nial Report of this Bureau, the following subjects received attention,

namely:

Convict Labor;

Orphan Asylums and Institutions for the Deaf and Blind;

Alien Labor;

Female Labor;

Labor-saving Appliances and Processes;

Agricultural and Viticultural Products;

Condition of Wage-earners in California as compared with the Condition of those

in Other Places;

Some of the Labor Laws of California;
Employment Agencies;

Labor Organization;

A Compilation of the Labor Laws of California.

There has been collected during the last two years and tabulated and now presented in this report, data in relation to further subjects, to wit:

Agricultural Labor in the State of California;

Wages and Hours of Labor per Diem, etc., of Miners in the State of California;
The Lumber-making Industry in California;

Japanese in California;

The Enforcement of some of the Labor Laws of California;

Children of Wage-earners, and Higher Education, in California;

Comparison between Hours Worked per Diem by, and Wages Paid per Diem to,
Wage-Workers in the State of California in the year 1902, and such Hours and
Wages in the year 1900;

A List of the Labor Organizations in California;

Arbitration in Wage and Other Disputes between Capital and Labor;

Financial Statement;

An Appendix containing Laws pertaining to Labor enacted in California since the publication of the Ninth Biennial Report of the Bureau.

The ability of the Bureau to collect data has been limited by the smallness of the appropriation for agents' salaries, and traveling and other contingent expenses, and it again now finds that the size of the present report must be kept within limits commensurate with the amount (some twelve hundred dollars) available in the printing fund of the Bureau, for the printing of the same.

However, it is believed that fairly good results are shown, and if in the report merit does in any degree appear, due recognition therefor should be given to the Deputy Commissioner, Mr. J. D. Kelsey, and to the Special Agents, E. L. Reguin, K. Zwicker, L. Brosnan, W. P. Day, and Walter McArthur, whose assistance in regard to the work of the Bureau has been cheerfully and earnestly rendered.

AGRICULTURAL LABOR IN THE STATE OF
CALIFORNIA.

Agricultural labor, as here spoken of, includes the labor which is employed in various capacities in sowing, cultivating, harvesting, and marketing cereals, and is to be distinguished from labor employed in vinicultural, viticultural, and horticultural pursuits in this State. In this connection it should be remembered that, owing to climatic conditions and to methods necessarily employed in the industry here in question, there is marked fluctuation in the volume of farm labor required and employed during some as compared with that employed during other portions of the year, thus:

The climatic year in California is divided practically into a wet and a dry season; the wet season extending from about November first to May first, and the dry season from about May first to November first. The work of sowing here spoken of is begun about the month of November in each year and continues in more or less degree up to about the middle of February. Within said time a very considerable number of wage-workers must be employed; not, however, by any means as many as those employed later in harvesting. The sowing of the grain having been fully completed, as said, by about the middle of February, there then ensues a period of about three months (that is to say, ending with about the middle of May) during which there is almost absolutely no employment on farms for ninety per cent of the labor previously employed in sowing as named. With the middle of May the harvesting of hay begins, and a limited number of farm laborers again find employment. It is here said "a limited number," because, as a rule, in most of the farming localities in California the making of hay is but an incident in connection with the raising of grain, and is not by any means a leading feature of agricultural industry. About the middle of June the harvesting, i. e., the cutting, threshing, sacking, and marketing or warehousing of the grain, begins and continues ordinarily for about ten weeks; that is to say, until about September first. Within this period, and especially in those years during which large grain crops are raised in the State, the demand for farm labor is almost unlimited and vast numbers of men find employment in the grain fields. From the first of September and continuing for ten weeks, or until about the middle of November, there, however, again ensues a period of enforced idleness

3 per cent declared it to be Mexican: 6 per cent declared it to be Portuguese; 3 per cent declared it to be Swiss; and 10 per cent declared it to be indiscriminately mixed.

Noting the seeming inconsistency as here shown, be it remembered that the replies in question were gathered from all parts of the State; that in certain localities it commonly happens that one nationality may predominate in the matter of labor employed, while in another locality another nationality may thus predominate, and that the senders of the replies in most cases voiced their impressions as derived from their immediate environment.

Of the replies received to the query as to the stability and reliability of the wage-workers finding employment on agricultural farms, 62 per cent declared such wage-workers to be, as a rule, reliable, and 38 per cent declared them to be utterly unreliable and unstable.

