The Foreign Invasion of the Northwest

      CASH to the amount of half a million dollars a month for the past eighteen months has been retired from circulation by foreign laborers in the state of Washington alone. The amount in the three states which form the real Pacific Northwest—Idaho, Washington and Oregon — have easily aggregated a million dollars a month. It is upon this fact that the white, native-born workingman has so bitterly reflected when paid a decreased wage in script.

      Until railroad construction ceased in the late fall, between 13,000 and 15,000 foreigners, mainly from southern Europe and Asia, were employed by the day in Washington alone. When to these are added the aliens employed on the St. Paul system in Idaho, the Portland and Seattle, the North Coast and the Blackwell lines, and the constant outreaching of the electric inter-urbans of the three states, the aggregate for the Northwest may conservatively be placed at from 25,000 to 30,000.

      These men have been paid wages ranging from $1.50 and $1.75 a day for section repair hands to $2.50 and $2.75 for graders and loggers. They have saved an average of about $30 a man every month throughout the greater part of last summer. These savings have not been stored away for safekeeping in any bank or invested—real-estate loans were bringing 10 per cent, in the Northwest in November—but have been kept in the conventional "old sock" or taken to the nearest post-office and exchanged for postal money-orders.

      If there is any form of money which is desired above all others by the foreigners in the Northwest, it is the little blue sheet which Uncle Sam issues in the post-office.

      At the first opportunity that the men have to quit camp, they send their entire savings across the seas or invest in a money-order payable only to themselves, and rest content. Banks may fail, but the foreigner quickly learns to trust the Government.

      It is no uncommon thing in Coeur d'Alène, Ida., Spokane, Walla Walla, or North Yakima, Wash., or Portland, Ore., to see a score or two of swarthy foreigners in overalls standing in line in the money-order department of the post-office.


A BABEL OF TONGUES

      The labor situation in the Northwest is complicated. Norway, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Bohemia, Hungary, Finland, Russia, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, Roumania, Turkey, Poland, Holland, Japan, China, India, Africa, Australia, the Oceanic Islands, and the Pacific Islands, each furnished to the 1900 census immigrants in excess of 1,200— Hungary fewest, China and Japan a practical tie for most. Bohemia sent almost as many native-born sons and daughters to Washington, Idaho, and Oregon as did New York; there were as many that had been born in Turkey or in Portugal as born in Illinois; while practically as many were born in the Oceanic Islands as in Iowa. The aggregate population of the three states of the Pacific Northwest in 1900 was a little over one million. More than one-eighth were natives of Japan, China, and India. With a population of 413,000, Oregon had within its borders between 35,000 and 40,000 Chinese. Washington had the same number of Japanese in its population of 518,000. Notwithstanding the immigration restrictions, it is highly probable that the number of Chinese is larger to-day than it was in 1900, while the flood of Japanese has been enormous.

      Within the last eighteen months a new element has been injected into the labor situation: southern Europe has greatly increased its contribution. Foremost among the immigrants have been Austrians Italians, Greeks, and Montenegrins.

      Up to two years ago, Montenegrins were scarce, but at least 3,000 of them settled in Washington within eighteen months. The natives and the assimilated foreigners looked in wonder at the first swarthy newcomers. "Who are they?" was the question. "Montenegrins," came the reply. The word suffered by repetition and has become two words; and the newcomers are known throughout the Northwest as "mountain niggers."

      Even that unfortunate little empire of Korea has contributed its quota, but their close resemblance to the Japanese has enabled the Koreans to escape detection. A colony of eight Koreans lived unnoticed in Spokane for some months until they disclosed themselves on the visit of Mr. Homer D. Hulbert, who had spent twenty-one years in Korea. They had been employed mainly as cooks, though some were university graduates.


THE COMING EUROPEAN PROBLEM

      Much has been heard lately of the Japanese, the Chinese, and the Hindus in the Northwest, but the people from southern Europe are as much a problem as those from Asia. While labor has been plentiful and wages high, the native-born Americans have scorned such menial work as railroad-grading and logging. When carpenters are paid $5 a day and can scarcely be had even at that price, and when errand-boys in department stores receive $1.50 a day, the American workingmen are not going to bother their heads about any problem involving foreigners willing to work at cutting down mountains for new railroads at $2.50 for a nine-hour day. It was only when the financial flurry caused work to be shut down in some sections and cash was unobtainable in practically all sections, that the native-born white man began to trouble himself about the labor situation. He awakened one morning to find the banks intact, but cash withdrawn from circulation. On Saturday night his employer handed him a new kind of money, which he took with suspicion, for all paper money is shunned in the Northwest. He demanded gold or silver, but nothing was to be had but cashiers' checks and clearing-house certificates. Then he remembered that while he had been enjoying prosperity, the forgotten and despised foreigner had been receiving three gold double-eagles a month and laying aside two of them.

