American mines imported males from the northern part of Italy, experienced in mining the Alps; many were boys (no middle school for these young Italians). Some then moved on from Montana and Arizona mines toward the Pacific. Most everyone was interested in finding gold. Every local gully and valley in our area once had a stream running through it, even underglacial, when covered with glacial ice a mile thick. The Italians (and Chinese) found gold in these gullies, “During the Depression, every streambed had a prospector.”* 
Italian immigrants learned the English language, freely worshipped at Roman Catholic churches, and saw their children assimilate. They have always been among the West’s firefighters (and we may soon need many of them, see the URL below about the ocean’s warming). This writer has employed professional workers in Italy (and from the Vatican), a country that boasts today of having more labor and other laws on the books than any other! It is very difficult to make one’s way in Italy today, as it was then. In America, no matter what one’s ancestry may be, we are all free to “dig for gold” in any occupation or industry using our skills, knowledge, abilities, interest, and effort. The American workplace is a gift that keeps on giving those who are determined to participate. And that’s what the Italians did, they came to America and worked hard. It was not until 1938 that the Fair Labor Act prohibited workers aged 14 or less working outside of school hours … 16 if during school hours. Being 12 years old, working in a coal mine. As a past middle school teacher and parent, it is difficult to imagine.
https://www.historylink.org/file/20543
https://www.plc215.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Italian-Miners-Tent.pdf
https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/programs/child-welfarechild-labor/child-labor/
https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientists-concerned-unheard-conditions-off-113000269.html
https://www.onlinereadfreebooks.com/en/The-Big-Burn-Teddy-Roosevelt-and-the-Fire-That-Saved-America-689885/14
The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 set the minimum working age in the US at age during school hours.
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