Omaha daily bee., 1899-06-25

roads and the northwest. He believes in hard
work, mixed with thought, good company in
business and luck. These three things have
helped him, who began life a poor boy on
sterile Canadian farm, to become one of the
four or five greater developers and railway
monarchs OF the age.
Sitting in his St. Paul office the other day.
Mr.. Hili Diseased with the writer tbs
future of the country, present chances for
young men, and other topics OF current In
terest. incidentally his talk threw mucn
light upon his own life and personality. Hill
is an optimist, as you would expect man
OF his type and achievements TO be, though
he isn't blind 10 the fact that many new
and difficult problems have been brought
into existence by modern business and social
developments. In spite OF these, however,
he says there are still innumerable oppor
tunities for young men TO win financial sue
cess in the United States. The development
OF the country has only begun, so TO speak
and there'n be plenty OF chances as long
as development is going on. But the man
who desires 10 get his chance must work
and persevere in his work.
steady workers In Demand.
"The crying need of the northwest to-
day." said Mr.. Hill, "is men who have the
gift Of continuance. We have sent 1900
track laborers out in the past twelve months,
and vet we have not had more than $500 at
| work at any one time. The majority OF the
laborers now at work in the Dakotas and
Minnesota are Italians and Poles. The
Italians are highly unsatisfactory. AS rule
their object in coming here is solely TO get
enough money together TO support them in
idleness at home. and they hoard their
earnings to the last possible degree. For
this reason, and because they come from
land where food is not abundant, they
rarely eat enough or well enough, and so
have not sufficient physical strength TO
stand the strain OF long continued labor
The Poles are much more satisfactory
They are strong, hardy and willing; more
over they are anxious 10 leave on working
for wages as soon as possible. Conditions
of political and personal freedom in Poland
are not TO their liking and consequently
they do not desire 10 return TO the old world
as the Italians do but are prone TO settle
down on land in this country as soon as
they get money enough TO do so.
West OF the Dakotas We use more Japs
than men Of any other nationality. We
cid not begin the employment OF the little
brown men from the Orient from choice
but because we were obliged to- We couldn't
depend on men o: any other nationality
II is only right to say that having trlea the
Japs We fnd them the most satisfactory
laborers We have. They are willing, cheer
ful and strong: they work little cheaper
and that is a point. OF course, but the great
advantage OF the labor OF the Japs over any
other labor now available in the northwest
is their reliability. II comes mainly from
their temperance and their personal clean
illness.
Most white laboreTs, and especially ltal-
ians, simply will not keep themselves and
the places they live in clean. The result
is disease. We have great trouble TO keep
typhoid fever out of the camps, exactly as
it was hard TO keep IL out OF the volunteer
army camps last year. Disease and intern
peranCe incapacitate a large proportion OF
white laborers much Of the time and few
OF them are busy more than four days in
the week the year through. We have been
at our wits end to remedy this tremendous
drawback TO the development OF the country
They will work along steadily for a week
perhaps, accomplishing more and better
work than can be done by the same number
OF men In the same time anywhere else in
the world. Then comes Sunday the day
they should rest, clean up ami accumulate
strength for the next weeks work, but they
don't clean up, and Instead Of resting they
make love to the flask The result Is dis
astrous, both 10 themselves and 70 US for
nothing will break men down more quickly
than dirt and drunkenness combined. We