The long-time labor militant paints an evocative picture of brutal working conditions in Arizona, where unlike neighboring states, an industrial proletariat predominated because it was inhospitable to farming, but home to veins of ore and stands of timber.

‘Industrial Arizona’ by J.A. Stromquist from The Weekly People. Vol. 15 No. 2. April 8, 1905.

Arizona has a larger area than most states in the union, but this large territory is practically (with the exception of the north-eastern portion) an unbroken wilderness of bare, rugged, mountains separated by sandy valleys or plains, sparsely covered with sage-brush, and chosen home of the “Jack-rabbit” and “cayote”, where the temperature in summer frequently rises to 120 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade and where water is the most valuable of all commodities, even though it be strangely tainted with the ever-present alkali. Through most of these plains course “rivers” (so styled by courtesy) from whose shallow, sandy, beds it is impossible to obtain enough water to get a drink for the greater part of the year, but which, during an occasional rainy winter, swell to the size of the Mississippi with a current the speed of a millrace, which carries houses, stock, trees, bridges or any other obstacle, which bars its ever changing course, headlong into the gulf of California. Such being the condition, it will be readily understood that agriculture is not engaged in to any extent, and cannot be, until the flow of water has, by means of costly irrigation works, been regulated and a continuous supply assured, but the country being rich in minerals, mining is the chief industry and it, together with large lumbering operations in the higher, forested part, furnishes an occupation to a majority of the population, a population, it will thus be seen, largely composed of industrial wage-slaves and one that should therefore be easily accessible to the teachings of Socialism. The miserable conditions under which those workers are compelled to exist account for their migratory habits and unwillingness to stay anywhere. “They are here today and gone yesterday”, as the proverbial Dutchman naively put it.

Most of the mining camps are pitched on the edge of a bare, sizzling, plain or crowded into a narrow canyon where mining shafts, smelters, slag dumps and railroad tracks are mingled together in inextricable confusion. Space being so valuable the streets are seldom wider than is necessary to admit of two vehicles passing one another, and are lined with saloons (where “legalized” gambling of all kinds is in full blast at any time of night and day), stores, “hasharies”, and lodging houses. The main street is generally situated in the bottom of the canyon and, besides its functions as a thoroughfare, also fulfills those of an open sewer and when it rains one wades up to ones knees through a stream of filthy water, carrying on its muddy bosom a litter of empty tin cans, drowned rats, dead chickens, cats, etc., and all manner of reeking refuse. On the steep mountain sides all round perch the “cottages” of the miners, shacks made of pieces of old lumber, bugging and empty coal oil cans, usually, and looking a good deal inferior to the average farmer’s dog kennel. Such are the “homes” which Capitalism allows the worker (i.e., when he has any at all) and of which Socialism would “rob” him. All around are scattered empty bottles and tin cans, for owing to the high price of fresh provisions, “embalmed” beef is largely used; refuse heaps alternate with rockpiles, not a green leaf or a blade of grass is to be seen, nor is there any within scores of miles as a rule, and in the summer time the fierce glare and heat of the sun turns the whole into a sizzling caldron, reeking with foul odors. The one spot on which the weary eye rests with a feeling of relief is the pretty home of the mine manager, situated on the best site to be found and even having quite a well kept little lawn in front and a few nicely trimmed trees and shrubs around, sometimes. Nearby is usually the company’s “pluck-me” store, one of the finest “blocks” in town and which always does a roaring trade. Last, but not least, is the hospital, or hospitals, usually capacious buildings but, nevertheless, always filled to their full capacity.

From the foregoing allusion to the “sanitary” arrangements of these camps it will not be wondered at that small-pox, typhus, typhoid, diphtheria, not to mention a score of others in the list of easily preventable scourges, caused by the unnatural modes of living and filthy surroundings forced upon these proletarians by an inhuman system of profit-grinding wage slavery–it is not to be wondered at, I say, that those dread diseases crave their thousands of victims every year. But this is not the only way the hospitals are kept filled to overflowing, for the ever extending, never satisfied Moloch Jaw of Capitalism cries for blood, and blood it must have. The cheapness of labor-power, of the lives: of workingmen–as compared with the bother and expense of maintaining safety appliances in the mines, causes the mine. worker to be looked upon as so much dirt. The mines are often unbearably hot, due to bad ventilation; the air is foul, often the workings are treacherous, water seeps through the rock and descends in streams on those who work, and at all times the work is “rushed” at breakneck speed–“if you don’t like it you know what you can do”. No wonder, under those circumstances, that in the larger camps, there is a weekly average of three, or more, killed and seriously injured. Indeed, the occurrence is so common that hardly anybody ever comments on it. Such is the mine-worker’s lot “below”; of his surroundings when above ground I have already endeavored to give some idea, without, however, touching on the social side of his life and this omission I will now try to repair.

