The union has established minimum and, in some cases, actual prices to be charged for repair work. The prices fixed in the by-laws of the organization and published in its report for 1906 and the prices actually charged at the time of the investigation by the Japanese cobblers in San Francisco are shown in the following tabular

statement:

Violation of the rules of the organization and failure to abide by its regulations are to be penalized by the payment of a sum of not less than $10 nor more than $50.

As already stated, there were 72 Japanese shops in San Francisco in March, 1909. Seventeen of these were investigated. The amount of capital employed varied from $100 as a minimum to $400 as a maximum. Only 4 of the 17 had an employee, and in each of these cases the 1 employee was an apprentice.

These men worked from 66 to 72 hours per week for their respective masters for which they received board and lodging and "pocket money," amounting to from $8 to $15 per month.

Some of the shops are located on Bush, California, Geary, and Sutter streets, where many Japanese live, while others are located in various other parts of the city, where most or all of the residents are white persons. The shops located on the streets first mentioned were found to have Japanese and white patrons in approximately equal numbers, while those located elsewhere drew from 85 to 95 per cent of their patrons from the members of the various white races.

The gross receipts from the business done, as reported, varied from $1,200 to $1,500 per year. The net earnings of the 17 master journeymen varied from $40 to $80, and averaged $61.76 per month. In detail their net earnings per month, as reported, were as follows:

The Japanese cobblers compete with a much larger number of white shoemakers. The majority of these are of foreign birthGerman, French, Hebrew, and Italian craftsmen being conspicuous

a There are several hundred, perhaps 1,000, cobbler shops in San Francisco. The partial list presented in the San Francisco Directory for 1908 embraces 257. 48296°- -VOL 23-11-14

among them. Seventeen of these cobblers, including 5 Hebrews, 2 Germans, 3 French, 3 Italians, 1 American, 1 Swede, and 1 Spaniard, were included in the investigation made by the Commission. The earnings for the preceding year varied between $400 as a minimum and $1,200 as a maximum. One earned $400, four $600, one $624, one $700, one $780, three $800, two $900, one $1,000, one $1,080, and two $1,200. These present somewhat greater variations than the earnings of the Japanese but average somewhat more.

Almost without exception the cobblers investigated complained of loss of business and smaller earnings than they had formerly made, in some cases less than one-half. The business of several had been injured by the fire of 1906, which had caused their patrons who had lived near by to settle elsewhere, of others by the industrial depression at the time the investigation was made, of others by the incoming of too many cobblers to share the trade of a given district of the city. In some blocks Japanese cobblers had opened shops and reduced the amount of work to be done by those who had previously located there. Moreover, the Japanese prices were usually lower than those charged by other cobblers, and the loss of patronage by a few was ascribed to this underbidding which the agent found to exist. The agent of the Commission found that the lower prices charged by the Japanese cobblers than by most of their competitors, together with the large number of Japanese shops recently opened in some blocks, had caused the business and earnings of competing white cobblers to perceptibly diminish.

RESTAURANTS SERVING AMERICAN MEALS.

The number of Japanese restaurants serving American meals was small previous to 1906. As late as 1904 there were only eight. Following the fire of 1906, however, numerous restaurants were opened by Japanese in the district of the city devastated by the fire, bringing the total number to more than 30. These were all " cheap" eating houses charging from "15 cents up" for meals. For a while they prospered, because of the large number of laborers who came to engage in removing débris and rebuilding the city. They were soon strongly opposed by organized labor, however, and during the labor troubles which developed at this time became an object of attack by rioters and several of the proprietors suffered serious loss because of destruction of property or loss of their patrons, or both." Since

"At this time there was a strong agitation against the Japanese. This was directed largely by the Japanese and Korean Exclusion League and the various labor unions, many of which had laws forbidding their members to patronize Japanese or Chinese places of business. At a meeting of the Exclusion League, held June 25, 1906, complaints were made that many white wage-earners, including some union men, were patronizing Japanese restaurants, and the league requested the labor organizations to enforce the penalties imposed by their rules for violations of the prohibition mentioned. Among the unions at the meetings of which the members were urged or directed to refrain from patronizing the Japanese restaurants was that of the cooks and waiters. A boycott was kept in force by this organization from October 3 to 24, 1906, and the destruction of property of the proprietors of restaurants by rioters followed peaceable appeals to patrons by the representatives of the organization. The appeal took the form of a label bearing the words "White men and women, patronize your own race." For details see Senate Document No. 147, Fiftyninth Congress, second session.

