Narrator:

The pages of history frequently offer a reminder that events took place in a different time. The American Nation at the turn of the twentieth century was a familiar place in a very different time.

Society marveled at a seemingly endless string of inventions. . .the automobile. . .the airplane. . .the electric light. . .and the first motion pictures.

It was the last stand of the gilded age. A time when industrialists surged forward to form an unchecked elite for the nation. A time when names like Rockefeller. . .Morgan. . .and Carnegie symbolized unquestioned dominance in their fields, and staggering personal fortune. Their numbers were few. . .their influence enormous.

Their industries thrived with new machinery. . .but the work of the mines and the mills and the foundries still demanded human labor. And something was clearly wrong, as the nation was gripped by dramatic strikes showcasing an increasing distrust between owners and workers.

Flowing through the era was a river of humanity. . .driven by desperation to the American shores. At the turn of the twentieth century European immigration was reaching its peak.

Romantic promises of liberty, justice and freedom paled before the more pressing needs of food and jobs. The immigrants formed an endless pool of unskilled labor, taking work that often involved low pay and high danger.

Tens of thousands of the new immigrants made their way to the American West.

Here, hundreds of mines ground out the natural resources to drive the nation's industries. From the mountains of the Coeur d'Alene in Idaho to the deserts of Arizona the mines produced gold, silver, coal, lead and copper.

The era of the strike-it-rich prospector had evaporated. Now the mines were part of giant corporations, often owned by interests in the east, employing hundreds of men each ten-hour shift, working thirteen out of every fourteen days.

Cave-ins and explosions would punctuate with terror the routine of miners in what arguably was the most dangerous job in America.

Diary: Lazar Jurich:

"We miners, sons of sorrowing mothers, look like men from the wastelands. In our faces is no blood, as there is in other youth. Many poor souls their dark days shorten. Many poor souls with their heads do pay. There is no priest or holy man to chant the final rites." – Lazar Jurich

Narrator:

Adding to the despair was the reminder that there was always another immigrant in line to take the job of a complaining miner.

Protests over working conditions or safety could be dealt with harshly. Sometimes, just to offer a reminder of who was in charge.

James Byrkit/Author:

"There would be just an absolutely innocent person, employee and a manager might say to the shift boss ‘Who is that guy?' ‘Well, that's Joe Brown' ‘Fire Him.' And the reason that he wanted him fired was, as the saying goes among the workers, ‘the workers had to be reminded who their daddy was.' That was the expression. ‘You got to know who your daddy is.'"

Narrator:

Fired from a mine, the miner could find himself blacklisted from any other job in the mining district.

A devastating economic depression gripped the nation in the 1890s, and a common saying reminded workers that it was better to hold your tongue so you could hold your job.

Living in company housing. . .buying from the company store. . .their wages fixed by agreement between local mine operators. . .miners could also find their lives controlled by strong anti-immigrant passions rolling through the West.

The strongest anti-ethnic sentiments were reserved for Asians.

But the net of anti-immigrant sentiment was thrown wider when Mediterranean immigration rose dramatically near the turn of the century. Italian, Greek and Slavic immigrants were often deemed "unwhite" and unreliable, since it was assumed they would soon return to their native lands. They became subject to apartheid-like conditions in the West.

Lamont Bowers/Mine Manager:

"I always regret cutting the wages of laborers who have families to support, but considering these foreigners who do not intend to make America their home, and who live like rats in order to save money, I do not feel we ought to maintain high wages in order to increase their income and shorten their stay in this country."

Caldwell Tribune:

"They are filthy, treacherous and meddlesome. . .and unless something is done, they will make life impossible for the white man" – The Caldwell Tribune

Narrator:

While the nation generally viewed the West as the storied ranges of cowboys and Indians, in reality the region was poised on the brink of an industrial showdown. A conflict that would eventually grip the West from the Canadian to the Mexican borders. . .destroy thousands of lives. . .challenge the nation's core values of justice. . .and shape the very nature of working in America throughout the twentieth century. It was a very different time, and the fuse had been lit.