N.A.C.L.A. those lands for the North American capltalists, and the California Gold Rush created both capital and markets. Only one crucial factor was missing: cheap, exploitable labor. Workers were needed to ciear the California river valleys of oak and shrub, transforming them into the richest agricultural land in the world. W1ithout workers the gold and ·silver would have remained deep inside the mines of New Mexico and Arizona. The railroads, which would link the United States from coast to coast, could only be built by labor. The delegates at the CaHfornia Constitutional Convention of 1849 were well aware of the labor scarcity in California, but were sharply divided over the best way of securing that labor. Those in favor of slavery based their arguments on the " need for a cheap and docile labor ·supply in order to realize the potentialities of California agriculture " (7). California did not, in tact, enter the Ullion as a slave state, but the organized importation of thousands of foreign workers soon provided a la'bor su·pply as cheap as a slave force. California's labor needs were first met oy importing thousands of Chinese to work the mines, build the transcontinental railroads, and harivest the fruit and vegetable crops. By 1880, Chinese workers represented between 1/3 and 2/3 of the state's agricultural labor force (8) and became "a despised minorlty employed at sub-subsistence wages " by the California growers (9). By the 1890s, however, the effects of the first great depression were being felt strongly in Callfornia, by small manufacturers and farmers as well as by labor. For different reasons both perceived the Chinese as a threat to their ex1istence: organized white labor because it saw the Chinese undermining the wage rates, and the small capitallst because, unlike the large landowners, he could not take advantage of the large numbers of Chinese workers. These groups formed a polltical coalition which launched a violent campa1ignto drive the Chinese from the fields. As early as 1882 they already had pushed through leglslation prohibiting further Chinese immigration into Callfornia. 7. Lloyd Fisher, The Harvest Labor Market ln Callfornla, p. 4. Harvard Press, 1953. 8. Ibid. p. 4 and Carey McWllllams, Factor/es ln the Fields, pp. 66-67. Peregrlne Publlshers, Inc. Santa Barbara, 1971. 9. McWllllams, ibid. p. 70. 84
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