then the Japanese restaurants serving American meals, being opposed by organized labor, have not prospered as they did earlier, and the number of establishments had decreased to 17 by the end of the year 1908. These are located in the poorer residence districts of the city, among the smaller shops and restaurants conducted by white persons of various races. Five of the 10 were investigated by an agent of the Commission.

Two of the five restaurants investigated were conducted by two partners and one by three, while the other two were conducted as individual enterprises. The size of these establishments is indicated by the fact that two were conducted by the proprietors with one employee in each case, another with two employees, a fourth with three, and only one with as many as eight. The annual gross receipts varied between $4,000 as a minimum and $20,000 as a maximum, the monthly rent between $25 and $200. The annual profits realized varied between $600 and $2,600.

The patrons of two of the restaurants are largely Japanese; of the others principally, if not exclusively, white people of various races. The competition of these small restaurants affected many cheap restaurants near which the Japanese establishments were opened.

There were 20 persons, all of whom were Japanese, employed in the 5 restaurants investigated. Two cooks were paid $50, a third $35 per month; 3 "cooks' helpers," $35 per month; 8 waiters, $35; 2 waiters and 1 waitress, $30; and 1 waiter employed "part time" (ten hours per day), $15 per month; and 2 dishwashers $30 and $25 each, respectively, all with board and lodging. Of those employed full time, 12 worked twelve hours per day and eighty-four hours per week; 7, thirteen hours per day and ninety-one hours per week. The union (white) scale of wages for cooks' helpers, it will be recalled, is $12 per week ($51 per month); for dishwashers, $10 per week ($42.50 per month) with board but not lodging. The majority of the persons so engaged, however, are not members of the unions and, as a rule, work for less than the union scale, for $5 to $10 per week, which is not materially higher than the wages paid to the Japanese, who, however, work longer hours.

The Japanese employees are all provided with lodging in rooms in the rear of the restaurants. In all but one of the establishments investigated the agent of the Commission inspected the lodgings and found them to be adequate and satisfactory, save in one instance, where the room occupied was poorly furnished and inadequately lighted and ventilated. The lodging provided is worth $4 or more per month.

Because of clannishness and language difficulties, as well as on account of the strong sentiment against them on the part of other races in the community, almost all of the Japanese patronize Japanese restaurants and usually those serving Japanese meals, which have always been more numerous than those serving American meals. In 1904 they numbered 27; in 1908, 38. Some of these are conducted in connection with hotels, while others are independent establishments. Many of the Japanese in San Francisco being unemployed, and a considerable number of those in employment not receiving board in addition to wages, these restaurants are largely patronized. Some of them sell alcoholic as well as soft drinks; in fact, 21 of 33 reported in November, 1909, were said to do so.

BOARDING AND LODGING HOUSES AND LABOR AGENCIES.

Because of the character of Japanese immigration and the place occupied by San Francisco as a port of arrival and departure and as a labor market, the keeping of boarding and lodging houses with their affiliations has always been the most important branch of business enterprise engaged in by the Japanese of that city. This business began with the immigration of the laboring class and has expanded and contracted with the increase or decrease in the size of the Japanese population. At the time of the investigation there were some 35 hotels and boarding houses and possibly as many rooming houses. A large number of the former and practically all of the latter are conducted by private families who take a few boarders and lodgers or rent spare rooms. Most of the patrons of places of this kind are Japanese regularly employed in San Francisco and not provided with board and lodging.

On the other hand there are some large hotels and boarding houses the majority of the patrons of which are laborers out of work, newly arrived immigrants, and Japanese departing for their native land or elsewhere. These larger boarding houses are generally connected with other kinds of business, such as conducting barber shops, baths, pool rooms, and supplying laborers for various kinds of work. The investigation by the agents of the Commission embraced 22 of the 35 boarding houses and 3 of the larger lodging houses.

