ation of the ranch's people--the Orientals. They are good
workers, these little brown and yellow men, and unobtrusive and
skilled. They do not quit until the job is done; they live frugally;
they are efficient. The only thing we have against them is that we are
afraid of them. They crowd our people out. Into a community they edge
themselves little by little. At the end of two years they have saved
enough capital to begin to buy land. At the end of ten years they have
taken up all the small farms from the whites who cannot or will not live
in competition with Oriental frugality. The valley, or cove, or flat has
become Japanese. They do not amalgamate. Their progeny are Japanese
unchanged; and their progeny born here are American citizens. In the
face of public sentiment, restriction, savage resentment they have made
head. They are continuing to make head. The effects are as yet small in
relation to the whole of the body politic; but more and more of the
fertile, beautiful little farm centres of California are becoming the
breeding grounds of Japanese colonies. As the pressure of population on
the other side increases, it is not difficult to foresee a result. We
are afraid of them.

The ranchmen know this. "We would use white labour," say they, "if we
could get it, and rely on it. But we cannot; and we _must_ have labour!"
The debt of California to the Orientals can hardly be computed. The
citrus crop is almost entirely moved by them; and all other produce
depends so largely on them that it would hardly be an exaggeration to
say that without them a large part of the state's produce would rot in
fields. We do not want the Oriental; and yet we must have him, must have
more of him if we are to reach our fullest development. It is a dilemma;
a paradox.

And yet, it seems to me, the paradox only exists because we will not
face facts in a commonsense manner. As I remember it, the original
anti-Oriental howl out here made much of the fact that the Chinaman and
Japanese saved his money and took it home with him. In the peculiar
circumstances we should not object to that. We cannot get our work done
by our own people; we are forced to hire in outsiders to do it; we
should expect, as a country, to pay a fair price for what we get. It is
undoubtedly more desirable to get our work done at home; but if we
cannot find the help, what more reasonable than that we should get it
outside, and pay for it? If we insist that the Oriental is a