An Insult to Scandinavian Workers
Community groups in Seattle and Tacoma rally against a Portland councilman who proposed barring immigrants from public contract work.
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 Norwegian Singing Society, composed of seventy members, and the Norwegian-Danish Young People’s Literary Society Fremad, containing 300 members, have adopted resolutions heartily condemning Councilman L. M. Davis, of Portland, for his well-advertised remark regarding the letting of a certain contract. He said: 'If the contract were let to a rich corporation they would employ Scandinavians, negroes and Chinese. It would be better to leave the matter as it is till spring and let white men have the benefit of the work.' Both societies brand the remark as an insult to every citizen of Scandinavian birth and denounce the author in vigorous terms. Similar action was taken at Tacoma last night by the Scandinavian-Americans of that city, who denounced the Portland demagogue in scathing terms.
“Both societies brand the remark as an insult to every citizen of Scandinavian birth and denounce the author in vigorous terms.”
This reflects the volatile labor politics of the 1890s, where nativist rhetoric was frequently used to pit immigrant groups against one another to drive down wage expectations, a tactic that would continue to shape PNW labor history for decades.
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