Bitterness from the white miners in Rock…

Bitterness from the white miners in Rock Springs has increased as more Chinese arrive.

By 1883, when a "Whitemen's Town" is established in Rock Springs, the Knights of Labor have organized a chapter here.

The Knights are one of the major groups which spearhead opposition to Chinese labor during the 1880s; in 1882, the Knights had worked for the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act.

The white miners at Rock Springs, being mostly Cornish, Irish, Swedish, and Welsh immigrants, believe lower-paid Chinese laborers drive down their wages.

The Chinese at Rock Springs are aware of the animosity and rising racial tension with white miners, but have not taken any precautions, as no prior events had indicated there would be any race riots.

Underlying the coming outbreak of violence are racism and resentment of the policies of the Union Pacific Coal Department.

Until 1875, the mines in Rock Springs had been worked by whites; in that year, a strike had occurred, and the strikers had been replaced with Chinese strikebreakers less than two weeks after the strike began.

The company had resumed mining with fifty white miners and one hundred and fifty Chinese miners in its employ.