The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-06-12

I
| the Chinese and now the japanese
| The Chinese population is steadily de-
| creasfng and many of those still here
| are getting too old for satisfactory
service When they leave a home the
mistress who knows nothing but
| Orientals for servants replaces them
with japanese boys. 1t requires a re-
adjustment of domestic affairs, for
| the Chinese always ordered things TO
suit the convenience Of his mistress;
now the mistress must order things
| to suit the convenience of the SER
want Despite the loud cries of dis
satisfaction with the Japanese, they
| are still able to find employment as
servants
If the Japanese servants remained
| servants there wouldn't be half so
much opposition to them. A Chinese
| cook once is a Chinese cook always.
But a japanese cook today is a shop
keeper tomorrow and a banker next
week, with aspirations for still higher
honors. His ambition carries him
above a mental position of its own
force. Thus he is disliked while he is
a servant and hated when he branches
out into skilled trades by the cut
price route.
This is the reason why all San Fran
cisco rises up and says it would rather
have a dozen Chinese than one Japa-
nese. The Chinese send money 10
Asia to a greater extent per capita
than do the Japanese, they buy fewer
American products, and are in some
other ways less desirable than Japa-
nese. But their great virtue in COM
parision is that they will stay put.
The greater part of the United States
never thinks of a Chinese except as a
laundryman. The Chinese ''washee-
washee" is always a hand laundry
operated on principles as old as cloth
and water. The japanese have half
dozen large steam laundries in San
Francisco and are making it hard
shedding for both the steam laundries
operated by white labor and the Chi
nese hand laundries.
The japanese steam laundries charge
prices lower than the white steam
laundries can afford to offer with the
high wages which they must pay.
japanese laundry workers are not
bound by any notions of unionism and
will work for the best price they can
get, If their employer is also Japa-
nese it is probable that the whole
working force will live with the pro-
prietor on the premises. A half dozen
men will in this way live for what
one ordinary American laborer would
spend.
The house-cleaners who work out
for twenty-five cents an hour-which
is about the standard price-always
have some other trade. If a cigar
store is the headquarters of the house
cleaners there probably is shoe-re>
pairing annex, and when the student
house-cleaners have a little leisure
they will fall to and work at the cob
ler's bench. They will work long
hours for cheap wages, and they can
live on what Americans throw away
as waste.
The Japanese restaurants which
were the scenes of riots and disorders
when the anti-Japanese agitation first
began, are still in business and offer
lively competition to the cheap Greek
eating houses and the dairy lunches.
The japanese possess one virtue which
the modern sons of ancient Greece
cannot boast of, and that it cleanli-
ness. Among the cheap restaurants
this virtue gives the Japanese an ad-
vantage, despite the deep-rooted and
probably well-founded suspicion that
the japanese cleanliness is an outward
sign rather than an inward grace. a
virtue which parades in the dining
room and is buried in the kitchen
The Japanese themselves have en-
tirely changed in their attitude toward
Americans in the last few months.
The cockiness of the period following
the war with Russia is still in evidence
to some degree, but the aggressive
impudence of the young japanese
who affected college clothes and a
gentlemanly occupation is no more.
He has given way to the suave and
smiling Oriental who seeks to restore
himself to favor and confidence This
attitude is reflected in the editorial
columns of the four Japanese daily
newspapers of San Francisco In dis
cussing the welcome to the feet, the
coming of which everybody in Califor-
MIA looked on as a direct result of the
quarrel with the Japanese. these ORR
entail newspaper men were as honeyed
as diplomatists on the eve of a war.
Here are a few extracts exactly as
translated into English by Japanese
editors:
The Japanese American: 1.-THE ar
rival of the fleet at the coast may act
in some way upon the anti-Japanese
feeling and the japanese are to do
their best to extinguish these misun-
derstandings in the others minds For
this purpose, to assimilate among the
Americans is the first thing of inn
portance and to entertain the coming
fleet, joining the American, is a good
opportunity to express the real inten-
ton of the Japanese
The JaDanese Daily New World: cit
seems that the Americans are too
afraid Of the japanese and this led the
American to deep misunderstanding
of the purpose of Americas sending
her Atlantic battleship feet to the Pa
ctfic ocean. \ matter becomes very
hard to see its real fact when it is met
with some misunderstanding. From
japanese point of view, those rumors
are worth little to pay attention, but
so far as there are many current talk
ings Of these sorts in this country,
it should be afraid that they might af-
feet badly upon the solution Of the