the Japanese-American Yearbook, for the year July 1, 1908 to June 30, 1909.1 The aggregate capital of the 2,938 establishments reported amounted to $4,816,573, their transactions, $13,020,462. The number of persons connected with these establishments was estimated at 7,038, an average of 2.4 per establishment. Thus it is evident that most of these places were conducted by a single proprietor or by him and his wife, or by two partners, with little capital, and that exaggerated importance might easily be attached to the number of shops and other places reported. The fact is that from the point of view of the business carried on in the several localities, most of them were small and inconsequential affairs.

Most of the Wants of Japanese provided for by their Countrymen. "American" Business.

The

ing summary table has been compiled for seven California cities from the Fourteenth Biennial Report of the Commissioner of Labor.

1 See Immigration Commission, Reports, Vol. 23, pp. 101-102.

64 $4,075,226 $16,114,407

third observation made by the Immigration Commission was, however, "That in the large cities where there are many Japanese there are many branches of business and professions represented, so that because of clannishness, convenience in point of location and language, and the character of the goods carried in stock, as well as because of a feeling of opposition toward the Asiatics, with the result that they are not welcomed at white establishments engaged in personal service, the majority of the wants of the Japanese are met by their countrymen engaged in business and the professions." 1 The fourth observation was "that

1 The variety and general character of the places of business are shown by the following table presented by the Immigration Commission, Reports, Vol. 23, p. 100:

while many of the Japanese establishments have been called into existence primarily to meet the needs of the members of their race, others have been started, chiefly in recent years, for 'American

trade,' and are patronized largely and almost exclusively by white persons. It reported with reference to Seattle that some of the grocers, and most of the 45 tailors and dyers, the 12 curio dealers, the 7 watch makers, the 5 shoe repairers, the 5 fish markets, the 36 restaurants serving American meals, the 46 barber shops, and the 37 laundries (the smaller hand laundries excepted) were the exception to the general rule, in that a very large percentage of their patrons were white people. Much the same was found to be true in the other cities where an intensive investigation was made.

Of most

Underbidding through Lower Prices. interest, the Commission reported "that rather frequently, in competing with white establishments, the Japanese have underbid through a lower scale of prices, ""but that because of organized opposi

tion in some instances, and of the small number of Japanese establishments as compared to those conducted by other races, the trades which have been seriously affected by Japanese competition in most cities, have been few.'

The terms on which Japanese have competed with others are of special interest, for they are significant of what would be expected to happen with a considerable immigration and with slow occupational advance in this country. The investigations made by the Immigration Commission established the fact that there was or had been some underbidding as a rule on the part of the Japanese proprietors of barber shops, laundries,

grocery stores, cleaning and dyeing establishments, and shoe-repairing shops. This underbidding was made possible because of lower wages paid employees, longer hours sometimes worked, and willingness on the part of the proprietors to accept less profit than their white competitors. There is some relation between the wages they might have earned and the amount of profit they must realize from the business conducted by them. This gave a lower standard of profit and uneven terms of competition.

Japanese Laundries. As the result of a rapid development there were, in 1909, 75 laundries in Seattle, Tacoma, Sacramento, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. The number of persons employed, including proprietors, was perhaps 950. Most of the establishments were hand laundries, but a few were operated by steam and employed upwards of 25 men. An investigation brought out the fact that the prices charged by Japanese had frequently been less than those charged by white laundrymen of various races and French hand laundrymen in San Francisco, that Japanese were employed almost exclusively in laundries conducted by their countrymen, and that while they worked more hours per day, their wages were smaller in 1909 than those paid to persons employed in white steam laundries and to those employed in French hand laundries in San Francisco. The Immigration Commission reported:

"In Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles the agents investigated the wages and hours of work