The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1910-01-28

Many times in the course of human
events, mere man has commenced some
undertaking and fallen down miserably
on the job, when woman has stepped in
and turned mans failure into glorious
success. Woman has her own Pc
culiar methods of warfare They do not
conform to any rules of war known to
the sterner sex, but on innumerable oc-
casions man has discovered, sometimes
to his discontinue, that they did the
business.
For several years we have had an ex-
ample of mans inefficiency in dealing
with known evil in the japanese stu
alton at Mukilteo, Little Japan" as the
community is sometimes called. Nfuk-
ilteo, with her natural resources as a
manufacturing site, should be thriv
ing little city of twelve or fifteen hun
dred people. JAP-RIDDEN and JAP
CURSED, it is throttled and tied as Sc
curely as can be. Mukilteo has prosp.
cred to certain extent despite this hand
leap through the herculean efforts of
her white citizens. They know what
a contented, prosperous little city they
might have if they could oust the Japs
and replace them with white labor. They
have studied, and planned, and pleaded
to bring this about, but all to no pur-
pose.
They have done all they knew to in
duce soulless, money mad corporation
to give the white race chance, and it
has ended in failure. Now the women
of Mukilteo intend to try their hand.
The Seavew Improvement Club has
taken up the "'white mans burden" and
has declared that the Jap must go! It's
president, Mrs. S. +. Wetstein, and Sec
retary, Mrs. c. Birge, are leading in this
latest campaign and with indomitabfe
courage are planning, and hoping and
fighting to do for Mukilteo what man
has failed to do, make of it white
mans city. We will take up their work
again later on in this article but mean
while let us go back few years and
see how this Japanese evil came about.
We will find it an interesting story.
Mukilteo is an old, old town as years
ago in this western country. Years be-
fore Everett was dreamed of there was
a settlement there composed, in the
main, of fishermen and Indian traders.
Before Snohomish grew large enough
to aspire to the dignity of being the
county seat, Mukilteo had that honor.
Mother Nature was lavish in her favors.
In all the Sound country there is no
more beautiful view. One stood upon
the bluff and looked upon a wonderful
panaroma of sandy beach and glisten-
ing water, wooded islands, and beyond
that, the Olympic range of mountains,
standing sentinel over the gateway of
the Pacific. As manufacturing site,
Mukilteo was superb. Stretching away
south and east to the head of Lake
Washington lay a vast stretch of forest
waiting the ak and saw to turn it into
a great staple of commerce. just a
stones throw from the mainland lay
water of sufficient depth to float ves-
sells of any draught--a connecting link
between the forest and the markets of
the world. In 1901 Jim Hill built his
coast line road from Seattle north, and
the facilities of Mukilteo for manufac.
turing were complete.
Local men were quick to see the OPP
portunity, land company was formed
and a large tract acquired. They didn't
have long to wait. The Clark -Nickerson
Lumber Company, of Everett, had cast
covetous eyes on the location and in
1903 began negotiations for mill site.
Backed by ample capital they declared
their intention of erecting huge lum-
Der plant. The people of Mukilteo had
visions of a thriving town with schools,
churches, business houses. The lumber
people got their site and it didn't cost
them much, either. The mill site and
the land on the bluff on which the mill
cottages were built, was practically do
mated by the Mukilteo Land Company.
Work ON the mill buildings was rapidly
pushed to completion and the people
eagerly waited for, cutting operations to
begin. The mill was completed and the
men were buisily engaged in cleaning
up when one morning four or five little
Japs were seen busily working away.
Mr.. Nickerson, owner and superintend-
ent, was Immediately piled with ques-