Crystal Eastman Work Accidents and The Law

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WORK-ACCIDENTS
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CHARITIES
PUBLICATION
COMMITTEE
105
EAST
22D street,
NEW YORK
158 ADAMS
STREET,
CHICAGO
RUSSELL
SAGE
FOUNDATION
WORK-ACCIDENTS
AND THE
LAW
By
CRYSTAL EASTMAN
MEMBER AND SECRETARY, NEW YORK STATE EMPLOYERS'
LIABILITY COMMISSION
FINDINGS IN SIX VOLUMES
Edited by
PAUL UNDERWOOD KELLOGG
NEW YORK
CHARITIES PUBLICATION
COMMITTEE MCMX
Copyright, 191 o, by
The Russell Sage Foundation
PRESS OF WM. F. FELL CO.,
PHILADELPHIA
EDITOR'S
FOREWORD
THE
Slavs from
Austro-Hungary, the Latins from the Medi-
terranean provinces, the Germans or the British-born, who
come to Pittsburgh to do the heavy work of manufacture
(and for Pittsburgh read the United States), come from a region
of law and order to a region of law-made anarchy so far as the
hazards of industry are concerned. For there is scarcely a country
of modern Europe but has brought its statutes abreast of industrial
progress and wrought out for itself, as we have not, some sensible
adjustment between civil rights, human needs, and the ceaseless
operations in which groups of men and powerful appliances are
joined in producing what the world wants.
Laggard as the American states have thus been in what Mr.
William Hard has called the "law of the killed and injured," it is
ours to profit by the experience of the countries which have from
five to fifteen years' headway in this field. An American system
should, none the less, be grounded firmly in American conditions.
Toward the understanding of these conditions, of the common
causes of accidents, and their consequences in the actual household
experience of working people, this book is contributed. Miss
Eastman presents the findings of the first systematic investigation
of all cases occurring during a representative period in a repre-
sentative American district. No such body of facts has hitherto
been available, and the investigation could scarcely have been
better timed in relation to constructive efforts towards the estab-
lishment of industrial justice. The field work was carried on
during 1907-08 as part of the Pittsburgh Survey and the results
were published in brief in "Charities and the Commons" in March,
1909.
During the past year state commissions have been ap-
pointed in Minnesota, Wisconsin and New York for the purpose
of recommending legislation on this subject. Data quoted in
Appendix IV from the first report of the New York Commission
afford a comparison between the Bufl'alo and the Pittsburgh
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EDITOR S FOREWORD
to public consideration, a situation whicli in our industrial dis-
tricts has been weakly surrendered to inertia and trepidation.
The lives of men, the fair living of familiesthese are worth
conserving to the uttermost against the risks of work. These the
industries of America waste without tally.
Paul U. Kellogg
Director Pittsburgh Survey
vu
TABLE
OF
CONTENTS
Editor's
Foreword
The Problem Stated
PAGE
V
PART I
THE CAUSES OF
WORK-ACCIDENTS
Chapter I
Pittsburgh's Yearly Loss in Killed and Injured . . . 1
1
Chapter II
The Railroaders
i6
Chapter 111
The Soft-coal Miners
34
Chapter IV
The Steel Workers
49
Chapter V
Other Workers
76
Chapter VI
Personal Factor in Industrial Accidents
84
Chapter VII
Suggestions for Prevention
105
PART II
ECONOMIC COST OF WORK-ACCIDENTS
Chapter VIII
Distribution of the Burden of Income Loss .
Chapter IX
The Effect of Industrial Fatalities Upon the Home
Chapter X
Problems of the Injured Workman ....
Chapter XI
Policy of Certain Companies
Conclusion, Parts I and II .
ix
119
132
144
153
165
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
PART III
"EMPLOYERS'
LIABILITY"
Chapter XII page
The Law
'69
Chapter XIII
By-Products of "Employers' Liability"
19
Chapter XIV
Legislation
27
APPENDICES
APPENDIX
I. The Temper of the Workers Under Trial, By Crystal
Eastman
221
II. The Process of Making Steel, By John
Fitch . . 238
III. Safety Provisions in the United States Steel Corpora-
tion, By David S. Beyer 244
IV. Quotations from First Report of New York State Em-
ployers' Liability Commission 269
V. Accident Insurance Act of Montana .... 296
VI. United States Steel Corporation Voluntary Accident
Relief Plan 300
VII. Industrial Accident Department of International Har-
vester Company and Associated Companies . .
304
VIII. Dues, Benefits and Contribution from Employer in
Four Relief Associations Founded on Contract of
Release
313
IX. A Calculation as to the Social Loss Involved in One
Year's Work-accidents in Allegheny County . .
315
X. Data as to Railroad Accidents (United States Inter-
state Commerce Commission)
318
XI. Record System Employed
320
XII. Data Secured Concerning all Cases of Married Men
Killed in Work-accidents in Allegheny County, Pa.,
July
I,
1906,
to
June 30, 1907
325
Index
335
LIST OF
ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING
PAGE
Death calendar. (In color)
....
Frontispiece
Freight yards along the Ohio crowded with ore cars . . i6
Yard brakemen waiting their turn at riding cars down the
hump
21
Freight yards at night
25
Railroad yards near mills
29
Cutting coal in a modern mine by electric chain machine .
37
An English-speaking miner
40
At the day's end
44
The biggest tools in the industry
48
Filling ingot molds with molten steel
53
Hot steel ingot entering the rolls of a blooming mill . .
57
Dangerous grade crossing at entrance to mill yard . . 61
Electric crane drawing hot ingot from pit furnace ...
65
Ingot mold cars equipped with automatic couplers . 68
Crane runway over scale pit 68
Planer in machine shop
79
Safety hood over circular saw
79
A greener: Lad from Herzegovina. Drawing by Stella.
(In color)
84
Immigrant laborer: A Slav 88
A lucky brakeman. Seven serious injuries in five years, and
still on the job
92
Irish iron worker
96
Steel worker: A genuine American 100
Machine room showing intricacy of equipment. Gears
guarded 105
Automatic screw machine encased and gears guarded . .108
Turret lathes, all gears guarded
108
Wire guard over electric switch
112
Guarded band saw
112
xi
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING
PAGE
The puddler. (In color)
126
A breadwinner of three generations taken . . . ' 3^
The problem of a railroad widow 137
One of six
I37
One of the mothers
140
An arm gone at twenty
I44
A wound of work
i44
Wife and six children in the old country
149
The oldest of four children. Father a car^repairer killed at
work
149
One arm and four children
1
53
The crippled watchmana type 156
APPENDIX III
PLATE
1. Stairway in boiler house
245
2. Stairway, showing overhead cross walk of steel grating .
245
3
and 4. Gauge glass for indicating height of water in a
boiler; equipped with circular steel guard . . .
246
5.
View of rope drive for rod mill, showing steel plate en-
closure
246
6. Stop arrangement over rolling machines ....
249
7.
Electric traveling crane showing open gearing . . .
250
8. Another crane, showing protected gears . . . .250
9.
Wire drawers at work
253
10. A steel guard for the end gears of lathes . . .
-255
11. View in nail mill
256
12. Lathe of recent design
;
the gearing is scarcely visible .
259
13. Lathe built twelve or fifteen years ago ....
259
14.
Mill switch board
260
1
5. Protective device for trap doors
260
16. Warning sign
260
1
7. Guard for frogs made of steel plate
262
18. Grill work protection for bins and hoppers
. . . 262
19
and 20. Workmen equipped with safety hood . . .
264
21. Typical view of emergency
hospital in one of the mills .
265
Xll
LIST OF TABLES
TABLE
PAGE
1. Extent of injury in
294
casesApril-June,
1907
. . 12
2.
526
wage-earners killed in work-accidents in Allegheny
County, Penn.,
July
i,
1906, to June 30, 1907,
classi-
fied by ages
13
3.
526
wage-earners killed in work-accidents classified by
occupations and country of birth
14
4.
Weekly earnings of
440
men killed in work-accidents . 14
5.
125 men killed in railroading, classified by nature of
accident and by occupation
19
6. Men killed in mining, classified by place where accident
occurred and by nature of accident
35
7. 195
men killed in steel industry, classified by nature of
accident and by employer
51
8.
37
fatalities occurring in process of making steel in mills . 52
9. 73
fatalities in the process of hoisting and conveying
materials in steel mills
57
10. 42 men killed by operation of electric cranes, classified by
employing company and by nature of accident . . 62
11.
195
fatalities in steel making, classified by causes . . 72
12. 122 fatalities in miscellaneous employments ... 76
13.
410
work-accident fatalities, classified by employment
and by indications of responsibility .... 86
14.
Indications as to responsibility for
377
industrial acci-
dents resulting in death
103
15.
Economic responsibilities of
467
persons killed in work-
accidents in Allegheny County, July, 1906,
to July,
1907
''9
16. Compensation paid by employers to
dependents of
235
married employes killed in work-accidents . .
121
17.
Compensation paid by employers to
dependents of 120
single employes killed in
work-accidents,
who were
contributing to the support of others . . . .
122
18. Proportions receiving no
compensation
among
273
in-
jured men . .

