Beginning the 20th CenturyEarly American history in the 1900s would be as tumultuous as any other time in US antiquity. Starting with the assassination of President McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt’s administration began its reign over the American people. During the next twenty years, the Republican party dominated the presidency. The policies that unfolded during this time - splinter the party. Roosevelt secures the US Department of Commerce and Labor to supervise big business and foster foreign commerce. Unfortunately, like most policies - corporate America began leveraging legal interpretation to bring money in for the elite while going unchecked against its workers. Shortly after its establishment, the nation shook by two of the worst industrial accidents in our history - the coal mine explosion in Monogah, West Virginia and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. With historical divisiveness in context, the administration used its prestige and clout in Latin politics by adding the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. Some call it a needed move to protect Latin America from predatory European acts. In contrast, others claim this opened the door for the federal government to use said act against Latin America itself in later years. To also begin fostering international trade, the Roosevelt administration set out to acquire necessities for the Panama Canal. US Steel was founded because of the federal establishment’s focus on commerce and labor - changing how the West would expand. When reading historical Arizona newspapers, the state draws individuals to the desert, spouting lush potential in “green Arizona,” where well supplies are ample and enough water for all crops and needs. With the future split of the Republican party on the horizon, many pushed for deregulation and the overuse of resources. There are foretellings of the upcoming market crash and dust bowl in our eminent future. Refusing to educate on the errors just 20 years earlier, from boasting abundance, now mining news declared concern in the amount of copper produced. Even though copper would be considered a staple for Arizona, politicians and owners were unconcerned. They felt the answer was not in decreasing the mines’ potential output but in increasing the production. Ads to buy mining stocks in the newspaper clippings were abundant. Not only copper, gold and silver mines were a hot commodity for owners to sell companies in California and even internationally to Scotland. Reading between the lines, in 1904, the local Signal store in our area had a “Sheriff’s Sale” ad. Meaning it went out of business, and they were selling off the property items. Newspapers begin printing about the financial errors in the cost of production that the mines have been telling the population. Many of the mines were reporting ore reserve numbers in a misleading way to increase stock prices above the actual value. To make matters worse, in the early 1900s, ads for prospecting mines in the Big Sandy wash area were touting potential wealth awaiting veins that would be the richest in the state. It was an easy way to inflate stocks and leave future owners on the hook by telling buyers they only needed a simple generator to turn a profit. All, alongside “Mine Warning Notices,” describes how banks and current owners would not be responsible for any labor or debt issues accrued by employers and employees of said bought mines. While more reports on labor union busting and terrible mining conditions — begin to keep adding up. As they do occasionally, the federal government gets tired of squatters on their acquired lands. After the initial diving between private and public sectors during the migration west, they desired to decrease people from mining federal lands without permission. The United States Supreme Court decided that an unpatented mining claim would be subject to taxation under state and county. All mining claims are initially unpatented, and only privately patented claims can adopt their land legally for any use. Almost a hundred years before, the federal government created the first land patent to reserve one-third of mining ore to the federal government. Since much of this ore resides in areas like Arizona, a gripping dance began between federal, state, and the people: 1. To survive, the federal government must financially balance while overseeing its population in a sustainable manner; and 2. Individuals with enough clout and capital to receive a federal patent (instead of a deed or lease) want to protect themselves from “re-seizure” when the government wants the resources. Unfortunately, our system has created a means of control through leverage. The federal government has slowed giving patents to anyone since the 1990s. While the individuals, who are current patented owners, work on manipulating the system to no longer pay taxes, the disenfranchised are abandoned in controlled urban environments broken by rent, taxes, and suppressed wages. Instead of balance where our government protects its people by funding an ecologically solid network, instead of saving land to be leveraged by individuals who wish to control the new sharecropping, mining towns… under names like Hershey, Pennsylvania or Snailbrook, Texas - with moralistic Disney like visions, while workers remain silent and oppressed. Hiding administrative truths, newspapers instead touted national accomplishments in progress, with the Wright brothers taking flight and Albert Einstein publishing his theories of relativity, which would revolutionize science and culture - globally. Around 1910, Taft became President and unfolded a conservative break in the Republican party. A couple of noted proceedings established this rift. Taft increased tariffs on imported goods with the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act, and he broke away from Roosevelt’s ecological conservation policies for a more corporate