The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-08-29
The Chinese in California.

California has, according to Cronise,
good authority, 10000, 600 acres OF
areable land. It has, according to the
last census, $50, 247 people, of whom
149, ,473 live in San Francisco have
nowhere in the United States have I
heard so much complaint of "nothinp
to do" as here in San Francisco. And
of the leading cries of the demagogues
here is that the Chinese are crowdine
white men out of employment. But
one of the complaints most frequently
heard from men who need to get work
done, is that they can get nobody to do
it, A hundred times and more, in nv
travels through the state, have found
Chinese serving not only as laborers, but
holding positions where great skill and
faithfulness were required and almost
every time the employer has said to me ::
81. would rather of course, employ a
white man, but cannot get one whom
I can trust and who will stick to his
work" In some cases this was not said,
but the employer spoke straight out,
that he had tried white men, and pre-
ferred the Chinese as more faithful and
painstaking, more accurate, and less
eye servants. A gentleman told me
tnat be had once advertised in the San
Francisco papers for one hundred Ia
borers his Office was besieged for three
days. Three hundred and fifty offered
themselves, all presumably ruined by
Chinese cheap labor, but all but a dozen
refused to accept work when they heard
that they were required to go "out of
the city, The charge that the Chinese
underbid the whites in the labor market
io
and are ignorant of our language, hab-
its, customs, and manner of work, they
no doubt work cheaply but they know
very accurately the current rate of
wages and the condition of the labor
market, and they manage to get as much
as anybody, or if not this in some cases,
it is because they cannot do full days
work. It is a fact, however, that they
do great deal of work which white
men will not do out here they do not
stand idle, but take the first job that is
offered them. And the result is that
they are used all over the state, more
an more, because they chiefly, of the Ia
boring population, will work steadily
and keep their engagements. Moreover,
the admirable organization of the Chi
nese labor is an irresistible convenience
to the farmer, vineyardist, and other
employer. "How do you arrange to
get your Chinese ?" asked a man in
the country who was employing more
than hundred in several gangs. He
replied: 81 have only to go, or send to,
a Chinese employment Office in San
Francisco, and say that I need so many
men for such work and at snch pay
Directly up come the men, with fore
man of their own, with whom alone /
have to deal. I tell him only what
want done settle with him alone I
complain to him, and hold him alone
responsible. He understands English !; |
and this simplifes things amazingly. !
If I employed white men [ should have
to instruct. reprove, watch and pay each |
one separately; and of a hundred, a |
quarter, at least, would be dropping |
out day after day for one cause or an
other. Moreover, with my Chinese |
comes up a cook for every twenty men
whom [ pay, and provisions of their |
own, which they buy. Thus have no.
body to feed and care for. They do it |
themselves. This is the reply I have |
received in half dozen instances where |
made inquiry. And one can see that
with such an organizations of labor, |
many things can be easily done which |
under our different and looser system,
man would not rashly undertake. So
far as I have been able to learn, such
thing as a gang of Chinese leaving a
piece of work they had engaged to do,
unless they were cheated or ill-treated,
is unknown. Then they don't drink
whiskey. With all this, any one can
see that they need not work cheap. To
a man who wants to get piece of work
lone, their systematic ways are worth
4 good deal of money. In point of fact
hey are quick enough to demand high
er wages.-N Y Tribune.