The Filipino Answer to a Labor Organizer’s Exclusion Demand

Some few days ago, on January 4, to be exact, a “hot-dog” news story appeared in the local press which stirred the Filipino community of Seattle and even drew a “hot reply” from one of its members. The news story in question dealt with the agitation of Filipino-American labor in the Pacific Northwest, and the proposal of the Seattle Central Labor Council to seek legislation barring or limiting their employment.

In view of the grave significance of the matter brought to public attention—to Filipinos in the Pacific Northwest and to Americans in this country as well—we believe a closer view of the situation is desirable, both in defense of the honor of the Filipinos and in the enlightenment of Americans who have been misled by partial news stories.

According to a news story in the Seattle Star of January 4, 1929, one Mr. C. O. Young, veteran organizer in the north for the American Federation of Labor, made the following remarks: “The situation is bad in California, and it is rapidly becoming as bad here. In the San Joaquin valley alone there are said to be 30,000 Filipinos. We’re getting the same thing in this state. The Yakima valley is being overrun with them. The gates of the Pacific coast are open to them as the law stands. But they should be excluded.”

The foregoing utterances of Mr. C. O. Young are facts. There is no question about that. But when he said, as he did, that “they [meaning the Filipinos] should be excluded,” Mr. Young should have mentioned other facts to support that statement. To exclude the Filipinos from this country necessitates the changing of their national status. You cannot, as long as the Philippines is under the American flag, deny Filipinos certain privileges accorded to American nationals. It is almost inconceivable to picture American imperialism ruling to that extent.

Yet the other side of the situation sounds the sanest and best course. If, in exchange for the privilege of free entry into this country, the Filipinos are given their political independence, the Filipinos are ready to give up that privilege. Can it be said that in so doing that privilege will be withdrawn? We suppose, however, that Mr. Young will not yield to this proposition. And this is almost another fact.

“Second Avenue is getting to look like a street in Manila,” said Mr. Young. “This is First, Third, Fourth, and Fifth.” What of it? The Filipinos, like the Americans and any other race or people, are as civilized, cultured and educated, and when it comes to figuring on the American scene they can trot as well as the Americans. And this is another incontrovertible fact.

Mr. Young continued: “In Grays Harbor the Filipinos are displacing white workmen in the sawmills. There has been some trouble in Toppenish. The Filipinos are everywhere in the food industry and are crowding into the steamship lines.”

Mr. Young has given some more facts. He might also add other facts that, thank goodness, employers prefer Filipinos for their stick-to-it-iveness. They can work for longer hours than white laborers and don’t quit when they have had enough for a week and board and room. And another fact is that it is the business of the employer to pick the kind of labor he wants. It is not the fault of the Filipinos that they are there. Somebody put them there.

Getting more enthusiastic, Mr. Young further remarked: “Moreover, the Filipinos are a narcotics menace and generally are not an elevating influence on our good people.” So are Hickman, Leopold, Loeb, Gaines, and others. So are those with whom we rub elbows on the street and who hold us up in our offices. So are those who preach to us on the pulpit the virtues of a Christian life and who commit base crimes in their very homes. So are those who are honored by the people and elevated by them to high offices in the government, and who deceive those same people and rob the public purse. So are those young men and young women who strut saint-like in society and who hold their evening meetings in their cellars. And these are also undeniable facts.

“Many of them are marrying white girls,” said Mr. Young. Which is another fact. If they do, as in fact they do, the white girls that they marry should thank their stars, for Filipinos don’t beat their wives. They are not drunkards and never desert their wives. “What God hath joined together” they don’t put asunder. They support their wives to the very last cent that they have, and work themselves to death to earn their livelihood, rather than rob a bank. Furthermore, this marriage business is a two-party transaction. It’s the girl’s business who she is going to marry. Love is a respecter of no person or class or race, and human nature is the same the world over. And these are facts Mr. Young should know better of.

Continued Mr. Young: “Those dance halls below Yesler way which formerly were places of entertainment principally for loggers and seafaring men, now are infested with ‘south sea sheiks.’ Labor cannot stand by idly and watch these intruders take their place in our industries. They soon may be a political and economic menace. A nation which does its own work is healthful. A nation which leaves its work to others rapidly goes into decay.”

Those dance halls are doing more business with Filipinos than with all other nationalities in the Pacific Northwest combined. The dance hall managers have long realized this; hence, their open door policy toward Filipinos. What is more interesting is the fact that Filipinos do not go to those dance halls in overalls. They dress decently and never carry a “flask” in their hip pockets. They get their amusement in the most orderly manner. Bar the Filipinos from the dance halls and two-thirds of these damn halls will be out of business. And these are facts long established and known.

When Mr. Young used the word “infested” we fail to understand. It is rather too strong if not altogether incorrectly used. And “intruders,” another word applied by Mr. Young to the Filipinos, does not give the right shade of meaning. The Filipinos in the country are no more intruders than the Americans in the Philippines.

So far we have recited facts versus facts, or supposed facts, as brought out by C. O. Young. Even admitting for the sake of argument that all cases cited by Mr. Young are true, what good would it do the Seattle Central Labor Council or the American Federation of Labor or American labor at large to insult the [continued on next page].