.124
xiii
126
126
126
126
LIST OF TABLES
TABLE . .
''*^
19.
Compensation paid to six men totally disabled for life.
April, May, June, 1907
124
20. Compensation paid to 27
men partially disabled for life.
April. May, June, 1907
125
2 1
.
Compensation paid for the loss of an eye .
22. Compensation paid for the loss of a leg .
23.
Compensation paid for the loss of an arm
24.
Compensation paid for the loss of two fingers
25.
Weekly earnings of
440
26. Income and age of the six out of
193
married men killed,
who left over
$3,000
to take the place of lost income .
133
27.
2
14
Married men killed, classified by weekly income and
by
provision for calamity
134
28. Per cent distribution of 214 married men killed, classified
by weekly income and by provision for calamity .
1
34
29.
Amounts paid by Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad Co.
1
54
30.
Amounts paid by American Steel and Wire Company .
1
54
31.
Compensation to the dependents of 121 married men
killed in work-accidents paid by employers of Alle-
gheny County, not including Pittsburgh and Lake
Erie Railroad Company, American Steel and Wire
Company, or Carnegie Steel Company. . . .156
32.
Dues, benefits and contributions from employer in eight
relief associations not founded on contract of release .
159
33.
Compensation paid by Carnegie Steel Company to widows
of
42
men killed
160
34.
Compensation received by the 42 widows entered in
Table
33,
plus Carnegie relief benefits . . . . 161
35.
Dues, benefits, etc., in Pennsylvania Railroad Relief De-
partment,
1909
197
36.
Benefits paid by Pennsylvania Railroad Relief Depart-
ment, February
15, 1886, to February
15, 1909
. .198
APPENDIX
I. Compensation paid to dependents of married men killed
in railroading and in other
employments in Erie
County, 1907-1908. (New York State
Employers'
Liability Commission)
273
xiv
LIST OF TABLES
TABLE
_ j,^
2. Comparison of losses and receipts in
902 temporary dis-
ability cases with complete information.
(New York
State Department of Labor)
275
3.
Comparison of losses and receipts in 61 permanent partial
disability cases with complete information.
(New
York State Department of Labor) ....
276
4.
Comparison of losses and receipts in ten permanent com-
plete disability cases with complete information.
(New York State Department of Labor) . . . 276
5.
Comparison of losses and receipts in
53
fatal cases with
complete information. (New York State Depart-
ment of Labor)
276
6. Comparison of losses and receipts in 1 1 1 fatal cases
(married men) with complete information. (New
York State Employers' Liability Commission) . .
277
7.
Disposition 306 non-fatal cases. (Wisconsin Bureau of
Labor and Industrial Statistics)
278
8. Disposition
131
non-fatal cases. (Wisconsin Bureau of
Labor and Industrial Statistics)
278
9.
Fifty-one fatal cases, of settlements reported by fac-
tory inspectors. (Wisconsin Bureau of Labor and
Industrial Statistics)
279
10. Proportion of payments made to notices of injury re-
ceived for various years under Employers' Liability
policies. (New York State Employers' Liability
Commission)
279
1 1
.
Men killed in industrial accidents, Erie County, during
1907
and 1908, and in Manhattan Borough during
1908,
classified according to weekly earnings and insurance
recovered. (New York State Department of Labor) 282
12. Summaryfor firms having expenditures on account of acci-
dents in
1907.
(New York State Department of Labor) 287
13.
Men killed in industrial accidents in Erie County during
1907
and 1908,
and in New York City during 1908.
Table of total fees paid to lawyers and net compensa-
tion in all cases in which fees were known to have
been paid. (New York State Employers' Liability
Commission)
290
XV
LIST OF TABLES
TABLE
14. Percentage of actual payments and gross premiums re-
ceived for Employers' Liability insurance for the
years 1906, 1907,
1908. (New York State Employ-
ers' Liability Commission) 291
LIST OF DIAGRAMS
DIAGRAM
PAGE
1. 526
wage-earners killed in work-accidents in Allegheny
County, Penn.,
July
i, 1906,
to June 30, 1907,
classi-
fied by ages
13
2. Weekly earnings of
440
3.
71
men killed in mining, classified by nature of the acci-
dent
36
4. 195
men killed in steel industry, classified by nature of
accident
51
5.
Per cent of fatalities in steel making due to various
groups of causes
73
6. Divisions of responsibility for
377
industrial accidents
resulting in death 104
7.
Economic significance of
467
work-fataHties . . .120
8. Compensation paid by employers to dependents of mar-
ried employes killed in work-accidents . . . 1 22
9.
Compensation paid by employers to dependents of single
employes killed in work-accidents, who were con-
tributing to the support of others
123
10. Compensation paid to twenty-seven men partially dis-
abled for life
125
1 1
.
Weekly earnings of
440
men killed in work-accidents . 1 30
12. Deaths and injuries of trainmen for fifteen years . .
319
xvi
WORK-ACCIDENTS AND THE LAW
THE PROBLEM STATED
I. On December
4, 1906, James Brand,* a young struc-
tural iron worker, employed by the Fort Pitt Bridge Com-
pany, while passing over a scaflFold to get to his work on
the Walnut Street Bridge, fourteenth ward, Pittsburgh, fell
35
feet to. the ground and was killed. Testimony at the cor-
oner's inquest brought out the fact that a plank broke under
him. The two pieces of the plank were picked up where they
fell. At the broken end 01 each, the frost and dirt had
worked into the wood several inches, testifying eloquently to
an old crack, a crack of at least two weeks' existence accord-
ing to the statements of those who looked at the pieces.
Brand had nothing to do with the building of the scaffold.
II. On May i,
1907,
Frank Koroshic, a Lithuanian
angle-shearman employed by the McClintic and Marshall
Company, at Rankin, Pa., had finished his work for the day
and, in order to get some waste with which to clean his hands,
went over to a big punching machine with which he was
familiar. It had a heavy fast-revolving wheel, boxed in with
iron down to within two or three inches of the floor, to guard
the workmen from accident. At one corner of the machine,
in a hole, was some waste. According to the statement of
the superintendent, Koroshic got down on his knees and,
leaning with his left hand on the greasy platform a few inches
from the wheel, reached with his right hand for the waste.
As he bore his weight on his left hand, it slipped and slid into
the wheel. In a second the hand was crushed.
III. On October
17, 1906,
Adam Rogalas, a Russian
laborer employed at |i .60 a day by the Iron City Grain Eleva-
tor Company of Pittsburgh, was sent with two other men to
do some work in an adjoining building, used by the company
for storage. On the floor above them grain was stored in
bags. The supports of the floor gave way and it fell. One
of the workmen escaped, another was injured, Rogalas was
killed. At the inquest a building inspector testified that the
*
Names of workmen are fictitious.
3
WORK-ACCIDENTS
AND THE LAW
floor-supports
were
obviously
inadequate. Rogalas had a
wife, and four children,
aged ten, six, five, and two; but he
had no savings.
According to Mrs. Rogalas, the claim agent
of the company
offered to settle with her for
I400,
which
she refused. She put her case in the hands of a lawyer, and
suit was entered for |20,ooo. Mrs. Rogalas got some wash-
ing to do; the city poor relief gave her |6.oo worth of groceries
a month; she begged at the door of her Catholic church on
Sundays; her sister, with a family of six, did what little she
could; an occasional |io was advanced by her lawyer. She
was seen in severe winter weather, with shoes so old that
her feet were exposed. Six months after the accident
another child was born; it was the end of the year before
her suit came to trial. The court instructed the jury to
return a verdict for the defendant. The woman had lost
her case.
IV. On August
5, 1907,
Robert Reeve, a United States
postal clerk, was working in the Baltimore and Ohio yards
m Pittsburgh. The engine to which his car was attached
collided slightly with another, so that by the jar he was
thrown agamst one of the iron hooks on which mail pouches
are hung and a bone behind his ear was injured. He was
four days in the hospital, the charges for which the railroad
company paid. He did not go back to work for four weeks.
During this time his salary was paid in full by the government,
I83.30.
He received in addition
$64
from a Mail Clerks'
Association to which he belonged and to which he paid dues.
He settled with the railroad for
I250,
of which his lawyer's
fee took |ioo. Thus Reeve's slight injury, resulting, so far
as we know, in nothing permanent, gave him a month's vaca-
tion on full pay, with
I150
thrown in.
A social investigation is justified when there are grounds for
belief that wrong exists in certain relations between individuals, a
wrong of suificient importance and extent to warrant concerted
interference on the part of the community. When to such a
belief is added a general conviction that this wrong results in a
great public tax, a drain upon the productive forces of the com-
munity, the need for investigation
becomes urgent. With regard
to the work-accident
problem, such a belief and conviction has
long existed,based not only upon newspaper stories, magazine
articles, and hearsay, but upon the common knowledge and ex-
4
THE PROBLEM STATED
perience of working people. On the strength of it, this investi-
gation was undertaken. It should give us facts, not isolated and
unrelated, but massed and classified.
The incidents related above are isolated facts, the first two
bearing especially upon the causes of work-accidents, the third
and fourth upon their economic cost to the workman and his
family.
If adequate investigation reveals that most work-acci-
dents happen because workmen are fools, like Frank Koroshic, who
reached into danger in spite of every precaution taken to protect
him, then there is no warrant for direct interference by society in
the hope of preventing them. If, on the other hand, investigation
reveals that a considerable proportion of accidents are due to in-
sufficient concern for the safety of workmen on the part of their
employers, as in the death of Brand, then social interference in
some form is justified.
If, again, investigation of a large number of cases shows that
workmen and their families do not suffer economically from work-
accidents, and that they often make money out of injuries, as
Reeve did, then we are not warranted in interfering between em-
ployers and employes for the sake of further protecting the rights
of the latter. But if investigation shows that the majority of
work-accidents result in serious deprivation to the workers'
families and consequent cost to the community, and that the
economic loss is inequitably distributed, as in the Rogalas case,
then we shall be warranted in advocating interference to adjust
that burden more wisely.
The present study thus divides itself into two parts. Its
purpose is to determine in the .cases studied, (i) What are the
indications as to responsibility? (2)
What material loss and pri-
vation, if any, resulted to the injured workmen and their families?
But these are not two distinct questions; there is an obvious inter-
relation between them. It is a fundamental doctrine of the civil
law that if a loss is to be suffered he who is at fault shall suffer it,
in order both to secure justice between individuals and to prevent
future faults of the same kind. Therefore, we shall consider re-
sponsibility for work-accidents in its bearing on the deter-
mination of a just distribution of the economic loss; and we shall
5
consider the distribution of the economic loss in its bearing on
the prevention of these accidents.
This discussion is based upon the study of a year's industrial
fatalities and of three months' industrial injuries in Allegheny
County, Pennsylvania. Together they make something over a
thousand cases. What could be learned about them,the cir-
'
cumstances of the accident, the nature and extent of the injury,
the family responsibilities of the killed or injured worker, how large
his income, what provision he had made for misfortune, how great
the financial loss suffered by his family, what share of this was
shouldered by his employer and by what means it was adjusted,
what was the effect of the accident on the economic life of his
family,these facts were gathered. Such facts are needed if
society is to solve justly the problems involved in work-accidents
and to determine the extent to which its own interests are in-
volved in that solution.
For fatalities, the period from
July
i, 1906, to June 31, 1907,
ending six months before the inquiry began, was selected in order
that the economic consequences in each case might be the more
closely estimated.
To begin with, we secured access to the coroner's files,
and made a record of every industrial fatality reported during the
year, including, whenever these items were given, the name and
address of the man killed, his age, occupation, and conjugal con-
dition, the name of his employer, the circumstances of the accident,
names of important witnesses, and the verdict. Armed with
these records we set out to complete each story. During this
part of the work an Italian and a Slavic investigator were on
our staffthe latter an engineer. In the majority of cases we
found the family itself, and talked with wife, mother, father,
son, daughter, sister or brother of the man killed. In many
instances, however, the information came second hand, from
neighbors or relatives, and in some cases no trace of the family
could be discovered. In this visiting we often talked with fellow
workmen, and sometimes with witnesses of the accident, and
could supplement the inquest record of the fatality, as well as
learn its economic outcome. Finally, an effort was made to verify
6
THE PROBLEM STATED
the whole story from the employer's records. Here we met
with opposition, however, and succeeded in seeing the employers'
records in only one-third of the cases. But the request led to
interviews which threw light on the accident problem as a whole.
Many tours of inspection, of great help in analyzing the causes
of accidents, were made with competent guides to steel mills,
railroad yards and mines.* Interviews with workmen and super-
intendents concerning the prevention of accidents have made it
possible to enrich the statistical story with some real though
second hand experience.
The same course was followed with regard to the three
months' injuries, substituting hospital records for inquest records.
It was impracticable to cover a full 12 months' injury cases in
the time at the disposal of the investigating staff. For the three
months chosenApril, May and Junethe injuries found on the hos-
pital records equalled approximately the deaths of the whole year.
It is not maintained that so limited an inquiry will give a
complete view of the industrial accident situation, but it will add
to an understanding of it. Following the scientific method, we
have taken a small "cross section" from the very heart and center
of the problem. Allegheny County, which roughly corresponds
with the famous Pittsburgh "Steel District," has a population of
1 ,000,000, of whom 250,000 are wage-earners. Seventy thousand
in the steel mills, 20,000 in the mines,
50,000 on the railroads,
these are the great employment groups in Allegheny County; they

are also the great accident groups. Most of the lesser industries
in which accidents commonly occur are also represented in this
district, as well as all the dangerous trades of a great and growing
city not connected with manufacture. A concrete intensive study
of Pittsburgh's accidents, therefore, should give us a practical ex-
position of this problem as it exists today in American industrial
communities. Such is the aim of this book.
*
Especial acknowledgment is due to representatives of the Carnegie Steel
Company, the National Tube Company, and the American Steel and Wire Com-
pany for courtesies extended on tours of inspection; also, to representatives of
the American Bridge Company, whose plant at Ambridge, Beaver County, how-
ever, was geographically outside the scope of this report.
SlK3ai3DV-M>IOM
JO SHSHYD 3H1
I l>IVd
CHAPTER I
PITTSBURGH'S
YEARLY LOSS IN KILLED
AND INJURED
IN
a year when industrial activity was at its height,that
is, from
July i,
1906, to June
30, 1907,
526 men were

killed by work-accidents in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
During three months, April, May and
June, of the same
year, the hospitals of the county received over 509* men injured
in such accidents. It is impossible to state the total number of
injuries during that quarter, because there is no available record
except of cases received at the hospitals.f But even were an
accurate estimate of the number of injuries in a year possible,
it would be of little value. A scratched finger and a lost leg
can not be added together if you look for a useful truth in the sum.
It is better, therefore, not to try to estimate the total number of
injuries in a year, but to concentrate our attention on the perma-
nent loss of health and power involved in the injuries we are sure
of. In
294
of the
509
non-fatal accident cases of which we have
record (those received at the hospitals during the three selected
months), it was possible to learn the nature and extent of the
injury. One hundred and twenty-seven of the men escaped
without permanent injury. Ninety-one sustained what is here
called a slight permanent injury; for instance, a lame leg, arm,
foot, hand, or back, not serious enough to disable a man, the loss
of a finger, slight impairment of sight or hearing, and the like.
Seventy-six men
(25.5
per cent) suffered a serious permanent
injury. Lest there should be doubt as to what is meant here by
*
This number excludes those who died as a result of their injuries, those
who were sent to the hospital only for dressing and did not remain over night, and
those injured outside the county.
t
The state factory law requires a report of each serious accident occurring
in establishments under its jurisdiction, but the law is notoriously unenforced.
All of the large companies and many of the smaller ones keep a complete report of
every accident, but these are not open to the public.
II
"serious," it will be better to state exactly what these injuries
were. Seven men lost a leg, sixteen men were hopelessly
crippled
in one or both legs, one lost a foot, two lost half a foot, five lost
an arm, three lost a hand, ten lost two or more fingers, two were
left with crippled left arms, three with crippled right arms, and
two with two useless arms. Eleven lost an eye, and three others
had the sight of both eyes damaged. Two men have crippled
backs, two received internal injuries, one is partially paralyzed,
one feebleminded, and two are stricken with the weakness of old
age while still in their prime. Finally three men suffer from a
combination of permanent injuries. One of these has a rupture
and a crippled foot; another a crippled left leg, and the right
foot gone; the third has lost an arm and leg. These
76
are the
wrecks of
294
hospital cases.
TABLE I. EXTENT OF INJURY IN
294
CASESAPRIL-JUNE,
I907*
Extent
of
Injury Number
No permanent injury 1
27
Slight permanent injury . 91
Serious permanent injury
76
Total
2Q4
Estimating the hospital cases for a year on the same basis
we have the Pittsburgh District annually sending out from its
mills, railroad yards, factories, and mines,
45
one-legged men;
100 hopeless cripples walking with crutch or cane for the rest
of their lives;
45
men with a twisted, useless arm;
30
men with
an empty sleeve; 20 men with but one hand; 60 with half a hand
gone;
70
one-eyed men,
500 such wrecks in all. Such is the

trail of lasting miseries work-accidents leave behind.
Five hundred and twenty-six men dead does not necessarily
mean
526
human tragedies. We all know men who would give
more happiness by dying than they gave by living. But
500
men mutilatedhere there can be no doubt. And time goes on.
There has been no respite. Each year has turned them out as
surely as the mills ran full and the railroads prospered,as surely
as times were "good." In five years there would be
2,500. Ten
*
Exact data as to extent of injury in
215 cases could not be secured.
12
Pittsburgh's yearly loss in killed and injured
years would make
5,000,
enough to people a little city of cripples,
a number noticeable even among Greater Pittsburgh's
600,000.
It is no wonder that to a stranger Pittsburgh's streets are sad.
This steady march of injury and death means suffering, grief,
bitterness, thwarted hopes incalculable. These things cannot be
reckoned, they must be felt. But the loss of youth and strength
and wealth-producing power in those
500
yearly deaths, can be
set forth to some extent in figures.
From the point of view of social welfare, the gravest feature
of the situation is that the men killed in industry are young men.
Eighty-four per cent of the men in the year's list of deaths were
not over forty;
58
per cent were not over thirty.
TABLE
2*
AND DIAGRAM I.
526 WAGE-EARNERS KILLED IN WORK-

ACCIDENTS IN ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENN., JULY I, I906,
TO JUNE 30, 1907,
CLASSIFIED BY AGES
/Ige
TABLE 3.
526 WAGE-EARNERS KILLED IN WORK-ACCIDENTS CLASSI-

