852 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



issue orders for' lenient treatment of "dead-heads." There is no 

 eight-hour limit unless it be the "eight hours before dinner and eight 

 after dinner" that is the current phrase. The 40,000 men in Kansas 

 then will draw over $100,000 a day for labor alone, to say nothing of 

 the expense of feeding them. 



The class of men coming west for the harvest is far above that of the 

 average tramp workmen from lumber camps, factory men, college boys, 

 small farmers from adjoining states. The employment agencies handle the 

 larger portion out of Kansas City and they go in groups to the little western 

 towns. While the handling of the army of men appears a haphazard affair, 

 it is really systematized through long years of wheat raising, and the 

 workers are distributed with promptness. The workers begin at the 

 southern border of the state and move north with the ripening of the wheat, 

 getting a month or more of steady work. 



275. JAPANESE LABOR CONTRACTORS 1 

 BY H. A. MILLIS 



The importance of Asiatics in the farm labor situation of Cali- 

 fornia has been due in considerable measure to their effective organi- 

 zation in "gangs" under "bosses." Japanese bosses are the most 

 numerous labor agents, as that race predominates in the labor supply. 

 In nearly every town constituting a center of a specialized agricultural 

 community, one or more Japanese "bosses" can be found. These 

 "bosses," "labor contractors," or "employment agents" are the 

 leaders of the groups of Japanese laborers whom they associate with 

 them. Usually the smaller "contractors" conduct lodging-houses 

 and stores, where their men live on a co-operative plan. The "boss" 

 secures work for his men from the ranchers, and carries on all dealings 

 with the employer as to the wages or contract price for the work, 

 collects the wages for the "gang," and pays the men their individual 

 earnings, of which, he keeps their separate accounts. The contracts 

 for the handwork in intensive agriculture are sometimes written, 

 occasionally with a bond required to guarantee the work, but more 

 often they are oral. Some contracts are to the effect that the "boss" 

 is to furnish a sufficient number of men to properly do the work 

 required at the time specified by the rancher, who agrees to pay a 

 certain wage per day to each man. 



Some large Japanese contractors take contracts for the handwork 

 on many ranches and have hundreds of laborers under them. These 



1 Adapted from Reports of the Immigration Commission, XXIV, 17. 



