race and care for those who may be in need of assistance. Eight of the 101 men from whom data were collected were members of a university or students' club-a fact indicative of the large percentage of educated men found among the Japanese of the business class. One man was a member of an association for industrial conciliation. Finally, three were members of the Sacramento Grocers' Union-a general organization of the large grocers of the citywhile an equal number were members of the chamber of commerce. Aside from the last three instances and the students' organizations, in so far as was ascertained, the Japanese are not members of organizations having white persons as members. They are not admitted to membership in American fraternal organizations.

CHAPTER V.

JAPANESE IN CITY EMPLOYMENTS AND BUSINESS IN WASHINGTON, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO SEATTLE.

[For General Tables, see pp. 382 to 395.]

JAPANESE IN CITIES OTHER THAN SEATTLE.

To supply the needs of their countrymen, Japanese tradesmen, using the term in a broad sense, are found in all of the cities and towns in or near which Japanese find employment. In many of these places some Japanese conduct business for "white trade" as well, while others engage in domestic and personal service. First in point of development and importance are those in Seattle. Because of that fact an intensive study of the work and business of the Japanese was made in that city. Before presenting the results of the study, however, something should be said of these matters in cities of less importance.

Tacoma was formerly the headquarters for many railroad laborers and sawmill hands. The Japanese consulate was also located there from 1895 to 1899, when it was removed to Seattle. These facts caused Tacoma to be an important place from which Japanese goods were supplied to Japanese laborers who used imported goods almost exclusively. In that city many of the Japanese laborers were provided with shelter, food, and amusements while not at work on the railroads or elsewhere. Finally, the offices of a few professional men supplying the needs of Japanese were located there. It was not until recent years, however, that any special attention was given to the American trade. Nor has Japanese business of this kind, save that of the restaurants serving American meals, laundries, tailor shops, and barber shops, assumed much importance. The number of establishments conducted by Japanese in 1905 and 1909 are shown in the table below (Table 6). It has been impossible to get accurate figures for any earlier year.

TABLE 6.—Number of establishments in Tacoma, Wash., conducted by Japanese in 1905-1909.

The 6 laundries do a general business for both the Japanese and white races and employ about 75 men. The 3 tailor shops, cleaning and repairing suits for the most part, employ 15. The 5 restaurants serving American meals employ 40 persons and are well patronized. The 9 barber shops have 20 chairs all told. The 5 curio stores have 20 employees. The other establishments are small and give employment to about 30 people.

The employment office supplies domestic servants chiefly, while one of the industrial companies has the contract for supplying laborers to the Milwaukee, St. Paul and Puget Sound Railway. Another is interested principally in arranging for the leasing of agricultural land to Japanese.

Some 150 Japanese are working in families and hotels as cooks and domestic servants. They constitute a very small percentage of the persons so employed.

There are two Japanese missions and the usual Japanese association. The purpose of the latter is to protect and promote the interests of the Japanese race. The association has about 80 members, most of whom are business men and farmers. Two Japanese physicians are practicing among their countrymen.

Spokane is the center of the labor market for most of that part of the State lying east of the Cascades. As would be expected under the circumstances, many employment agents, boarding houses, restaurants, and barber shops have been established to meet the needs of a large floating population of common laborers. The Italian shops seem to be in the majority, but there are many conducted by Greeks, Austrians, and Japanese. Those conducted by Japanese are as follows:

Restaurants serving American meals__
Restaurants serving Japanese meals__

Grocery stores, selling American goods chiefly..

Barber shops, patronized largely by white persons_.

Hand laundries, patronized largely by white persons_

Steam laundry, employing 12 men_.

Tailors, doing cleaning and pressing_.

Dry goods merchants, doing general business__

Bazaars and curio shops, selling Japanese goods to white persons almost exclusively-‒‒‒

Pool rooms, patronized by Japanese chiefly.

Hotels and lodging houses for Japanese_

11

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227

With the exception of the curio and dry-goods shops, these establishments are located in a district of some 12 blocks given over to immigrant laborers of various races.

The small grocery stores, cheap restaurants, small barber shops, and little tailor shops compare favorably with those conducted by the immigrant white men, with whose shops they are interspersed. Their business is with the same class of people, most of them immigrant laborers. The prices charged are the same as those charged by their competitors in that section of the city.

A number of Japanese in Spokane are employed in domestic service and as porters and other help about the hotels, restaurants, saloons, and clubs. They have recently entered these lines of employment and are now only a small percentage of the total number of persons so engaged.

In Bellingham there are, besides 3 hotels for Japanese, a restaurant, 3 tailor shops, 3 laundries, 2 barber shops, and 2 stores which compete for "American trade." It is stated that the competition of the Japanese in and near "Old Town" (the poorer quarter) is strongly felt by white restaurant keepers, barbers, and cleaning and dyeing establishments. This is particularly true of the cleaning and dyeing trades, in which, by cutting prices, the Japanese have secured most of the trade. Many Japanese are employed as domestics and as porters and bell boys in hotels.

Of the smaller cities in the interior of the State, Wenatchee and North Yakima are the only ones in which any considerable number of Japanese are engaged in business or domestic and personal service. În the latter city there are, in addition to a hotel, a restaurant and a billiard parlor for Japanese patrons, a laundry and 3 restaurants for white people, but the competition of the restaurants alone has been seriously felt. About 30 Japanese are engaged in personal and domestic service. The situation is much the same at Wenatchee, where there are 2 Japanese restaurants serving American meals and 1 Japanese laundry.

THE JAPANESE IN SEATTLE- -HISTORICAL.

In 1884 there were 4 or 5 Japanese in Seattle, all employed in restaurants or hotels. During the following year one opened a restaurant for American patronage. In 1886 another opened a lodging house, which was patronized mainly by white laborers. A year later 25 Japanese came from California, one of them opening a second restaurant. In 1888 more came from San Francisco, and the number of restaurants, all patronized by white laborers, increased to 4. A bathhouse, a laundry, and a small general store for the sale of Japanese wares were opened during the same year. At that time the Japanese population aggregated about 100.

By 1894 the number of Japanese had increased to about 400 and the number of places of business to 10. There were 6 restaurants serving American meals; 2 general stores selling Japanese goods to Japanese chiefly; 1 bamboo-furniture store; and 1 barber shop, bath, and laundry, the 3 combined under one management.

Shortly after this the Japanese population of the State increased rapidly as a result of the establishment of direct steamship connection between the Orient and Seattle, the discovery of gold in Alaska, and the employment of Japanese by the railroad companies. The increase in the number of Japanese in Seattle was equally rapid. The number reported by the census of 1900 was 2,990. During the same time the number of business places conducted by that race increased to about 50. Many of them-especially the employment offices, the lodging houses, some of the restaurants, and barber shops-were established to answer the needs of the large Japanese colony in the city. The number of places devoted to each kind of business conducted is shown in the accompanying table (Table 7), which indicates the various kinds of business engaged in by Japanese in 1888, 1894, 1900, 1905, and in the spring of 1909.