The median income for a household in the city was $33,684, and the median income for a family was $41,477. Males had a median income of $35,043 versus $23,295 for females. The per capita income for the city was $15,677. About 9.8% of families and 13.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 14.4% of those under age 18 and 9.4% of those age 65 or over.
When gold and silver were discovered at the Comstock Lode, miners came west with hopes of getting rich. This caused boom towns and in turn people who didn't mine came and also got rich selling supplies to the miners. Some of these people stayed after the gold rush was over. This greatly sped up the population of the west.
What actually happened was that general secretary-treasurer Bill Haywood and a majority of IWW leaders agreed that the union should desist from any discussion of the war or the draft, in the vain hope that this policy would persuade the federal government to refrain from targeting the union for repression.