A Rising Tide of Xenophobia in Everett
A hateful editorial in the Labor Journal attacks local immigrants from Southern Europe, blaming them for the city’s economic struggles.
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.
Four hundred dollars a day for every day in the year going from the local colony of Greeks back to the old country. And yet we wonder what is the matter with Everett. Huddled together like a swarm of bees in unsanitary houses; crowding out the man of family and respectability in the common labor market; constantly encroaching on the lines of small business; making business for the police court with their quarrels and brawls. Yet the business men of Everett sit idly by and do nothing, say nothing (out loud) while this army of undesirables from Southern Europe spread themselves like a black cloud over our community. How long, oh Lord, how long?
“This army of undesirables from Southern Europe spread themselves like a black cloud over our community.”
This excerpt documents the virulent anti-immigrant sentiment present in the early 20th-century labor press. It serves as a stark reminder of how economic insecurity was—and remains—frequently weaponized to target immigrant communities.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.