<Begin Segment 18>

SF: How would you describe how the white crews...?

TS: They worked just enough not to get fired, I think. [Laughs] They didn't have that competitive -- you know how Nisei, my God, you start puttin' in ties and then you're racing all the time. But, it made the job fun, I think.

SF: Did they ever -- did you ever have kind of a competition between different crews, like just happened to be that a Japanese crew would be pitted -- would be laying track alongside a white crew or something, or the boss...?

TS: Yeah, we would...

SF: ...would tell you...

TS: Yeah, we've done -- where they combined two gangs on the bigger job. I recall one time puttin' in ties. And the ties are put in by pairs of laborers, two guys puttin' in one tie in pairs. And we were mixed up with a white gang. And the way we worked, the Nisei and the Issei, soon as you completed your job and done, why we -- you'd move ahead to set up another, put in another tie up ahead the rest -- just keep moving. But we noticed that, with the white gangs, why they would move in turns until the last (pair) put in (their) tie -- if you happened to put in a tie ahead of him, those two guys would just stand there, or the three pairs, and wait for the (pair) at the very end to put his tie in and move ahead. Then they'd all move. So when we were put together, hell, we put a quarter mile gap, I think, the way we did. You know there was holes. Be one white guy, a pair at work putting in ties, and be two or three rail lines about 40, 50 feet, and then another one of those guys, and then another one. And then bunch, bunch of, up ahead, all the Niseis were just puttin' in ties and gettin' done moving ahead. That's just the pattern of work. You can't blame 'em, because that's the way they are.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.