From the Nevada State Journal:
Japanese Laborers Refuse to Pay Tax
San Bernardino, . — Serious labor trouble is threatened in the beet fields here over the situation created by the attempt to collect county poll tax from the 450 Japanese living in Oxnard and employed in the beet fields. This attempt after they had paid the city tax in this city, caused great resentment. The Sheriff and deputy assessors in many instances seized horses and goods owned by the Japanese and later forced them to pay under threats of selling their property. Some of the Japanese have already left for other parts of the State and the beet growers are in serious straits for laborers.
The gist of the dispute, I take it, is that as residents of the incorporated city of Oxnard, the Japanese workers were supposed to be subject to its own city tax but not to the county tax, which was only for people who lived in unincorporated areas.
However, the county tried to pull a fast one, and swooped in on the workers while they were in the beet fields where they were temporarily working and which were outside the city limits. They then declared the workers to be thereby subject to the county poll tax as well.
