The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-06-04
cody AGAINST cody,
Japanese WOrkmen UnderCut-
ting the Chinese Labor
erS' Wages.
Direct and Indirect Reasons for the
Business Stagnation in
Chinatown.

Never before in the history of this City
has the Chinese quarter been 80 devoid of
life as at the present time. Dozens of
stores where once prosperous business
was carried on are now closed, and the
''To let" sign takes the place of the firms
name. Lodging houses, where once the
police were obliged to enforce the cubic
air ordinance, are now almost deserted
This state of affairs is brought about by
many causes. In the first place, recent
dull times have been felt by the Chinese.
The overhauling of the police by Chief
Crowley was the means of closing one of
the most profitable of enterprises III that
part of the City, gambling.
: Several months ago about 1000 Chinese
went to the salmon fisheries in Alaska,
which decreased the population of the
Chinese quarter.
The closing of the gamb ling-houses shut
off one attraction that held many coolies
in this City, and as a result several thous-
and started into the interior, where they
are working al the present time. Many
went to the old placer mines and are now
getting from 81 to $40 day working over
the gravel beds in the river bottoms long
ago abandoned by white miners. But
neither the fisheries nor the placer mines
ese in the streets in Chinatown. The great
majority are at work on farms in orchards
and in places where big Improvements are
made. Through the help of unpatriotic
employers the Chinese have driven the
white laborers out of the field and made
tramps of thousands.
The Chinese themselves are now being
driven out of the field of labor by the
Japanese, foe as deadly to them as they
were to the whites. The Japs are using
the same weapon on the Chinese that the
latter uses on the whites-cheap labor. 1t
is a remarkable fact that the Japs are
driving the Chinese to the wall ON this
line, and the idea has been suggested that
the fight in the Orient that recently closed
in favor of the little brown men is being
kept up on California soil.
Chinese in this City are bitterly COM
planning OF the unfairness of the Japanese
in reducing the price Of labor, and were it
not so serious matter to the whites the
latter could afford to smile at the grim
humor of the law Of retribution.
A few years ago Japanese house servants
charged the same for their services as the
Chinese, but they gradually dropped in
price, many working for their board and
the privilege of learning the English Ian
guage.
The same decrease was made in wages
in the fields until now gangs of Japanese
laborers are working in the orchards and
on farms for $l6 month. They are all
or nearly all, working under the "padrone"
system, being subject to one master, who
furnishes them with their food and cloth
ing and pays them at the end of the season.
The Chinese have not gone so low yet.
While they work in gangs sent out by con-
tractors they have held up their wages, de-
handing at least dollar a day. The
probable reason that the $4,000 Chinese
have NOT heer driyen ont Of work an fira1v
and forced to become tramps, as they
forced the white men, is because there are
not over 5000 Japs in the State. But they
see what the future has in store for them,
and as soon as the Chinese get crowded out
they go to the placer mines. 1t is believed
that there are about 5000 Chinese placer
miners scattered along the coast whose
places in other fields have been filed by
that number of Japs. As it is there are no
idle Chinese or japanese, but the reason
for this is that both have underbid the
American laborer