Workingmen Protest Indigenous Competition
A petition from Washington State laborers demands restrictions on Indian employment in lumber mills.
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.
A document signed by many workingmen from the state of Washington, protesting against the employment of Indians in places where their labor comes into competition with that of white men, has been received by Representative Wilson. Those having the chief grievances are men who are ordinarily employed in the lumbering business, either in sawmills or in the woods. They complain that large numbers are put to work at certain seasons of the year, and that this fact tends to keep wages at a point lower than living rates for white men. Mr. Wilson sent the protest to the commissioner of Indian affairs, and will tomorrow have a conference with him on the subject.
“They complain that large numbers are put to work at certain seasons of the year, and that this fact tends to keep wages at a point lower than living rates for white men.”
This reflects the exclusionary labor politics of the Washington frontier, where 'living rates' for white laborers were often maintained through the systematic marginalization and displacement of Indigenous workers, a recurring theme in the state's early labor history.
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