Mining Wars: Corporate Expansion and Labor Violence in the Western Desert, 1876-1920

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones 2009 Mining wars: Corporate expansion and labor violence in the Western desert, 1876-1920 Kenneth Dale Underwood University of Nevada Las Vegas Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/thesesdissertations Part of the Latin American History Commons, Social History Commons, and the United States History Commons Repository Citation Underwood, Kenneth Dale, "Mining wars: Corporate expansion and labor violence in the Western desert, 1876-1920" (2009). UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones. 106. http://dx.doi.org/10.34917/1377091 This Dissertation is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Dissertation in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. 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MINING WARS: CORPORATE EXPANSION AND LABOR VIOLENCE IN THE WESTERN DESERT, 1876-1920 by Kenneth Dale Underwood Bachelor of Arts University of Southern California 1992 Master of Science Texas A&M University, Kingsville 1998 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy in History Department of History College of Liberal Arts Graduate College University of Nevada, Las Vegas December 2009 THE GRADUATE COLLEGE We recommend that the dissertation prepared under our supervision by Kenneth Dale Underwood entitled Mining Wars: Corporate Expansion and Labor Violence in the Western Desert, 1876-1920 be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy History David Wrobel, Committee Chair, Eugene Moehring, Committee Member Thomas Wright, Committee Member John Tuman, Graduate Faculty Representative Ronald Smith, Ph. D., Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies and Dean of the Graduate College December 2009 ii ABSTRACT MINING WARS: CORPORATE EXPANSION AND LABOR VIOLENCE IN THE WESTERN DESERT, 1876-1920 by Kenneth Dale Underwood Dr. David M. Wrobel, Examination Committee Chair Professor of History University of Nevada, Las Vegas This dissertation analyzes the class struggle in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Mexico and the western United States to illuminate the social transformation taking place in this trans-national region. The US and Mexico both underwent a significant metamorphosis in this era. The creation of a labor based working class and the displacement of occupational professionals from the upper class in many communities into an emerging middle class disrupted traditional social structures in both nations. This systematic social change, occurring nearly simultaneously in the US and Mexico, was complicated by the emerging system of monopoly capitalism, which led to a new form of trans-national ideological, political, and economic struggle between social classes. iii While the emergence of monopoly capitalism brought social transformation, it also resulted in new political challenges as conservatives, moderates, and radicals in the middle- and upper-classes struggled for political and economic control in both nations. In the US, social struggles led to the Populist movement, Progressivism, and increased radicalization of labor unions such as the International Workers of the World and the Western Federation of Miners, while at the same time, labor unions, clerical groups, Indian farmers, moderate landowners, and anarchists, fought in Mexico against Porfirio Díaz and foreign corporations. The transformation of Mexican capitalism began as early as 1857 with the creation of its Liberal Constitution. Under this constitution the Liberals in Mexico privatized communal and church lands, through laws such as the Ley Lerdo, strengthening their economic and political control across Mexico. The economic restructuring of Mexico during the Díaz administration, however, increased this redistribution of power, displacing the wealthy landowners and increasing the influence of foreign investors, primarily from the United States. The end of the nineteenth century was a time of great change for the United States as well. Essentially independent of each other for most of the nineteenth century, the eastern and western United States began to merge politically, economically, and socially in the Progressive Era. Greatly fueled by investments from the eastern US, corporate mines, ranches, and farms spread through the West with growing railroad and telegraph companies connecting America’s many island communities. Traditional community leaders were iv displaced as the national economy grew more interconnected and industrial leaders grew more powerful both nationally and internationally. To better understand the social changes in the US and Mexico as industry giants dominated these nations at the turn of the nineteenth century, this trans- national analysis of labor struggles from 1876-1920 will examine the social struggles within these industrializing nations. Though these regions are often treated separately by scholars, the similarities of the struggles that took place in both of them indicates a common and connected series of social transformations. This trans-national emphasis highlights the shortcomings of the traditional regional and national models that have marked scholarship on the American West and Mexico. Several archives in the US and Mexico contain extensive collections pertinent to this study. The Congressional papers of Simon Guggenheim are housed in the Colorado Historical Society and the Simon Guggenheim Foundation in New York maintains the papers from his non-senatorial career; additional papers are also archived at the University of Colorado at Boulder and Temple University libraries. The Denver Public Library’s extensive mining archive for the US West also contains information on the Guggenheim Mining companies, mining in northern Mexico, and Mexican mining labor in the US West. The Western Federation of Mining archives housed at the University of Colorado, Boulder, contains extensive documentation of labor struggles throughout the US West as well as materials on Mexican labor leaders and laborers. Numerous newspaper sources for Colorado and other mining communities in the US West are available at the Denver Public Library, and newspapers from Mexican mining v communities are held at the National Archive in Mexico City. The National Archive of Mexico also houses official government documents for Mexican mining operations. The Colorado State Archives maintains the papers of Davis H. Waite and John Shafroth, two progressive Governors of Colorado. The papers of the many Mexican reformers in the 1900-1910 period, including Antonio Díaz Soto y Gama, Ricardo Flores Magón, Francisco (Pancho) Villa, and Fancisco Madero are housed in the Mexican National Archive and other state archives and libraries in Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí, and Chihuahua. As the first truly trans-national study of the labor wars that erupted in the US and Mexico from 1876-1920 this dissertation draws on a wide range of more readily available secondary literature on mining labor and labor violence in the US West and Mexico. This secondary literature, while voluminous, has, for the most part, occupied separate streams, primarily divided by the international border artificially drawn through the western desert. The aim of “Mining Wars” is to bring these stories together, to show how they illuminate one another and in doing so provide a larger narrative of the relationships between business and labor in a larger region of the American continent that cuts across the international borderline. The early twenty-first century, as US-Mexican border issues – including strict enforcement of the US law through increased border patrols and Congressional debates over the status of the up to twelve million Mexicans currently residing in the US without official papers (sans papales)--is an opportune time to remind ourselves of the vital interconnectedness of the two nationally separate parts of this border region. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iii LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. ix CHAPTER 1 CONSTRUCTING A COMPARATIVE CONTEXT: HISTORY AND HISTORIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 2 SETTING THE CORNERSTONES OF CAPITALISM ........................... 38 CHAPTER 3 DRAWING THE BATTLE LINES IN THE SAND: LABOR UNIONS IN THE GREATER WEST .................................................................... 71 CHAPTER 4 CONFLICT IN THE DESERT MINES: THE STRUGGLE TO CONTROL MINERAL WEALTH......................................................................... 96 CHAPTER 5 TENSIONS RISING: GROWING OPPOSITION TO

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