98 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
In Alaska and at a few places in the States Indians are employed 
in the canneries. In Alaska more would be employed if they could be 
secured. They make fair work people, but are rather unreliable about 
remaining through the season. 
CHINESE CONTRACT SYSTEM. 
Cannery labor is supplied largely through the contract system. 
In the large cities along the coast are agencies, mainly owned by 
Chinese, which make a specialty of furnishing labor for canning. 
In the agreement between the canning company and the contractor 
the company guarantees to pack a certain number of cases during 
the coming season, and the latter agrees to do all the work from 
the time the fish are delivered on the wharf until they are ready 
to ship at the end of the season for a certain fixed sum per case. 
Should the cannery pack more than the guaranteed number, which it 
usually does if possible, the excess has to be paid for at the rate per 
case already agreed upon, while if the pack for any reason should fall 
below the contract amount, the company must pay for the shortage 
the same as though they had been packed. The company transports 
the Chinese to the field of work and carries them to the home port at 
the end of the season. It provides them with a bunk house and fur- 
nishes fuel, water, and salt. The contractor sends along with each 
crew a ‘‘boss,”’ who has charge of the crew and furnishes their food, 
the company transporting this free. 
While this contract system met with favor from some of the can- 
nery men because it relieved them from the annoyance and trouble 
involved in hiring, working, and feeding their cannery gangs, others, 
and these the most farsighted, from the early days of the industry 
viewed it with suspicion and distrust and in a few instances refused 
to have anything to do with it. While the plan apparently met with 
no objection from the Chinese when they were the only ones engaged 
in the work, as soon as other races began to be employed disputes 
became common, and it is probable that to-day it is the most unpop- 
ular feature of the industry from the common workers’ standpoint, 
and mainly because of the abuses which have grown up in connection 
with it. 
Since the beginning of the present century there has been a steady 
expansion of the salmon-canning industry, with a consequent heavy 
demand for cannery labor. As a result of the operation of the Chinese- 
exclusion act during this period the number e Chinese available has 
been steadily declining; in fact, most of the Chinese now employed 
are mainly men well along in life, as the few comprised in the rising 
generation do not wish to follow in their fathers’ footsteps. As a 
result the oriental gang now comprises many nationalities. 
The great increase in the number of canneries during the period 
noted, with the resulting demand for labor, led to the introduction 
of other nationalities, more notably the Japanese, into the ranks of 
the Chinese contractors. Many of these operated with very little 
or no capital and when a bad season occurred they usually passed 
their losses, in whole or in part, onto their workers, usually by abscond- 
ing, and when the latter attempted to come back onto the owner of 
the plant the latter successfully pleaded the fact that he had made 
a contract with the contractor to do the work at a certain fixed sum 