FIED BY OCCUPATIONS AND COUNTRY OF BIRTH
Pittsburgh's yearly loss in killed and injured
year, of whom nearly half are American born,
70
per cent are work-
men of skill and training, and 60 per cent have not yet reached
the prime of their working life. Youth, skill, strength,in a
word, human power,is what we are losing.
Is this loss a waste? This is a question which Pittsburgh
and every industrial district must answer. If it is merely an
inevitable loss in the course of industry, then it is something to
grieve over and forget. If it is largely, or half, or partly unnec-
essary,a waste of youth and skill and strength,then it is
something to fight about and not forget.
No thorough study of the causes of accidents had been made
in the United States when this investigation was begun. Pittsburgh
had not even counted its killed and injured. Therefore, although
lacking engineering knowledge and practical experience, I have at-
tempted in Part I to analyze and discuss the causes of 400
industrial
fatalities from such sources of information as we had. The tabulation
schemes in Part I are those which naturally suggested themselves.
There has been no attempt to make technical classifications or to
state with anyfinality the proportions of accidents which are prevent-
able. Accidents have been analyzed roughly in two ways, in order to
determine (i) how they happen, and
(2)
why they happen. The
first question suggests the separate study of different industries
covered by Chapters II, III, IV and V, in which accidents are
grouped according to the characteristic processes or employments
of each industry. The second question suggests the personal
equation, responsibility, discussed in Chapter VI, where accidents
are grouped according to the persons involved.
'5
CHAPTER II
THE RAILROADERS
THE
railroad history of Allegheny County for a year is a
record of accompHshment and efficiency thrilling in its
magnitude. Each of the three rivers is lined on both
banks with shining tracks, from which here and there all through
the county branch oflF smaller roads, tapping the products of a
string of mining towns. In going down the Ohio River, unless
your ears are dulled by custom you will notice that there are
hardly three consecutive minutes, night or day, when it is not
possible to hear the rumble of a train. Stand on some rugged
hilltop and count the cars as they roll in and out of the
Pittsburgh District,iron ore, 11,000,000 tons a year, coming
down from the Great Lakes, and countless carloads of coke and
limestone to mix with it in those mighty blast furnaces. Then
see how the trains are hurrying back in every direction, nearly
5,000
cars a day, loaded with steel rails, steel plates, steel beams,
and all the other products of Pittsburgh's manufactories, and then
10,000,000 tons of coal, the output of Allegheny County mines for
a year.
To the outsider, this is the marvel, this almost unbroken succes-
sion of smooth-rolling trains. But the initiated know how much
greater a marvel is accomplished in the railroad yards. There are
22 of these great receiving, distributing, dispatching centers in the
county; 10 immense ones outside the city, 12 within the city
boundaries, where their intricate operations are complicated by
limited space. Here, with the busy switching engines at it day
and night, the long trains are broken apart, cars are classified
and reclassified, placed on the tracks of some mill railroad or sent
on to a further destination. Here, the
"
less-than-carload"
freight,
product of a thousand towns, is assembled and reassembled
and
sent on to a thousand other towns.
16
Freight Yards Along the Ohio Crowded with Ore Cars
THE RAILROADERS
Yet the railroads do not exist for freight alone. Spend a
day in the Union Station. See the boys and girls early trooping
to the city schools from outlying farms and villages; see the keen
and eager faces of the commuters, refreshed by a night in the
country, strong for the day's work. See the meetings of friends
and families all through the day; see the coming of crowds of
strange-garbed, wonder-eyed foreigners, to add by their endurance
and strength to the power of Pittsburgh, and to gain, perhaps, for
their children, some measure of the freedom and chance to live
which America means to the happiest of her people. With late
afternoon, comes again the long moving throng of commuters,
tired, dingy faced, eager now only to catch the train that will take
them back to their wives and children, back to their little green
lawns. Finally, at midnight, over there at the entrance, a big
motor car whirls in under the lights, some great industrial ex-
ecutive steps out and hurries through to board the late express.
Five minutes' conversation tomorrow morning in a certain New
York office is of vital importance to his business and will affect
the fortunes of thousands.
Thus the railroads serve all, from the humblest to the most
exalted, so constantly, so faithfully, that they have become to
society what the power of motion is to a human being. Suddenly
deprived of them, the nation would lie nerveless and paralyzed.
But our view of the railroads is not complete. We must go to
each of the unprotected, four-track, grade crossings in the populous
mill towns. Homestead, Braddock, McKeesport, Duquesne,* and
hear its tale of confusion, terror, and sudden death. We must go
below the hurrying throng of travelers in the Union Station
waiting room, to a small rough room far in the basement, where a
leather couch waits for its burden, never empty for more than a
few
hours. We must pass through the railroad wards of the hos-
pitals, see the injured lying there; we must stand at the gate and
watch them go out one by one, some with eager eyes, glad to be free
but feeble and needing weeks of care to make them well; others
pitiful but braced up with defiant pride to meet those commiser-
ating glances the world casts upon a one-armed man or a man
with a wooden leg. We must listen to the story of many a
*
It is reported that some of these have been protected since this was written.
17
sad-eyed mother who, in the early evening, sent forth her son
laughing and fearless; who wakened in the anxious night to hear
the steps of comrades, bringing him home to her, dead. We must
know of the brave young widows who rose out of the shock and
grief of death to begin a long, up-hill struggle for the support of
little children.
It is the best American manhood in its youth and strength
that we sacrifice daily in the cause of transportation. Of the
125
railroad men, conductors, brakemen, yardmen, etc., killed in
active service in Allegheny County during the year under consider-
ation,
77
were under thirty, and only
13
over forty;
89
were
Americans.
Probably the work of a yard brakeman more continuously
and inevitably involves risk to life and limb than any other trade,
unless it be that of an acrobat, in which risk taking is a part of the
commercial end itself. The twelve-hour working day, or night, of a
yard brakeman is an almost continuous performance of what
would be "feats" of skill and daring to an ordinary man.
Walking the tops of fast moving cars, adjusting couplings,
turning switches, jumping off and on moving engines, the brakeman
must have a mind intent on his work, the 12 hours through,an
ear alert for whistles and bells, an eye quick to give and receive
signals in the language of flags, waving arms, and swinging lanterns.
This attention must not lapse if he is to accomplish his work and
avoid injury. On ground covered with tracks, he must dodge
the switching engines that ply back and forth and also (in all
but the largest yards) the occasional through tra.in rushing past.
His work goes on in all weathers,rain, wind, snow, and sleet,
in blazing summer sunlight, and on black December nights.
Frederick Hoffnian, statistical expert of the Prudential
Life Insurance Company, tells us that among brakemen who die
between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four, from
75
to
85
per cent
die by accident.* The tables given here show that out of the 120
railroad employes who during the one year met violent death in
the course of their work,
38
per cent were brakemen. Among
the injured about the same proportion
(42
percent) are brakemen.
* Hoffman, F. L.: Physical and Medical Aspects of Labor and Industry.
Annals American Academy, May, 1906, Vol.
27.
THE RAILROADERS
TABLE
5. 125 MEN KILLED IN RAILROADING, CLASSIFIED BY
NATURE OF ACCIDENT AND BY OCCUPATION
Among the 12 cases of men who fell from the top of a car,
there are five which no one could explain. There was only the
statement of some fellow workman that the brakeman must have
slipped or stumbled and fallen between the moving cars. One
man lost his balance while he was setting a brake, because the
brake-chain broke. This kind of accident is said to be not un-
common. Often the brake-wheel or the brake-staff proves de-
fective, and means death to a brakeman. Possibly some car
inspector is responsible for such a condition. Constant inspection
of rolling stock is impracticable in busy times when the demands
of commerce are greatest.
. The work in the yards is the classifying and distributing of
cars. There are three ways of doing this, "poling," "flat-
shifting" and "hump-shifting." "Poling" is an old fashioned
way of shifting cars by means of a long iron bar or "poler" ex-
tending diagonally from a switching engine. The engine travels
on a track at the side and shoves the cars along ahead of it. One
man on our list, who was struck by a "poler," hung on and was
carried some distance before he fell. He died an hour after
reaching the hospital; the poler had caught him just under the
heart. This method of shifting cars is considered very dangerous,
and for this and other reasons is being abandoned.
In "flat-shifting," an engine comes up behind the draft of
cars to be moved and gives it a shove, or a "kick," as it is called.
The force of this "kick" carries the cars along until they reach the
switch that has been left open for them.
"
Hump-shifting,"
though very much like this, will be described in some detail since
it involves special danger to the brakeman.
There is in every large railroad yard a place called the
"hump," or the "knuckle." It is a gradual rise of ground over
which a "lead" track runs. A yard engine pushes a "cut" or
"draft" of cars up one side of this little hill, and at the top the
cars are "cut off" from the engine and allowed to roll down
the other side. Many tracks turn off from the main "lead"
track. There is a switch-tender on the ground with a list of the
cars or drafts in their order and the number of the track to which
they are consigned. He fixes the switch, and the cut of cars,
rolling by the force of gravity rapidly down the "hump,"
turns
20
THE RAILROADERS
off on a certain track and travels along until it reaches its destina-
tion. This seems a simple and ingenious as well as economical
device for getting cars where they are wanted,'but it causes more
deaths than any other class of railroad yard work.
A brakeman must of course ride each draft of cars as it is
cut off. The cars are going fast, sometimes
15
miles an hour,
though they average about 10 miles. They must start with
force enough to carry them where they are wanted and to make
them couple on to other cars on the same side-track. The
brakeman's business is to accomplish the coupling. He must put
on the brakes and slow the cars down to avoid their bumping too
hard, but he must not slow them down too soon or there will not
be force enough to make the coupling. It takes experience and
skill to ride cars over the hump, and it takes "nerve." The men
admit that they do not like to do it. One of them said to a
young college-graduate engineer who offered to try it, "Don't
you do it, Sonny. It looks all smooth and easy from here, but
it isn't when you get on top."
Great pressure of work and consequent haste in distributing
cars more than doubles the dangers of the "hump." A yard
master explained it to me in this way
:
"The trouble is that they get cutting the cars off too fast.
For instance, suppose one man is taking down a draft of partly
empty cars. He gets started, and then a draft of very heavy
cars,say nine of them,is cut off back of him. They go much
faster than his cars and are likely to catch him before he gets oif
the lead track. The brakeman on the draft behind often can't
stop his cars in time, if they get to going too fast. If he can't, and
they bump hard, it's all up with the first brakeman."
"Isn't there some way of avoiding that?" I asked.
"Of course if there were two brakemen sent out on a draft
of cars, there'd be twice as much chance of stopping them, but the
general rule is not to have two brakemen for less than ten cars.
Then too, they ought not to cut them off so fast at the top."
Six of the brakemen included in the table were killed in
"hump-shifting."
For three of them there is not much of a
story to tell: one slipped and fell off while riding his "cut" down;
one lost his balance while putting on brakes; one was jolted off
21
when the cars bumped at the bottom. In the other three cases
the evidence is full, and points clearly to possible prevention.
There was an over-hasty "cutter," who sent down three drafts
in too rapid succession. The first draft had not cleared the lead
track in time for the next. The second brakeman, seeing this, put
on his brakes to save the man ahead of him from a bump which
might mean death. Meanwhile the third draft was coming down,
and, before it could be stopped, bumped into the second, which
had thus unexpectedly slowed up. The brakeman on the second
cut met the very death from which he had saved the man in
front. He was knocked ofi^, run over, and killed.
A defective coupler meant death to a second brakeman.
He was riding two cars down the hump. The first car of the
"
cut
"
behind him separated, owing to a bad coupling, and rolled down
rapidly after his two cars. He was just climbing up the ladder of
his rear car and reaching for the grab iron, when the loose car be-
hind bumped and broke his hold. He fell face down on the track,
and the wheels of two cars went over him.*
In the last of these six "hump" cases, defective cars and
too rapid "cutting" combined with the inexperience of the brake-
man to cause his death. Robert Holmes, a boy of eighteen, spent
the first and last night of his railroading on the hump. He had
asked for other work, but because it was Decoration Day and
many men were off duty, he was told to go ahead. He rode one
"cut" without mishap. On his second trip there was a cut of two
cars pretty close behind him. Williams, the brakeman in charge
of it, saw that he was going too fast, and tried to stop his cars.
One he found had no brake; he ran to the other and was putting
on the brake when the chain broke. He could only watch his
cars go crashing into the one ahead. The boy was standing on
the front of his car; the crash threw him face down across the track
and the wheels went over him.f
Among these
1
5 fatal accidents, four at least might have been
This happened in the McKee's Rocks yard of the Pittsburgh & Lake
Erie Railroad. The master mechanic in this yard told me there was no reason
why defective cars should be sent over the knuckle.
f
This was a Pennsylvania Railroad case. A yard master on the same road
told me that a new man ought never to be put on the hump at night,the fact
that the force was short was no excuse for it.
22
THE RAILROADERS
avoided. The rotten engine footboard, the imperfect brake chain,
the defective coupler, the car without a brake sent over the
"
knuckle,"*these are not inevitable conditions of transportation.
Even if 1 1 of these deaths were a necessary sacrifice to the speed
and efficiency of our railroads, it is none the less worth while to
consider how the other four might have been avoided.
Just
where these fatal defects should have been discovered and repaired,
only the railroad management can tell us.
Next to braking, the best known duty of brakemen is coup-
ling cars. Since the Federal Safety Appliance Act of
1893,
re-
quiring automatic couplers, the number of accidents in coupling
has been much reduced,
f
With the old chain coupling, men often
had to run along between the ends of moving cars, in order to
adjust the pin. By the act of
1893,
however, it is unlawful for
any railroad company "to haul or permit to be hauled or used
on its line any car used in moving interstate traffic, not equipped
with couplers coupling automatically, by impact, and which can
be coupled without the necessity of men going between the ends
of the cars." With these automatic couplers in good working
order, it is never necessary to get caught between the ends of cars.
The brakeman can raise the lock pin and open the knuckle and
then stand aside while the cars couple.
Why then were there nine men killed in the act of coupling
cars during one year in one county of Pennsylvania? Some, un-
doubtedly, because of their own haste and recklessness. If the cars
do not "couple on" the first time they come together, not one out
of ten brakemen, railroaders say, will take time to signal the en-
gineer, wait for the cars to pull apart, readjust the knuckle and
pin, signal the engineer again, and stand aside while the coupling
is made. If a coupling doesn't work the first time, nine out of ten
brakemen will go in between the cars and try to make it work.
Thus sometimes they are injured or killed. At least three of the
nine men thus killed, however, were obliged to go between the
*
The same Pennsylvania Railroad yard master told me that brakemen
are supposed to try the brakes before they start over the hump, but that they
do not do it and are not disciplined unless there have been a number of accidents
to men or equipment.
fSee
Appendix IX, for figures showing just how much the requirement of
automatic couplers has reduced accidents to trainmen.
23
carstwo because the automatic coupler was broken or out of
order, and another because he was making a chain coupling on
shop cars. Also, it must be remembered that this law covers only
those cars used in interstate traffic. There is no such requirement
to be found in the statutes of Pennsylvania. Five of these nine
coupling accidents occurred on steel company railroads, whose
traffic is largely intra-state, and whose cars are by no means all
equipped with automatic couplers.
The third division of the brakeman's duties is turning
switches and flagging. This work has its dangers, too, for the
brakeman is all the time dealing with a moving engine; either he
is jumping on or off, or he is just a few feet ahead of it. There is
the risk of stumbling in front of the coming wheels, and the risk
of missing the step in getting on. Accidents of these two kinds
have been included in the fifth column of the tabulation. Seven
men were killed in this way. The example most commonly
used to show a brakeman's recklessness is his custom of standing
in the middle of the track to board a yard engine that is coming
toward him. Although rules are often posted forbidding this,
they are universally disregarded. Most railroaders would agree
with the brakeman who said to me:
"
You see, getting on in front your foot touches the footboard
first, so if you slip there is no chance of saving yourself. Getting on
at the side you take hold of the grab iron first, so if your foot slips
there is some chance of hanging on. Yet I always get on in front
myself. We all do. It's easy and simple. There is a kind of fascin-
ation about it. You win or you lose. It's a gamble. And then, it's
not professional to get on at the side. No good railroader does it."
As a matter of fact, not very many men are killed in this way.
If you watch them do it, you will see why. Their muscles and
eyes are trained to it; it is as easy for them as going upstairs.
Of the seven fatal accidents considered in this group, four might
possibly have been avoided by getting on at the side; in one case
it was snowing and the footboard was slippery; in the others there
is no evidence except that the brakeman fell under the wheels as
he tried to get on.
In the other three cases of this group, the cause of death was
quite different. One man had been a switchman or yard brakeman
24
THE RAILROADERS
for fifteen years. He had just gone to work in the yard one dark
November night. He jumped off the front footboard of his engine
and ran ahead to turn the switch for the engine to go and get
water. After the engine passed him he stood on the track,
waiting for it to come back and ready to step up on the rear foot-
board and reach for the grab iron above. (According to the
Federal law, all yard engines must be equipped with footboard
and grab iron at each end.) The brakeman waited in the dark
until the engine came to him, then stepped up for the footboard
and reached out for the grab iron. There was no footboard and
no grab iron, and the engine rolled over him. A road engine with
step and grab iron only at one end, had been sent out for yard-