      "We've all got our theories," said the employment agent, who found time hanging heavily on his hands for the first time in years, because there were no situations to fill, although plenty of unemployed. "I'll tell you what's the trouble with us: too much prosperity. We've been so excited getting good wages and spending them that we forgot all about the 'mountain nigger' and the Jap and the Dago putting away $50 a month in cash.

      Now they've got the money or have sent it home, and we're paying fabulous discount rates to get it back and are living on paper that may not be worth any more to-morrow than the ink it's printed with." Fortunately, the banks of the Northwest, with a few minor exceptions, have weathered the storm. But when the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company, early in November, announced that the wages of section-hands would be cut from $1.50 a day to $1.20, and that the day's hours would be increased from eight to nine, and when the St. Paul and other systems laid off thousands of men, while building operations were practically at a standstill pending the quieting down of the money-market and the shipping of the crops, the native-born white laborer came to share the views of the employment agent. The aliens did not care particularly; they moved to a new field or, with a few hundred or a thousand dollars hidden away on their persons, went back to their homelands, to live the rest of their lives in comfort, or to return when work again becomes more plentiful than men.

      Meanwhile the foreigners continue to come, for the news of "hard times" has not yet reached the remote districts of Europe and Asia. There is much railroad construction work yet to be done in the Northwest. With the coming of spring there will be plenty of work for all. This winter, however, there is likely to be some suffering and much quiet thinking over the situation, which may not be so quiet if it is aggravated again in the near future.

      During the past summer interesting glimpses of the foreign labor element could be had in the employment agencies in town or at the grading or logging camps in the country. As a rule, nationalities clanned together, refusing work which took them away from their fellows. The high-priced work in new fields— railroad grading for new lines, in particular, tunnelling through mountains, filling up cañons, blasting down great hills—was seized eagerly by the Austrians, tempted by the wage of $2.50 to $2.75 a day and taking no thought for the permanency of the situation. It might be for a day, a week, or a month; the Austrian cared not. He turned his back on the permanent, lower-priced jobs and struck out into the wilderness, always with his countrymen. On the other hand, the Italians and the Greeks preferred the steady, lower-priced jobs and watched the Austrians without envy; they were content to become section-repairers on an established track for $1.50 a day and have work all the year round. The "mountain niggers" were a class by themselves. They were neither so adventurous as the Austrians nor so far-seeing as the Italians. They were slow to make up their minds. On the first day, they inquired if jobs were to be had; on the second, they asked for particulars; on the third, they inquired about wages and directions for reaching the place; on the fourth or fifth, having argued together far into the preceding nights, they were ready to talk business. They wavered between high prices and low, but for the most part followed the Austrians into the wilderness.

      Of all these newcomers from southern Europe, the great majority went to railroad and logging camps, to work until they had saved up enough money to make them comfortable at home. They were classed always as the floating population. Very few went into business in the city. Italian push-cart men are scarce in Spokane, Seattle, and Portland. A few opened up saloons or lodging houses, but usually they sought day-labor and nothing else. Among the aristocrats, saloon keeping attracted the largest number. In Spokane alone there are to-day twenty-five Italian saloons, catering exclusively to Italian trade. Within the past year one Greek and eight Austrian saloons have been opened.


THE UNDESIRABLE HINDU

      In the late fall still another element was injected into the labor situation. Driven out of Bellingham and other places on the Sound, the Hindu wandered down into eastern Oregon and Washington and northern Idaho. He was proud, high-caste, dirty, and dignified. He found himself looked on with suspicion, until it was realized what a harmless animal he was. He lived in tumble-down "shacks" which a white man, even from southern Europe, would have spurned; and there he prepared his own meals, with prayer, in the midst of filth that kept the curious away. His thoughts turned always toward Vancouver, where his people and his church were. At first he seldom went out on the street in daylight; the memory of Bellingham was strong. But as the days passed, he began to haunt the employment agencies— at first denying that work was wanted; later, with great, oxen-like, brown eyes imploring work. He was tried but soon found wanting.

      It will be a long time before the Hindu becomes a vital factor in the labor situation of the Northwest. He cannot do the work; he is not wanted even by employers looking for the cheapest labor. The Hindu is physically weak and the work of the Northwest is for men of great strength or endurance.

