Smuggling at the Railroad Tracks
A local man is held on charges for attempting to smuggle 32 Chinese immigrants via rail boxcar.
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.
United States Commissioner Emery yesterday disposed of another batch of the Chinese caught in the box car last week and ordered them deported. He also examined Charles Dilloway, the white man arrested with the Chinese and who was in charge of them, and held him to appear before the United States grand jury under $2,500 bonds. The maximum punishment for aiding the unlawful bringing into the country of Chinese is one year in the penitentiary and $1,000 fine. As there were thirty-two Chinese he was helping, he is liable to be punished for each one of them. He practically pleaded guilty to the charge.
“As there were thirty-two Chinese he was helping, he is liable to be punished for each one of them.”
This event took place during the height of the Chinese Exclusion Act era, illustrating how state machinery was aggressively used to police borders. The use of rail infrastructure for smuggling reflects the deep history of human movement through Washington’s transit corridors and the legal precarity experienced by immigrants at the time.
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