Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-08-13
JAP AND AMERICAN LABOR
CLASH IN CALIFORNIA
Refusal of Melon Growers
to Pay Scale Asked by
Americans Caused Diff
CuItieS

| iURLOCh, Ca1.-DepOrCaL1On OF
| Japanese laborers has focused the
| entire japanese problem Of the Pa
| cific coast under the spotlight here.
Turlock, prosperous agricultural
center, has become a sign post on the
road Of racial friction, g. straw in
the wind, and prophecy fulfilled.
While federal and state investiga-
lions were being concluded, several
whites charged with kidnapping faced
the courts, and the town officially
depiores the lawless procedure, the
sentiment which prompted the ban
ishment is unquestionably widely
shared throughout the state as it is
even amoug those who did not par
ticipate in this district.
1t is character site Of the anti
Japanese stand in California that the
Turlock clash occurred over melons
and dollars-bread and butter-and
not over elements usually associated
with race trouble.
On the surface it was local labor
clash between itinerant white work.
ers and Japanese harvesters, com
peting for the same job, with the
WH1IO p1Oy6IS using Iu0
Orientals as paWns to reduce melon
picking costs.
Fundamentally, however, it in
volved every element of the Japanese
problem as anticipated in state leg
islation and efforts to check Nip
ponese aggression in American farm
districts.
When seasonal labor appeared to
pick the big melon crop, many white
ranchers refused to deal with an or
ganization Of white workers number
ing 300 who wanted 25 to 26 cents
Japanese, affiliated with an organi-
zation Of $4,000, who asked 20 to 20
cents for picking and Grating.
Standards Of Living
The ranchers said they couldn't
break even at the white pickers'
price.
The white itinerants, coming ey-
cry season for this work, said they
couldn't live at a lower wage.
Japanese, numbering some 700 In
addition to those already in the dis.
trict. began to arrive under con-
duct.
Generalizations on American and
Oriental labor competition suddenly
became a definite contest between
a white man and a brown for the
same job.
Several hundred whites visited
Japapese lodging houses and ranch
dormitories and rode the new arriv-
ais out of town on trucks, warning
them not to return.
It was a definite case of the Jap
anese and American standards or l1V-
ing, as exemplified by the itinerant
rivals, being put to competitive test,
with the melon growers, harassed by
production costs, leaning toward the
alien.
T1Ir1nolx ro n nhar forced the white
laborer either to accept what he con-
siders the Japanese living standard.
or by refusing to compete on that
level, to desert the district and leave
the alien in full control.
And this, contend the advocates OF
more rigid exclusion. is precisely
what will inevitably occur, more and
more, wherever the brown and white
laborers come in contact, as the pre-
liminary phases of increasing race
antagonism.
1--WE told farmers who leased land
to Japanese and encouraged japanese
labor influx that trouble just. such
local pioneers in the anti-alien move
ment. THAT was two years ago.
Now these same farmers are sur
prised and incensed at the situation
and are in danger OF losing the
bulk Of their melon CROP.
dILlLuuS Welo ctA ~ NS
deluge,' and we are now. feeling the
first ripples of that deluge."
In Turlock, as in other rich Call
fornia agricultural sections, the Jap
anese came in numbers only after
the fields had been irrigated and de-
veloped, with rich prospects for the
intensive cultivation to which they
are especially adapted and trained.
Control Rich Lands
They came as workers. Soon they
were leasers, by permission OF legls-
lation. Then in turn many became
employers, hiring white men as Wen Ell
as Japanese. A handful grew to
Today Of $500 acres of melon land
in the district, Japanese lease and
operate fully 5000.
They pay from $50 to SIS per acre
rental-considerably more than the
white man can afford with assurance
They control 80 per cent Of Cali
fornia's melon crop, which is SO per
cent Of the nations.
Here, as elsewhere. the Japanese
against the individual American la
borer or tenant. He is backed by a
powerful race organization, when
has studied, adopted and outmatch-
ed American workers organizations.
AS laborers they work in contract
Japanese residents rigidly boycott
American merchants and professional
men who are known to resist their
encroachment, and their expenditures
are not inconsiderable. winch &C
counts for divergence in opinion and
action on the part Of many merchants
and shippers here, as they frankly
admit. Prevailing sentiment is there
fore but half-heartedly expressed N
official resolutions dealing with the
situation.
NO Violence
It was at Turlock that the anti
alien movement, since 1ndorsed by
California and other states, was
fathered.
Japanese deportations here were
carried out without violence. Not a
blow was struck. No one was in
jured. No property was destroyed
On the following day white chill
dren rode with Japanese in melon
trucks, and Japanese walked the
streets unmolested through groups
Of idle white laborers. Only the idle
melon fields and the scattered return
Of Nipponese who refused to be IN
undated, tokened the situation.
Turlock, providing ample protection
against repetition of the forcible ban
ishment, does not believe that the
occurrence has acted as a dterrent
against further influx of japanese
though the local head Of the Jap
anese association holds a different
view. Itinerant white laborers have
moved out.
GLADSTONE DISEASE
DR.. E. E. Paddock, physician Of Kansas nsai