ersecution has united
them to the number of five million in a racial type of remarkable purity
and distinctness from the surrounding races.

=Asiatic Immigration.=--Utterly distinct from all other immigrants in the
nineteenth century are the Chinese. Coming from a civilization already
ancient when Europe was barbarian, the Chinaman complacently refuses to
assimilate with Americans, and the latter reciprocate by denying him the
right of citizenship. His residence is temporary, he comes without his
family, and he accumulates what to him is a fortune for his declining
years in China. The gold discoveries of California first attracted him,
and the largest migration was 40,000 in 1882, the year when Congress
prohibited further incoming. In 1906, 3015 Chinamen tried to get in, and
2732 were admitted, mainly as United States citizens, returning
merchants and returning laborers. One-half of the 1448 admitted as
"exempt" were believed by the immigration officials to have been coolies
in disguise.[55] Within the past ten years the Japanese have taken his
place, and 14,000 of his Mongolian cousins arrived in 1906.

The immigration of the Japanese has taken a peculiar turn owing to the
annexation of Hawaii. While these islands were yet a kingdom in 1868
this immigration began, and in 1886 a treaty was concluded with Japan
for the immigration of Japanese contract laborers for the benefit of
the sugar planters. Many thousand were imported under this arrangement,
and "the fear that the islands would be annexed to Japan was one of the
prime factors in the demand for annexation to the United States."[56]
With annexation in 1900 contract labor was abolished, and the Japanese,
freed from servitude, indulged in "an epidemic of strikes." The Japanese
government retained paternal oversight of its laborers migrating to
foreign lands, which is done through some thirty-four emigrant companies
chartered by the government. Since opening up Korea for settlement Japan
has granted but a limited number of passports to its citizens destined
for the mainland of America, so that almost the entire immigration comes
first to Honolulu through arrangements made between the emigrant
companies and the planters. But the planters are not able to keep them
on the island on account of the higher wages on the Pacific coast. Since
the alien contract-labor law does not apply to immigrants from Hawaii, a
_padroni_ system has sprung up for importing Japanese from that