To the query as to the cause of the instability among wage-workers. on farms, where the same existed, 16 per cent of the replies received declared said cause to be intemperance; 5 per cent declared it to be instability of employment; 6 per cent declared it to be poor quality of board and lodgings furnished to such labor; 10 per cent declared it to be bad treatment at the hands of employers; 10 per cent declared it to be low wages paid to such labor; 11 per cent declared it to be natural shiftlessness on the part of such labor, and 42 per cent attempted no explanation.

Of the replies received to the query as to the condition of farm wageworkers when compared with the condition of wage-workers in other vocations, 43 per cent declared such condition, as so compared, to be good; 9 per cent declared it to be very good; 6 per cent declared it to be better; 10 per cent declared it to be fair; 7 per cent declared it to be poor; 10 per cent declared it to be very poor, and 10 per cent attempted no explanation.

Of the replies received to the query as to whether or not Chinese were employed, 21 per cent answered "yes," and 79 per cent answered "no." In this connection be it observed that in a comparatively few cases are Chinese employed in field work on agricultural farms in this. State, and it is most unusual to hear of a regular sowing or harvesting crew on a grain farm in California being composed entirely of Chinese; and, passing, it may be said here that the same is true as to Japanese. Where Chinese are employed in the fields on grain farms their hours of labor per diem are practically the same as are the hours of White labor. Where Chinese are employed in the way named their wages per diem. during sowing season are usually about $1, and during harvesting season from $1.15 to $1.25. Usually, while so employed, their board is. furnished the same as is the case with White labor, although in some cases the rule is otherwise.

Of the replies received to the query as to the employment of Japanese, 12 per cent answered that Japanese were thus employed, while 81 per cent answered that they were not. Seven per cent made no explanation. Here should be borne in mind the explanatory paragraph herein before appearing with the matter of predominating nationalities, etc. Where Japanese are, in fact, employed as here contemplated, their hours of labor per diem are practically the same as are the hours of White or Chinese workers, and their wages per diem range about the same as the wages of Chinese.

Of the replies received to the query as to the employment of Mexicans, 27 per cent replied that Mexicans were thus employed, as against 73 per cent which replied that they were not. Where Mexicans are thus employed, their hours of labor per diem are the same as are the hours of other nationalities, as herein before shown, and their wages per diem are about $1 during the sowing and $1 to $1.15 during harvesting. Board is as Board is as a rule furnished to Mexican workers, in addition to the wages named.

The replies received to the query as to what could or should be done to improve the standard and condition of the farm laborer of this State, were in great variety, and those typical among them are given here verbatim, to wit:

Close saloons on Sundays;

Pay wages only once a month;

Give fewer hours of work and better pay;

Prevent the workers from going to town;

Improve the accommodations given them; treat the workers as

human beings;

Give the workers good board and lodging;

Shut out the foreign element;

Protect the men who take the place of strikers;

Organize unions among such workers;

Give such workers regular employment;

Let such employers show more interest in the welfare of their employés;

Exclude hobos;

Raise prices of produce;

Restrain "trusts," which seem to be strangling the producer, who then may be able to treat his employés better;

Secure Government ownership of the means of production and distribution;

Educate boys to industry;

Lessen taxes;

Build dams so as to have a good crop each year;

Provide for a fixed number of hours per diem for such labor;

Build more churches;

Have smaller farms;
Etc., etc.

Recalling that these suggestions as to remedy have come from those actually engaged either as employers or employés in actual agricultural work, the lack of consistency and harmony as between the said suggestions is somewhat startling.

Carefully contemplating the whole question, it appears logical to believe that instability of employment, arising in the main from the causes herein before shown, is responsible in larger degree than is any other one cause for the complaints which persistently arise from and on behalf of the wage-workers here in question in California. With work continuing more generally throughout the whole year, the necessity which these workers are under to "move on," as herein before said, would, in large measure, disappear. With a certain regular staff of employés the year round the employer would be under much greater incentive to provide in the way of permanent and comfortable lodging and boarding accommodations than is the case as now; and perhaps he who suggested "Smaller farms," as above said, came nearer to the line of practical remedy than did the others whose suggestions have been set forth.