Japanese Laborers Defy Armed Extortion at Ashford
Contracted workers at the Tacoma Eastern rail site force a confrontation over predatory wage deductions and fees.
Deputy Sheriff McCulloch returned yesterday from the scene of the Japanese labor disturbance near Ashford on the Tacoma Eastern line. The trouble arose over a poll tax being deducted from their wages. About 40 or 50 Japanese men cornered the paymaster and would have taken the poll-tax out of his hide had not the deputy sheriff protected him. These laborers were required to pay 10 cents each per month to a Contractor Remington, who secured the work for them, and this additional $2 tax was the last straw. The moving spirit of the disturbance was a laborer from the Vancouver fisheries who was eager to recruit these men to leave the job. As a result, the paymaster and about 20 more laborers quit work and returned to Tacoma, intending to travel to Vancouver.
“About 40 or 50 Japs cornered the paymaster and would have taken the poll-tax out of his hide had not the deputy sheriff protected him.”
This 1904 incident highlights the exploitative 'middleman' labor contracting systems common in early Washington, where migrant workers were subject to systematic wage theft by labor bosses. It serves as a stark reminder of the volatile conditions under which the region's early infrastructure, such as the railroad to Ashford and Mount Rainier, was constructed.
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