The Labor Crisis of 1878: Seattle’s Economic Anxiety
As unemployment rises in the Pacific Northwest, a local reader takes to the press to rail against the displacement of white laborers by Chinese workers, foreshadowing the intense economic tensions that would define the era.
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.
I am somewhat surprised at the inconsistent tone which have lately been published in Seattle papers, regarding the Chinese question. These papers have all along taken the ground that the employment of coolie labor was damaging to our interests, and now are coming out with long but flimsy arguments in favor of building the proposed extension of the S. & W. R. R. with Chinese labor, offering as a reason that white men cannot be procured. What excuse can be made for an assertion of this kind when there are so many persons in this Territory today who are out of employment, are willing to work, and many of whom have families dependent upon them for support? Neither is it consistent in them to say that there is not enough of these men in our Territory to do the work when it is known to every person who reads the papers that in California there are thousands of able-bodied men who have been compelled to live on the public charity. The only excuse which can be offered is this: these men have not the means to bring them to this Territory. Shall this, then, be a sufficient reason for us to leave our own countrymen to beg, steal or starve, while we see the wealthy Chinamen organized in companies for the purpose of finding employment for their working classes? It seems to me if we have not humanity enough left to reach forth our hands to help our weaker brothers, we had best give up our boasted civilization.
“Shall this, then, be a sufficient reason for us to leave our own countrymen to beg, steal or starve?”
This 1878 letter captures the exact moment economic anxiety turned into the exclusionary rhetoric that dominated Seattle politics for decades. Today, the debate has shifted from excluding migrant labor to managing the impacts of rapid growth, but the fear of being 'priced out' or replaced by cheaper, outside competition remains a recurring ghost in Seattle’s labor history.
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