The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1891-10-03
THE JAPs OUT WEST.
San Francisco Alarmed at Their
Increasing Numbers.
"a Question which Is DIsturbing the
Minds OF the Immigration Au-
thorities = Tho Chinese
Preferred

y There are over five thousand Japanese
in San Francisco ut the present time,
and probably there are five thousand
moro scattered through the state. In
live years, says the San Francisco Re-
port, ut the rate at which the Japanese
iare arriving, there will be about TWEEN
,ty thousand Japanese in California.
The Japanese question is going to
lbe tho great problem of the future"
said Lyman l. Mowry the other day.
1T will be far harder problem to
solve than the Chinese question. To
regulate the latter there are special
laws, but in the case of the former tho
immigration is unrestricted. Some
people say that the Japanese is the
more desirable of the two classes of
people; that the Japanese assimilates
and adopts our habits and customs.
While that may be the case, the Chinese
has the moro intelligence and makes
a far superior servant. If we must
have cheap labor, to the exclusion Of
Americans, the Chinese laborer is more
desirable than the Japanese.
Tho Chinese are going home nll the
time and very few are returning. There
are, therefore, none for hire in the
vineyards and orchards of the state.
The big vincyardists and orchardists
must have cheap labor, and the Japanese
arc coming in to fill the bill. It is these
four thousand and five thousand acre
fruit farms that bring the cheap labor
to the exclusion of the American. If
these large ranches were cut up into
small holdings and farmcd by American
citizens, then the labor question would
be solved, because each settler would
be able to farm his own plot. 1t is
these holders of large tracts of land
that have ovcrrun the country with
cheap labor.
ut Is not, however, in the matter of
farm work alone that the Japanese
will enter into competition with the
American. They are expert carpenters,
,bootmal1ers, tailors and cabinet makers
In Japan they earn about fifty cents n
day, and as they will eat almost any
thing it does not cost much for them to
live, consequently they will be glad to
work in San Francisco for slight adj
vance on what they receive in Yolso-
hama. japan has hordes of poor peo-
pie whose sole ambition is to raise
enough money to reach America.
4 "When was in Japan the so-called
cholera was raging. 1t was not cholera;
1T was starvation. The poor people
were living on raw fish and rotten cab
bagc. Several of them I saw cut open,
and there was not IN ounce of matter
in their stomnchs. In proof that it was
starvation, not n white or rich man died
of the disease. In proof that Chinese
are superior to the Japanese, will tell
hot
the go downs and warehouses tho
Japanese are employed, but the over
seer is always Chinese. Nine times
out of ten q Chinese is the cashier in
the stores. tell you this only to show
you that, while the Chinese question
was bad enough, the Japanese one will
he far worse.
"There are over five thousand Japa-
nese in San francisco, and judging from
the manner in which they are floclxing
to Hawaii, there will be at least twenty
Thousand here in five years. There arc
seventeen thousand Chinese in Hawaii,
and it took twenty years for them to
grow to that number. In five years
eighteen thousand Japanese have landed
in Honolulu. Once they get well started
toward San Francisco they will come in
droves."
81 consider the Japanese question
serious problem" said Collector Phelps.
THE japanese are coming in ever-in-
creasing numbers, and just how to stop
them do not know. In the course of
another twelve months 1 think the
question will have grown to as grave
proportions as was ever the Chinese,
We are doing the best we can, but even
that does not amount to much. The
1yhole matter is giving me good deal
of worry. thought had the Chinese
well under control, and that was go
ling to have rest, but here crops up the
Japenese question, and suppose it will
take me q year to straighten it out"