The 'Keep Out' Sign Over Snohomish
A local editor warns against the arrival of an agitator, reflecting the volatile labor politics of 1880s Washington Territory.
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.
Bro. Commercial, please be careful that you don't point their noses toward Snohomish when you 'hire them out.' We don't need them in our business. One of that kind came up here, and he is more than enough for the whole Sound country. There is a law in Brazil against the importation of negroes, in order to prevent the landing of slaves. As a Philadelphia contractor for building railroads in Brazil wishes to take with him colored laborers, Dom Pedro has made a concession in his favor, providing, however, that the colored men land as American citizens, furnished with passports.
“One of that kind came up here, and he is more than enough for the whole Sound country.”
This excerpt captures the intense nativist and exclusionary rhetoric that defined 19th-century labor politics in Washington. Today, Snohomish grapples with the legacy of these 'keep out' attitudes, now mirrored in modern debates over regional growth, zoning, and who belongs in a changing Pacific Northwest.
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