The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-06-07
CALIFORNIA AND
 THE JAPANESE
Social Aspects of the Situa. tion Interpreted by For
 mer Government In vestigator.

by the Unted States Commission or
 Immigration; now professor at th'
 University of Kansas.)
 sExclusive Service The Survey Pres
 Bureau.)
 The measure just adopted by an al. most unanimous vote of the. Ca1ifor
 mia Legislature indirectly forbids tC aliens ineligible to citizenship under thesfederal naturalization law sthe Ac. ouiring of land except for residential
 and mercantile or other business pur
 poses provides for the sale by thu Probate Court of lands now held by such aliens upon their death, and linn it's the leases on such lands as they may tnot own to three years.
 Th@ measure is essentially ant1-Jap- anese.
 The average intelligent reader vii lat ornce Ecnallenge the wisdom of this l1eEfaakion on the ground that it is unjust. unnecessary and impolitic. Ii twill be lchallenged as unjust because lit ta9zes advantage of discrimination under the federal law to further dis crin1fuate between aliens of different races lawfully in this country. Ii limits the property rights of those who manst remain aliens and safe i guards those Of others who might but do not become citizens. It will be cf1aIIenged as unnecessary because there Is no menace calling for drastic .legisIzstion- For six years we have +I1E7d La agreement W1In Japan denying passports to intending immigrants of the ,labordug Vclass except such as CD have been. residents of the United Etateg saaad are returning here. @ are parents, wives or children or residents Of this county or (3l have and al- ready FDossessed rights to agricultural Hand
 Under this agreement the number of Iapanese in continental United .Etates as well as in the Hawaiian Is- Bands ha95 been slowly decreasing. At the close of 1909 a careful estimate gbovved that the farmers of this race an California numbered only 4,5O0. Their 5000 to .S,20o holdings embraced a little more than 15o.9Oo acres, only some 16.O0O of which were. owned by them More srecent1y the number Of such farmers has increased somewhat, but at present the Japanese farm on their own account an almost neglfgi- ole part of the Il, ,OO0, 0o0 acres of inn proved farm land in the state.
 The new legislation will be schaI- lengels as impolitic for it qis. likely 10 raise again the question of inTmigra- ton restriction. and this should De avoided Moreover, it might lead to the undermining of the party in, pow CT in Japan and radically change the administration of the present agree ment Unless the bars are to be let down and a few would advocate 1t, such friction as has been incidental to the present legislation is not un- likely ito lead to the necessity of ex- clusioniby act of Congress. It is need less to say this would provoke much trouble. Finally. -tE1fs legislation may we'll lead to commercial loss, for our Asiatic markets are quickly affected by resentment against what Is regard ed as unfair Tea tment-
 These considerations lead logically to the conclusion that, as long as the present situation as regards innmigra- ton continued, the Asiatic problem should have been regarded as solved
 The deep-seated opposition to the EApanese grew largely out of differ Swces in standards. More specifically, e developeds out of prospective mum SerH racial differencess contrast in mode of life, competition upon un- equal terms, and the cleverness and ambition of the Japanese immigrants
 The Japanese immigrants fell heir to the occupational and social position of the Chinese who preceded them. As R general rule the shop-keepers, pro Ressional men, students leaving high school and young men from the urban munities-constitutin less than g third of the entire nuInber-upon their arrival in this country started in do- .mestic. service and similar employ menfs in cities. The country folk and the manual iaborers, constituted the majority. With uninportant excep- 4ions factory employment was denied them The Chinese, as a result of m t1rfl frfctfont and boycotting, had left ahe tradition for employers to heed that factory work was white man s work But in maintenance of way Dn the railroads, as Iaborers in rail- road shops and about rorndhouses, in lumber canrps and to some extent in mines as well as in seasonal agri- cultural work, they found a ready market for their labor.
 hi not mich because of their efficiency as because they were easily and Conveniently secured through contractors of their race and because they were usually willing to accept a lower wage than white men could be obtained for
 Their living conditions were hard and thedr occupationaI advance slow There has always been a strong back current toward agricultural or city employment on the part of all but the crudest of those engaged as faborers in industrial pursuits. Here again slow advance, the relatively low wa Ees and the desire for economic in dependence, cause the Japanese to struggle to rise from the wage-earning class.
 The advance of the Japanese in pet ty business in recent years has been ulIite as rapid and as strongly Op- posed as their advance in agricultural pursuits and in a general way the history has been much the same in the two cases The story of this asr1- cultural advance may be briefly stated for 1t brings to view the circum- stances causing anti-Japanese legisla- tiou to take the form of an antf-alien, land law.
 California and certain other parts pf the West, because of climatic con ditiorss soil and. reliance. upon irriga- ton, are peculiarly suited to the pro duction of certain crops Csuch as fruit of various kinds, grapes, vegetables Suzar-beets and hops9 which involve R great deal of hand labor require an unusually large number of hands dur Ing the harvest season or at certain stages in cultivation, and present In extreme form the problem of lodging and boarding of the extra help. but which when the problem of labor can he rnnvanienflv solved ara most nrof-