SOME PROBLEMS OF AGRICULTURAL LABOR 853 



"gangs" are sent to the different ranches, each group of men fre- 

 quently finding work for the entire season on a single large ranch, 

 under the direct supervision of a "boss" or agent of the contractor. 

 The rancher secures any number of men desired through these con- 

 tractors, and his only concern then is to see that the right number are 

 present and do the work properly. By co-operating with Japanese 

 employment agencies and boarding-house keepers in the larger cities, 

 these "bosses" are ordinarily able to secure any number of men 

 desired. In this way the "bosses" and contractors direct the migra- 

 tion of Japanese to communities where the season requires a large 

 number of workers, and so tend to equalize the labor supply of the 

 state. 



276. THE PADRONE SYSTEM' 

 BY FRANCES A. KELLOR 



The immigrant reaches the labor camp usually by way of a 

 padrone. From the time he arrives until he goes to work in the 

 remote camp he is in the hands of his "friends" countrymen who 

 house him and feed him and entertain him, certain that they will get 

 their share of the fee for his job and of the profit the "commissary" 

 makes off housing and feeding him when he is "on the job." He has 

 no chance to see America through contact with Americans, and is as 

 subject to industrial routine as a checked piece of baggage is to 

 transportation rules. Furthermore, whenever he protests or makes 

 inquiries, he is told that this is America and that to protest means 

 the loss of his job. 



Now add to this environment and threat the facts that he cannot 

 speak English, that he has little money though plenty of strength, 

 that he has dependents who look to him for their daily bread, that he 

 is probably in debt for- his passage over and for his railway ticket to 

 the camp, and that he will be deported if he fails to find work and 

 applies for public help, and we have a fair illustration of an immi- 

 grant choosing his occupation. 



When the laborer arrives at the camp, he is initiated into the 

 routine of American industrial life by the padrone or sub-contractor, 

 who, on the one hand, convinces his employer that he can keep his 

 men only by letting them live the way they do in Italy, and, on the 

 other hand, convinces the workmen that they can hold their jobs 

 only by living the way they do in America. 



' Adapted from the Outlook, CVI (April 24, 1914), 912. 



