The Hawaiian gazette., 1894-03-23
NO. OF DEGREES

All things considered, the American
plantation laborers, as a class, receive
less in wages than the contract labor
ers of this county, and individually
very few are paid more; and other
advantages are almost wholly on the
Hawaiian side. Through the winter
months the cities have named in the
foregoing, together with Helena, Salt
Lake City, Ogden, Spokane, Walla
Walla aud all coast towns of cOnsid-
cradle size are thrQngcd with unem-
ployed men of this class They could
be hired at the employment bureaus in
st. Louis, st. Paul, Denver, Portland
and San Francisco by the thousands
and tens of thousands. But who are
they? Would they suit our purpose?
Both of these are veXatious questions.
Unlike the farm laborer or gardener of
the Middle Atlantic States, these men
have no families, 10 homes, and are
more or less wanderers. Of the many
thousands of men employed in har-
vesting the great wheat crop of Kan
sas, the alfalfa of Colorado, the hops
and wheat of the Pacific Coast in a
year, remarkably few are married
men or citizens of the States COM
manding their temporary services.
Many are comparatively steady,
drifting away in the autumn, to re-
turn, like the swallows, in the spriug
to the same neighborhood, keeping
this programme up for years. Others
are in Kansas one year, the Sacra-
mentO Valley next, along the Pa
louise later, aud are liable to be
on the vegetable farms of Delaware
at next account. They get q little
money, yearn for new scenes and
| faces, strike out, are gone-to appear
/ in n new atmosphere behind another
pillow the next season. Comparatively
few are Americans; they talk English,
| but only few seem to be natives of
| the United states. In company with
my friend, Judge Lane, at Denver, |
determined TO investigate this point
Of the ten or twelve squads of field
laboreIs cauvassed we found fewer
| Americans than other nationalities,
aud less than a dozen were born in the
United States. They were Scandinav-
ians (NOrwegians, Swedes and Danes,
Germans, Irish, Italians, and Canad-
ians, in about the order mentioned.
In Dakota. Minnesota, Iowa, and
Nebraska, u majority of this class are
Scandinavians, while farther south we
find more Germans and Irish. In
Idaho and Washington the Iaboring
class is almost wholly Scandinavian,
save in the fisheries where are many
cinnamon working for $3.50 per
month. California has representatives
of all European nations, as we'll as a
greater per cent. of Chinese and jap
aneSe labor than any other state. The
most steady cheap labor of the United
States is class (also made up of many
nationalities) Familiarity known as
"section hands," being the squads of
six TO ten men who have charge of r.
R tracks, by divisions into sections of
about six miles each. These men, for
the most part have families, and fire.
qqently remain for several years in
one position. In the East, South and
the Middle States the wages paid do
not exceed Sl4 per month with board
in any quarter; while ia the West SIS
is sometimes given. On the Southern
Pacific aud branch lines, through
Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and
Southern California many MeXicaDs
are used, and are paid the neat sum OF
SIS with their "Chili." OF all these
the Swede is by far the most indust-
riOus, sober and reliable. A Swede
laborer, with his family around him,
is steady, honest, moral, has some