Waterbury Democrat., 1900-11-02
LAPS NOT WANTED.
Their Increasing Number in the
 Western Hemisphere.
E+awaii, British Columbia and the United States Are Chosen Fields of CperatiGn-Labor. Op-
 posed to Them.

tion, it is already attracting its share of attention, and the islanders seem destined to inherit part of the an tipathy stirred up by their neighbors from the continent. The voice of la bor has been raised against them. and the president has been sending com missioners to the Pacific coast to in vestigate the effect Of their presence on wages.
 The population of Japan has in- creased 25 per cent. in the last 22 years, or while England's population was increasing seven. The govern men is anxious to coloniZe its people abroad, but has never favored doing it by the coolie labor system. The first considerable eastward movement of Japanese, however, was somewhat Of that character, writes Frank M. Todd, in Ainslee's.
 After the ratification of the reel procity treaty between Hawaii and the United States in 1875, the sugar industry in "the islands, began to boom, and there was a sharp demand for labor which the government was glad to help by assisting contract i'm migration. Some Polynesians and a great many Portuguese were import ed, but the cost Of getting Portuguese was very great, sometimes running as high as $4OO each. Whereas, it was discovered that laborers could be brought from Japan at total cost of $57. $G0 of which they returned
 The. immigration of the Japanese began in 1886, when treaty was so- licited from the Japanese government recognizing the rights of such i'm portation. In that year 1,152 men and women were taken over. In 1890 there were 12,3e0 Japanese in Hawaii; in 1896 there were 22 ,329, and in May of 1899 a conservative estimate placed the number at 3O,0OO. Exactly how many are there now it is impossible to say Annexation hastened their coming, in anticipation of the eNten- sion of the immigration laws to the new territory, and in his report for last year the commissioner general of immigration said he had received un- official information of the arrival of 25 900 contract Japanese since July 2, 1898. This would swell the total to too large a figure. Thirty thousand q year ago is probably nearer the truth
 Most of the contracts provided that the passage money should be ad- vanced by the employer and repaid at the rate of one or two dollar a month; that the pay of a laborer should be from SIP to $15 a month with extra pay for overtime, and free house, 1irewoOd. medicine and medical attendance in case of sick ness, and that month should con- sist of 26 ten-hour days; that if the man brought his wife she should be employed at from $7.5O to $1O a month, and that the laborer should agree to work faithfully during the term of his service.
 In American eyes the most ob- noxious feature of this system was the law whereby an employe "desert- ing labor" as the violation of this contract was called, could be tried and punished as a criminal, a feature that has only recently been abolished under American rule.
 Of late. Japanese labor in the is lands is assuming a phase unsatisfac- tory to tie employers. Compared with the placid Chinaman. the Jap is good deal of an agitator. He is apt to preach discomfort, form unions and resort to strikes. This makes him dangerous in the sugar industry, as cane must be cut and crushed prompt ly when ready or the crop is a loss. and the planters have begun to turn to toward the Portuguese again. On the first of July last two of them left Honolulu fer New Orleans to en- list negroes.
 In 1894 or 1895 several hundred Jap nnese laborers were imported into the Fiji islands. The experiment. was not a success, as they could not stand the climate.
 The acquisition by Japan of For mosa and the Pescadores afforded something of an outlet for pcpula- tion. Some seven or eight years ago Niscount Yenomoto established Japanese colony in the state of Chiapas, Mexico. The Jap does well in Mexico. The government is glad to have him come. and the two peo- pies, Mexican and Japanese, seem to have Q pronounced temPeramental affinity.
 The Japanese have also gone ir large numbers to British Columbia, where they have been employed in coal mining, arousing strenuous op- position on the part of the white operatives, accompanied by demands On the Dominion government for re- strictive laws. It is said that 10000 have entered British Columbia since the beginning of the year, and those prevented by the American immigra- tion act from entering the United States are underhidding the Chinese in Canada as farm laborers. With the opening of the salmon season it is Said that 4,000 swarmcd to the Fraser river, where they began to catch salmon for the canneries at prices the T,,.te fishermen, had agreed not to asatst. r. t
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