The Portland daily press., 1899-07-11
GETTING AHEAD.
President Of Great Northern
Gives Adyice.to Young Men.
why the Japanese Excel wester N
People as Laborers.

James J. Hill. president OF the Great
the most successful and famous men in
the Northwest. He began life as poor
boy on Canadian farm, and has won his
way by bard work.
Hill Is an optiinist. as you would expect
a man Of his type and achievements to
be, though he isn't blind to 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 ara
still inEumerable opportunities for young
men to win financial success In the United
States. But the man who desires to get
his chance must work and perseyere in
his work.
1.-THE crying need Of the Northwest TO-
day" said MIR. Hill, in an interview pub
lished recently In the Boston Globe, sis
men who have the gift Of continuance.
We have sent Is. 600 track laborers out in
the past 10 months, and yet 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 a 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 suiiicientI physical strength
to stand the strain of long-continued
labor.
"The Poles are much more satisfac-
tory.
They are strong, hardy and willing;
moreover, they are anxious to leave of
working for wages as soop as possible.
Conditions of political and personal free
dom in Poland are not to their liking,
and consequently they do not desire to re-
turn 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 Jsps
than men of any other nationality. We
did not begin the employment Of the
little brown men tfrom the Orient from
choice, but because we were obliged 20;
we couldn't depend on men OF any other
nationality. They are willing, cheerful
and strong: they work little cheaper,
and that Ia point, of course, but the
great advantage OF the Japs over any
other labor now available in the North
west Is their reliability.
Most white laborers and especially
Italians, simply will not keep themselves
and the places they live in clean. The
result Is disease. We had great trouble
to keep typhoid fever out of the volun-
teer army camps last year. Disease and
intemperance incapacitate a large proper
ton OF white labolers much of the time,
and few of them are busy more than four
days in the week the year through.
'sThey will work along steadily for o
week, perhaps, accomplishing more and
better work than can be done by the same
number of men In the same time any
where else in the world. Then comes
Sunday, the day they should rest, clean
mp and 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 disastrous, both
to themselves and to rs. for nothing
breaks men down more quickly than dirt
and drunken ness combined.
with the Japs 1t Ia different. When
| Sunday comes they make things clean
and take their rest like sensible fellows.
Perhaps they can't do as much work,
IN an for man. as the whites, and SO a
larger force may be required, but they
are always cheerful, always healthy.
always ready to work. They never be-
come tramps
There Is much talk that men cannot
get work to do in this country. 1t is
not so. Every healthy man who Is idle
| in the United States today is SO from
Shoice. do not say that every carpenter
| can get carpenter work to do, or that
every plumber can lind a job at bis trade,
but II he win take what he can get,
every idle man in the country can go to
work as soon as he is ready TO.
"At this moment there are jobs ranging
in pay from Slips to IS and 81 day for
l00,0 600 men in the Northwest
"Were asked to give definite advice to
q young man OF Intelligence and health.
but without capital or the training of the
schools, should say, brst of all, that he
must remember that opportunity has
much to do with success In any place,
and in any circumstances, in other words,
there is something. In luck. At the same
time. luck and laziness don't go t0gether,
and opportunities will not hunt him up
| "Such young man as you suggest
| could not win IL he were bent on living
| as If he had an income of thorsands
while yet his income were not more than
| from $SuO 10 S9U0 year. EBut let him
work steadily, live prudently and give
signs of intelligence and enterprise, and
help will eventually come to him.
| "In truth, help for such young men is
constantly looking for them to take 1t:
help to buy farms, help to take charge of
enterprises, small mt fret, but in this
period of rapid evolution, sure kto grow
into something well worth while, help of
greatly diversified sorts.
/ One of our most serious troubles, at the
| present time. Is the scarcity of proper
men to place In posts of trust and respon-
sibility as foremen, superintendents and
the like. We simply can't find them fast
| enough. There are plenty among the
working men, probably, with sufficient
ability TO assume such posts. but most Of
them insist upon joining in certain
short-sighte movements that shut them
out Of promotion and often deprive them
OF the work they already have to do. l
win give you AN example of this:
until a comparatively recent date we
employed hundreds of coal beavers to re-
plenish the tenders of our engines. They
had 10 work in the dark as we'll as in the
light, for people wish to travel by night