The 'Dago' Question in Harbor Harbor Work
A fiery exchange between the Aberdeen Herald and an Italian resident sparks a local debate over whether immigrant labor or 'American citizens' should build the city's infrastructure.
In last week's Bulletin, E. Turaty wrote: 'In the last number of the Aberdeen Herald appeared the following: It does seem as though the government work of improving the Harbor could be done by Americans without getting a lot of Dagos for the purpose. I wish to characterize the above as a dirty fling for popular purposes and one that should be denounced by all fair-minded citizens. Those so-called Dagos are American subjects and are able and willing to work. The contractors need men to complete the work and those men have as much right to apply for work and get it as any other human being.' The Herald responded: 'We don't happen to know Mr. Turaty; but if he reads the Herald with any degree of regularity, then he is taking the labor of others, without rendering any equivalent; for he has never been a subscriber to the Herald. We must confess we do not understand what he means when he speaks of these people as American subjects. Every American is a sovereign. But if he means they are American citizens, then he has let his zeal run away with his facts: not one in five can show naturalization papers. And this is what the Herald stands on: government work should be done by American citizens, who should be paid fair wages for the doing.'
“Those so-called Dagos are American subjects and are able and willing to work... they are practically as good if not better citizens than that stamp of men who write such arrant nonsense.”
This 1893 exchange illustrates the deep-seated nativism that often accompanied major infrastructure projects in the Pacific Northwest. The language used reflects the era's exclusionary attitudes toward immigrant laborers, a struggle that remains a recurring, if uncomfortable, ghost in American labor history.
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