work and no notice had been given to the brakeman.
One brakeman caught his foot in an unblocked frog; another
stumbled over a piece of iron sticking in the guard rail. Each
was run over by his own engine, which he had signaled to come
ahead. Unblocked frogs are very common in Pennsylvania.
There is no law requiring them to be blocked. While I was walk-
ing with a claim agent through the yards of one of the interstate
railroads which prides itself on its perfect equipment, he drew my
attention, with pride, to the way the frogs and switches were
blocked, although the law does not require it. A number which
were unblocked and many where the block was broken and useless
were pointed out to him. "Well," he said, "I can tell you, you
wouldn't find anything like that in Ohio." In Ohio since
1889
"all angles in frogs, switches and crossings in all yards, division
and terminal stations, where trains are made up, must be blocked
with the best known sheet steel spring guard or wrought iron
appliances, approved by the commission of railroads and build-
ing." Pennsylvania is nineteen years behind Ohio in this matter
of safety to railroad men. Yet a complacent railroad attorney
in an address to The Railway Club of Pittsburgh stated that
"Those details in the safeguarding of machinery or places of
work which the employer perchance overlooks, are jealously safe-
guarded and enjoined upon him by a vigilant state and nation."
Leaving now the brakeman's special risks, and including
all railroad employes, we find that the commonest fatal accident
is that in which a man is run over while standing or walking on
25
\
the tracks. Thirty-eight were killed in this way, including brake-
men, firemen, conductors, and, in especially large numbers,
track walkers, section men and laborers. With the regular
railroad men these accidents happen in the confusion of the
yards, usually at night. Sometimes the warning whistle or bell
fails; sometimes there is carelessness on the part of the man
killed,an indifference to danger that comes from long associa-
tion with it. The trackmen who are run over are usually for-
eigners, and the same story is repeated over and over again: a
hasty confused attempt to get out of the way of a train,the fast
express coming in the opposite direction,the second whistle
heard too late,and one more "Dago" gone. Three men, how-
ever, were run down by fast trains coming upon them absolutely
without warning, while they were at work on their knees between
the tracks.
Cramped work places account for many factory accidents,
but one does not think of railroad accidents as caused by crowd-
ing. Yet five of the 125 deaths were due to a blow from some
object situated dangerously close to the track. An engineer while
looking out of his cab window was struck in the head and killed
by a projecting brace; a fireman, looking out of the cab window,
was struck by a steel hopper car on the next track and killed.
Those who must board moving trains at the side, in places where
tracks are laid close together, are open to the similar danger of
being struck and perhaps knocked off by some projecting part of
a passing train before they have pulled themselves up clear.
Two brakemen met death in this way. Another brakeman, in
crossing a bridge at night, was struck in the head by a piece
of scaffolding left by the bridge repairers. One death occurred
because the platform of a coal tipple was built out too close
to the track. Such a platform is needed to keep the coal from
falling to the ground and also for the men who rake it down to
stand on. For the safety of brakemen, especially at night, it
should be 18 inches from the track, or else adjustable so that it
can be raised when the coal chute is not in use. It is the duty
of the 'coal company, however, not the railroad, to look after
this.
Limited space sometimes makes it necessary to lay tracks
26
THE RAILROADERS
too close for safety. But with regard to preventing those acci-
dents which occur because platforms, signal posts, mail cranes,
etc., are placed too close to the track, there can be only two con-
siderations: (i) How far away can they be placed and yet be
practically useful in operating the road?
(2)
How near can they
be placed and yet be practically harmless to the men who operate
the road? It is not unheard of for legislatures to take up such
questions. In
1905
a law went into effect in Ohio declaring unlaw-
ful "all mail cranes or livestock chutes which should be built so
as to approach nearer than eighteen inches to the nearest point
of contact with the cab of the widest locomotive in use or to be
used on any railroad." This law was for the special protection
of firemen and engineers. There was none like it in Pennsylvania
in 1908.
In all kinds of railroad work, of course, signaling systems-
are of the utmost importance in securing safety, but such as
depend upon individuals for successful operation must often fail.
Two deaths in our list, however, were due to total lack of pro-
vision for warning -men in defenceless positions. The gondola
cars used for carrying coal, coke, ore, and limestone are so made as
to unload mechanically by a trap which opens in the bottom of
the car. Part of the load usually sticks to the cars and regular
car cleaners are employed to get them ready for use again. These
work sometimes in the bottom of the car, and sometimes under-
neath it. In either case they cannot possibly look out for danger
and are in a defenceless position, unless a watchman is placed to
see that no engine or car comes in on the siding on which the cars
are standing, or unless a complete signaling arrangement is used.
On the Pennsylvania Railroad repair tracks men are protected by
a small blue flag (lantern at night) which may be removed by the
car-repairer only. Even a conductor who removed one was
disciplined. In the Edgar Thomson yards at Braddock a blue
flag is put up in the middle of the yards whilecars are,being emptied
and cleaned. No engine may come in while the flag is there,
and it must not be taken down until the men are all out from under
the cars.
Such an arrangement is simple and absolutely essential to
the safety of the men working under the cars. Yet two car
27
cleaners were killed because there was no signal system to protect
them. Each was employed by a coal company railroad, and was
crushed while working under a car which stood on a siding.
An
engine or another car ran in on the siding without warning, and
bumped the car under which the cleaner was working. In one
case the brakeman testified that the only rule he knew anything
about was, "It's every man's business to look out for himself."
In the other case the superintendent said that he "didn't know
whose duty it was to warn men under the cars, but he could see
that some one might do it."
These two car cleaners were foreigners. A similar death
came to an American boy in the Pitcairn shops, who was under an
engine, cleaning the ashpan. In this case, however, it is not clear
that the accident was due to an inadequate system of warning.
Besides the classes of accidents considered here, there were
a number of exceptional accidents during the year in work con-
nected with the railways. For instance, a gasoline pumping
engine exploded and killed the pumper; a boy in the Pittsburgh
and Lake Erie shops was caught in a belt and carried round the
shaft ; two signal repair men died from electric shock and a fall
;
one brakeman, while making a coupling on a trestle one stormy
night, slipped and fell through; a bridge carpenter, sixty years old,
was knocked off a bridge by an engine, because the boss carpenter,
whose duty it was to warn all trains, had taken down the caution
signal too soon and failed to warn the train in any other way.
Fatal accidents like these are not uncommon.
Among the
17
miscellaneous cases, three will illustrate what
is called the "carelessness of the man hurt." A drunken brakeman
slipped, in getting off his train, and fell under the wheels,one
of the two cases of intoxication found among the railroad acci-
dents. A flagman ventured needlessly to run between two cars
to give a signal; they came together and crushed him. A young
Italian laborer, who had come to America fifteen days before,
and who had worked on the railroad just three days, was going
out with the boss and two others on a hand-car. He heard a
whistle and, looking up, saw a train coming toward the hand car
very fast. It was actually a half mile away, but the Italian, in a
sudden desperate fear and confusion, lost all reason and
jumped
28
;'j|(^
i^~,'\
<;
Pi
THE RAILROADERS
off right in front of the hand car, so that its wheels ran over him
before the men could stop it.
Each of these three cases would be put down in the average
record as "due to his own carelessness,"and yet they represent
three totally different kinds of human weakness. The "careless-
ness
"
of the brakeman who came to his work intoxicated might be
the dull indifference of a degenerate; the "carelessness" of the flag-
man who "took a chance on getting through," is a kind of daring
common to all young men who amount to anything, accentuated
by daily association with danger; while the "carelessness" of the
unfortunate Italian is the pitiful insane terror of ignorance.
Yet most employers include all these under that conveniently
vague and expansive term, and say, "What can we do in the face
of such carelessness?" But to the employer intelligently deter-
mined to reduce the number of industrial accidents, these three
kinds of carelessness would suggest totally diiferent lines of attack,
(i) Can discipline among employes be made more searching and
effective?
(2)
Is there anything in yard management, any ten-
dency to over-emphasize dispatch and efficiency in the handling of
cars, which tends to encourage and develop rather than lessen
that natural recklessness in the men that do our work?
(3)
Have
we any right to put foreign laborers directly into positions where
their ignorance and inexperience will mean death to them in large
numbers, even when it is to the economic advantage of both
parties to use them in this way?
The consideration of wrecks* has been purposely left to
the last, in order to present first a consecutive view of the risks
of railroading when trains run without disaster. Twenty rail-
roaders in our list met death in wrecks. As might be expected,
the engineer and fireman who are comparatively free from the
other risks, more than any other class are exposed to this danger.
There were thirteen wrecks in all, a number of them causing two
deaths, and one three. The evidence in all but four cases was
comparatively clear, and the stories are worth considering in some
detail.
To begin with the smaller wrecks, there were three slight
*
Any collision or other train disaster severe enough to injure or kill a man
has been included among
"wreclcs."
29
collisions in which an old "weak" car* gave way. In each case
a conductor or brakeman happened to be standing on the end
sill of the bad car, and was killed. To this group may be added
the case of an engineer killed by his engine overturning at a curve
in the track where the rails spread.
In only one wreck did the evidence point to a fault of the
victim. He was conductor of a freight train of thirty cars on a
little coal road called the Moon Run Branch. The engineer found
the train getting too much headway and whistled for brakes.
The seventh car had a defective brake and the train could not be
stopped. Engineer and brakeman jumped and saved their lives
;
but the conductor stuck to the train. When the engine jumped
a trestle and fell into a creek thirty feet below, he fell with it.
Two men testified that this conductor knew of the defective brake
and could have "removed" the car, and it was also said that he
seemed to be under the influence of liquor when he boarded the
train. Further inquiry, on the other hand, brought out the fact
that he was a steady man who had occupied his position nine
years. During the twelve months following, his place was filled
by five different men. His family called attention also to the
fact that he was sticking to the train and trying to set the brake
on the seventh car when he was thrown, which would argue that
he did not know it was broken. Responsibility for the condi-
tion of cars taken out, moreover, on most railroads lies with the
conductor only in the most general way.
Fellow workmen were to blame in two wrecks. In one col-
lision two firemen were killed on account of the negligence of a
telegraph operator, who gave two trains the signal to go ahead
on the same track. In another collision two brakemen were
killed, on account of the negligence of the fireman and engineer.!
Two wrecks remain to be described, each of which suggests
a serious criticism of road management. McCord and Andrews
*
Two of these old cars were being used on the Pennsylvania Railroad,
one on the Baltimore and Ohio.
t
These are the two cases out of the year's industrial accidents in which
the coroner's jury so far departed from its verdict of "accidental" as to recom-
mend apprehending and holding the negligent parties for the Grand
Jury, but
nothing came of it. The telegraph operator disappeared; the fireman and en-
gineer were acquitted.
30
THE RAILROADERS
were engineer and fireman, respectively, for the Carnegie Steel
Company on the Union Railroad. On the evening of January i6,
1907,
just before quitting time, they were sent for coal with a train
from the Twenty-ninth Street mill to the [junction yards. The
Carnegie Steel Company has a contract to use a single track of
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company running close to the
river underneath the Thirty-third Street bridge. McCord's engine
collided with a Baltimore and Ohio engine coming toward him.
McCord was scalded to death by steam; Andrews was thrown on
to the river bank and fatally injured. The cause of the wreck
was the steam which escaped from an exhaust pipe of the Carbon
Steel Company on the river bank, obscuring the view for
1
50 feet
along this single track. The trains were going slowly enough to
stop if the engineers had been able to see ahead. This condition
had existed for ten months, although two men at least had com-
plained of the danger. The day after the wreck, the exhaust pipe
was moved.
Three parties, it appears, were to blame here: The Carbon
Steel Company primarily, for maintaining a dangerous nuisance;
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company for both running trains
there and allowing another company to run trains there by
contract while the nuisance continued; and the Carnegie Steel
Company, employer of the men killed, for using another's road
when in a dangerous condition, thereby sending its own men into
danger.
On the night of March
13, 1907,
a Pennsylvania Railroad
engineer named Mikesell, was taking a heavy freight across a
bridge at Deer Creek, Harmarsville. The creek was high and the
pier gave way. The engine and the first cars went crashing into
the water below carrying engineer, fireman, and brakeman to
death. More than
15
men testified in the inquest on this case.
Man after man testified that the foundations of that pier were
altogether unfit for the weight put upon them, that they were
built long ago when traffic was light, and for years had been inade-
quate. There seemed to be no difference of opinion about this.
The only dispute was among different officials of the railroad com-
pany's inspecting department as to where lay the responsibility
for the unsound pier.
31
Not one of these nine wrecks, of which we know the cause,
was due to what is called in law an "act of God;" all could have
been humanly avoided. The telegraph operator, the engineer
and fireman, so far as we know, need not have been careless.
The three old "weak" cars could have been removed from service.
The car with a defective brake could have been held in the shop
for repairs. A careful track foreman or section foreman would
have mended the bad place in the track where the rails spread,
before the engineer was killed. Adequate road supervision would
not have allowed
1
50 feet of single track to be obscured by steam
for ten months. An inspection department, even moderately
efficient, would not have waited for the death of three men to
bring to light the shallow foundations of the Deer Creek Bridge
pier.
Looking back over these railroad accidents, we can draw
a few conclusions. In the first place railroading is of necessity a
dangerous occupation. In it, even with the most perfect equip-
ment, human and mechanical, men will be injured and killed.
With the equipment as it is, however, such risks are vastly
increased. Confusion and awkwardness increase the risk of the
inexperienced; habitual recklessness increases the risk of the
experienced, in whom ease and skill in avoiding danger have
developed at the expense of caution and fear. Faulty mechanical
equipment, usually due to inadequate inspection, increases the
risk of all. Back of all is the pressure for speed in handling the
fast-increasing tonnage. The public demands it, and the whole
railroad, from the president down to the yard brakeman, feels
the demand. There can be no doubt that this accounts for much
indifi'erent inspection, and for much of what is called carelessness.
Finally, the long hours of work in railroading have an
important bearing on the accident problem. On this point it is
worth while to quote a yard master from whom many things
were
learned.
"Is there any tendency on the part of the railroad manage-
ment to emphasize speed and accomplishment at the expense of
safety?" I had asked.
"
Yes," he replied. "To tell the truth, the railroad
company,
32
THE RAILROADERS
like every other business, is trying to get a little more out of a man
than there is in him. There is less of this in the train service
department than there is in the motive power and repair depart-
ments. Eighteen months ago every man in our yard and shops
was working up to his limit making every minute count."
"What can be done about it?"
"Under present conditions," he continued, "they can't
employ more men, that's certain. All the men that can work in
a department are already employed. But the situation could be
relieved greatly by giving the men much shorter hours, so they
could work at this intense rate without becoming careless toward
the end. It is almost always when a man has worked a long time
that he gets careless. Up to last year it was not at all uncommon
for a man to be called out to work
24 or
36
hours at a stretch.
Now they've passed a law making 16 hours the limit for a railroad
man. Yard men now usually work 12 hours, but when the yards
are pressed they often work the brakemen the 16-hour limit.
And when a man works 1 6 hours at a stretch it often means that he
has been awake 18 or 20 hours, because there is a rule that a man
must be called two and a half hours before he goes on duty. Shorter
hoursan eight-hour day for all railroaders,is about the most
important thing I can think of to reduce the number of accidents."
33
CHAPTER III
THE SOFT-COAL MINERS
NAOMI,"
"Monongah," "Jacobs Creek"these names re-
call to a Western Pennsylvanian the sudden shock of
terrible news, the recent horror of a mine explosion, long
columns of gruesome details, street corner arguments about
responsibility, schemes of relief for widows and orphans, etc.
Such catastrophes rouse the attention of the public by their
magnitude. But suppose one man shoveling coal in some small
"room" far within a mine suddenly lies buried under a ton or two
of slate,this causes no comment in a mining community. The
sound of such stories is dulled to the ears of the public by monot-
onous repetition. Indeed, few of these common mining accidents
reach the newspapers. The victim is usually some obscure
foreigner, living in a squalid mining village; the circumstances of
the accident are not dramatic; it is a common occurrence. News-
papers cannot aiford to print the same item again and again unless
it is paid for as an advertisement.
The following telephone conversation, one end of which the
writer overheard at the Coroner's office in Pittsburgh, is significant.
A reporter called up the office for a story
:
Reporter:
?
Coroner's Deputy: "No, we haven't got anything for you
today, Jim.
Well,hold on. ^There's a man killed by a fall
of slate out at Thom's Run. You don't want that, do you?"
Reporter:
.
Coroner's Deputy: "That's what I thought. No, there
ain't anything else. So long."
During the year selected for this study of accidents
(July
1906,-July, 1907)
there were no mine explosions in Allegheny
County although in the following December, over 200 lives were
lost in the single disaster at Jacob's Creek. This absence of ex-
34
plosions in the year's mining catastrophes is fortunate for our
purpose; it allows us to focus our attention on the everyday
risks of the miner.
TABLE 6.
71 MEN KILLED IN MINING, CLASSIFIED BY PLACE WHERE

