionable it has been eliminated. As a whole it is believed that the data are above the average in point of accuracy in matters in which much-such as the profits of a small business, the percentage of patronage by a given race, and the cost of food and drink consumedmust necessarily be more or less uncertain and difficult to reckon. Moreover, the numbers involved are comparatively small and the tables can not be accorded the same weight as tables based upon larger numbers collected with equal care. Finally, in some branches of business more than a fair proportion of the larger establishments were included in the investigation, the effect being to increase the average amount of capital invested, the amount of business done, the rent paid, and the profit realized by the business men of each city represented in the investigation in connection with which statistical tables are used.

CHAPTER II,

JAPANESE IN CITY EMPLOYMENTS AND BUSINESS IN SAN FRANCISCO.

[For General Tables, see pp. 353–361.]

INTRODUCTION.

The majority of the Japanese immigrating to the continental United States have arrived at the port of San Francisco, from which city more Japanese laborers have been sent out by contractors to work in various employments than from any other place. Because of its position in this respect, San Francisco has always had the largest Japanese population, the largest amount of business conducted by the members of that race, and the largest number of them employed as wage-earners of all the cities of the West.

According to the census, the number of Japanese in San Francisco was 45 in 1880, 590 in 1890, and 1,781 in 1900. With the great influx of immigrants during subsequent years, the number reported for 1900 has increased several fold. In 1904 it is estimated to have been 10,132, in 1907, 11,380. More recently, with the further immigration of laborers discontinued, a tendency on the part of those in the ports of arrival to migrate to other places, the strong agitation against them in San Francisco, and a gradually diminishing number in the United States, the number of Japanese in San Francisco has decreased. In November, 1909, the population was estimated at 8,746, of whom 6,938 were adult males, 1,187 adult females, and 621 children under 16 years of age. The number varies greatly during the year because of the exodus of some 1,500 in the spring and summer for agricultural and cannery work. A partial census conducted by the Japanese Association in the spring of 1910 was used as a basis for an estimate of 8,000 or somewhat less.

JAPANESE EMPLOYED BY WHITE PERSONS.

The Japanese, as well as the Chinese, have long been conspicuously employed as domestic servants in San Francisco. In 1898 it is probable that 700 or 800 were so employed. In 1904 it is estimated that the number had increased to more than 3,600, but recently the number has diminished with the smaller number of Japanese in San Francisco, because of a desire on their part to obtain other work and the higher wages which housekeepers have found it necessary to pay them. In 1909 it was estimated that about 2,000 were employed as domestics. A large percentage of these are "schoolboys," who work short hours, and in return receive board and lodging and from $8 to $16 per month, the money wage depending upon the number of hours of work over that regarded as an equivalent for board and lodging.

• Estimates contained in the Japanese-American Yearbooks for 1905 and 1908. 48296°-VOL 23-11-13 183