The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1891-07-23
THE JAPs OUT WEST.
San Francisco Alarmed at Their
Increasing Numbers.
A Question Which IL Disturbing tho
Minds of the Immigration Au-
thorities - The Chinese
Preferred.

Proforr00s
There are over five thousand Japanese
in San Francisco at the present time,
and probably there are five thousand
more scattered through the state. In
five years, says the San Francisco Re-
port, at the rate at which the Japanese
are arriving, there will be about twen-
ty thousand Japanese in California.
"The Japanese question is going to
be the great problem of the future"
said Lyman /. Mowry the other day.
''It will be a far harder problem to
solve than the Chinese question. To
regulate the latter there are special
laws; but in the case of the former the
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 more intelligence and makes
far superior servant. If we must
have cheap labor, to the exclusion OF
Americans, the Chinese laborer is more
desirable than the Japanese.
'sThe Chinese are going home all the
time and very few are returning. There
are, therefore, none for hire in the
vineyards and orchards of the state.
The big vineyardists and orchardists
must have cheap labor, and the Japanese
are coming in to fill the bill. 1t is these
four thousand and five thousand acre
fruit farms that bring the cheap labor
to the exclusion of the American. II
these large ranches were cut up into
small holdings and farmed 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 overrun the country with
cheap labor.
''It is not, however, in the matter of
farm work alone that the Japanese
will enter into competition with the
American. They are expert carpenters,
bootmakers, tailors and cabinet makers.
In Japan they earn about fifty cents a
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 ad-
vance on what they receive in Yoko-
hama. Japan has hordes of poor peo-
pie whose sole ambition Is to raise
enough money to reach America.
"When was in Japan the so-called
cholera was raging. II was not cholera;
it was starvation. The poor people
were living on raw fish and rotten cab
bage. Several of them I saw cut open,
and there was not an ounce Of matter
in their stomachs. In proof that 1t was
starvation, not white or rich man died
of the disease. In proof that Chinese
are superior to the Japanese, I will tell
you what saw in Yokohama In all
the go downs and warehouses the
Japanese are employed, but the over
seer is always a Chinese. Nine times
out Of ten 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
be far worse. ..
"There are over five thousand Japa-
nese in San Francisco, and judging from
the manner in which they are hocking
to Hawaii, there will be at least twenty
thousand here in five years. There are
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 a
serious problem" said Collector Phelps.
''The japanese are coming in ever-in.
creasing numbers, and just how to stoI
them I do not know. In the course Of
another twelve months I think the
question will have grown to as grave
proportions as was ever the Chinese
We are doing the best we can, but ever
that does not amount to much. The
whole matter is giving me good deal
of worry. I thought had the Chinese
well under control, and that was go
ing to have rest, but here crops up the
Japenese question, and suppose it viii
take me year to straighten it out"