It is, in fact, almost, a mockery to talk of the “social life” of the proletarian of the Arizona mining camps as, practically, it does not exist. Owing to the conditions obtaining, the female population is, in most instances, in a very small minority and hence but a very few are able to keep a house of any kind, or enjoying–an ever so curtailed– amount of home life. The great majority are condemned to spend their time above ground in crowded and unsanitary lodging houses, often infested with vermin and always cheerless, the only thing above the average being the price one is forced to pay for the privilege of partaking of these “blessings”. The restaurants, or “hasheries” as they are more generally known, are of the same kind. Vegetables are very scarce, fruits impossible to get and the meat of bad quality. It would be proper to add that meat, being expensive, none is allowed to go to waste, the economy of the restaurant keepers even going so far as to utilize all scraps left over on customers’ plates, such as parts of steaks, chops, roasts, etc., in the preparation of “hash”, “pot-pie”, “Irish stew”, “chile-con-carne” and similar mysterious compounds, and if necessary the same meat is used for an indefinite number of times, until consumed. The” dessert” usually consists of indigestible “pie”, made out of a little dirty flour, a lot of dough grease and a quantity of condemned California “preserves”. So much for the mine worker’s physical “comforts”. Plainly, they are of the same order as those enjoyed by the ordinary stall-fed hog, with the difference that, whereas the said hog is certain of getting his “board and lodging” while life lasts, the “free and independent, sovereign, etc.,” American mine worker in Arizona, as elsewhere, lives in a perpetual fear lest he lose his job and thereby his daily “grub”, such as it is.

As to the opportunities for intellectual enjoyment or development, they are in keeping with the rest. The few larger camps usually have an “opera-house”, where a tenth-rate theatrical company, which has to cross this wilderness on its way back to civilization, sometimes gives a performance to help pay expenses. Here and there is also a “company library” with a carefully selected assortment of literature, every care being taken to exclude anything of a nature to enlighten the mine workers (who usually pay for the privilege of coming there to read books and write letters, having no home to do it in) as to his position in society and thus enable him to fight the struggle for himself and his class to a successful issue. The next ministers to his intellectual needs are the churches, but, to the miners’ credit be it said, they are nearly all “heathens”. Perhaps, if you asked them the reason why, they cannot help feeling that the churches of today are the obedient handmaidens of the capitalist class, hence their “heathenism”.

Home life, education, recreation, the companionship of congenial spirits–these being thus denied the mine worker, elsewhere he looks for a substitute and finds it in the saloon. And naturally, so far the saloon is really the only place where he can spend a spare moment. Coming off his shift tired and weary, he washes the greater part of the grime and perspiration off his body (he cannot wash it all of, for it takes several ablutions to do that), eats, and for the hour or two of liberty which he may then enjoy he has nothing of a relaxing nature to do. He cannot read all the Lit (even though he knew where to get any instructive kind of reading, which he generally don’t), they would not like him to soil his bed by sprawling as top of it, in the lodging house, and he cannot always wander aimlessly up and down the dingy streets; so he goes the saloon, sees “the boys”, has a drink or two, perhaps gambles away what few dollars he has left from his pay and, in a way, unsatisfactory perhaps, but the only one possible to him, enjoys himself and finds some relaxation of mind. He may eventually develop into a hopeless drunkard, or an inveterate gambler–a burden to himself and to society at large–but whose is the fault? Is it that of the man who was, by a damnable system which deprived him of all legitimate means of satisfying his human wants, practically forced to choose the career which has wrecked his happiness, and usefulness, or is it that society itself, capitalist society, which stands condemned as the destroyer of all the noble qualities in man and the debaucher of humankind; as the committer of this, the most monstrous of crimes? Most assuredly so, and it sends the hot blood rushing through one’s veins to think that such things should still be possible in this era of “civilization” and done in the name of “Justice” and “Liberty”, and it gives one a twinge of pain to know that the working class, the sufferer from these evils, although they feel the pains, are as yet unable to see their cause.

