If it were competition between white labor. the problem would not be so difficult. The greater efficiency of the American sailor. like that of the operative in our cotton factories and our factories for making machinery and agricultural implements. would in a measure compensate for the higher wages received and enable the shipowner. as the cotton manufacturer and the maker of machinery and agricultural implements. to meet European competition. But it is not Caucasian competition. it is Asiatic competition. especially on the Pacific and largely in our South American trade. because. whether the ship in those waters is a Japanese. English. or German ship. as a rule it is largely manned by Chinese or Japanese sailors. willing to work for a price at which a white man would starve. By our immigration laws we have protected American labor on the mainland against Asiatic competition. but these beneficent laws do not extend to the high seas. The ocean is free. and upon it everybody is equal. It is a great and difficult problem. which will grow more pressing as the years go by.
Identified stereotypes
Asiatic laborers are willing to work for starvation wages, undercutting American workers.