Editing First transcontinental railroad (section)

===Labor and wages===
{{Hatnote|See this list for names of [[List of Union Pacific railroad civil engineers (1863–1869)|Union Pacific civil engineers]] (1863–1869)}}
{{See also|Chinese Labor Strike of 1867}}

Many of the [[civil engineer]]s and surveyors who were hired by the Union Pacific had been employed during the [[American Civil War]] to repair and operate the over {{convert|2000|mi|km}} of railroad line the [[U.S. Military Railroad]] controlled by the end of the war. The Union Pacific also utilized their experience repairing and building [[truss bridge]]s during the war.<ref>{{cite book |title=Military Bridges: With Suggestions for New Expedients and Constructions for Crossing Streams and Chasms; Including, Also, Designs for Trestle and Truss Bridges for Military Railroads, Adapted Especially to the Wants of the Service in the United States |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vKZBAAAAIAAJ&pg=PP9 |access-date=August 1, 2013 |via=[[Google Books]] |last1 = Haupt|first1 = Herman|year = 1864}}</ref> Most of the semi-skilled workers on the Union Pacific were recruited from the many soldiers discharged from the [[Union Army|Union]] and [[Confederate Army|Confederate]] armies along with emigrant [[Irish Americans|Irishmen]].<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/tcrr-uprr/ Workers of the Union Pacific Railroad] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170323071331/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/tcrr-uprr/ |date=March 23, 2017 }} accessed March 28, 2013.</ref>

[[File:San Francisco Pacific Railroad Bond WPRR 1865.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|right|Pacific Railroad Bond, City and County of San Francisco, 1865]]
After 1864, the Central Pacific Railroad received the same Federal financial incentives as the Union Pacific Railroad, along with some construction bonds granted by the state of California and the city of San Francisco. The Central Pacific hired some Canadian and European civil engineers and surveyors with extensive experience building railroads, but it had a difficult time finding semi-skilled labor. Most Caucasians in California preferred to work in the mines or agriculture. The railroad experimented by hiring local emigrant Chinese as manual laborers, many of whom were escaping the poverty and terrors of the war (especially the [[Punti–Hakka Clan Wars]]) in the [[Siyi|Sze Yup districts]] in the [[Pearl River Delta]] of [[Guangdong]] province in China.<ref name="Chang Fishkin 2019">{{cite book |last1=Chang |first1=Gordon H |last2=Fishkin |first2=Shelley Fisher |title=The Chinese and the iron road: Building the transcontinental railroad |date=2019 |publisher=Stanford University Press |location=Stanford, CA |isbn=978-1503608290}}</ref>{{rp|7}}<ref name="chang">{{cite book |last1=Chang |first1=Gordon H |title=Ghosts of Gold Mountain: The epic story of the Chinese who built the transcontinental railroad |date=2019 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |location=Boston |isbn=978-1328618573}}</ref>{{rp|15–37}} When they proved themselves as workers, the CPRR from that point forward preferred to hire Chinese, and even set up recruiting efforts in [[Guangdong|Canton]].<ref name="Kraus Chinese 1969"/> Despite their small stature<ref>Reef, Catherine "Working in America", p. 79. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2007.</ref> and lack of experience, the Chinese laborers were responsible for most of the heavy manual labor since only a very limited amount of that work could be done by animals, simple machines, or black powder. The railroad also hired some [[black people]] escaping the aftermath of the American Civil War.<ref>{{cite web |title=Picture of black workers on the CPR |url=http://cprr.org/Museum/Exhibit/_anthony_7148.html |access-date=May 1, 2013 }}</ref> Most of the [[Black people|black]] and white workers were paid $30 per month and given food and lodging. Most Chinese were initially paid $31 per month and provided lodging, but they preferred to cook their own meals. In 1867 the CPRR raised their wage to $35 (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|35|1867|fmt=c|r=-1}} in {{Inflation-year|US}}) per month after a strike.<ref name="Kraus Chinese 1969">{{cite journal |last=Kraus |first=George |title=Chinese Laborers and the Construction of the Central Pacific |journal=Utah Historical Quarterly |year=1969 |volume=37 |issue=1 |pages=41–57 |doi=10.2307/45058853 |jstor=45058853 |s2cid=254449682 |url=http://cprr.org/Museum/Last_Spike_is_Driven.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://cprr.org/Museum/Last_Spike_is_Driven.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Harris, Robert L., "The Pacific Railroad&nbsp;–&nbsp;Unopen". ''The Overland Monthly,'' September 1869. pp. 244–252.</ref><ref name=Crocker>{{cite book|title=Central Pacific Railroad: Statement Made to the President of the United States, and Secretary of the Interior, of the Progress of the Work|date=October 10, 1865|publisher=H.S. Crocker & Company|location=Sacramento|pages=12}}</ref> CPRR came to see the advantage of good workers employed at low wages: "Chinese labor proved to be Central Pacific's salvation."<ref name="white 2011">{{cite book |last1=White |first1=Richard |title=Railroaded: The transcontinentals and the making of modern America |date=2011 |publisher=W W Norton & Co |location=New York |isbn=978-0393061260 |quote=Chinese labor proved to be Central Pacific's salvation.}}</ref>{{rp|30}}