ACCIDENT OCCURRED AND BY NATURE OF ACCIDENT*
falls of slate than where coal is mined in the old way with picks.
Today in most mines the coal in each working room is undercut;
that is, the coal at the bottom of the seam is sawed through hori-
zontally to a depth of about five feet by a machine operated by
electricity or compressed air, and the coal above is then blasted
down. After this the miner and his helper shovel the coal into
small cars, which are hauled by mules from the room along the
butt entry to the main entry. There the cars from the diiferent
rooms are assembled in a train and hauled out of the mine.
Tetal killed
By fall of roof
By operation of trains
By electric shock
By explosion of powder
Miscellaneous causes
?
Diagram 3.
71 Men Killed in Mining, Classified by Nature of the

Accident
This frequent blasting naturally tends to loosen the roof
and cause the slate to fall. To avert this danger, the miner
props up the roof by placing timbers at frequent intervals (usually
seven feet apart) and wedges in "cap-pieces" on top of these posts,
to cover as many square inches of roof as possible. Further, he
must keep watch for cracks, sound the roof often, and take down
the dangerous pieces of slate before they fall. Thus a skilful and
experienced miner can usually avoid danger. But sometimes the
slate falls unexpectedly, even after every precaution has been taken.
The dangers of falling slate are recognized and provided
against with some detail in the Pennsylvania mining law. To
begin with, it is the duty of the mine foreman (who must have
had five years' practical experience and have passed a state ex-
amination) to visit and examine each working place in the mine
every other day, to "often instruct, and as far as possible, see that
as the miners advance their excavations, all dangerous coal,
slate and rock overhead are taken down or carefully secured against
falling therein, or on the traveling hauling ways," and to see that
36
sufficient props of suitable size are delivered in the working places
of the mine when required. Further, he must provide a book or
sheet in some convenient place, on which the miners may write
the number and size of props and cap-pieces and other timbers
they need, together with the date of the order.
The law sets forth also the duties of the miner in this con-
nection. He must examine his roof before beginning to work,
after any stoppage of work during a shift, and after every blast.
He must "take down all dangerous slate or otherwise make it safe
by properly timbering the same before commencing to dig or load
coal." He is required also to give his order for timbers at least
a day in advance, but "in cases of emergency the timbers may be
ordered immediately on the discovery of any danger." If, how-
ever, from any cause the working place cannot be made safe it is
the miner's duty to leave, put up a danger sign, and notify the
foreman.
In mines generating explosive gas or fire damp, a fire
boss must be employed and must make a thorough examination of
all parts of the mine before every shift. In such mines therefore
the duty of regular inspection, placing danger signs, and marking
rooms where posts are needed, usually devolves upon him, while
the mine foreman has the general duties of supervision and in-
struction.
Such are the chief provisions of the bituminous mining law
with regard to accidents from falling rock, slate and coal. To sum
them up: regular and frequent inspection, instruction, and the
prompt furnishing of proper materials are required of the foreman
;
constant watchfulness, prompt ordering and proper use of mate-
rials for safety are required of the miner.
Can anything be learned from the cases about the operation
of this law? Twenty-two of the
48
deaths due to a fall of roof
were, according to the evidence obtained, unavoidable. In the
inquests on these 22 cases both foreman and fellow workmen
testified that inspection had been made at the proper time, that
plenty of timbers were on hand, and that they had been properly
used. In three or four of these cases, a miner was crushed while
in the act of taking
down slate to prevent accident. Miners do
this by putting a pick under the slate to the far side and then
37
pulling; as the slate falls they jump back. Skill and experience
make this usually a perfectly safe operation, but of course a man
may stumble and not get away in time.
In
14
cases such testimony as was given pointed to the care-
lessness of the miner killed. In certain records this testimony
was convincing, going to show that the foreman had warned the
deceased to use more posts and that he had not heeded the warn-
ing. But in most of the
14
records, there was merely the state-
ment from a foreman (sometimes from a fellow workman also)
that
"
he had visited the room after the accident, and thought from
the look of things that if deceased had used one more post, he
might have prevented the accident."
This kind of carelessness in miners is of a somewhat different
nature from the love of risk developed in the typical railroader.
It is a natural impatience at delay, an unwillingness to stop for
anything that will interfere even temporarily with accomplish-
ment,
a weakness perfectly familiar to those who have done

manual work. A mine superintendent explained it in this way
:
"Suppose a man has his car almost full twenty minutes before
quitting time,a few more shovelsful will fill it. But he has come
to a place where another post is required according to the regularly
accepted distance, and it will take him fifteen or twenty minutes
to set a post. He takes his pick, sounds up above, and says, 'Well,
that sounds pretty good, I guess it'll hold.' And so he goes ahead
to fill his car. Then as he is digging out the coal for his last
shovelful, perhaps, a big chunk of the roof falls. His leg is broken,
or he has a bad scalp wound, or if it is a heavy fall, he is taken
out dead.It seems as if they 'just hate to stop, and want to
even things up at the end of the day."
Miners are paid by the ton and there can be no doubt that
this prevailing human tendency to put off an interruption of work,
is often accentuated by their eagerness to get out a big tonnage.
Six of the men killed by a fall of slate were "greeners;"
namely, inexperienced miners. In two of these cases, a careless
partner had not posted the roof well. In the other four cases, a
foreman was at fault for allowing a "greener" to work in a room
by himself, or with another as ignorant as he. A man must have
considerable mining experience in order to know the signs of
38
danger, and for this reason a careful foreman always puts a
"greener" at work in a room with an experienced miner.
In one case the slate fell in a room which had not been
inspected for four days. Two men were killed by a fall of slate,
not in a room, but in one of the galleries, for whose safe condition
foreman and fire boss are altogether responsible. Testimony from
fellow workmen in one of these cases, brought out the fact that the
slate which fell had been hanging dangerously for some time, that
the fire boss had been informed and had nat had it taken down.
In two cases posts were lacking, fellow-workmen of one man
killed stating that he had asked for posts two days before and
had not received them. This completes the list.
It is hard to get at the truth in this matter of ordering and
delivering timbers. Miners and foremen are human; there must
be friction and failure on both sides in such a matter. Foreman
and fire boss are required at once to inspect a room where an
accident has occurred, and, if death results, one of them is always
summoned to the inquest. He almost invariably testifies, " I
found plenty of posts in the room." Since it is his business by
law to see that there are plenty of posts in the room, and since
the inquest is a very casual, unimpressive performance, he could
hardly be expected to testify otherwise. Private conversation
with miners sometimes brings other information to light. An
Italian, who had worked for years in the mines of this region, told
one of the investigators that often miners do not get timbers for
several days after they ask for them. An old Scotch miner of
sixty, said that he asked for posts once and was told by the pit
boss (foreman), an Irishman, "If you want any more posts you
can go and cut 'em yourself." The Scotchman, unwilling thus to
lessen his earnings for the day, went on working without the neces-
sary posts. This man also said that he had often seen the foreman
and boss hurry to a room where an accident had happened and
fill it with posts, so that when the inspector arrived there would
obviously be plenty of posts on hand.
Coming to the next largest group of fatalities, the record
shows that nine men were killed as a result of the operation of
trains of cars, or "trips" as they are called. There are three ways
of hauling these trips, and each has its risks. The oldest way is
39
to use mules. There is a good deal of danger for the driver in
using mules. He squats down on the tongue very close to their
heels. They are often stubborn and unmanageable.
Sometimes
they jump to the wrong side of the track and cause a wreck, or
they run away and cause a collision. Three of the nine men were
mule drivers. One got down to turn a switch, his light went out,
and he was knocked down by the mules and run over. The
second was driving two teams of mules and having trouble with
them. No one could say exactly how he was killed, but according
to testimony in the case, he had complained several times to the
foreman that one of his mules was unmanageable. The third
mule driver was walking along beside his loaded train, and the
mules, by jumping to the wrong side, threw four cars off the track.
He was crushed against the side of the entry.
Another method is to fasten all the cars to a rope and haul
them out of the mine by means of an engine outside. The man
who rides on the train is called a "trip rider" or "trip runner."
He must see that the cars are coupled before starting, and watch
out for danger on the trip. This is a rather primitive method.
In order to stop the cars the trip rider must get off and signal to
the engineer outside by means of electric wires at the side of the
entry. Often the signal is not received in time to avert danger.
The more modern method of hauling is by an electric motor, with
an engineer and brakeman on each trip.
In all these ways of hauling there is considerable danger of
cars leaving the track. With heavy cars, small wheels, narrow
tracks, and many sharp curves this can not be avoided. When a
car does run off or get stuck, the cars behind it pile up badly,
because the place is so narrow. Three of the nine men were killed
in a wreck or collision of cars. In one case there was no trip
rider; in the second a defective car caught upon another car in
passing; in the third there was a defective brake.
Because of the danger in operating these trains, mining
companies usually make it a rule that none but the men engaged
in running the trip shall ride it.* As one superintendent
explained,
"We are not pretending
to run cars for passengers; we are running
* One of the nine in this group, riding a trip contrary to rule, was jolted
off and killed.
40
Photo by Hine
An
English-speaking
Miner
them to get coal out." Such a statement leaves no room for doubt
as to the risks incurred by the men who operate the trips. The
mining law itself forbids all except drivers and trip runners to ride
on full cars, and on empty trips where the speed exceeds six miles
an hour.
But the miners do not escape all dangers from these trains
by keeping off them. Not infrequently a miner who is walking
to or from his work along the entry, is caught by a train in a place
where there is not clearance for a man between the track and the
wall. He is crushed against the wall in an effort to escape the
train. Two of the nine men in this group were thus killed. Such
accidents suggest practical questions: How wide is the entry?
Are the miners obliged to walk in it ? etc.
First, in regard to the Pennsylvania mining law: Section
4
provides that in all entries where hauling is done by animal power,
there must be white-washed manholes every thirty yards, unless
there is a space four feet wide between wagon and "rib" (namely
wall or side of entry). In entries where the hauling is done by
machinery, and in which persons employed in the mine must travel
on foot to and from their work, these shelter holes must be not more
than fifteen yards apart, unless there is a space six feet wide
between car and rib. The law further provides in Rule
47
that no
person shall be allowed to travel on foot to or from his work on
any such hauling road,
"
when other good roads are provided for
that purpose."
These provisions seem to cover the whole situation, but they
do not. In the first place there is an exception; the requirements
for locomotive hauling roads apply only to those "on which persons
employed in the mine must travel on foot to and from their work."
In mines where there is a separate "man entry" for the miners to
travel on, the hauling entry need not meet these requirements.
In company with the superintendent and foreman, I visited one of
the best modernly equipped mines of the Pittsburgh Coal Com-
pany, which had a separate man entry. Yet miners continually
traveled back and forth from work along the hauling entry.
Our party also entered the mine by the hauling entry. 1
wondered why this was, and insisted that we go back by the
man entry. So at the beginning of our return trip they took
41
me to an opening on to the man way. I looked into it, asked a
few questions, and decided to go back by the track. It was
obvious why the men preferred the dangers of the hauling entry
to the safety of the man entry. The latter was dark from begin-
ning to end; it was not more than five or five and one-half feet
high, so that one would have to travel in a stooping position all
the way, and the floor contained no path at all, but was covered
with loose slate and big chunks of coal. In short, to go in and out
by the man entry meant a mile or two of most difficult and tire-
some walking at the beginning and end of a hard day's work.
Therefore the miners prefer the other entry, where there are occa-
sional lights, where there is a comparatively smooth place to walk,
between the tracks,and where the roof is higher, and for long
stretches high enough to let them walk upright.
Thus the exception made by the law in the case of mines
which have separate man entries, as it actually works in this mine
at least, leaves the miners traveling back and forth along a haul-
ing road on which the requirements of the law are not carried out.
In another way the law fails to furnish complete protection.
The wide space required between track and rib, is sometimes on
one side and sometimes on the other. Owing to the frequent
curves and the necessity of laying the track as straight as possible,
this shifting of the wide space from side to side is probably un-
avoidable, but one can easily understand how, in the darkness and
with a little confusion, it might lead to a tragedy. These two
inquest stories are perhaps not unusual:
Philip Zurich, who had been a miner for less than a
week, was taken by train to a certain switch,
3500
feet into
the mine, and told to wait there until another train came
by, which would take him to his room. He waited over ten
minutes, and meanwhile his light went out. Then he must
have decided to go on by himself. He crossed the track,
thinking the distance between track and rib was the same
on that side. It was not so, however, and as he walked along
in the dark, he was caught by a motor and killed.
Edward
James, admitted by his family to be a rather
slow and stupid man, was entering the mine one day with
his son, a boy of sixteen. The boy, who was ahead, saw a
42
motor coming and, calling to his father, ran for the manhole
fifteen feet ahead. But the father was deceived about the
nearness of the motor. (There was evidence of a broken
headlight.) He called out that there was plenty of time,
and went on walking in the track. When he suddenly saw
that it was too late to get to the manhole, being confused
and afraid of the live wire on the other side, he jumped to
the narrow side, was caught, and killed.
The mention of a "live wire" in the last incident leads to
the third group of accidents. In a modern mine there is another
danger for those who work, or walk to and from work, in the
entry,the danger of electric shock. The transmission wires for
the electric cutting machines are carried along the side of the entry
and, in well-managed mines, are kept covered with dry boards;
but thehigh voltage trolley wire, present wherever hauling is done
by motor, is carried at the top of the entry and must of course
be uncovered. Since the entry is only five or six feet high and
since the trolley wire must shift from one side to the other in order
to follow the track, it is seldom far from the heads of those who
travel the entry. This is the reason why miners are careful to
keep their caps dry.
For the miners who while walking can keep their eyes on
the wire, there is probably less danger than for those whose work
is in the entry. When one sees trapper boys running back and
forth over the rough ground, and brakemen jumping off their
trains to turn switches, apparently without a thought for the big
shining copper wire, never more than six feet from the floor,
one wonders that they are not all killed.
Of the six deaths from electric shock mentioned in the table,
however, only one was due to a trolley wire in the passage; a
miner coming out from work, stumbled and struck his head against
it. In this instance the wire was five and one-half feet from the
ground. Of the other five accidents, two occurred in the operation
of the cutting machine, evidence in one case bringing out the fact
that the insulation was worn off. One man was found dead in the
mine beside a new electric door with which a dangerous live wire
was connected. The door was taken down immediately after-
ward. Another was electrocuted in a dangerous passageway
43
carrying many wires and used only by a few
employes.
Danger
signs were put up immediately afterward. The sixth case was a
pecuHar one. The accident occurred outside the mine. Con-
trary to rules, a dumper who had been working overtime
(14
hours
in all), climbed into an empty car to ride down to the tipple.
His boss, the weigh master, also rode. When the dumper started
to get out, his neck touched the trolley wire, which was about
seven and one-half feet from the ground, and he was instantly
killed. The story of this man's death well illustrates the futility
of a rule (except to protect an employer from liability) when fore-
men and other superiors neither enforce nor observe it.
Among the miscellaneous accidents two are of special in-
terest. In each a "greener" was killed in the mine shaft. One
was just stepping out of the cage when it started and caught him
against the wall,the fault of a careless "eager," no doubt.
The other fell out while on his way up. The cage was open at
both sides, with two feet of space between it and the wall of the
passage. The wall is uneven and the cage goes up and^down very
fast. It was not known how this man fell, but new cages have
since been installed in this mine. A mine superintendent when
questioned about this accident, said, "Of course the elevator in
the shaft has to be open on both sides because cars are hauled
on it, too. In fact it's built for cars, not men. But it could have
a railing or gate of some kind. I guess there never have been
enough accidents of this kind to make them think of it."
Although there were no mine explosions in Allegheny County
during the year we are considering, there were four deaths due to
the explosion of powder in a miner's home, three of those killed
being mine employes. Perhaps it is not generally known that
miners furnish their own powder for blasting, as well as the oil
for their lamps. 1 1 is customary also for them to keep the powder
in their own homes. This somewhat startling domestic custom is
explained by the miners as follows: "We have to buy powder in
small quantities (usually
25
pound kegs) so that it won't be spoiled
by dampness before we can use it. The company furnishes no place
for us to store it in small quantities; hence we keep it in our
houses." The company's explanation is this: "If the men would
buy their powder from us it would be all right, but they want to
44
At the Day's End
be free to buy it where they choose and in what quantities they
choose. Now, if we kept it for them in a safe place some distance
off they would complain of having to go and get it before they went
to work. If we let them keep it in large quantities at the pit
mouth, it would be somewhat dangerous and there would be delay
in getting it out. It is a difficult problem. So we let them keep
it in their houses."
Plainly, the keeping of powder in the miner's home is
"practical" in running a mine; whether it is "practical" in run-
ning a family can be determined from the following two in-
cidents
:*
On December
13, 1906, late in the afternoon, Peter Mat-
thies, a German boy of fifteen, who had worked in mines
since he was twelve, went down into a basement room of
his home to fill the powder can which he should take to the
mine next morning. Two little brothers were with him. A
lamp was in the room, but some distance away. The dust on
the top of the keg, however, must have reached the lamp, for
the whole keg blew up. Peter and one of his brothers were
killed, the other boy lost all the fingers on one hand, and
two little girls in a room above were badly burned. The
house was almost destroyed.
On the morning of February
27, 1907,
at his home,
Jerny
Podobrick was trying to enlarge the hole in a keg of
powder with his pick. A spark from the pick must have
Ignited the powder, for an explosion occurred killing both
him and his son, a sixteen-year-old miner, who was with
him.
One superintendent stated that, after a similar accident,
he had made it a rule that only one can of powder and one gallon
of oil could be' kept in the miner's house; that the rest must be
stored in his shed or outhouse. He had gone so far as to put up
shelves in all the outhouses and hasps on the doors, telling the
miners to get padlocks so that no one could steal their supplies.
At the time of his last inspection the rule seemed to be working
*
Three of the deaths resulting are considered deaths from industrial acci-
dents, because the persons killed were mine workers, engaged at the time in getting
powder ready to take to the mine.
45
well. Such a plan, although an improvement on the usual custom,
does not altogether satisfy an outsider.
"We're running trains to get out coal, not to carry pas-
sengers,"
"The c-age isn't built for men, it's built for cars,"
these sentences declare the principle on which most mines are

