The New England Hotel's Ban
A local hotel owner strikes a blow against Chinese labor, signaling a rising tide of xenophobic economic policy in the Pacific Northwest.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
L. C. Harmon, of the New England Hotel in this city, is the first and only landlord who has determined to run his establishment without the aid of Chinese cheap labor. To this end he has discharged all the Chinese employed about the house, even including those in the laundry, which is now run by a white woman. This is a stride in the right direction. If all would follow the example of Mr. Harmon it would require no note or labor meetings to rid the country of the Mongolian vermin—they must have food like other animals; close the avenues of employment to them and they must of necessity leave or starve, and it is very certain they will choose the former.
“Close the avenues of employment to them and they must of necessity leave or starve.”
This 1870s-era clipping captures the virulent anti-Chinese sentiment that eventually culminated in the Seattle riot of 1886. Today, we view this rhetoric as a stark reminder of how economic insecurity has historically been weaponized to target immigrant labor, a pattern that still haunts modern debates on housing and workforce competition in Seattle.
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