Fired for Being 'Dutch' on a Lake Union Street Crew
A laborer's attorney asks whether an Irish foreman drove a family man off a city water job; the superintendent says he simply couldn't keep up.
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There have been frequent complaints on the part of laborers discharged from city departments on account of alleged discrimination on the part of officials. The discharged men do not often employ attorneys on their behalf, but last week one of them secured the services of Attorney J. E. Morrison, who wrote the following remonstrance:
"Dear Sir: I would like to see you in regard to a matter of street work for a friend of mine who has a large family. He tells me he was employed by the Water Department on Monday last and on Tuesday evening, without cause or reason, he was discharged by the foreman simply because he was 'Dutch,' and as I understand it this autocratic foreman happens to be Irish. Where my friend was put to work was on Brook Street, Lake Union. I may inquire who this foreman is and what right he has to let out men all because they are Dutch and bring the matter before the Board of Public Works. Is it because we are 'Dutch' and have large families on our hands that the innocent children must starve? I am sure you would not do this."
This spirited if otherwise defective appeal was sent to the street commissioner, who turned it over to the water department. Superintendent Wilson's explanation is that the man was inefficient. Squads of laborers on earthwork are given ten feet each to dig, and as those who cannot keep up delay the others, they are discharged. Mr. Wilson says there was no other reason in this case.
“Is it because we are 'Dutch' and have large families on our hands that the innocent children must starve?”
The complaint captures an old Seattle pattern: public works jobs distributed through ethnic networks, with merit used as the official explanation when a worker challenged the foreman. The 'Dutch' laborer's plea about starving children is a reminder that immigration and hiring fights have long been local, intimate, and fought over who counts as a fit citizen-worker. Modern cities still argue over discrimination in civil-service hiring—and still hear efficiency cited as a neutral defence.
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