Defiance of the Chinese Exclusion Act
Local Chinese leaders organize to resist a federal registration mandate, warning of a potential 'wholesale deportation.'
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.
Major W. S. Harlan, deputy collector of internal revenue, reported yesterday that not a single Chinese resident in Seattle had applied to register under the new Chinese Exclusion Act. The law requires every Chinese person in the country to register by May or face deportation. Woo Gen, manager of Wo Chong & Co., stated that Chinese residents intend to test the constitutionality of the act in the Supreme Court. 'Not a Chinaman is going to register,' he said. He described the law, which mandates carrying certificates with attached photographs, as an 'outrage' and warned that many long-term residents who have lived in the country for twenty years would be unable to provide the witness proof required by the government to remain.
This reflects the ongoing resistance of the Chinese community during the height of the Exclusion era, a time when anti-immigrant legislation was used as a tool for systemic displacement in the Pacific Northwest.
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