Rest, Papa Rest

— George Mann

The title of this tune comes from the inscription on a gravestone in the miner's section of the giant cemetery in Virginia City, Nevada.

Says George:

I wouldn't necessarily say the gravestone 'inspired' the song; the town and the story of the Comstock Lode and the Western Federation of Miners all 'inspired' the song... the stone gave me the title and the idea for the story line, i.e., the children are talking about/to their father, a miner in those times....

I wrote the song in one sitting in Ukiah, California, two days after visiting Virginia City and learning about the miners' struggle there.

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Rest, Papa Rest

Rest, Papa rest, the work is finally done.
The whistle and the wind have blown, the moon has chased the sun,
The babes are fed, the rent is paid, our union contract's won,
So rest tonight, Papa rest.

For twenty years you labored in Virginia City's mines.
For twenty years you rarely saw the afternoon sunshine.
The gold dust bled into your lungs -- you said better yours than mine,
So rest tonight, Papa rest.

God bless the miner's union for the work that they have done,
But it's a constant battle to protect what we have won.
For the bosses start to thinking they have got us on the run,
When we rest, Papa when we rest.

Your fingernails are clean, the boots are off your feet.
Coyotes sing a lonely song as you enjoy your sleep.
They might have beat your body but your soul they can't
      defeat,
So rest tonight, Papa rest.

God bless the miner's union for the work that they have done,
But it's a constant battle to protect what we have won.
For the bosses start to thinking they have got us on the run
When we rest, Papa when we rest.

So lay down tonight, you needn't have a care.
The union that you fought to build is standing tall down there
You saw gold and silver when we didn't have a prayer,
So rest tonight, Papa rest.

I'll come to you with gratitude for all the years you slaved,
I'll come to you with thanks for all the dollars that you saved,
I'll come to you each Sunday to put flowers on your grave,
So rest tonight, Papa rest.
Rest tonight, Papa rest.
Rest tonight, Papa rest.

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Mining and Safety on the Comstock Lode

The Comstock Lode was the first major U.S. deposit of silver ore on the eastern slope of Mt. Davidson, a peak in the Virginia range. After it was made public in 1859, prospectors rushed to the area which became a bustling center of fabulous wealth.

Unlike most silver ore deposits, which occur in long thin veins, those of the Comstock occurred in discrete masses often hundreds of feet thick. The ore was so soft it could be removed by shovel. Although this allowed it to be easily excavated, the weakness of the surrounding material resulted in frequent and deadly cave-ins. Square-set timbering eventually solved this problem.

Early in the Comstock history, there were heavy flows of water to contend with. This called for pumping machinery and apparatus, and as greater depth was attained, larger pumps were demanded. Initially, the water was cold, but the deeper workings cut into parts of the vein where there were heavy flows of hot water. This water was hot enough to cook an egg or scald a miner to death almost instantly. Lives were lost by falling into sumps of this water hot from the vein. The hot water called for fans, blowers and various kinds of ventilation apparatus, as miners working in heated drifts had to have a supply of cool air.

The Comstock Unions

The first miners' unions of the American West were those on the Comstock Lode. In 1863, four years after the discovery, underground miners attempted to unionize. During the formative period of unionization in and around the mines, disputes between corporate capital and organized labor soon led to confrontations, particularly over the four-dollar-a-day wage and closed-shop issues. Blacklisting by the mining companies and a show of military force, directed by the Nevada Territorial Governor (a mine owner) in 1864, inaugurated a heritage of conflict in the western hardrock-mining industry that continued well into the twentieth century.

While militant in their tactics, the unions of Virginia City, Gold Hill, and Silver City accepted the basic tenets of a capitalistic, industrial economy. The union miners discovered, following their initial setbacks, that the means to power in a locality dominated by one industry was to influence or control essential elements of local government through the ballot and volunteerism -- especially in law enforcement, fire protection, and the militia. In this they were quite successful.

Labor Notes doesn't think much of business unionism -- particularly where it is infused with militant nativist (anti-Chinese) sentiment as these unions were.

But we have to give them their due. Ultimately, they succeeded in wresting basic concessions involving wages, working conditions, and union security from the absentee-owned mining corporations, because they were able to maintain community support during times of dispute and negotiation. A strike could paralyze commerce, and flood the deep mines by stopping the pumps, exciting the stock market into a selling frenzy. Absorbing the lessons from their earlier confrontations with mine owners, the unions pursued coercive tactics directed at management.

Despite the underlying industrial tension, the miners and their unions were an integral part of Comstock social and civic life, sponsoring or supporting numerous public events, the only public library, and a private hospital in Virginia City.

Their efforts established the general pattern of union organization and labor-management relations throughout the mining West for decades. Almost without exception new unions in California, Dakota, Colorado, Arizona, and Montana adopted the constitution and bylaws of a Comstock union with but little revision.

Beginning in the early 1880s, the focus of union activity in the western mining industry shifted elsewhere as the Comstock rapidly declined. No representative from the Comstock unions attended the organizational meeting of the Western Federation of Miners in Butte Montana in 1893.

There was a vivid contrast between the socialism of the WFM and its anarchosyndicalist ally the Industrial Workers of the World, and the more traditional industrial unionism of the Comstock miners' unions.

Three years later the Comstock unions did join the WFM. They stayed with it until their demise in the 1920s.

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Personnel: Marty Confurius, double bass, cellos, string arrangements; George Mann, acoustic guitars, e-bows, lead vocals, sound; Annie O'Shea, lead and harmony vocals; Joe Jencks, harmony vocals; Alan Podber, harmonica; Mark Urselli, sound.

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From George Mann's new solo CD, Into the Fire. Buy it online. More information: George Mann Music or GeorgeAndJulius. Email to get on the mailing list for George Mann and Julius Margolin releases and info. George is a member of AFM Local 1000.

Thanks to Guy Louis Rocha for his assistance with the historical material, taken mainly from his article The Many Images of the Comstock Miners' Unions. Mt. Davidson photo courtesy of Online Nevada Encyclopedia. Other historical material was provided by Wikipedia. Thanks also to the Comstock Cemetery Foundation for guidance around the Virginia City gravesites.

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Songs not otherwise attributed were recorded at the annual Great Labor Arts Exchange in 2001, 2003, 2004, or 2005 at the National Labor College/George Meany Center, Silver Spring, Maryland. Engineers: Bob Barnes, Ellis Boal, Charlie Ray Fetty III, Joe Jencks, Ray Korona, George Mann, Dave Sless, Isaac Wilson.

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