operated. They contain a confession that the limit of safety has
not been reached; they suggest a remote ideal. The time may
come when the lives of the men who run the coal trains shall
be as precious as though they were passengers; when "cages"
used for men shall be built for men; when absolute safety for
the men who work and walk in them shall be a universal measure
for the height and width of entries. Practically all mining accidents
such as those in the last three groups are humanly preventable.
Accidents such as were described in the first group,those
due to a fall of roof,cannot be so easily disposed of. Here we
are dealing with a great "natural" risk.
Belgium, France, Great Britain and Germany deal with this
risk far more effectively than does America. A recent bulletin
of the United States Geological Survey shows that in all for-
eign countries from which statistics are available restrictions in
the maximum amount of explosives allowed to be used in any
one blast have not only increased the safety from explosions of
gas, but have also materially diminished the loss of life from falls
of roof. The number of men killed from falls of roof and coal in
France, for each i,ooo men employed, has fallen from 1.26 in
1871-1875, to
.47
in 1896-1900.*
The steady decrease in the death rate from this cause is
ascribed largely to the greater stability of the sides and roof
when free from the jarring and Assuring effect of large charges
of explosives. In Great Britain and Germany and Belgium the
results are similar to those in France.
*
1871-1875 .... 1.26
1876-1880
95
1881-1885
88
1886-1890
63
1891-1895 ...
59
1896-1900
47
Coal Mine Accidents; Their Causes and Prevention. Bulletin
333,
U. S.
Geological Survey,
1907.
46
In recent years more men have been killed in the mines of
the United States per thousand employed than in the mines of
France, Belgium or Great Britain.* Moreover, while in European
countries the death rate from mining accidents is being reduced
from year to year, in the United States it is increasing. Yet it is
stated that
"
In no country in the world are the natural condi-
tions so favorable for the safe extraction of coal as in the United
States." The decreasing death rate in European mines can, then,
be accounted for only by safer methods of mining,more strin-
gent regulations and an effective enforcement of them.
The terrible succession of mine explosions in recent years
has at last stirred the American public to a national effort toward
prevention. In May,
1908,
Congress authorized the establish-
ment under the Technologic Branch of the Geological Survey of a
station for the investigation of mine explosions, and in December,
1908, this first station was opened in Pittsburgh. Other stations
are planned.f
Perhaps an equally important step was taken when the
State Department invited Great Britain, Germany and Belgium
each to send their leading expert on mine disasters over here to
to advise us. They came in August, 1908, and as a result of two
months' study of our mining conditions made the following rec-
ommendations to the United States Government.
J
"The United States Government should examine and
test all explosives and should prohibit the more dangerous,
permitting the use of such only as may be designated by the
Government 'permissible explosives.' [This already has been
done, and in May,
1909,
the Government published a list of
seventeen 'permissible explosives.']
*
Number of men killed for each i ,000 men employedaverages for five
years:
France (1901-1905) 0.91
Belgium (1902-1906) i.oo
Great Britain (1902-1906) 1.28
United States (1902-1906)
3.39
Bulletin
333,
U. S. Geological Survey.
t
A bill for the establishment of a Bureau of Mines has passed the House of
Representatives by an overwhelming majority.
X
Lyman Beecher Stowe, The Outlook, Sept.
25, igog.
47
"All explosives should be made into cartridges and placed
in closed receptacles before being carried into the mine, and
each miner should be limited to the amount he needs for the
day.
"The roadways in the mines should be kept as free as
f)ossible
from loose coal which may be ground into dust.
Contrary to the previous opinion of many of our practical
miners, coal dust is frequently the cause of explosions.]
"
In mines containmg as much as two per cent of gas,
locked safety lamps only can be used without great danger.
"
Electricity can only under the most rigid safeguards
be used without grave danger. It should be borne in mind
that most insulating materials are soon destroyed under-
ground, and that no live wires should be left exposed.
"All new construction, shaft lining and superstructures
should be built, so far as is possible, of non-combustible
materials.
"Thorough discipline about the mines is absolutely
essential, and it can be effected only through the hearty co-
operation of operators, miners, and the state.
"Safety and efficiency would be greatly promoted
through the establishment m the different coal regions of
special schools for the training of fire bosses, mine foremen,
superintendents, and inspectors."
While these efforts are aimed at the prevention of explosions,
there is no doubt that the ultimate result of such activity will be
to reduce also some of the more commonplace risks of mining such
as have been described.
48
The Biggest Tools in the Industry
Blast furnace at right; at left a row of stoves where air is heated for the blast
CHAPTER IV
THE STEEL WORKERS*
THE
superintendent of construction and the superintendent
of the blast furnace department were on their way to
work. They stopped at one of the furnaces to have a
little joke with the boss blower, a friend of theirs. A few moments
after they left him the whole side of the furnace blew out. The
superintendents, running back to see what had happened, passed
two Slavs being carried away on a stretcher. When the blast
was turned off, so that they could get nearer, they found the body
of their friend, burned beyond recognition and borne by the force
of the explosion several feet from where he had been standing.
"And, ten minutes before," said the superintendent of
construction, "we three stood there laughing, and not one of us
had an idea there was anything wrong with that furnace. That's
the way it is, mostly, with blast furnace explosions. They can't
be foretold."
During our year of accidents there were two terrific, memor-
able blast furnace explosions in Allegheny County. On January
g, 1907,
Eliza Furnace No. 2 (Jones and Laughlin Company)
burst, pouring out a great stream of hot metal and killing
14
men.
On May 21,
1907,
Eliza Furnace No. i (of the same company),
exploding in much the same way, killed five men, and injured
many more.f
*It must be remembered that accidents tabulated in this chapter occurred
from July
i, IQ06, to June 30, 1907. The mills were visited during the. spring of
IQ08 and conditions described were of that date. In the past two years a definite
constructive policy of prevention has been adopted by several of the large steel
companies. For a description of the safety committees, etc., see Chapter VII,
Appendix III, article by David S. Beyer, chief factory inspector American Steel
and Wire Company.
f
The year taken cannot be considered exceptional in the matter of explo-
sions. In the seven months following, there was an explosion in Homestead and
-one in Braddock, each with three or four killed and a long list of injured; also a
big furnace explosion at Butler, just outside the county, in which again the number
MIed was 14.
4
49
A blast furnace is a great bulging steel shell lined with brick,
about
90
feet high and 20 feet wide. Inside of it iron ore is
reduced to pig iron, the first step in the process of making steel.
The ore is dumped in at the top, with coke and limestone. Blasts
of air heated to
1000
Fahrenheit in a row of immense stoves
nearby, are sent through pipes into the furnace. This ignites
the coke, and creates such a heat that the whole mass melts.
Fluid metal is thus always boiling at the bottom of the furnace,
while solids are constantly being fed in at the top. Every four hours
the furnace men knock out a plug at the bottom, and what comes
out is not ore and coke and limestone, but liquid pig iron.*
Blast furnace explosions are usually caused by a "hang,"
followed by a "slip." To explain: The mass of coke, ore, and
limestone put into the top of the furnace often sticks to its sides
in the process of reduction. This is called "a hang." Then it
loosens and drops suddenly. This is called a "slip." Julian
Kennedy, the well known construction engineer of Pittsburgh,
explains it in this way:
When a furnace is "hanging," the great mass of
stock (coke, ore, and limestone), just beginning to melt and
fuse, sticks stubbornly to the sides of the furnace, leaving a
cavity between the molten matter below and this hangmg
stock, the under side of which forms an arch above. After
this cavity reaches a certain size, a portion of the stock is
liable to drop, breaking the arch and causing the stock above
to come down with a rush. At the same time the compressed
air in the cavity at the bottom of the furnace is released and
foes
up through the falling stock with a tremendous force,
his rush of gases is often sufficient to lift the entire top of
the furnace or throw it oflf. Consequently explosion doors
and relief doors have been added. In case of heavy slips,
sometimes
30
to
50
tons of ore, coke and limestone would be
thrown out of a furnace in less than as many seconds. This
is usually called an explosion, but is not in reality. If, how-
ever, the fall is excessive, or the furnace defective, the sides
may give way and the molten metal burst out at the bot-
tom, bringing death to all who are working near.f
*
In Appendix 1 1 will be found a short and accurate description of the process,
of steel making by John A. Fitch, which will assist the reader in understanding this,
chapter.
f
Some Modifications in Blast Furnace Construction. Address of Julian
Kennedy to Engineers' Society of Western Pennsylvania,
Jan. 15, 1Q07.
50
THE STEEL WORKERS
TABLE
7.
195
MEN KILLED IN STEEL INDUSTRY, CLASSIFIED BY
NATURE OF ACCIDENT AND BY EMPLOYER
The two big disasters at the Jones and Laughlin furnaces
in
1907,
were, it is supposed, of the latter kind. According to
testimony at the inquest, the furnace was not in either case de-
fective. The explosions, so far as they were considered explain-
able, were held to be due to exceptionally heavy "slips."*
These blast furnace disasters are the most spectacular acci-
dents in the industry, and are responsible for the largest number
of fatalities which directly accompany the processes of making steel.
TABLE
8.
37
FATALITIES OCCURRING IN PROCESS OF MAKING STEEL
IN MILLS
t
Cause Number
Explosions 22
Asphyxiation by furnace gas
5
Operation of rolls 10
Total
37
These
37
deaths were ig per cent of all the steel mill fatalities studied.
Death by asphyxiation also is a not uncommon fate in the
blast furnace department. The gas, always escaping in greater or
less quantities at the top of a blast furnace, is a constant danger
to the man working there. In the old style furnaces, where the
charge is sent up in barrows on an elevator, there must always be
a man on top to dump the load into the furnace. This is admitted
on all sides to be an inevitably dangerous job. Modern furnaces,
however, are charged mechanically by what is called a "skip-
hoist." The loaded cars run up a steep track to the top of the
furnace where they dump themselves, and then come down empty
by another track. This method of charging has done away with
one dangerous job. The men who "charge" the furnace are
below, and only an occasional repair man has to risk asphyxiation
by working at the top of the furnace.
Of five men in our table who met death by asphyxiation,
only two were working at the top of a furnace. The other three
*
Explosions often occur in the converting department, also, due mainly
to the hot metal coming in contact with water. There were no clear examples of
such explosions among the year's fatalities studied, however, and therefore, dis-
cussion of them is omitted.
f
There has been no attempt to cover all kinds of accidents which may
occur in the industries considered but merely such accidents as were represented
in the year under consideration. This is true of all tables of causes.
52
THE STEEL WORKERS
"got gas" while pulling out "cooling^ plates." These bronze
"cooling plates" are a comparatively new device, by which water
is kept flowing close to the brick walls of the furnace. This cooling
makes the furnace lining last much longer. Twenty years ago
men were satisfied to make 100,000 tons of iron on one blast
furnace lining. Now, with the cooling plates, they must make
1,000,000 tons to be satisfied.
Cooling plates must often be changed, because in the intense
heat they deteriorate and crack, and when a plate cracks the
water may come in contact with the iron and red hot brick and
cause an explosion. Taking out an old cooling plate and putting in
a new one is a difficult and dangerous operation, lasting perhaps
two or three hours. A little gas escapes all the time the plates
are being changed, and if a "slip" occurs in the furnace a great
deal of gas may come out suddenly. The men working at the
plates have to stand at the top of a ladder, in no position to get
away quickly if such a thing happens.
The three men mentioned were Slovak furnace keepers,
sent up by the foreman to remove a row of burned-out cooling
plates. Gas came out in sudden and great volume and all three
were killed.*
After the ore has been reduced to iron in the blast furnace,
and the iron in turn reduced to steel in the open hearth or Besse-
mer department, comes another process,
"rolling" the red hot