The number of rooms in the 22 boarding houses investigated varied from 8 to more than 100. Nine of the 22 had more than 20 rooms each, and 7 of these 9 were of sufficient importance to have membership in the "Japanese Hotel Keepers' Association," about which something will be said presently.

The majority of the boarding and lodging houses are located in two districts of the city in which the Japanese have tended to congregate. Many are located in the "uptown" section on Geary, Sutter, and neighboring streets, and on the intersecting streets beyond Van Ness avenue. Several large houses, however, are located in South Park place, near the wharves. Still others, but fewer in number, are located in the business district, especially near the welldefined Chinatown, in which all but a comparatively few of the Chinese have congregated.

Except in the first-mentioned district the houses occupied by the Japanese have been erected since the fire of 1906 and were constructed for the purpose for which they are used. Most of the rooms are ex

tremely small, but not more than two persons are provided with lodging in the same room. The houses in the "uptown" district, on the other hand, were built to serve as private residences. Most of them have become old and weatherbeaten and are no longer desirable as residences for private families who can afford to pay the comparatively high rents these houses command. Here the rooms are larger than in the newer houses in the other district spoken of, and in the majority of cases at least one or two rooms are equipped to accommodate from four to eight persons each. In some cases thin partitions, sometimes extending only part way to the ceiling, have been made to subdivide large rooms into smaller ones. Though the investigation was made in the winter of 1908-9, when the greatest

number of Japanese were without employment and the number of persons in the lodging houses the largest, there were very few cases of overcrowding. In this connection, however, it should be added that the number of Japanese had already begun to diminish and that the business of the boarding houses was not so large as it had been in previous years.

Very few of the boarding houses are heated and few of them are provided with bathing facilities. With regard to bathing facilities, it should be said, however, that there are 13 bath houses in San Francisco conducted by Japanese primarily for their own race, and that several of these are operated in connection with boarding houses, the boarders and lodgers being served on the same terms as other patrons. The character of the furnishings and care of the rooms in the boarding and lodging houses investigated varied greatly. The worst conditions found in any of the 25 houses investigated are described briefly as follows: The house is very old and is in a dilapidated condition. No care is taken of the rooms and hallways. The toilets and the bathroom are dirty and ill smelling. The floors are covered with matting and cheap dirty carpet. Of the 10 rooms for lodgers, 4 have been partitioned by thin boards, the partitions extending only halfway to the ceiling. A few establishments were found to be of the same general type as the following: The house is very old and dirty throughout. In one room there are four double beds; the furnishings are scanty and of the cheapest kind. The floors are bare and dirty. The patrons are all transient sailors, who pay 50 cents per day for board and lodging. The majority of the boarding houses differ only in detail from the following: The house is an old frame building, but the interior is kept clean. Two large rooms have been made into four by partitions of thin boards. Each room is furnished with an iron bed, a couple of chairs, and a desk. A few are provided with bureaus also. The floors are covered with cheap carpets and fancy mattings. There are two sinks for washing. The toilets are clean. The whole house is well lighted and the ventilation is good. Most of the patrons are transients, who pay 60 cents per day. The few persons who live there regularly pay $12 per month for board and various sums for their lodgings. A few of the boarding houses are somewhat better than the last one described.

As has been indicated incidentally in the cases cited, the prices. charged for board and lodging vary. In a few instances the cost is as low as 50 cents per day for transients; in more numerous instances it is 60 cents, while in the majority of the large boarding houses it is 70 cents per day. Most of the large boarding houses have membership in the Japanese Hotel Keepers' Association, which provides in its rules, among other things, that "patrons shall not be charged less than 25 cents per night for lodging and not less than 15 cents per meal." The rates per month for regular lodgers and boarders are, of course, less.

With the exception of the "sailor boarding-house " keepers, the proprietors of the large boarding houses are organized into the Japanese Hotel Keepers Association. The organization of this association dates back ten years or more, but it was reorganized and given its present form in 1905. Its primary object has been to limit or to eliminate the strong competition which existed between the large