The Tragedy at the Hop Fields
A brutal midnight attack on Chinese laborers in the hop fields draws calls for order and civil resolution.
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.
The prompt arrest of the men who are charged to have participated in the massacre of Chinamen at the hop fields should be a subject for general congratulation. The people of King county may be said to be sustained in their recognition of the evil by the employment of Chinese contract labor. If for law to be maintained, our people must hold a high regard for the fair reputation of the territory, the massacre was in every respect, save only that the number of killed was not so great, more atrocious than that which recently took place in Wyoming. There, the attack was made in broad daylight, and the Chinamen had an opportunity to resist or to escape as they chose. Here, the attack was made at dead of night, when the victims were sleeping. A fair man would give a rat a better chance for its life than was given to these murdered Chinamen. The massacre was absolutely unnecessary. It is to be hoped that they will impress upon Congress the necessity for prompt and decisive action in dealing with the Chinese evil.
“A fair man would give a rat a better chance for its life than was given to these murdered Chinamen.”
This editorial reflects the intense, violent anti-Chinese sentiment that gripped the Washington Territory during the 1880s, leading directly to the forced expulsions in Seattle and Tacoma later that year. While it condemns the 'unnecessary' violence of the midnight attack, the paper still frames the mere presence of Chinese labor as a civilizational 'evil,' illustrating the dangerous rhetoric that sanctioned widespread human rights abuses in the Pacific Northwest.
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