THE IMPROVEMENT OF CONDITIONS AMONG IMMIGRANTS INTO CALIFORNIA 7I 



sion found that in the 663 camps it inspected between i July 1915 and i 

 Januar^^ 1916 there were working on 



beetroot fields 1.758 persons (men, women and children) 



fruit farms 1,151 



vine5'ards 69 



hop plantations 6,857 



lumber 10,221 



ranches 775 



or a total of 20,831 agricultural labourers and lumber- 

 men as against a total of 19,610 inhabitants of the various industrial 

 camps. In the absence of precise data as to all the camps, of which 

 there are more than a thousand, it may be concluded that their po- 

 pulation is fairly evenly divided between the agricultural and the indus- 

 trial classes. About 21 per cent, of the total population of the inspected 

 camps is made up- of 4,596 women and 4,064 children, a- circumstance 

 which makes more urgent the hygienic measures prescribed by the 

 Commission. Women were found in 380 camps, as earners in 196. 

 Of the women at work 1,76?) were employed on hop picking and jam 

 making, the others in the beetroot fields, as cooks or on other do- 

 mestic work. Of the total emplo5^ed population 9,405 persons were skil- 

 led and 24,258 vmskilled labourers. On this point data for 36 camps are 

 lacking. More than 70 per cent, of the skilled labourers were employed in 

 mines and quarries, on oilfields and on lumber works. In agricultural cainps 

 the percentage of skilled labour was very small. It was 8.4 per cent, in 

 the beetroot fields, 13.5 per cent, in the fruit plantations, 0.2 per cent, in 

 the hopyards, and 10.7 per cent, on the ranches. Among the lumbermen it 

 was as much as 43.4 per cent. Of 36,264 adult labourers 6,948 or about 

 19 per cent., including 3,376 skilled labourers, were married. In other 

 words 35.8 per cent, of the skilled labourers were married while only 14.7 

 per cent, of the others had charge of a family. It is further interesting to 

 note that the comparatively^ permanent work of the oilfields employed men 

 of whom 40.5 per cent, were married, while in the other camps less than 

 10 per cent, of the residents were married. 



In 1 913 an Act was passed for the improvement of the sanitary condi- 

 tion of labour camps. Its enforcement was entrusted to the State Board 

 of Health, which delegated such task to the Commission of Immigration. 

 On 8 August 1 91 5 the amended I^abour Camp Sanitation Act became 

 effective and the State Board's power of enforcement was transferred to the 

 Commission. In applying the law the Commission took into account the 

 fact that the data it had collected up to i January 1915 showed more than 

 half the residents of L^abour Camps to be immigrants. 



The inspection of the labour camps had shown that the condition of 

 manj^ of them was insanitary. The Commission endeavours to bring about 

 improvement through friendly co-operation between employers and em- 

 ployed. So far it has not been necessary to resort to the courts to secure com- 



