sr
I I III
Pahrump Valley Gazette, Thursday, June 19, 1997 19
Gazette on the street...
Why did God create the world?
San Diego
Las Vegas Pahrump Pahrump
GARY BRIGHT -- General bAT MULLER -- Sales
manager-- "So he could send his manager-- "To create Man in his
son to die for us so we could have own image," ,
salvation."
JOANN " SCHUETTE --
Housewife -- "Because God
created beautiful things."
DAN CROWLEY --
Construction --"I guess he
didn't have anything to do. I
guess he put us here to help
each other."
SUSAN TOOMER - Teacher
-- "So that his children would
have a place to learn and grow."
Compiled by GazeUe staff photographers
482-301 6 No to Abuse 751 -111 8
Tonopah 24 Hr. Crisis Line Pahrump
Nevaazt
-then and now
Comstock labor images
by Phillip I. Earl
Nevada Historical Society
ver the years, there has been considerable research and writing on the
history of labor on Nevada's Comstock Lode, the venue for the organi-
zation of the first industrial mining unions in the American West.
Writers and re-
searchers have
reflected their sources,
their personal biases and
the economic and politi-
cal climate in which they
worked. There has been
some controversy over
the nature of Comstock
unionism and the actual
state of labor-manage-
ment relations at any
given point in time.
In the Fall 1996, issue
of the Nevada Historical
Society Quarterly, Ne-
vada State Archivist Guy
Louis Rocha reviews the
literature in "The Many
Images of the Comstock
Miners' Union" and deals
with the various theses
which have been set
down. He questions the Comstoek miners going on shift, 1890s.
"cordial and peaceful re-
lations" concept put for-
ward by some writers,
citing the use of federal troops-soldiers from Ft. Churchill - by Territorial Gov.
James Warren Nye in response to a threatened 1864 confrontation in Virginia
City. He also analyzes the "heritage of conflict" thesis and details the manner in
which union miners came to dominate local politics, law enforcement, fire
services and the militia.
Union miners accepted the basic tenets of the capitalistic economy, Rocha
contends, chronicling the extremely tentative relations with the socialistic West-
ern Federation of Min-
ers in the 1890s and on
into the new century. He
also deals with relations
between the Comstock
business community
and organized labor and
comments upon such re-
forms as the minimum
wage, the eight-hour
day, assistance to win-
dows and orphans and
mine safety.
Just as technological
innovations on the
Comstock spread to
mining operations else-
where, the ideals of in-
dustrial unionism were
carried to other camps
in the West by union
miners who moved on
during the depression
period, 1876 to the turn
of the century, Rocha
photo by Nevada Historical Society finds.
This issue of the Ne-
vada Historical Society Quarterly is available at the museum in Reno at a cost of
$6. By mail, the cost is $7.50, postage included. Write the Nevada Historical
Society, 1650 N. Virginia St., Reno, NV 89503. For further information, call
(702) 688-1191
