The Expulsion of Tacoma’s Chinese Residents

The people of Tacoma gave their 'martyrs' a rousing welcome on Thursday night. It was known they would get back from Vancouver on the evening train, and for two days preparations had been making for the intended honors. Bonfires were lit, business houses illuminated, cannons fired, the band played, the people shouted, and eight hundred men marched in procession with torches. The indicted men were taken from the train with every possible evidence of joy. They were received in the procession with their wives and children and escorted to the opera house. All were seated upon the platform, where the glorification took the turn of congratulation and speech-making. John E. Burns presided. Speeches were made by the chairman and by R. W. Taylor, Miss K. S. Statnus, Mayor Weisbach, Geo. D. Lawson, Judge Wickersham, Dr. Taylor, F. L. Ryan, Mr. Ling, and John Arthur. One of the announcements made at the meeting was that twenty-seven indictments had been found at Vancouver against citizens of Sumner and Puyallup for the expulsion of Chinese from those places. One of the speakers said they had resolved to do all they possibly could within the bounds of law to aid the people of other places to free themselves from the Mongolian curse. A description of the twenty-seven indicted men then on the platform was read: One was Irish, one Swedish, five Germans, four Canadians, and sixteen Americans. Eleven of these had served in the United States army; six of them were too young to enlist at the time of the war. Those of foreign birth had been in America, on an average, for twenty years; and the length of time they had been citizens averaged seventeen years. Twenty-five of these men were men of families, and represented sixty-four children and eleven grandchildren; two of them were unmarried. The average age of these men was 41 years 3 months. The average number of years they had lived on the Pacific coast was 13 years 4 months. Not one of these men had ever been charged with any crime before.