SOCIAL CHANGES IN CALIFORNIA. 801 



growth of horticultural industries has made so many demands 

 for work-girls in the country that the factory system can not be 

 established in California for years to come. 



Many California women are making horticultural ventures. 

 Teachers, clerks, type-writers, and saleswomen seem particularly 

 apt to buy land and plant vines or trees. An association of about 

 a hundred women are becoming florists. Another group is inter- 

 ested in buhach, the Persian insect-powder plant. Within a hun- 

 dred miles of San Francisco the conditions necessary to the suc- 

 cessful culture of leading fruits can be obtained. The extent to 

 which women are turning their attention to this field is note- 

 worthy, and must prove one of the important elements in the 

 organization of the "coming California." One finds women di- 

 recting outdoor operations in every part of the State, and several 

 of the largest orchards are owned and superintended by women. 



Labor organizations are strong in California, containing about 

 thirty thousand wage-earners, and collecting over $100,000 a year 

 in dues in San Francisco alone. The trades-unions of San Fran- 

 cisco and vicinity have twenty thousand members. Hours of 

 labor among unorganized classes of workmen range from twelve 

 to sixteen, among the organized classes from eight to ten. In the 

 matter of strikes the trades-unions have sometimes been difficult 

 to control, reckless and dangerous, especially during the " period 

 of transition." Between 1880 and 1886 there were one hundred 

 and seven strikes in California, affecting 6,763 men and women, 

 and losing 1,508 working days, at a cost of $324,639 to the strikers 

 and $311,093 to the employers. Seventy-seven of them succeeded. 

 There were nine lock-outs, all but one among the cigar-manufact- 

 urers. Since 1886 the number of strikes and lock-outs has dimin- 

 ished by one half. The largest ones have been in the foundries 

 and iron-works, those industries being in a state of depression. 

 Public sympathy has been with the employers in most of the 

 recent strikes, as the favorable conditions of workingmen in Cali- 

 fornia are well understood. 



The Chinese problem, so called, has but little vitality, although 

 it is still a fruitful subject for newspaper editorials and sensa- 

 tional space-writing. The masses of Californians appear to think 

 that the present laws are reasonably well enforced. Orchard and 

 vineyard extensions may cause such a demand for "cheap labor " 

 that the farmers and orchardists, who have hitherto depended a 

 great deal upon Chinese, will form a pro-Chinese party. It was 

 the fruit-growers as a class that broke up and defeated the Chi- 

 nese boycott in California a few years ago. The ground they take 

 is that they prefer white labor, but they will not see their crops 

 lost when Chinese can be had, and they will not allow any dicta- 

 tion from trades-unions or boycotters. The Chinese now in Cali- 



