A Sworn Defense of Labor Practices
When a county commissioner faced accusations regarding his hiring practices, he gathered a legal affidavit from six neighbors to prove he only ever hired white labor.
State of Washington, County of Snohomish, SS. J. W. Hall, A. B. Klaeboe, D. G. Pearson, Geo. J. Ketchum, Iver Johnson and H. A. Bafstad, being first duly sworn on oath each for himself and not one for the other, says: That he has known A. L. Willhite, the present county commissioner from the first commissioner district of Snohomish county, Washington, for a period of twenty years, and that affiants knew the occupation of said Willhite to be a common laborer for seven years and for the last thirteen years affiants have known him to be a farmer near Stanwood, in said Snohomish county, and that during this time the said A. L. Willhite never employed or leased to any other but white labor.
“the said A. L. Willhite never employed, leased to any other but white labor.”
This affidavit highlights the rampant anti-Asian sentiment in early 20th-century Washington, where public officials often had to actively distance themselves from immigrant labor to survive politically. It serves as a stark historical artifact of the era's exclusionary labor politics in Snohomish County.
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