Arizona republican., 1905-01-28
PHoENIx. AEIz., JANUARY 2S, 1905.
Iapanese Emigration.

A recent eOlLOTldI aItI-it i'i 1ilO Springfield Republican on "The Jap on the Pacific Coast" gives some in teresting facts bearing on problem which may become a serious one after the close of the war between Japan and Russia.
 It seems that there are now about 50. 900 Japanese labOTcrs on the Pa cffc side of the continent. In 1898 and 1899 the annual immigration here amounted to less than 5000. In l9OO the number rose to 12.635. In 1901 it fell to about 5000. Then in 1902 1t rose again to 14.72O, and in 1903 the Japanese immigration amounted to 2o,- coo. The breaking out of the war put an end to emigration from Japan, but ii is natural to expect that it will be resumed with the coming of peace.
 There is. of course, an economic ba- sis for the Japanese drift across the Pacific. The Japanese are good work men. and they are not clannish, like the Chinese. The Republican shows, as others have noticed, that, wheras the Chinese, when in considerable numbers, always form Chinatown" there are no Jap towns" even in com munities containing many of that race. In Japan carpenters, pIasterers, paper hangers. joiners, printers, ship carpen- ters and cOnfectioners work for less than 30 cents a day in our money, and common Iaborers work for 19 cents day. The difference between such wages and what an American white mechanic or common labOrer would regard as a starvation rate is great enough to tempt the Japanese to cross the Pacific and compete with Ameri- can labor.
 This is the consideration which has led to the expectation of trouble on the Pacific coast when the soldiers of the mikado are released from military ser vice and once more thrown on their own resources.
 The Chinese exclusion law had its origin from a similar cause. Dennis Kearney in his Sand Lot meetings at San Francisco voiced the bitter hostn- ity of the labor element of the coast 10 any further toleration of Chinese immigration. He denounced the Chi nese as almond eyed Iepers" and used every weapon known to demagogues in exciting popular hatred against them. But he would not have been success full if a higher and better public had not become alarmed at the enormous hOrdes, fed by the hundreds of mil lions of China, which began to pour in on our western coast.
 But it is not to be assumed that the prospective Japanese invasion will pre- sent the same conditions as those the Pacific coast had to face in dealing with the Chinese. At one point only are the Chinese superior as citizens to the Japs; that is in their commercial honesty. A Chinamar will pay his bills. while the Japanese laboring class are q little uncertain on that point. As a people the Japanese are rapidly improving in commercial responsibility and honor; but some of the old dispo- sition to cheat and shirk indebtedness which distinguished them before the better classes went into trade remains
 Tn all other respects the Japanese are equal to the Chinese and in many ways their superiors. It is to be con- sidered. for one thing, that there will he no serious ground for apprehension of an overwhelming flood of Japanese labor. China has a population of three or four hundred millions. Japan has a population of only about 45,OOO.OOO and the effective male portion of tha total will have been considerably re. duced by the time the present wal closes.
 Another fact to be considered is tha Japanese labor will Ee less concentrat ed generally than Chinese labor. Tn, Japs are more individualized and ia more assimilative. They take to Amer fcan customs readily and enter into tn life of the nation. They do not sav every penny as the Chinese do, bu dress and live as much like American a possible
 In any legislation which hostn anti-Japanese sentiment might deman our government will have to take int account the difference between Japa, and China. The former is now a wOrl power and would not submit to an such exclusion law as that now | force against the Chinese without de termined protest if not war. The mix ado's government fully understands tn situation over here, and is anxious { avoid friction of any kind, It has keI