Talk:White Act of 1898

Etymology of the "White" Act
I've been furiously querying every legally available and cost-free database of knowledge my computer can access, but I've made no progress at digging up the origin of the name "White Act". I assume the answer is one of the two following scenarios:

- "White" is someone's surname; presumably referencing the politician who introduced, authored, or campaigned significantly for the Act's passage.

- "White" is not a proper noun, and thus the name can be assumed to derive from racial connotations.

The first explanation would wrap up the investigation quite simply and mundanely. The second opens an interesting can of worms that would seem to imply that the Act was engineered to selectively protect a specific racial group. This finding would necessitate some follow-up investigation on the specific racial dynamics of the shipping industry and to the Pacific coast at large. Within the context of the subject matter as it relates to semantics (e.g. the word "Shanghaiing"), this seems like a question that would be of interest to the average reader.

Oh and FYI, all the current source references that don't require a library card are broken links or have had the relevant content removed.

2601:2C6:4A80:68F0:C5F7:2EB2:4F7:E97D (talk) 22:38, 28 April 2022 (UTC)