100 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
all or part of their season’s wages. That those in charge of the gang 
are well aware of what is going on is patent when it is stated that the 
men are not paid off until they return to the home port at the end of 
the season, and that no considerable claim on the wages due a worker 
can be paid unless the contractor or his agent knows what it is for. 
Sometimes when dealing with a canner who is insistent upon seeing — 
justice done to the members of the oriental gang, and the number of 
these is increasing rapidly, an effort is made to camouflage these 
gambling debts by charging them up on the books as clothing or 
goods furnished the worker. 
As a result of these evils, a number of the cannerymen have dis- 
continued the practice of making Chinese contracts and deal directly 
with their men. When this is done, it is but rare to hear of a strike 
due to food supplied, as the cannerymen, when the matter is put 
directly up to them, realize that the only way in which they can 
expect adequate work from their employees is by seeing that they 
are given the proper kind and quantity of food and that they operate 
under decent working and living conditions. 
A few of the cannerymen who still retain the old system endeavor 
to eradicate so far as possible the evils of it by a close supervision 
over the food supplied the men and by having a representative 
present at the season’s atl in order to see that no attempt is made 
to cheat the men out of their wages. Unfortunately, however, some 
of them feel that they have done their full duty when they have 
made a contract with someone, no matter what his financial responsi- 
bility may be, and have paid him the agreed upon sum at the end of 
the season, doubtless feeling that the rest is the concern alone of the 
men. 
In a very few instances the members of the oriental gang are still 
shoved into inadequate and insanitary quarters aboard ships, and 
at the canneries are housed in quarters which are a disgrace to any 
modern packing plant, but, fortunately, these conditions, as stated, 
prevail now with but comparatively few of the companies. The old 
‘‘China’’ house, in which was housed the whole oriental gang like 
rabbits in a warren, has been largely superseded by cottages, each 
housing from 8 to 16 men, and these are numerous enough to permit 
of the various nationalities flocking by themselves. Bathing facilities, 
with hot and cold water, are fairly common, and opportunities for 
washing clothing are frequent. 
FISHERIES OF BOUNDARY WATERS. 
Waters which form the boundaries between States or between 
nations, and in which fishing is carried on by the citizens of both, 
have almost always proved bones of contention, and the Pacific 
coast has been no exception to the rule. 
WASHINGTON AND OREGON. 
The Columbia River, which forms the boundary between Oregon 
and Washington, affords a typical example of the evils which can 
result from a division of responsibility between two States. For 
many years each State enacted laws regulating the fisheries of the 
river with very slight regard usually to laws already in force in the 
other State. As a result of this the fishermen transferred their 
