The Rock Springs Massacre: Labor Relations and Racism in 19th Century Wyoming
I. Union Pacific Coal Company's changing hiring practices
a. the Union Pacific's labor makeup after construction
b. coal, much needed for fueling locomotives, was mined from Union Pacific land grant lands
c. Union Pacific, at first, did not mine the coal but contracted operations out to Thomas Wardell
d. Wardell was founder of town of Carbon, Wyoming's first coal-mining town, and he started Rock Springs' mines
e. mining companies everywhere were resisting efforts of the Knights of Labor who were organizing miners into a labor union
f. ownership of the Union Pacific changed and new owners, led by financier Jay Gould, took over coal operations directly from Wardell in 1874
g. UP established subsidiary known as the Union Pacific Coal Company
a. room and pillar method—miners assigned in two-man teams to work each “room”
b. miners paid on piece rate, according to weight of coal extracted
c. hard work to remove overburden and rock; little mechanization
III. Early Wyoming labor union history: almost entirely railroad workers and coal miners in territorial period
a. first nation-wide strike affecting Wyoming: locomotive engineers on strike in Laramie, 1869
b. first Wyoming strike: Carbon, Rock Springs, 1871; strike failed. Union miners (mostly British) replaced by Scandinavians
d. winter, 1874: Gould announced vacancies at Almy to be filled by Chinese
e. next year, UP announced wage reduction of 20 percent at Rock Springs and Carbon, precipitating a strike
f. strike settled by co. reducing prices at company store, but co. quietly began hiring Chinese through an Evanston firm
g. co. reneged on promise to reduce prices in company stores; strike ensued; miners fired and replaced by Chinese
h. 1884-Gould forced out and replaced by Charles Francis Adams
i. 1885—UP Coal Co. had 850 miners, 550 of them Chinese.
IV. Chinese in Wyoming, 1880s
a. U. S. immigration policies fueled by anti-Chinese agitation in California
b. passage of Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882: prohibits importation of Chinese for 10 years
c. all foreign-born in Wyoming in 1880: 29.6 percent of the total population
d. 1880 census: 914 Chinese in Wyoming, 854 of them in Sweetwater County
e. in Rock Springs, of the total town population of 763, there were 497 Chinese
f. Chinese miners lived separately from other miners, in dug-outs and crude huts at the edge of town
g. aspirations of most were to earn money and return to China
h. Chinese workers often owed labor bosses for transportation and expenses
i. Chinese bosses negotiated terms with railroad supervisors, workers had virtually no interaction with other miners or managers
V. Labor Grievances, 1885
a. Labor claim: Union Pacific fired men who would not vote as company desired (no secret ballot at that time)
b. Labor claim: company weighmen rampantly "short-weighted" tons of coal the miners brought to the surface
c. increasing pay differentials between whites and Chinese
d. company forced workers to shop at company stores by issuing scrip in lieu of money
VI. Events of September, 1885
a. Isaiah Whitehouse and William Jenkins, white miners, were assigned to clear "overburden" from a mine room. they spent all of August doing it.
b. on Aug. 31—mine supervisor marked off new rooms, telling Whitehouse and Jenkins they could either remain where they were or go into a new area.
c. the white miners did not know and were not told that those rooms were already assigned to Chinese miners.
d. next morning, four of eight Chinese assigned to the rooms reported for work; they occupied only two rooms.
e. Whitehouse and Jenkins took rooms next to Chinese, but in rooms that had been assigned to some of the later-arriving Chinese.
f. Chinese miner arrived soon after Whitehouse left; the Chinese miner confronted Jenkins who refused to leave what he considered "his" room.
g. next day, Whitehouse arrived to find Chinese setting off charges he had set the day before and clearing overburden; heated words led to violence.
h. mining supervisors closed mine for the day
i. white miners assembled at local saloons; escalating anger
j. violent mob descended on "Chinatown"; 28 Chinese killed
VII. The Aftermath
a. Union Pacific asked Territorial Gov. F. E. Warren to authorize troops to be sent to quell violence and protect company property
b. Warren sent troops, but also made secret deals with company officials for settling titles on company land he was buying
c. Army "escorted" Chinese back to Rock Springs
d. Army established Camp Pilot Butte to protect UP property from further outbreaks; closed finally in 1898
e. preliminary hearing revealed that most rioters were European immigrants
f. cases against them thrown out
g. Chinese government lodged officially protest; received reparations from U. S. government for death of their nationals
VIII. Historians' Views of the Incident
a. historians generally classify the incident as almost purely an example of Western racism
b. actually, racism was only a part of it, but used effectively by the company as a labor management tool
c. Rock Springs prided itself as "international city" but the diversity there was not accidental