Introduction
As the nineteenth century was ending, many of the noble men in America were not in politics but private business. The profitability and allure of money attracted most American individuals into the private economy. The industrial revolution had just hit the high gear. Ingenious and talented men opted for profits rather than politics.
The growth of the American economy through the industrial revolution, however, carried a myriad of challenges as well as opportunities for the American people. For one, the Americans experienced an increasing demand for labor as the economy continued to boom. Consequently, unprecedented growth was realized in terms of industrial development in America. One of the most notable infrastructural developments of the 19th century was the outburst of railroad construction.
The booming economy pushed the labor demand so high that, immigrant labor pools had to be brought in to fill the labor gaps. Among the many immigrants coming to American during the industrial revolution were the Chinese. The Chinese immigrants were crucial in the construction of America’s railroad network. The focus of this essay is on the importance of immigrant labor pools during the construction of American railroads and more so the Chinese immigrants.
Role of Chinese Immigrant Workers
Between the year 1880 and 1920, a staggering twenty-five million foreigners had immigrated to America. The races of the immigrants were diverse, and thus, they did posit challenges as well as opportunities for the American nation. The Transcontinental Railroad is among the most expensive infrastructural ventures undertaken in the 19th century.
In the raging American Civil War, Congress went ahead to authorize the construction of one of America’s most ambitious projects: the construction of the transcontinental railway in 1862. However, the cost of constructing the railroad and the nature and topography of the country lowered the chances of completing the project in good time.
The central Pacific, one of the companies that had won the contract, faced the challenge of putting in place a railroad that would cut across the Sierra Nevada. The task was enormous, risky and expensive, and that made it increasingly impossible to find laborers. The company faced a great labor shortage with a mere 600 workers tuning up in 1864 against the advertised 5,000 positions.
For the workers that had turned up, they were highly unreliable. In 1865, Central Pacific decided to take a risk by trying out a new labor pool. Having in mind that the Chinese had constructed the Great Wall of China, Charles Rocker convinced the company to employ Chinese immigrants. Following the civil turmoil in China, a great number of Chinese populations had already moved to America (Chen 66). This meant that they were available in large numbers and thus would help fill the labor gap that railroad companies were experiencing. Looking at the working conditions of the Chinese laborers, they received a monthly income of 26-35 dollars a month and worked for twelve hours a day for six days of the week.
The workers also had to find their own food and provide their own tents. On the contrary, the American workers received a 35-dollar salary a month, and shelter and food were provided abundantly. Within a span of two years, the Chinese immigrant workers had earned the reputation of being patient, industrious, economical and extraordinarily reliable (Huang 86).
One of the core reasons for the necessity of immigrant labor pools was the positive impact they had in terms of minimizing costs. The numerous labor movements of the 19th century had long helped the American citizens establish better-working conditions and minimum wages for their labor.
This was, however, not applicable to the immigrant workers and thus, most companies opted to use the immigrant workers. They were among the lowest paid and worked under the harshest conditions such long working hours. This exploitation was one way that industrial companies used in minimizing the costs of operation (Wang 34).
For most immigrants, the 19th century was filled with great hardships and challenges. From hatred to racism and legislative changes, immigrants greatly suffered in pursuit of the American dream. The Great Gatsby captures some of the incidences of racial discrimination that immigrants went through. For instance, Tom was very hateful and wary of the outsiders; he was a believer of the Nordic race and was strongly convinced that the whites had to be superior (Scott 84, 106).
These examples of the racism in the Great Gatsby highlight the overall mindset and attitudes that the American people held in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Upon the completion of the construction of the railroads, a number of the Chinese workers traveled back to China while a significant population stayed in America.
They found new opportunities in the mining, agricultural and construction sectors. The populations that chose to stay would go ahead and establish the Chinatowns in San Francisco, Sacramento and other smaller towns in the Sierras. The settlement of Chinese immigrants into American towns and even domestic way of life had numerous impacts on the American nation. For one, the population increased tremendously in the local towns in which they settled, raising challenges of diseases outbreaks and housing shortages.
The nature of the work was grueling and accomplished largely by hand. Hammers, pickaxes, and crowbars were the tools available for the chipping of the rail beds. The removal of rock and gravel was accomplished using carts and baskets. The most treacherous part of the entire railbed was during the curving of the valley that jutted up over 2000 feet above the valley. The immigrants were lowered into the valley using baskets and ropes to insert explosives (Huang 72).
The nature of the rail bed-curving job was characterized by avalanches, explosions, and accidents that left over one thousand Chinese migrants dead. The organization and industrious nature of the Chinese laborers turned out to be a great asset in the construction of the railroads. Working in conditions that most American and European workers had turned down and with the lowest wages, the Chinese were not only a necessity in the construction of the American railroad network but also the most crucial component of the construction process.
Although food and shelter were provided to the American workers, the Chinese were denied such privileges. In as much as such incidents depicted exploitation and discrimination against the Chinese workers, the company saw it as a way of minimizing costs and maximizing efficiency. Since most of the Chinese workers were from Guangdong province, which was a farming dominated region, most of the workers were illiterate and thus vulnerable to the exploitations of the construction companies.
Immigration was thus, the source of cheap and plentiful labor that was playing a crucial role in growing the American economy. Poverty, the spread of diseases and increased incidences of crime and violence would further dent the relationship between the immigrants and Native Americans. Immigrants bore the brand of being the cause of increased violence and disease outbreaks.
The increasing population resulted in increased resentment of the immigrants, the Chinese included. Segregation began to rise, and it was practiced openly by the white Americans who deemed themselves superior and all the other immigrants inferior. The hard-earned migrant status of the Chinese workers in their role of constructing the transcontinental railroad would be repaid through discrimination and racial violence (Chen 111). Various discriminative legislations were passed to limit the freedom of immigrant workers in America. In California, for example, Chinese immigrants were barred from appearing in court as witnesses, which meant that they endured long bouts of injustice.
Conclusion
The analysis of the role played by the Chinese immigrants in the railroad industry depicts the degree of their importance to the American railroad network. By enduring the hard and torturous conditions of the job, the Chinese workers managed to accomplish the American project of the transcontinental railway. In regards to their necessity in the construction of the American railroad network, one realizes that it was the sheer effort and perseverance of the Chinese laborers that brought the project to fruition. Despite the low wages and hard working conditions, the Chinese connected the American nation from corner to corner through their involvement in the construction sector. The greatest reason behind their success in the American construction is that they allowed companies to minimize hugely their costs of operation since they worked for wages much lower than the minimum.
Works Cited
Chen, Jack. The Chinese of America. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1980. Print.
Hoerder, Dirk. American Labor and Immigration History, 1877-1920s: Recent European Research. Urbana: University of Illinois P, 1983. Print.
Huang, Annian. The Silent Spikes: Chinese Laborers and the Construction of North American Railroads. Beijing: China Intercontinental Press, 2006. Print.
Scott, Francis. The Great Gatsby. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1986.
Wang, Xinyang. Surviving the City: The Chinese Immigrant Experience in New York City, 1890-1970. Lanham, Md. [u.a.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2001. Print.
