JAPS IN CALIFORNIA.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 58, 2 December 1907, Page 6

JAPS IN CALIFORNIA.

The prevalent idea in this country, that there is widespread general animosity on the Californian coast in regard to the Japanese who have made their home there, would appear to be largely ill-founded. Tlie idea was the natural outcome, of course, of the reports received here of violent demonstrations against the brown_ aliens by certain sections of the working classes in San Francisco, and, no doubt, these incidents were duly worked up by the enterprising American journalist. The New York " Evening Post's" San Francisco correspondent says that these disturbances were merely,, " ephemeral

hysterical outbursts" of the hoodlum element in labour circles. A. few labour demagogues aroused the passions of the "thug" elements against the Japanese by declaring that they were going to cut the prices of unskilled labour to pieces. " There is," he says, " no such present threat, nor even possibility. Your correspondent has talked with members of the AntiIvorean and Japanese ,-Eeagues, from whom the most violent expressions of opinion might be expected, and they have assured me that any sentiment against the little brown men of Nippon' is not popular now, and will not be popular during the strenuous political times to come this fall." It is added that in this League are the union leaders of San Francisco, «the three biggest men in the Union Labour parly, so far-as popularity is concerned. vSensationalists have overdrawn the situation, which is not nearly so acute as it is in British Columbia. Men of affairs, casually discussing the situation among themselves, laugh at the idea that has gone abroad concerning the feeling against the Japanese. Thirty or forty years ago there was the bitterest sort of feeling against the Chinese in California, but there is no such problem anywhere along the coast now. " This conclusion," the writer goes on to say, " lias only been reached after patient discussion with representatives of every class in San Francisco and Los Angeles, where there are more Japanese than anywhere else 011 the Pacific Coast." But, curiously enough, the Japanese themselves pretty generally believe that a clash is imminent at some time in the remote future, but that it will arise from an agitation fomented in Tokio and in the Eastern States.

It would seem tliat at present there is 110 well-defined competition between tlie unskilled white and Japanese toilers. Outsicfe of Sau Francisco there is a great deal of coolie labour, but not sufficient to meet the demand. These coolies are employed mostly in the valleys in agricultural work, in railroad construction, and in other activities where scarcely any whites are employed! In the San Joaquin and the Sacramento valleys, the Santa Clara and adjacent dips between the Sierras and coast ranges,.it is, says this correspondent, practically impossible to get unskilled white labour. Even native Californians, when they are really " down and out," will not work in the fields under the burning feun, or, apart from the heat, engage in work that is not of a permanent character. But though the competition is not with the immediate toilers by hand, the race trouble begins with the higher caste Japanese tradesman. He is thrifty, indefatigable, studious, sober, and observant, and he ahead, and then sends for more of him. His fellow-countrymen arrive, know what they have to do, and do it quietly, persistently, insidiously. Then the white tradesman wakes up to find competition with the brown an impossibility. . While making their way these Japanese are, on the surface, humble, unctious, and always courteous. Once secure in their position, however, an attitude of pride and superiority'crops ' through the surface. A Japanese house servant told the writer: ".We here on the Pacific Coast are held up in our humble occupations by a feeling of superiority. We know that some day we will prove our superiority. We understand the contempt in which we are hold racially, and it is only human that a bitter animosity should rankle within us. These little demonstrations against us by the rabble.of San Francisco mean really nothing to us. We know the feeling against us, and we are so constituted that we can smile under it. But the day is coming when_ we will be able to smile without pain." _Wlien the amazing industry and patience of the Japanese are thoroughly, understood and mentally digested, it is not difficult to realise, their ambitions. It is not with unskilled white labour there is to be competition, but with more or less skilled white trade, and the great friction on this account may be looked for in the course of a few years. So writes this well-informed correspondent, and tlie lesson of it to this Dominion is so plain that it needs no further demonstration.