AUSTRIANS AS RAILROAD SECTION HANDS
They make $2.50 a day and save half of it. They do not mix with the rest of the population

      The Northwest has always the Chinese and the Japanese. The former was vindicated long ago; the latter is more unpopular today than ever before, yet he is considered by far the most desirable laborer by the railroad contractors, who have tried all kinds. He does not overwork himself, but he works steadily; he sticks by the job until he has amassed as much money as he desires, no matter how hard the work or how long the hours. Whether it be in the sugar-beet fields of Idaho and Washington, or along the road-bed of "Jim" Hill's railroad, he is to be found in large numbers—small, swarthy, silent, working steadily, thinking all the time but wielding pick, axe, or hoe with clock-like regularity. He knows that the tide of feeling is rising against him, but he says nothing. On last Fourth of July he showed his diplomatic long-headedness by parading the streets of Spokane and of one or two other cities in large numbers, carrying American flags and shouting " Banzais" for the American Independence Day.

      But the enthusiasm was confined to the marchers; the native-born Americans stood on the sidewalk and watched in silence. They imagined that they understood the cause of this display of Japanese patriotism.

      CALLING THE CHINESE BACK

      From having shut out the Chinaman, lynched him, and called him all manner of hard names, the Northwest has come to want more of him.

JAPANESE CULTIVATING SUGAR BEETS IN IDAHO
In spite of their capacity for work, they are more unpopular in the Northwest than any other race

      He has not entered into competition with the white laborer, though what the changed condition of affairs may bring forth remains to be seen. Vending his garden-truck, washing the family linen, doing the menial housework, the Chinaman has plodded along. Whether it be preparing the salmon for the can at Astoria and on the Columbia, or working the placer mines near the international line, the Chinamen has gone ahead at the task set for him, hour after hour, with no regard for union restrictions —machine-like, faithful, persistent.

      The employer of labor who drove him away ten years ago has changed his mind. For many years the city of Tacoma has been bereft of the Chinaman. The Tacomans arose in their might a decade or two ago and drove out every wearer of the pigtail, bag and baggage. To-day there is one Chinese merchant, but not another Celestial, in the city of 80,000. Now the employers want the Chinaman back. The Tacoma Chamber of Commerce has resolved in his favor, but the Tacoma labor unions have jealously guarded their interests and the Chinaman has been kept out of Tacoma.

WHERE NO CHINESE ARE ALLOWED
Murray, Ida., the leading town in the Coeur d'Alène mining district

      The Coeur d'Alène mining district has done likewise. So long as the shallow placers held out, after the original discovery a quarter of a century ago, the majority of the miners stayed with the diggings; when these began to get lean, the claim-owners attempted to turn them over to the Chinamen. This was so bitterly opposed by the citizens of Murray— the leading Coeur d'Alène camp—and by the wage-earners of the district that, after an indignation meeting and an election, the attempt was given up; no Chinamen have since been allowed in the Coeur d'Alènes.

THE TYPES OF HINDUS IN THE NORTHWEST
Physically they are unfit for the hard labor of opening a new country

      Later an attempt was made by "Dutch Jake," now the wealthy proprietor of the far-famed Coeur d'Alène saloon and music hall of Spokane, to place Chinamen on Lower Pritchard Creek, in Idaho. He personally brought in six; a public meeting was promptly held, a committee appointed lo inform the Celestials that the Coeur d'Alènes was no place for them, and "Dutch Jake" lost little time in getting them to the river and floating them back to Spokane and safety. Employers throughout the Northwest have reached the same conclusion as the Tacoma Chamber of Commerce and "Dutch Jake," but the Chinaman is still persona non grata at ports of entry. He reaches the country, but by devious ways. He secures the passport of a home-returned brother and impersonates him in the land of plenty until he also can turn homeward and his place be taken by a third; or he evades the watchful officers along the international line and comes down from Canada. Sometimes he escapes from a vessel coming up the Sound or the Columbia's estuary to Tacoma, Seattle, or Portland; but this is rare, for vigilant sea-captains, knowing the heavy fine to which they are liable, watch their "Chinks" during shore-stay with careful eye.

HINDUS AT BELLlNGHAM, WASH.
Awaiting the train for Vancouver, B. C., after the race riot

      The foreignizing of the Northwest has been going on practically ever since it was opened up to settlement and its possibilities were realized. But the situation has taken a new turn within recent months, thanks to the influx from southern Europe and to the changed conditions due to the financial flurry. There were none but Chinamen and Japanese to be bothered about before; to-morrow there will be the "mountain nigger," the Austrian, the Italian, the Greek, the Hindu, people from all over the globe; and each of these different peoples presents a new and difficult problem for the American of the Northwest, for none of them has ever been successfully assimilated by an Anglo-Saxon country.