The Shadow of Exclusion in Tacoma
Years after the expulsion, a new conflict emerges as merchants look toward trade with Asia while local agitators hold the line against Chinese business.
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.
The Committee of Fifteen, which was the executive head of the movement resulting in the expulsion of the Chinese from Tacoma, has issued a statement that it will not endorse any proposition allowing a Chinese business house to be established in Tacoma, and will not be responsible for the consequences that may ensue in case said house should be brought here. This is the committee's reply to the agitation about allowing Chinese merchants to establish themselves here in connection with the Northern Pacific Orient steamship line. One business man remarked: 'If we expect to compete with the cities of the coast, we cannot shut out any class of people.' A trade unionist replied: 'We are ready to fight the Chinese just as long as we can.'
“We will keep them out as long as we can. When we see that we cannot keep them out any way, we shall let them come.”
The 'Committee of Fifteen' serves as a grim artifact of Tacoma's 1885 expulsion. This reporting reveals the ongoing civic friction between the economic ambition of global trade and the deep-seated, institutionalized xenophobia that defined the city's recovery and development for decades.
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