Wallace White, who was born in Utah in 1905, moved with his family to the mining community of McGill, Nevada in 1910. White attended the local schools in White Pine County, where the Kennecott Mining Company became a backdrop for his childhood activities. He went on to study at the University of Nevada and pursued a career in public health. White was interviewed Mary Ellen Glass in 1968. Activities at Kennecott [during 1910s to 1920s] involved such things as the Christmas party. For as long as I can remember, there was a party—usually arranged by the Elk's Club, Community League, or something—for the youngsters. They had your name, and you would get a bag—usually oranges, popcorn, an apple or so, some candy, and nuts—and a present with your name on it. These were looked forward to and probably were not the only present, but they were some of the few presents that some people got. Kennecott people weren't poor people; they were well cared for across the board, but they didn't have a lot. They owed money, and maybe this is why they had as much as they did. They could go down and buy anything. You owed for it, and there was no hesitation arranging credit. In fact, there was one theory that if you owed money you wouldn't be fired because they had to get their money out of you. These advances were a total loss if you lost your job. Now my understanding, as far as labor was concerned at Kennecott, was that you went to work every day. You'd better be there at seven o'clock. If you weren't, you could probably have an excuse, but if it wasn't accepted, you were fired. You were usually there. A little bit of tardiness, you didn't have a job. Certainly an unexplained absence, you were through working. You did what you were told. Now the work might be hard; certain jobs were harder than others. As far as I know, the only unions were the tradesmen or your crafts—the carpenters, the machinists, the electricians, the plumbers. The bulk of the workers had no unions. The crafts would periodically collectively ask for more money, and they got more money, but by and large, there was no union activity. If you had some grievances, if you had something that you wanted—this probably pertained to housing, the kind of a thing the company found was desirable to keep a contented employee—they would eventually provide. There was no union activity as such. In fact, a person coming out and talking this way and making demands, he was probably going to be out of a job. |