Americanizing Workers

Abstract This chapter explores how the politics of nationalism, mobilized by Colorado Progressives to advance labor reform and worker integration during World War I, was overtaken by a wave of nativist, anti-radical sentiment exemplified by the Ku Klux Klan. Reformers, like Josephine Roche, used wartime patriotism to defend immigrant workers from bigotry and implement labor reforms. At CF&I, Rockefeller extended the Industrial Relations Plan (IRP), aiming to Americanize and pacify the workforce using Young Men’s Christian Association YMCA programs, ethnic integration, and Christian domesticity. The Red Scare, however, turned sentiment against unions and immigrants. The Klan capitalized on these fears by mimicking progressive tactics—promoting school reform, public morality, and prohibition—channeling them through nativist, anti-Catholic, and anti-immigrant bigotry. Their success splintered Progressive coalitions and paralyzed reform efforts. Both the IRP and Progressives ultimately failed to build durable social peace in the face of deepening cultural division. And, into this reform void stepped the IWW, who promised radical change.