VIII

"HEWERS OF WOOD AND DRAWERS OF

A

WATER "

COLONEL SAMUEL JOHNSON had a lumber mill at Pahoa, Hawaii. One day last year the plant was destroyed by fire. Johnson summoned before him his four hundred employés, all Japanese, and said: "We have lost everything, and have no money to pay you at least for a month or two. But I am determined to rebuild the business. How many of you boys would stay with me and help me through the months of struggle? I cannot urge you to stay under the circumstances, but I shall be thankful if you feel disposed to do me service."

Without a moment's hesitation the four hundred men answered as in a chorus, "I shall not leave you!"

The colonel quivered with emotion and almost burst into tears. He had counted upon the sympathy of at least some of the boys, but had never dreamed that all the four hundred would stand by him with such unflinching loyalty. In a letter to the editor of a Japanese newspaper in Honolulu, he described the mingled feeling of amazement, admiration, and gratefulness which he experienced at this unusual demonstration of unselfish devotion on the part of the workingmen whom he had always regarded as ignorant and mercenary and whose souls he had never tried to fathom. The incident threw a new light into the colonel's mind, and converted him

into a sympathetic and appreciative employer eager to know more of his men.

The story furnishes an apt illustration of the peculiarity of Japanese character. Essentially an emotional race, the Japanese appreciates kindness as keenly as he resents unkindly acts. Take him into your confidence, open your heart to him, and he is ready to "follow you through fire and flood," as a Japanese proverb says. On the other hand, if you deal suspiciously with him or try to manage him with a show of authority, he puts himself on his guard, and becomes intractable.

Perhaps I am not exactly right in stating that this responsiveness is the characteristic of the Japanese. Human nature is the same the world over. The world over kindness and sincerity beget friendship, while insincerity and unkindly acts reap antipathy. Yet the individualism of the West brought into prominent relief the idea of right and duty, while the communalism of the Orient developed benevolent paternalism on the one hand, and loving submission on the other. In this age of steam and electricity the barrier between the East and the West is crumbling down. Moreover, when the Japanese labourer comes to this country of freedom, he seems to feel a certain reaction from the age-long restraint to which he subjected himself in his native country, and is liable to hold the sense of duty secondary to that of right. Yet now and then the soul of the passing Orient asserts itself in the characteristic manner, as in the above story.

The type of immigrants is usually judged from that of the labouring class, which constitute by far the largest portion of immigrants. It is commonly admitted that the Japanese, as a people, are alert and keen-minded. This general characterization is no less true as applied

to the labouring class. Once a Japanese labourer perceives that he is unjustly dealt with or beguiled into accepting unreasonable terms, he will see to it that his employer regrets the unwise course he has taken. In the early days of Japanese immigration to America, some employers or landowners, unaware of this characteristic, took advantage of ignorance of English on the part of Japanese labourers, and imposed upon them contracts which the employers knew could not be carried out without entailing a loss to the Japanese. When the Japanese, finding it impossible to fulfil the contract, were compelled to abandon it, they were charged with lack of business honour. To be sure, the Japanese were much to blame, but were not the men who knowingly imposed such unreasonable contracts even more dishonourable? Many of the disputes between the Japanese and Americans in the earlier days were caused in this way. Especially is this true in the case of farming contracts on the Pacific Coast. The unhappy experience made both the Americans and the Japanese wiser, and of late years troubles of this nature are of rare occurrence. To-day the Japanese, knowing that all Americans are not true Christians as he had thought, has the contract examined by experienced interpreters before signing his name to the document, while the American, having awakened to the folly of unfair dealings, tries to be fair and honourable.

The most important class of Japanese labourers in this country is farm labourers. In California alone Japanese agricultural labourers number almost 30,000, while those in other Western States total about 9,000. Next in importance are railroad labourers, of whom there are some 10,000 on the Pacific Coast and in the adjacent States. Of lumber-mill labourers there are about 2,200, while

salmon cannery labourers number some 3,600. In the mines of Wyoming, Utah, Southern Colorado, and New Mexico there are some 2,000 Japanese, while one or two hundred are employed in the smelters. Add to this a contingent of domestic workers, whose number on the Pacific Coast is estimated at 14,000, and we have a fair classification of Japanese labourers by occupation.

First, as to farm labour. In 1909 the State of California instituted a special investigation into the status of Japanese agricultural labourers. Upon the completion of the investigation the Commission came to this conclusion: "It is not mere opinion, based upon consensus of observations, no theory predicted on an analysis of conditions and requirements, but the positive expression of a majority of the growers of fruits and such products as are affected by the demand that Japanese labour must continue to be drawn from sources beyond the United States. The competency of both Chinese and Japanese to meet all the requirements by these industries of the orchard, the vineyard, and the field is unquestioned and unquestionable." The Commission also stated that, “comparing the individual Japanese labourer and the individual white labourer of the typical class that is now available in the field and from which is recruited all the white help now obtainable, the investigation discloses a higher standard of the Japanese individual."

The investigation dissipated the studiously circulated idea that Japanese labourers underbid white labourers. In order to confirm the views of the California Commission, I avail myself of the result of the exhaustive investigation made by the Immigration Commission of which Senator Dillingham was chairman. We learn that "the average wages for both Japanese and Chinese regu

135 larly employed and receiving board, respectively, are higher than those for miscellaneous white men and Italians.". Where labourers were employed without board, miscellaneous white men were paid higher than were the Japanese. Further details of the comparison are shown in the following table:

In the consideration of alleged Japanese competition with white labour, it is essential to remember that the Japanese are employed mostly in the kind of labour disliked and shunned by white workingmen. This fact is clearly brought out in the Fourteenth Biennial Report of the Bureau of Labour Statistics of California. More than ninety per cent. of labour required in berry and vegetable picking and celery culture is supplied by Japanese. More than eighty per cent. of labourers employed in the beet industry as toppers, loaders, hoers, and thinners are also Japanese. Japanese employed in grape picking and the pruning of fruit trees constitute more than seventy per cent. of the total men employed in this field, while some fifty-five per cent. of fruit pickers are also Japanese.

The reason for the phenomenal advance which the Japanese have made in these fields is obvious. Work in