The 'No Chinese Employed' Sign at the River Side Hotel
A hotel proprietor in the Skagit Valley advertises his business with a exclusionary labor policy reflecting the era's intense nativist sentiment.
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.
River Side. Vernon, W. T. Dec 12th, 1878. Board and lodging $1.00 per day; $5.00 per week. $4.00 to $6.00 per week according to the room. Lodgers will be conveyed to and from the house free of charge. Great reduction made to boarders. NO CHINESE EMPLOYED.
“NO CHINESE EMPLOYED.”
This notice from 1878 serves as a stark artifact of the anti-Chinese exclusion movement that permeated Washington Territory labor markets long before the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. It highlights how 'local hiring' was weaponized during the era's economic depressions, creating a exclusionary precedent that shaped the demographic and social landscape of the Pacific Northwest for generations.
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