The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1913-01-02
immigration
xXIV.-Immigrants From Asia.
BY Frederic J. Haskin.

zeal measures of exclusion are adopted,
they may insist upon coming to this
country in large numbers.
Nearly all of the Hindu immigrants
nave been agricultural 1aborers in
India, A large majority of them come
here ambitious to save 81, 900 and then
return home. However, many of them
come to stay permanently, predicating
their determination upon British OPP
preston at home. Most of them are
not physically sturdy enough to meet
with favor as construction laborers or
section hands on the railroads, so the
only thing left to them is to become
farm laborers. Here their work is HIM
tied almost wholly to hoeing and weed
ing. In most of the communities, be-
cause of their dirty appearance and
their turbans, they find it difficult to
get work. They usually go from place
to place in small gangs, with one Of
their mum Der as leader, business man.
ager, and interpreter. Many of them
find great difficulty to secure work
during the winter months. Tho COM
mission calls their com pctitiye position
the most insecure of any race, and
says that when other labor is available
the Hindus find little favor with en-
plOycrs.
The standard of living among the
Hindus in California is lower than that
of any of the races with whom tLey
compete. Having no families, they us
ually have no furniture and sleep upon
blankets on the floor or ground. They
generally cook upon q CRATE placed
oEer a fire built in a hole in the
ground. If there happen to be mcm-
berS OF different castles in the gang,
those OF each caste mess separately,
and all food eaten must be prepared
Ly a einb of the caste eating 1t.
Trey will not cat any meat that they
do not kill and dress themselves, so
they get but little of it. The strength
of their caste feeling is revealed by the
fact that when placed in jail for petit
larceny or other misdemeanors, trey
consistently refuse food not brought
and prepared by members of their own
caste. One of them tasted for ten
days rather than eat foo not prepared
by his caste. The Jail authorities kept
him from starving to death only by
providing him a stove upon which he
could prepare his own food.
The average Hindu spends about 25c
a day for his food and $30.0 0 a year for
his clothes, of which he seldom has a
change. Dressing up with him con-
sists in changing his turban and put
ting on his coat. He saves money, but
sends it back to India as fast as he
saves it, so that he seldom has any
on HAND for periods of unemployment
and sickness, They are the most litter
ate Of all the immigrant races coming
to America, and the government has
instructed the federal attorneys every
where to oppose their being granted
citizenship papers. The commission
says their assimilative qualities ap-
pear to be the lowest of any race in
the west, not barring the Chinese, and
that the a of western people oppose
their coming as they oppose that OF
n o other race.
Tho commission did not Investigate
the Chinese question generally, 1t haV
ing become largely IA minor issue but
it did conclude from evidence pre-
scented that there are fewer Chinese
in the cities of the west than former
ly. The coming OF the Chinese began