Unlike heavier industrial centers in the greater region, such as Johnstown and Pittsburgh, Roaring Spring's population had remained relatively homogeneous in ethnic, racial and political terms, a historical factor that reinforced the outward social cohesiveness of the community. During the early decades of the 20th century, as the nation experienced large waves of immigration from eastern and southern Europe, the town remained primarily old-stock Protestant descendants of Germans and Scotch Irish. It also failed to experience the great northern migration of African Americans from the South looking for factory jobs after the Second World War. Roman Catholics were the last major mainstream denomination to establish a congregation in Roaring Spring. Prior to 1969, most local Roman Catholics worshipped at St. Patrick's in Newry, an Irish-founded parish about away. The town has also remained true to the temperance movement as championed by D. M. Bare from his earliest days. Under the Bare family influence, the town went dry in the 1890s and remains so today, as does all of the Morrisons Cove valley. It is also revealing that while the paper mill was family owned, local labor unions were practically nonexistent. The first union local — United Brotherhood of Pulp and Sulphite Workers (AFL) — was not organized until 1943.