Letter from A.W. Mangum, Jr.
DESCRIPTION
A letter dated September 8, 1907 from Adolphus W. Mangum, Jr. (1876-1924), a soil scientist working in the Puget Sound area, to his mother in North Carolina. Mangum describes his reaction to the Bellingham riot in great detail. A partial transcription reads as follows:
"We had a riot here about a week ago, the people ran out the Hindos, who have come here in great numbers and have been working in the lumber mills. These Hindos came here from India and are British subjects so the English gov. may investigate the riots and make the people here pay for what they did. These Hindos are very undesirable citizens. They are dirty and mean and will work for wages that a white man can’t live on. I am not in sympathy with the laboring men who started this riot, because they ought to mob the mill men who hire these laborers rather than mob the Hindos themselves. If the mill owners did not hire them, they would not come here in such crowds. They are worse than the Japs and China men and have caused trouble ever since they began to be numerous. The Japans and China-men have flooded this county and it begins to look like they intend to take possession of everything out here. There is going to be a race war out here pretty soon if this government dont keep them out, and when it comes, they are going to clean out the Japs and China-men, and we will have war with Japan. The people in the east cant realize what these people are up against with these Orientals. They will live in crowds, in one house and as nobody can live near them, people begin to move out of the neighborhood, and soon they will practically own a whole section of a town, and the value of property in that section will take a drop, to about ½ of what it was before they came. They can live on “nothing per day” and it looks like they will eventually crowd out the American workman. I believe if you could see and become personally acquainted with this out-fit, you would get the Keely-Cure, on the missionary question for you would see what kind of an out-fit you were working for, and would be ready to say you 'had enough.'"
THEMES
Early Immigration
ADDITIONAL METADATA
Date: September 8, 1907
Subject(s): Bellingham Riot
Type: Correspondence
Language: English
Creator: A.W. Mangum Jr.
Location: Bellingham, Washington
PROVENANCE
Holding Institution: University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
Additional Information: Mangum Family Papers, 1777-1993
Item History: 2011-09-10 (created); 2015-12-02 (modified)
* This digital object may not be sold or redistributed, copied or distributed as a photograph, electronic file, or any other media without express written consent from the copyright holder and the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA). The user is responsible for all issues of copyright. If you are the rightful copyright holder of this item and its use online constitutes an infringement of your copyright, please contact us by email at copyright@saada.org to discuss its removal from the archive.