"bumped down" to lower jobs, affecting younger workers. There was also uncertainty amongst Springfield's miners at the local and national level. In November 1907, 4,000 miners in Danville went on strike when coal operators stopped paying workers in cash and began issuing checks. Five months later, on April 1, 1908, Springfield's miners were nearly part of the 250,000 miners across the country who went on strike after their contracts expired and coal operators showed "no inclination" to make new contracts with the union. Illinois' 60,000 miners subsequently "declared war" against coal operators. The unrest led to the shut down of Illinois' mines for a month, which had a significant negative impact on the freight business for the railroads as coal cars sat idle during that time. The lack of coal movement also impacted road workers, who could not pave the roads without the coal. In early May, while over 35,000 of Illinois' miners voted to return to work, miners in two districts voted to move forward with the strike – Peoria and Springfield. Around the same time, miners in neighboring Decatur voted to go on strike and, on June 8, 1908, roughly 500 miners called off two separate strikes, at the Pawnee and Pana mines, over work conditions. Ultimately, these events created a Springfield workforce where workers by and large had jobs, but the earning power of those jobs was being diminished, the security of those jobs was laced with uncertainty, and the respect paid to those who held those jobs was seemingly being diminished. In surrounding counties the job prospects were similar or worse and the workforce was less diverse. Immigrants and race As Reconstruction came to an end, between 1870 and 1890, the United States was undergoing a massive population increase. Between 1890 and 1908, rapid industrialization and urbanization brought millions of European immigrants to the country. Arrivals usually came to Ellis Island, then trekked to cities where relatives had already been establishing themselves, expanding ethnic communities throughout the country. Springfield, a rapidly growing industrial center, was one of those cities. At the turn of the century, Springfield's population was about 35,000 people and growing. In 1900, the immigrant population, which prior to 1890 had only grown at a rate of 0.15 percent per year and remained stagnant at roughly 4,500, began to grow at a rate of 4 percent per year – a 300,000 percent increase. According