PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-THIRD FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 69 



content to live apart and board themselves. The bosses regulated the 

 prices. These bosses furnished the number of men required, and when 

 the harvest or other work was completed in one locality they were 

 content to move to another. No Chinese laborer ever repudiated a 

 contract made for him by his boss. Indeed, it was a rare occurrence 

 1or a Chinaman of high or low degree to violate a contract. As faithful 

 and skilled cooks, they gave good satisfaction and relieved the farmer's 

 wife of many a care and burden. 



The Exclusion Act did not operate altogether as was expected. It 

 not only put a stop to Chinese immigration, but resulted in Chinese 

 emigration. They have either gone back to their native land or scat- 

 tered among other states of the Union until their presence is hardly 

 noticeable and their numbers have no appreciable effect on labor con- 

 ditions. In their stead we have the Japanese, whose coming is little 

 hampered by any restriction law or treaty provisions. Their numbers 

 are constantly increasing and they are invading every avenue of indus- 

 trial life. They are not as honest and reliable as the Chinese, but they 

 are more aggressive. They are cunning — even tricky. They have no 

 scruples about violating a contract or agreement when it is to their 

 advantage to do so. They of all are far short of giving satisfaction as 

 laborers in the service of Americans. This is partly due to racial pride 

 and a self-consciousness of their own importance. They are great imi- 

 tators and tireless in their efforts to acquire knowledge that will enable 

 them to become contractors, or to acquire the control of land by either 

 purchase or lease. They are not long content to work for others ; their 

 ambition is to do business on their own account. While they have no 

 organized unions, as we know them, they are clannish and have such a 

 complete understanding among themselves that they can act promptly 

 and in unison in an emergency. The Japanese employer is not troubled 

 with a labor famine. The American producer may suffer great losses 

 in his crops for lack of labor, but the Japanese employer adjoining can 

 always depend on the help of his countrymen. 



One of their methods of squeezing the American producer is to con- 

 tract to do certain work at a certain price, and then in the rush of the 

 harvest season, at the most critical time, when the perishable crops 

 need immediate attention and the producer is completely at the mercy 

 of his employes, demand an advance in the contract price, with the 

 alternative of facing a strike. This is certain to occur as often in the 

 season as the Japanese is certain that he is in a position to enforce his 

 demands. That is not all. Orchardists and vineyardists have often 

 been influenced to lease their property to Japanese by the threat that 

 they will be boycotted and suffer the loss of their crops for lack of labor 

 to harvest them. It is comparatively easy, where the Japanese domi- 

 nate, for them to drive their American competitors out of the commu- 