ingots of steel into beams and bars and rails for the market. In
the "blooming mill" the ingot, "a massive block of steel, six
or seven feet high, a foot or two feet thick and glowing red," is
"rolled" into a long slim bar. This bar is heated again and sent
on to a finishing mill, where it is "rolled" to whatever final shape
is desired. It is before these rolling mills that the casual visitor
stands, awed and fascinated. He sees the red block dumped on
the roll table ; he watches it as it passes rapidly back and forth in
its trough, growing longer and slimmer after each encounter with
the crunching rolls, until it slides smoothly away out of sight,
and another ingot comes on. Here, it seems to him, must be the
greatest danger to life and limb.
*
pach of these men left a wife and children. One widow received
$700,
another 600, and the third, who was in Hungary, nothing.
53
But it is not so. Only lo out of the
195
deaths in the steel
mills can be laid to the rolls, and of these only four were due to
the evident danger, the bar of red hot steel. The six others could
easily have been avoided. Two men were caught in the gearing
of a roll table.* Three were repair men. A millwright and his
helper were repairing a cable on the cooling bed, when through a
mistake the machinery operating the rolls was started, and both
were killed. A pipe fitter had gone into a pit beneath the rolls
to make repairs. The roller, not knowing he was there, signaled
to the leverman to raise the roll table, which operates by weights
moving up and down in the pit below. As the table was raised
one of these weights struck and killed the pipe fitter.
Such accidents to repair men, from a too hasty starting of
machinery, are astonishingly common in the steel mills. It is
impossible to tell where the responsibility lies in each individual
case. But it is clear, as in the case of the coal-car cleaners, that
a signal system is lacking. If, in order to make some repair,
a man must go where the least movement of the machinery will
mean death to him, it would seem mere common sense to pro-
vide an adequate signal system to protect him. A big danger
board can be hung over the starting levers, or a man be
stationed there to warn all comers that the repair man is at
work. Better still, wherever electricity is the motive power,
what the men call a "cut-out" can be installed. The repair
man can then remove a key from the switch-board, put it in his
pocket, and go about his work, secure in the knowledge that no
one can start the machine until he replaces the key.
Two men were killed by the red hot bar itself. One was
pinned against a pile of beams by a bar that bent in moving
through the rolls and jumped out of the guides before the motor
could be stopped. The other in a hurry for tools, tried to run
between two sections of the roll table, and a rail shot out of the
rolls just in time to catch him.f
*
No further evidence was obtainable in their cases, but in 1908, the year
after these accidents happened, a well-covered gearing was still the exception in
the rolling mills of the Pittsburgh District, in spite of the state law which requires
that all gearing shall be covered.
f
Testimony in the record did not reveal whether there was a bridge over
the roll table which this man might have used. The accident occurred in the
54
THE STEEL WORKERS
The rollers in a Garrett or "looping" mill* are literally
playing with fire. They are part of the continuous process of
turning a three-foot steel "billet," four inches square, into "rods"
a quarter of an inch thick, a process preliminary to making
steel wire. After the billet has passed through eight or ten
sets of rolls it becomes a long twisting red hot snake of steel,
too soft to be guided further by machinery alone, and yet
many steps removed from wire. At each pair of rolls, through
which the fiery thing must pass, there stands a "catcher."
As the head of the "snake" comes through one pair of rolls
he seizes it with iron pincers, and turning quickly places it
in the next pair, while the rest of the snake, forced contin-
uously through the rolls, darts twisting down an iron-paved,
inclined floor, in a long loop. At the bottom of this incline
stands the "hooker," whose duty it is to watch these red hot
loops, sometimes three or four running at once, guide them
with his iron hook, and prevent them from getting snarled or
tangled. Each process takes but a moment. As soon as the
catcher has placed the end of one twisting loop in the rolls, he turns
to seize another that is ready for him. This continuous activ-
ity grows more rapid and requires more skill as the "snake" be-
comes thinner and longer, and must go faster to make way for
the next one. Thus the worker at the last set of rolls has the most
difficult job of all.
This work demands so much of eyes and nerves and muscles,
and is done in such intense heat, that the men work in half-hour
shifts, six hours of work during a twelve-hour day. Even so,
it is only exceptional men who will attempt it, and with all their
skill and agility, there are frequent accidents among them.
The "catcher," especially he at the last "pass" or set of rolls,
stands encircled by "fiery ribbons of steel, twisting, darting,
coiling, at a lightning rate of speed." Accidents here are likely
Duquesne Steel Works, in September, rQo6. In May, iqo8, I was taken through
these works by the safety inspector and another officer of the Carnegie Steel Com-
pany. Many new overhead bridges were pointed out to me as instances of pro-
tective devices installed within the last seven months.
There is another quite common type called a "continuous"' rod mill,
in which the rods are guided mechanically from start to finish,thus doing away
with both catchers and hookers.
55
to be fatal. If the rod catches a man's leg
unprotected by a
guard, it will burn through and he may die from shock and loss
of blood. The catcher on our list of killed had a leg cut off
by a hot rod, and died in four days. A few
months later a
hooker in the same mill had both feet burned off. A
moment's
lapse in agility and watchfulness may mean death, and such
lapses will come to the best men, even when
working hours are
reduced to six.
One way to lessen the number of such accidents would be
still further to reduce the hours, and shorten the shift. In the
wire mill of the Pittsburgh Steel Company, it is said that the rollers
work in fifteen-minute shifts.
The last rolling mill accident we have to consider is the death
of Angelo Guira, a seventeen-year-old trough boy at the butt-weld
furnace in a tube works. As each flat bar comes red hot out of
this furnace, it is seized by the "welder" with his iron pincers.
He brings its two outer edges together at the end, and passes it
along until it enters the rolls. These rolls weld the two edges
together the whole length of the bar, so that at the other side a
finished, round, red hot pipe comes out and drops into the trough.
And now comes Angelo's task. He stands at the opposite end of
the trough, and every time a pipe drops into it he moves a lever.
This dumps the pipe into the carrier which is waiting for it on a
perpetually moving cooling bed, and leaves the trough empty
for the next pipe. Little time is lost between pipes, and Angelo's
task is not one to go to sleep over.
Angelo had been working a year at this, and, though so
slight and small that they had hesitated to take him, he was now
acknowledged by the day foreman to be the best boy he had ever
had on the job. But Angelo began to get tired of standing up
to work this lever. He saw that he could do his work just as well
sitting down, so he built himself a bench. His day foreman warned
him against sitting, but his night foreman evidently allowed it.
Nothing had ever gone wrong, and Angelo was not afraid. One
night at 10.30, either because he was not quite quick enough in
dumping the trough, or because the welder was a little too quick
because of a second's hitch in co-operationa pipe came through

too soon, struck the pipe which was still there and sent it shooting
56
THE STEEL WORKERS
out of the trough, straight through the body of Angelo. If he
had been standing up in his regular place, it was said that he would
have been out of the pipe's way, or that he could have jumped
aside. Afterwards, a stout iron plate was set up to stop the pipe
if it jumped out again in that way. I have seen this guard. It
seems simple and necessary. Yet it required the killing of Angelo
to suggest the need to the mind of his employer.
The principal classes of fatalities which result, strictly
speaking, from the process of making steel have now been con-
sidered. But these, as seen by Table 8, are only
19
per cent of
the fatalities that occur in the mills where steel is made. Lurid
newspaper accounts of such accidents as have so far been de-
scribed determine the popular idea of steel mill accidents. They
are not the everyday tragedies of the mills. If the accidents of
the year chosen were typical, it can be asserted that nearly twice
as many men are killed in the process of transporting materials
and finished product from place to place in mill and yard, as are
killed in the actual process of making steel. This distinction is
purposely made. An outsider may wisely hesitate to make sug-
gestions with regard to accidents connected with steel making,
so much of which is a mystery to him. But the means of trans-
portation used in the mills,engines, cars, electric cranes,there
is no mystery about these. It does not take a steel expert to
"see how they work." We may then take up these com-
monest fatalities of the steel mills from the point of view
of prevention.
TABLE 9.
73
FATALITIES IN THE PROCESS OF HOISTING AND
CONVEYING MATERIALS IN STEEL MILLS
Cause Number
Operation of broad gauge railroads 18
Operation of narrow gauge railroads
13
Operation of cranes
42
Total
73
These
73
deaths were
37
per cent of all the steel mill fatalities studied.
Most of the large steel companies have a private railroad,
its tracks running from plant to plant and from the regular rail-
road freight yards to the yards of its diiferent mills. There are
57
the Union Railroad of the Carnegie Steel Company, the Mononga-
hela Connecting Railroad of Jones and Laughlin, the McKeesport
Connecting Railroad of the National Tube Company, etc. These
roads carry freight only, and work exclusively for the company
of which they are a part. Otherwise they are run like any other
railroad. Accidents to the men handling these trains have been
included under railroad accidents proper, but accidents to mill
workers resulting from the operation of such trains or from the
movement of any cars or trains on mill sidings, are included here.
Eighteen steel mill employes were killed in this way during
the year. Four were run over, and two caught between cars
while crossing tracks for a legitimate purpose. The testimony
in these cases indicated here the carelessness of the man killed,
and there the failure of bell, whistle, or other warning. There
were two wrecks: a freight car "ran wild" and pinned a man
against the wall; a collision in a dark place, where broad and
narrow gauge tracks cross, killed another.* Four laborers were
killed while riding, or attempting to board, trains in the yards;
two of these men at least were knowingly disobeying orders.
Two deaths in the group were due to ignorance of English, in
which language warning had been given; one, to the total absence
of warning. In the latter case a young Slav, just come to Amer-
ica, was sent by his foreman to work under a car. Meanwhile
an engineer, on signal from the brakeman, who did not know that a
man was under the car, backed up into it. The Slav was caught
and killed
"like a dog," as his fellow countrymen said. At

