The low wages and poor working conditions associated with railroad construction appealed to few white labourers across North America during the mid-late nineteenth century. Contractors for the Central Pacific Railroad, the Mendocino Railroad, and the Canadian Pacific Railway all placed advertisements for white labour in respective local newspapers. The respond was typically minimal. An interview with the Mendocino Railroad contractor, Mr West Evans, revealed a lack of desire by white workers to take up railroad employment. The type of work that made up the bulk of railroad construction simply did not appeal. A transcript of the interview details why the contractor turned to Chinese labour to construct his railroad:
Q. Are you the West Evans who advertised extensively in a newspaper a year or two ago, for white laborers?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. What success did you meet with?
A. I got very few.
Q. How many did you advertise for?
A. I wanted a hundred.
Q. How many did you get?
A. Twenty or thirty. I sent more than a hundred up to work, but they would not work when they got there.
Q. For what reason?
A. They thought it was too hard work.
Q. Do you think there is a surplus of white laborers in the State?
A. I have not been able to employ it. I want men now and cannot get them.
Q. White men can do any work that the Chinamen could do?
A. Oh, yes; but, understand me, I tried to get white men to do this work and failed.1
Reference
1 Report of the Royal Commission on Chinese Immigration (Ottawa, 1885), xxii.
The Chinese Question 