philosophy towards resource management - with his US Interior appointment called the Pinchot-Ballinger controversy. When Arizona became a state in the Union, it centered itself on the deregulated splintering of the Republican party, and it was in the mists of ecological strife with the Game Reserve. In the statehouse, the old guard wanted to expand their territory to assist with an influx of elk due to fragmentation from population expansion. The cattle industry, not wanting to have their ranges affected by government regulation - killed the bill as quickly as possible. Because touristy could be profitable for the state, there was a desire in Arizona to preserve and report on the Grand Canyon. With the extra funding from statehood, Arizona began turning its old trail ways into highways wanting to capitalize on trade and travel. Specific to our location, it was in the early 1900s when Arizona decided to open Tombstone as a tourist attraction. At that time, an article recounted how “the once celebrated camp… which for years has been but a memory” will be revitalized. The story proceeds to recount the story of Tombstone. The original settlers of Tombstone, Ed and All Schiefflins, R.C. Gird, and Judge Bidwell - were also original settlers of the Signal mine area, owning the bonanza mines on the Big Sandy wash. Since Northern Arizona began expanding and developing its rail system by preserving the Grand Canyon, the Big Sandy also requested a rail stop for future production. Burro Creek, more specifically, rejoiced over completing their first 25-mile section of a wagon road and began developing power lines out to the camp. They considered the watershed and dams to control the creek’s water flow. The Burro Creek mines, the homestead's area, were considered the county's largest gold and silver veins. The newspapers claimed the place was ideal for constructing a plant due to the cheap mining costs, so they brought in expert miners from Colorado. A few years later, the McCracken mine took control of Signal Copper Company with plans to build a smelting plant, and the Bill Williams fork would be a rail stop. They currently hauled water nine miles to the mine from Big Sandy Creek. Digging and placing pipes would be expensive, but they expected an established town on the mountain's west side due to the project. They even had engineers in Kingman trying to find ways to utilize the waters of Burro Creek for power. As Woodrow took office in 1913, more heat adds to the American melting pot. The Supreme Court breaks up Standard Oil and American Tobacco. The struggle for employee safety and rights continues to bombard the papers. All the while, Henry Ford is being praised as he develops and perfects his assembly line. Tragedy also strikes the newspaper headlines with the sinking of the Titanic and Teddy Roosevelt's assassination attempt on the campaign trail. During the early years of the administration, the NAACP established itself. The country is having a feverish and frenzied conversation of what would be called the Great Migration of southern African Americans moving to the northern states. Imagine their surprise, and still lack of it - when they find their sitting President watching “Birth of a Nation” on the White House lawn. Woman Suffrage has also begun to make strides and take blows simultaneously. Women and supporters began to have large enough numbers for parades in Washington, DC, to make people question women's rights. Unfortunately, the Temperance movement, determined to undermine women and people of color during that time, was also gaining enough traction. Adding prohibition laws to the 29 states, and establishing the prohibition Amendment, on the national level, in 6 short years. Wilson’s troubles did not ease. As we entered into World War I, the administration needed to fund it. His answer was the 16th Amendment establishing an income tax and the Federal Trade Commission. The Sherman Antitrust Act, launched a few years earlier, was being interpreted, by the courts, for union-busting practices and prevented bargaining power for employees - instead for utilization of bust large corporate trusts. The administration added the Clayton Antitrust Act, stating it was to help employees by minimizing monopolies. In reality, Wilson gave corporations independent oversight, letting them monitor themselves and continuing the trend of letting companies know when they are too large to become monopolies. The war brought on more red scare, establishing the Espionage and Sedition Acts. Even though some were repealed around the time the war ended, many sections are well-founded against offenses of the national state during war. There is also the growing murmur of disruption in the Agriculture Industry. The farmers have begun to have issues providing for the ever-increasing urban environments. Poor ecological management in farming has already started to catch up. A few years before the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, the administration established the Federal Farm Loan Act to assist with the growing financial burden of the farmers. During the end of the administration, the Spanish Flu pandemic sweeps the nation. In response to the growing financial needs of the people they have drawn to Arizona, the almshouses that provided housing, food, and healthcare for the impoverished, were subject to a legislative change. The State of Arizona decided to implement a law to take back the city land of the almshouses and give the individuals who lived in the houses a $15 monthly pension. The criticism of the law stated that more than $15 is needed to cover the monthly services the almshouses provided. It was considered an oppressive law against poor individuals under the guise of gentrification of urban blight. In the next twenty years, the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl will encompass much of the country's direction.
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