The Systematic Exclusion of Chinese Labor
Seattle mill owners collectively fire all Chinese employees, signaling a dark turn in regional labor policy and social climate.
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 mills of the city have discharged all the Chinese employed at their mill. All the other mills of the city have done the same thing. This appears to be the most satisfactory way of solving the labor question. If mill owners and manufacturers will refuse to employ Chinamen, and if the laboring classes will encourage those with their patronage who employ white men, the trouble can be adjusted without resorting to murder and arson. When the Chinese fail to find employment they will move on to more congenial climes, and finally drift back to the flowery kingdom.
“This appears to be the most satisfactory way of solving the labor question.”
This article documents the explicit, state-level climate of organized xenophobia that culminated in the 1886 Seattle riot. It illustrates the 'civic' language used by white business and labor interests to justify the mass dispossession of their Chinese neighbors.
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