Having been carried a little aside from the subject, I will now return to where I left off, and from a perusal of the foregoing description of the conditions of life “enjoyed” by the Arizona mine worker it will be seen why he is “never satisfied”, and “doesn’t want to stay”, etc. No doubt, the wages paid here to mine workers (ranging from $2.50 to $3.50 for 8 to 9 hours work) seem alluring to the eastern worker, but what with the higher cost of living and the all but unbearable conditions of working and existence, there is practically no difference, and as it is impossible for any but the very strongest to endure the work in an Arizona mine for more than a few months at the most, the fact that this is not a country to get rich quick in, is further emphasized.

In the lumber industry things are, if possible, worse. The lumber camps being front 20 to 30 miles from the nearest town, the men live in filthy bunkhouses, eat at dirty “camp-messes” where the food is “strong” in a double sense, and are unmercifully plucked at the “company commisariat”. The hours of labor are 11 to 12 daily and wages from $2 to $2.50 per day.

Practically all the remainder of the proletariat here are railroaders of various classes whose conditions approximate closely to those of their craft elsewhere, i.e., long hours of labor and small pay, with a chance for an early release from this mundane sphere by means of “accident.”

It will thus be seen that Arizona’s population is largely composed of wage slaves, whose conditions are such that they should lend a willing ear to the missionaries of the class struggle, and once they have found out that their true interests can only be furthered and their emancipation accomplished by means of an organization built on the principles of the class struggle, as is the Socialist Labor Party on the political and the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance on the economic field, then the wage workers of Arizona can be depended upon to form a strong unit in the army of the revolution which shall overthrow capitalism and all its concomitant evils. They have not yet found this out, but they are getting restive and it is up to the S.L.P. and S.T. & L.A. to furnish them the education they need.

The labor movement is backward, here, the Western Federation of Miners has some mining camps organized, and the railroaders are also more or less organized, but the biggest mining camps are still run on the “open shop” principle and the lumber workers are wholly unorganized. As a whole they are beginning to get restive, but do not as yet know what is hurting them.

The bogus Socialist party started up organizations here in different places several times, but they have all followed the same road to oblivion. It could not be otherwise, seeing that they are nearly all “Appeal to (T-)Treason” dupes, “Christian Socialists”, etc., and the only places where they have retained a following are the larger railroad and distribution centers, such as Phoenix, Tucson, etc., and the membership in those places consists almost wholly of small store-keepers, vendors, real estate owners, etc., with an odd “aristocrat of labor” thrown in. Lately they have evidently resuscitated again and have got fairly large locals in two or three of the large mining camps and as these are no doubt composed of wage workers who are anxious to learn about Socialism, they should be attended to as they no doubt will be–by the S.L.P. There should also be an excellent field for the S.T. & L.A.

There are a few members and sympathizers of the S.L.P. and the S.T. & L.A. scattered throughout the territory, and on these devolves the task of educating Arizona’s homeless proletarians. To the work, comrades, down with the bogus Socialist, the pure and simple trade union fakir, and the capitalist! Onward to the Socialist Republic, where he who works shall alone enjoy the product of his labor, where the cruel struggle for existence shall cease and the nightmare of the capitalist system shall be but as the raincloud which has passed by and brought new life in its wake.

And to you, fellow wage slaves of Arizona, I would say: Inform yourself about Socialism, the world-wide movement of Labor, represented in this country by the Socialist Labor Party and the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance, Read the literature issued by those organizations (especially their official organs, the Daily and Weekly People, issued at Nos. 2 to 6 New Reade street, New York city) and when you fully understand their principles, join them both, and become a fighter in their ranks and under the uplifted arm and hammer, the emblem of militant labor, strive for the final overthrow of this accursed capitalist robber system which holds you enslaved, by means of the Social Revolution.

J. A. Stromquist

New York Labor News Company was the publishing house of the Socialist Labor Party and their paper The People. The People was the official paper of the Socialist Labor Party of America (SLP), established in New York City in 1891 as a weekly. The New York SLP, and The People, were dominated Daniel De Leon and his supporters, the dominant ideological leader of the SLP from the 1890s until the time of his death. The People became a daily in 1900. It’s first editor was the French socialist Lucien Sanial who was quickly replaced by De Leon who held the position until his death in 1914. Morris Hillquit and Henry Slobodin, future leaders of the Socialist Party of America were writers before their split from the SLP in 1899. For a while there were two SLPs and two Peoples, requiring a legal case to determine ownership. Eventual the anti-De Leonist produced what would become the New York Call and became the Social Democratic, later Socialist, Party. The De Leonist The People continued publishing until 2008.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/the-people-slp/050401-weeklypeople-v15n01.pdf