from $1.10 to $1.50 per day. About Hood River $2 per day is now paid for ordinary work; fruit packers receive 25 or 50 cents more. To earn these wages some 250 Japanese immigrate to Hood River for the harvest. Wages elsewhere are at other seasons proportionately high. According to data supplied by the Japanese Consul, the average income per month of agricultural laborers, taking the entire state, was $52 per month in 1913.

No Strong Opposition to Japanese in Oregon.— In Oregon there has never been any strong opposition to the Japanese. Perhaps this is closely connected with the fact that they have never numbered as many as 4,000 all told. The estimated number, December, 1913, was 3,672. Be the cause of the comparative absence of opposition what it may, the labor unions in Portland have made little effort to arouse opposition to them and the little effort made has had little effect. In the country the farmers have occasionally grumbled somewhat, but there has not been any organized or general opposition. Recently, however, the State Grange adopted a hostile resolution, but this was the result of the suggestion of a visiting delegate from the Labor Council of Portland. In general there is a spirit of toleration and in some instances there is visiting back and forth between Japanese and Americans. At Hood River was found as favorable an opinion as was met with anywhere. Occasionally, it is said, some one complains somewhat of Japanese land purchases but it is not taken seriously. The Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce,

coming from California five years ago, commended them highly and ranked them above the Greeks and Italians in point of desirability. Hood River is one of the few places found where the Japanese were not discriminated against in the barber shops, restaurants, and the like. There the Japanese patronize the "white" barber shops and lodging houses; they have none of their own. Absence of opposition is appreciated by the Japanese. More than one farmer stated that he had come there from Seattle or California because there was no friction.

CHAPTER V

THE JAPANESE AS AGRICULTURAL LABORERS IN CALIFORNIA

Japanese Problem" centers in California and in Agriculture. — The “ Japanese problem" centers in California, and presumably in the agricultural communities, for that state has always had considerably more than one half of the Japanese population of the United States, and more than one half of the number residing there, have been engaged in agricultural pursuits. In December, 1913, the Japanese-American Yearbook stated that of 42,089 men gainfully occupied, 23,607 were agricultural laborers or farmers. The true proportion was no doubt much larger than that indicated, for during the summer months many leave their work elsewhere to take employment on the farms. As a result of his investigations four years ago, the California Commissioner of Labor reported that sixtyfive per cent of those gainfully occupied were engaged in agriculture as laborers or farmers. Fifteen per cent were engaged in domestic service and related activities, an equal percentage were engaged in business or were employed by their countrymen who were thus engaged, and the remaining five per cent were employed in miscellaneous occupations. The acreage of land owned, leased, or worked on

California Labor Commissioner's Investigation. The exact position now occupied by the Japanese agricultural laborers cannot be set forth with statistical accuracy. The decreasing number of adult Japanese in the state and the advance of a considerable number to the ranks of farmers on their own account have made some readjustments and substitutions necessary since 1909-10, when the California Labor Commissioner made an extended investigation of farm labor. Nevertheless in most respects the situation has not changed greatly, and some of the data presented by that official in his Fourteenth Biennial Report give a good point of departure in discussing the Japanese problem in so far as it is connected with agricultural labor.

Japanese Labor, by Crops Grown. The investigations made by the Commissioner embraced 2,369 farms operated by white farmers (these being taken in largest numbers from those parts of the state where intensive agriculture was most extensively practiced) and 1,733 operated by Japanese farmers, as owners or tenants. On the 2,369 farms operated by white farmers, the percentage of labor furnished by the Japanese, according to the principal crops grown, was as follows: 2

1 According to the Japanese-American Yearbook for 1913.

2 These percentages were presented in the Commissioner's summary report supplied to the press. The statistical tables and a graphic presentation may be found (p. 270) in his Fourteenth Biennial Report.

Berries,

Sugar beets,

87.2 per cent | Citrus fruits,
66.3 per cent Hops,

Nursery products, 57.3 per cent Deciduous fruits,

Grapes,
Vegetables,

51.7 per cent Hay and grain,
45.7 per cent | Miscellaneous,

38.1 per cent 8.7 per cent 36.5 per cent 6.6 per cent 19.6 per cent

Employed in Intensive Farming. It is evident from these percentages that the Japanese were employed chiefly in the growing and harvesting of crops finding a place in intensive agriculture. Their importance in these was even greater than the percentages indicate, for the table does not include Japanese farms, practically all of which were devoted to this type of farming. Of the 17,784 persons employed on the 1,733 Japanese farms included in the investigation, 96 per cent were Japanese. Thus the true percentage of the Japanese laborers on farms devoted to vegetables, berries, and deciduous fruits - the important crops grown on the farms operated by that race of farmers

were somewhat larger than those given above. As the Immigration Commission, investigating farm labor at the same time, summarized the situation :

"The Japanese have been employed in practically all of the intensive branches of agriculture in California. In the beet industry they number 4,500 of between 6,000 and 7,000 hand workers employed during the thinning season. They predominate and control the hand work in the beet fields of all except three districts in the statetwo in southern California, where they are outnumbered by the Mexicans, and one northern district, where they do not care to work and Hindus were the most numerous race employed in 1909.