Japanese in California 



men's agreement." This provided, first, that no Japan- The gentle- 

 ese laborers should be granted passports for America, e s ment 

 and, second, that legislation humiliating to Japan 

 should not be favorably considered at Washington. 

 The agreement has been rigidly kept by the Japanese 

 foreign office, which furthermore construes "America" 

 in a broad sense; for since 1907 it has debarred 

 laborers from emigrating to Canada and Mexico as 

 well as to the Pacific States and Hawaii. There is 

 accordingly no real Japanese immigration problem 

 at present, nor will there be any so long as the Root- 

 Takahira agreement remains in force. This should 

 stand, moreover, until we are prepared to deal with 

 the whole matter of immigration not in " shreds and 

 patches," but on broad principles of justice toward 

 ourselves and the rest of the world. 



The local problem having become critical in the 

 spring of 1913, several bills were then introduced into 

 the legislature of California to limit landholding by 

 "aliens," though the primary purpose was to keep 

 the Japanese from buying farms. As agriculturists, 

 by reason of both greater thrift and un-American 

 standards of living, they are often successful competi- 

 tors of their white rivals, and their low social status 

 frequently makes them undesirable neighbors. Certain 

 Japanese from Hawaii had taken up poor or sandy 

 land about the hamlets of Florin, Elk Grove, and other 

 places in the Sacramento Valley, manured it heavily, 

 and worked it persistently and intensively the 

 whole family busy and for long hours each day so 

 that with the culture of strawberries, celery, and 

 similar crops they had sometimes been able to pay 

 for the land in a single season. Occasional cases of 

 sharp practice were also charged against them, and to 



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