The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1907-01-13

and It's seventh year IS gong 10
be its most interesting one, so
far. This is especially true Of the United
States. the busiest land in the world.
But while the interest in most other
countries centers mainly In prospective
troubles, foreign and domestic. here the
chief interest is concentrated upon the at
fairs Of peace and industry. Barring the
fading clouds that shade the Pacific,
where its waves wash the eastern edge
Of far-away Japan there is only one
thing for the American people to worry
about. and that Is where and how to get
the workers to do the work that is wait
ing for them 10 do.
All Asia is in ferment. Even China
and Persia are talking about constitu-
tionaI government. and that may mean
trouble on colossal scale
Russia. torn and bleeding and uncer-
tain of the morrow, is falling into 4
worse state of anarchy than ever.
Germany is in the midst of the elections
ordered for new Reichstag to take the
place Of the one dissolved by the Kaiser
because it wouldn't vote money enough
to carry on his pet African colonies
France is In the throes OF her struggle
with the Vatican. Great Britain is
wrought up over the quarrel between the
Lords and Commons and wondering
whether the uneasiness in India viii be
notlceabIy increased by the general Ash
attic ferment
But in America Help Wanted is the
overwhelming cry. Help TO plant and
harvest such food crops as have never
been grown in any other land. Help 10
dig ores and the coal to smelt them with.
Help 10 lay railroads, 10 carry the crops
after they are harvested, the ores and
the coal after they are dug. and the iron
and the copper and the lead after they
are smelted. Help TO build homes and sky
SCrapers; churches and hospitals; art
galleries. and universities and museums.
Help 10 bore tunnels and dig canals. Help
TO do useful work OF every sort that was
ever done under the sun. skilled and un-
skilled, and more of it than was ever en-
pl0yed by any one nation since the world
began. All this may not yet have dawned
upon you. but it's true as gospel. every
word. Uncle Sam may no longer be rich
enough IN land to give US all farm,
but there surely is work enough here to
give us all a job-if We'll take what we
can get. And more of US have jobs to-
day than ever before since there was an
Uncle Sam.
Help Wanted by the Railroads.
The railroads have more freight to car
~ than their cars will hold. They can't
get the cars they have over the rails fast
enough and the CIR builders are two
years behind the orders for new ones.
The 100000 or 100000 bale cotton
crop. the 100000 bushel wheat crop. the
3.C00CO0,O00 busheI corn crop the 300 600. 600
bushel potato crop, added 20 the coal and
iron and lumber, the manufactured prod
ucts and the general merchandise that has
20 be hauled up and down the country has
swamped the roads completely They
have simply got TO lay thousands of miles
Of new trackage or the country's business
viii be swamped
II was nearly swamped all the fall
while the movement Of crops was on, de-
spite the heroic efforts which have been
going on the past few years TO get tracks
and ears and engines enough into the ser
vice TO handle it adequately. People are
freezing in some parts of the West for
lack Of coal. which the roads can't get
70 them, and the Interstate Commerce
Commission IS now trying to find out the
real reasons for the situation
1t has been the thousands of unskilled
labOrers needed by the railroads TO ex-
tend their mileage and TO keep their
tracks IN order-nOt forgetting the other
thousands employed on New York's barge
canal and the really vast municipal i'm
provements going on in nearly every city
in the land-that have made it possible TO
absorb the unprecedented current immi-
grafton
II was the great cry for help from the
railroads that made it a physical impos-
sibility for uncounted farmers. North,
East. South. and West, to harvest all
their corn and cotton their wheat and
potatoes and hay last fall. The tight
money market is largely due to the enor-
nous sums Of currency which the rail-
roads have had to use, and are still
using, TO pay wages with. though certain
men in Wall street have contributed to
the situation. and so has the need OF
much money TO move the crops" But
without the current vast wage payments
the manipulatOrs would have had little
chance 10 push up the rate as they have
The Canadian railroads have been as
hard put TO 1t for help as those in the
United States. The Canadian Pacific has
found il so difficult TO get graders. track
laborers, and other unsllilled help" that
it has taken 10 importing HindOOs-nOt
coolies, but men Of better grades. Scant
news Of this move has reached the Unit
ed states. though a paragraph did go
the rounds not long ago telling OF the
death from cold Of some of these sons Of
midas sunny cline, who had been trans
ported 10 Canada's bleak shores I have
no complete figures by me. but the first
shipment Of HindOOs to Vancouver 10
be set al work on the railroad numbered
300 or 400. Many OF then. lad been in some
sort Of Indian military service. Canada's
exclusion laws were not enforced so rig
OrOusly against the East Indians as they
have been against Americans imported
into the Dominion 20 do a higher grade
Of railroad work; less than 10 per cent of
tho Hindo0s We're turned back, and they
were rejected because of insufficient
physique. or poor heaIth-not because Of
the contract labor laws
An official Of the Canadian Pacific Rail
road told me the other day that these
men are slender, tall, without fat. and
good workers, although lacking some
what the stamina, as compared with
white men. They get S165 day. Their
lodging, in bunk cars or In shacks built
by the railroad, Is thrown in. They have
10 buy their own food which is cooked
by their own cooks. There are Brah-
Minis, Sikhs, and Mohammedans aronz
them. Compared with what they can
earn in India their pay is enormous. The
deaths from the Canadian cold. he said.
had been caused mainly by the lack Of
warm clothing. This, he added. is not
the fault of the railroad company. how
ever; it has been its policy TO furnish
them with heavy. warm clothing immedi-
ately on their landing at Vancouver.
but not being accustomed to the cum
brous garb necessary in this climate.