A Hypocritical Banquet
Local lumber magnates lobby against foreign labor only to hire Japanese staff for a high-society dinner.
The Washington Lumbermen were very anxious a few months ago to secure the support of the various unions that are engaged in the lumber industry to send protests to Congress to protect the workingmen from having to compete with Orientals if the tariff on lumber and shingles was lowered. How soon they forget, for only last week some of the Everett manufacturers gave a banquet in the Mitchell Hotel Cafe and it was prepared by Japanese labor.
“How soon they forget, for only last week some of the Everett manufacturers gave a banquet in the Mitchell Hotel Cafe and it was prepared by Japanese labor.”
This 1909 hypocrisy highlights a long-standing tension in the Pacific Northwest: the willingness of industry leaders to weaponize xenophobia for political lobbying while simultaneously exploiting the same marginalized labor pools for their own private gain.
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