WHITES DRIVE OUT JAPANESE

White Employes of South Prairie Sawmills Refuse to Work With Orientals Recently Imported.

Cooler Heads Stop Forcible Expulsion of Nipponese Until Conference Can Be Held With Their Employers.

The Times Special Service.

TACOMA, Thursday, April 11. -- Trouble, which threatened to assume the proportions of a race war, arose at South Prairie Tuesday, and is still in an unsettled condition. The controversy is between the white employes of the saw mills and the Japanese recently imported by the operators. Settlement is now in the hands of a committee representing the men and operators.

Recently many employes of the mills were discharged and on account of the scarcity of the white men, the operators brought in Japanese to fill the positions.

Headed by a man named Williams, the discharged men organized with the intention of driving the Japanese from the town. One of the Orientals was badly handled, and driven out, but the advice of some of the cooler men prevailed and it was decided to defer action until last night, when a meeting should be held. At the conference, which lasted until nearly midnight, it was decided to select two men to meet with the operators and work out the best means of settling the differences.

Almost without exception, the operators express a desire to employ white men in the mills whenever it is possible, but they give as an excuse that good labor is extremely scarce just now. They say that the Japanese are not satisfactory for the work. In explaining the recent action in importing the Japanese and displacing the Americans, the millmen say that the men who were let out were of an undesirable class that they wanted to be rid of.

Settlement probably will be reached today, as a conference is to be held.