United States 1915

Synopsis

As Americans became increasingly concerned about events in Europe in 1915, domestic labor disputes threatened the stability of the Southwest United States. In 1915 in the Arizona mining towns of Clifton, Morenci, and Metcalf, located close to the border of Arizona and New Mexico, Mexican immigrants and Mexican American miners declared a work stoppage in the mines. Striking over low wages and an unequal wage structure between the two groups, the strikers believed that the American miners in the camps received higher salaries. Moreover, the workers—primarily the Mexican workers—declared a stoppage because of constant abuse imposed upon them by their American bosses. This abuse was a particular problem for the recently arrived workers who had emigrated from Mexico, which was experiencing a social revolution. The Mexican workers had to deal with the constant threat of deportation and imprisonment. The Clifton-Morenci-Metcalf strike proved significant...