One Thousand Men on the Grade, and Another Thousand Coming
Italian crews step off the train at Newport while the Idaho & Washington Northern pushes its extension south past Usk — the town's biggest payroll is a railroad that is still being built.
About 100 Italian laborers arrived in Newport on Thursday to go to work on the extension of the Idaho & Washington Northern. There are about 1000 men at work at the present time on the extension of the Idaho Washington Northern. It is expected that this number will be doubled by the first of May. A new contracting outfit started down the river Tuesday to begin work just south of Usk. The outfit drove through from Spokane. P. F. O'Neill has been appointed master mechanic of the Idaho Washington Northern, vice E. T. Fitz, resigned.
“There are about 1000 men at work at the present time on the extension of the Idaho Washington Northern. It is expected that this number will be doubled by the first of May.”
Newport's 1909 economy ran on a railroad grade, and the arrival of a hundred Italian laborers was the town's biggest employment story of the week. Substitute a pipeline, a data center or a highway project and the shape of the thing is unchanged: outside crews descend on a small town, money flows, and the workers themselves are the last to be asked what they think of the deal.
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