rivals to agree not to compete with them. He concludes that Stanford and his partners viewed laissez-faire as applicable only to government controls and not to destruction of unwanted competition. [ 117 ] Most of the manual laborers on the Central Pacific were new arrivals from China. [ 118 ] Kraus shows how these men lived and worked, and how they managed their money. He concludes that senior officials quickly realized the high degree of cleanliness and reliability of the Chinese. [ 119 ] The Central Pacific employed over 12,000 Chinese workers, 90% of its manual work force. Ong explores whether or not the Chinese workers were exploited by the railroad. He finds the railroad set different wage rates for whites and Chinese and used the latter in the more menial and dangerous jobs, with whites in the better positions. However the railroad also provided camps and food the Chinese wanted and protected the Chinese workers from threats from whites. [ 120 ] Building the railroad required six main activities: surveying the route, blasting a right of way, building tunnels and bridges, clearing and laying the roadbed, laying the ties and rails, and maintaining and supplying the crews with food and tools. The work was highly physical, using horse-drawn plows and scrapers, and manual picks, axes, sledgehammers, and handcarts. A few steam-driven machines, such as shovels, were used. The rails were iron (steel came a few years later) and weighed 700 lb (320 kg). and required five men to lift.