the inquest the foreman's only explanation was that he "had no
one to give signals." Here again was that fatal lack of system
for the protection of men in defenceless positions.
With the exception of the last case, these accidents are what
one would expect from the running of trains day and night in
the mill yards. The recital of them suggests a few improvements
:
overhead or underground passages might be built where men
must cross tracks;! where this is impossible, trains might be run
*
Lights and signals are especially important in mill yards, because the
regular noises of the mill soon dull the ear to the sound of bell or whistle.
t
The writer was taken through a new tunnel of this kind at the Edgar
Thomson Works in the spring of iqo8.
58
THE STEEL WORKERS
more slowly; rules forbidding mill employes to ride on the trains
might be more rigidly enforced; ignorant non-English-speaking
foreigners employed on or about tracks and cars might be under
direction of a foreman who speaks their tongue.
The narrow gauge railroads on which the "dinkey" engines
pull their little trains of ingot molds from converter to soaking
pit, and on which much of the lighter hauling is done, although
they cause many more injuries than the regular railroads, are
responsible for fewer fatal accidents. Thirteen of the year's steel
mill fatalities, however, were due to the operation of these "din-
key" railroads. The engineers and brakemen suffer most. Three
were killed in wrecks. One collision occurred at a "blind" curve,
another at a crossing where neither engineer could see ahead on
account of the steam from nearby ladle sheds. In the third case
the dinkey engine was hauling a long train of heavily loaded
truck when the pin connection between it and the first truck
broke. The engine, under full steam, dashed ahead, jumped the
track, and crashed into some cars on a broad gauge track nearby.
The engineer was killed. Dinkey trains very often jump the
track when there is not an obvious cause, as in the case described.
This is accounted for, as it is in the case of the little trains in the
mine entries, by the fact that the track is narrow, the cars are
often heavily loaded, and the trains moved rapidly. Also, as
explained by a mill superintendent, it is difficult to keep the tracks
in good repair, because they are in constant use except for a few
hours on Sunday.
The brakeman on a dinkey train is called a "hook-on."
This name suggests the kind of coupling used on the dinkey trains.
It is the old "pin" coupling. The "hook-on" must go between
the cars and while they come together literally "hook" one to
the other with his hands. Agility and skill are required, to an
unusual degree, because the cars between which the coupling is
made are frequently loaded with hot steel. JWany hands are
crushed in making these couplings, and now and then a young
"hook-on" is killed. Two reasons are usually given why auto-
matic couplers would not be practical on dinkey trains: (i)
because the sharp curves taken demand a very loose connection
between cars, and
(2)
because with the molten metal spilling over
59
from the ingot molds an automatic coupler could not be kept in
working order. It is a fact, however, that couplers have been
perfected for different types of dinkey trains which can be worked
entirely by a lever struck with the foot. These automatic couplers,
which can be put on at a cost of from |io to
$30
a car, are considered
practical and are being installed in the works of the American
Steel and Wire Company, National Tube Company and others.*
In addition to this special risk in coupling, dinkey hook-ons
run some of the usual brakeman's risks. Six were run over while
trying to board a moving engine. In two cases this was accounted
for by the fact that the engine was running too fast. (One
engineer was drunk; the other admitted that he had lost control
of his engine.) In the other four cases no reason for the accident
was given in the record. These hook-ons are almost invariably
boys from sixteen to twenty, chosen because the work requires
rapid movements, great agility, and almost constant motion.
They work 12 hours a day or a night, as the case may be.
It is surprising, considering how constantly these trains
are running through the mills, to find that only three men not
engaged in work connected with the dinkeys, were killed by them.
Two were run over by the dinkey itself. One man was crushed
by a heavy iron box carelessly left near the track with planks
protruding from it. The engine struck the planks, and over-
turned the box, so that it fell upon him where he worked in a
cinder pit below.
With regard to warnings and signals in the case of dinkey
trains, it seems to an outsider that a distinction should be made
between regular, frequent trips and irregular, unexpected trips.
The regular trip, for example the taking of ingots from pouring
crane to stripper, is of so frequent occurrence and so regular in
its operation that a man working in the vicinity should be able
to look out for it. The irregular trips, on the other hand, present
an entirely different problem. The tracks wind in and around
the mills, turning sharp corners, and the trains are likely to appear
anywhere at any moment. To insure safety on such routes there
must always be a man at the advancing end of the train to keep
watch. This, it appears, is the policy now nominally adopted,
*
See cut facing
p. 68.
60
THE STEEL WORKERS
the engineer being responsible for tlie track ahead and a brakeman
for movements in the rear.*
Broad and narrow guage railroads together do not accomplish
as much destruction of human life as the traveling cranes, which
are so indispensable to the work of the steel mills. Reference is
made to the great electric overhead cranes, operated with levers
by a man who works all day in a little wooden or iron cab suspended
from the crane and traveling with it. Heavy adjustable chains
or ropes hang down from the crane by means of which the load is
carried. Sometimes the chains are fastened around the load;
sometimes immense hooks are used to grasp it. Usually the crane
has a double action,is in a sense two cranes. The big crane,
or "bridge," consists of two great iron beams, extending the width
of the building, with wheels at each end running on tracks fastened
to the side walls perhaps
50
or 60 feet from the floor. This crane
runs from end to end of the building. On the two beams which
constitute this big crane are other tracks, and on these the small
crane, or "trolley," runs from one side of the building to the
other. It is from the "trolley" that the chains hang down.
The little cab is usually suspended beneath one end of the
"bridge," where it commands a clear view of the trolley and
the floors over which it moves. The crane man, sitting in his
cab, can move the load with one lever from one end of the
building to the other. With another lever he can move it from
one side of the building to the other. With a third lever he can
raise and lower the load. Thus the crane is a perfect solution of
the problem of moving heavy objects. It can place a load in
the exact spot where it is wanted.
Watch this invaluable monster at work. See him pick up one
set of massive rolls, carry it off, and bring back another to take its
place. See him reach an iron hand down into the red depths of
a soaking pit, pull out a glowing ingot, carry it away and place it
carefully on the roll-table. See him gather up a great armful of
finished steel plates and bear them out to be piled or loaded.
"A strong, swift, intelligent servant," says Industry.
"What complaint have you to make against him?"
*
Such a practice would obviously tend to prevent collisions, as would also
the lighting of the tracks and keeping them clear of smoke and steam.
61
o
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oa
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O
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IS
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THE STEEL WORKERS
"
In one county of one state of our union he killed
42
men
in a year."
"
YesI grant you, he is a little destructive, but we couldn't
possibly get along without him."
"Of course not. We don't ask it. But don't stand aside
in that indifferent way and let him go on as he has. Remember
he is only your servant after all. Study him, find out his weak
points, train him. Try to make him a better servant, not only
powerful and swift, but less destructive."
Thus one might speak if the crane were in truth what it
often seems, some more than human monster chained to the
service of men. But it is not. It is a machine, made by men,
operated by men, powerless to accomplish or destroy except
through the will of men.
The crane "hook-ons,"the men on the ground who arrange
the chains, and hook and unhook the load,run greater risks
than any other men conneeted with the operation of cranes.
The hook-on must stand by, to steady the load and keep the
chains in position, until the crane has actually begun to lift and
the chains to straighten. There are three dangers therefore for
the hook-on : the load may slip out as it is being raised and crush
him ; it may strike him as it swings ; or a chain may break and let
it fall. Similar dangers are involved in unloading the crane.
When a hook-on is killed by a load slipping from the crane
chains, the accident is always laid to his carelessness in fastening
the load. But the justice of this judgment is questioned. An
engineer told me that it is next to impossible to insure a grip of
the load under the thousand and one conditions which obtain,
particularly in the handling of irregular shapes. On our list four
hook-ons were killed in this way; once it was a heavy roll that
slipped, once the side of a steel car, twice a load of steel bars or
"angles." Each of the men thus killed was a common laborer
and a Slav.
Accidents to those who load cranes are very common, even
when the load does not fall. Four men struck by the load just
as it was being lifted by the crane were instantly killed. Another
was killed while using a crane to load ingot molds on a car. He was
standing on the car to unhook the chains from the last mold as the
63
crane lowered it into place; a jerk of the chains at the wrong
moment toppled the mold over upon him. Two men were killed
while loading a car with steel billets by means of a crane. In each
,
case the car was suddenly moved, without warning to the laborer
in it, and he was knocked down and killed by a load swinging
from the crane just above the floor of the car. Both accidents
happened at night. In one case it was stated that the yard was
dark. Both the men killed were foreigners, one of four months'
experience in a steel mill, the other on his first night's work.
Another hook-on was killed while standing behind a handcar,
waiting to unhook the chains from a descending load of scrap.
The scrap landed too near the end of the car, the car tipped, shot
out from under the load, and ran over him.
The prevention of accidents in this group depends upon the
skill and care of the man in the cab; upon the experience, caution,
and alertness of those below who hook and unhook the load;
and more than all else upon co-operation between crane man and
hook-on. The crane man is usually an American boy of eighteen
or twenty, the hook-on, a Slav, a common laborer. They must
communicate largely by signals and in an atmosphere often thick
with smoke or steam. There is one foreman for about seven
cranes, so that for the most part these two work without direction.
Several times we heard these complaints from fellow workmen of a
hook-on who had been killed: "The crane boy didn't wait for
a signal," "He jerked the chains up too soon," etc. The crane
boys, on their part, complain of the stupidity and slowness of
the hook-ons.
Many men not working with the crane are killed by it.
Thus, the four men in the table killed by a load falling from a crane
because the hook or chain broke, were laborers engaged in other
work on the floor of the mill. Two of these deaths were made
more horrible by the fact that the metal which fell was hot. The
four men were Slavs. "Oh, that is significant," says a superinten-
dent, "Americans would know enough to keep out from under
those loads." In answer to this it will be well to tell the story of
one of these Slavs. He was eighteen, and had been in this country
three
months. The foreman told him to go to work in a certain
place. He refused at first because he was afraid of the great
64
THE STEEL WORKERS
bucket moving over his head. But the foreman insisted, telling
him with a rough laugh that it did not matter whether he was
killed or not. He went, afraid to lose his job.* A few minutes
later a hook broke and the bucket, weighing with its load
6900
pounds, fell and crushed him. The crane operator testified at
the inquest that he "never knew of hooks being inspected."
It is worth while to pause long enough over these four dead
"Hunkies" to notice a special reason for being careless of the lives
of aliens. They had no relatives in this country. Qjnsequently,
protected by the "non-resident ahen rule,"
t
their employers
suffered practically nothing from these four fatalities. One man
lived seven days, costing the company
$7.00,
besides his funeral
expenses. In the other cases the funeral was the only expense,
amounting to about
I75
apiece.
Of the 1 1 crushed by a load slipping from the hooks or chains
of the crane, five were engaged in other work, and all of the five
again were Slavic laborers. In one case there was evidence of
an incompetent crane man; in another the slipping was laid to a
sudden jolt as the crane ran over a joint; in a third there was
complaint of the way in which the load had been hooked on. In
the others no reason was given.
J
These five accidents show that even though chains should
never break, it is not safe to stay in the path of a working crane.
The question remains, Is it ever necessary ? The American Bridge
Company, in its posted rules, forbids "the passing of any person
under load carried by crane." These five men, however, were
engaged in work when the crane load passed over their heads.
Some mills may be so arranged that a man never has to work
under a moving crane, but in most cases this is not so,as is
*
This story was told by the fellow workmen of the man killed. I asked a
superintendent of the same company whether he thought it was true. "Well,
he said, "it might be. There are foremen like that."
t
According to Pennsylvania decisions, right of recovery for death does
not extend to dependent relatives who are non-resident and alien.
t
A careful, systematic, and frequent inspection would undoubtedly prevent
breaks from the wearing down of chains, but "crystallization" inside of the chain,
from which probably more breaks occur, cannot be detected. Chains exposed in
cold weather are particularly likely to become brittle and to break when used. It
is possible to reduce this tendency to crystallization to a minimum by annealing
(or heating) all the chains at stated intervals. In many mills this plan has been
adopted for chains used in outside work.
s 65
freely admitted by those who are connected with the work. In
the National Tube Company works at McKeesport, I saw three
men at work in a freight car so placed that every twenty minutes
'
a tremendous load of pipes passed over their heads. It is hardly
possible that the foreman should expect these men to climb out
of the car and stand idle every time the crane passed.*
Signals and lights are as important in the operation of cranes
as in the operation of dinkey trains. In the case of a foreman
killed by a truck swinging from a crane, evidence brought out the
fact that it was too dark in the mill for the crane man to see below,
but that he was ringing a bell. A laborer was struck in the head
by an empty crane hook which the crane man was carrying along
without warning to the men below. Another empty crane hook
caught in a pile of billets and pulled them over on a man who was
marking them; light was lacking in this instance. There may
have been special carelessness in these cases, as, for instance, where
a crane man allowed his hooks to hang too low; but there can be
no doubt about the importance of light in avoiding danger. Nor
can there be any doubt about the importance of signals, although
they lose their value as their number increases beyond a cer-
tain point. Constant repetition makes them almost useless.
Practically the question is, shall the crane man look out for
the men below or the men below look out for the crane? Here
the same distinction may be made that was suggested in connec-
tion with the dinkey trains, between the regular and irregular
movements of the crane.f If these two classes of movements with
*
An engineer's suggestion is that the use of magnets instead of chains and
hooks will in time eliminate accidents due to the falling loads. The lifting mag-
net has been found equal to handling practically any form of metal that is used
in the steel mills, except when heated above a black heat, and it is maintained that
in mills where it is used accidents of this kind are much less numerous.
f
When a crane man is doing regular work, repeated a dozen or more times
an hour, the men working in the path of his crane, or near it, should be expected
to anticipate the movements of the crane and look out for it. In fact they do this.
I have seen men, apparently without any conscious effort, avoid the overhanging
parts of a charging crane by a margin of less than two inches and do this again and
again, with as little effort as a man would use to brush off a fly.
The second class of crane movements is in connection with their use in
making repairs or in bringing material at irregular intervals from one part of the
mill to another. It does not seem reasonable to expect men to look out for the
erratic movements of such cranes. Therefore, in such work the responsibility
should be upon the crane man, or foreman in charge, to see that the route is clear.
66
THE STEEL WORKERS
dinkeys and cranes were carefully distinguished, and every work-
man made responsible for avoiding the regular and frequent
movements, and a crane man or train man always provided and
held responsible for warning in case of irregular and unexpected
movements, the number of accidents might be lessened.
The dangers of the crane to men on the ground or floor of
the mill have been considered. But what of the crane man him-
self ? Does he run any risks ? So long as he stays in the cab he is
comparatively safe, although there is an occasional crane wreck.
The crane runs into an open switch and falls to the ground, or it
"gets away," runs through the block at the end of the runway
and crashes down, bringing cab and crane man with it. A crane
man is more likely to be killed, however, by an unexpected move-
ment of the crane while he is out on the runway on his way up or
down, or while he is out on the crane examining something that
has gone wrong. If the crane is started suddenly he may be
crushed by the wheels or knocked off and killed. Repair men and
electricians are liable to the same danger while working on a crane
or its runways. Seven men were killed in this way during the year.
Such fatalities seem especially easy to avoid. It might of
course be said that the crane operator should look out for the repair
man and warn him, or the repair man get out of the way of the crane.
But the repair man must do his work, the crane man must watch
his load. Should it not then be said that it is an ill-considered
economy to let a man go up to make repairs while the crane is
running ? And if it be answered that this is never intended, we
ask, "What means are taken to prevent it?"
In some mills repair men are left to protect themselves by
simply telling the crane man not to start the crane while they are
up on it. This is not enough. Crane men forget. In a certain
case the crane man answered, "All right," and a few minutes
later, on a signal from below, he put his hand on the lever without
thinking, almost automatically started the crane, and killed the
repair man.
In some mills the danger board is used. How meaningless
such a safety device can become is illustrated by the experience of
a company safety inspector. The chief electrician in a mill which
he was inspecting told him they had a danger board in every crane
67
cab. The inspector thought he would go around and see them.
All of the cranes but one lacked danger boards, and one of
the crane men in charge had never even heard of such a thing.
In one cab only he found a small dingy card, hanging some distance
from the switch. One side of it had once been red to indicate
danger, but was now hardly distinguishable from the other. It
hung neglected and unused. This was the only device he found
for the protection of repair men and electricians in all the cranes
of that mill.
A much better device is a plug which is necessary to complete
the circuit and can be taken out and put in the pocket of the man
who goes out on the crane. Of this method there are two com-
plaints,that the men do not take the trouble to use it and that if
they do they may forget to put it back and thus tie up operations.
All this goes to show the futility of schemes for safety when
the spirit of the mill is one of recklessness and speed. It is not
seriously intended by anybody to stop the crane every time a
repair is to be made; it would be against the interest of those
concerned.
"Suppose a mill is running smoothly," said a superintendent
in explaining this matter, "then something happens to the crane
which carries ingots to the blooming mill. First thing you know,
the rail mill will get through with the rail it is making and be ready
for another ingot. When it doesn't come just in time the rail mill
will be crying after the bloom mill ; the bloom mill will complain
to the ingot man; then the ingot man will go after the crane man.
That's why the crane doesn't stop for repairs. The way mills
are run now, there is no time to stop the crane. You see, there
ought to be a man whose income is independent of how much steel
is rolled, who has authority to say, 'That crane has got to stand
idle until a certain repair is made.'"
To these 42
crane accidents might well be added six from the
next two groups,
^fatalities due to "falls" and "electric shock."

To every man who goes out on the crane or on the runway to
make repairs there is, even if the crane is stopped, the danger of
falling. He is standing or walking on a greasy, rough, iron beam,
perhaps 1 2 or
1
5 inches wide, and
50
or 60 feet up in the air. There
is as a rule no railing; only skill can save him, and this some-
68
Conricsy U. S. Steel Corporation
Ingot Mould Cars Equipped with Automatic Couplers
When the cars are pushed together the coupling pin drops into the link auto-
matically; to release it the lever shown on the corner of the car is raised by hand.
(See page 60; also Appendix III.)
Courtesy U. S. Steel Corporation
Crane Runway over Scale Pit
The sign at the upper left-hand corner is to remind anyone going on the runway
to notify the operator and to place the proper "danger sign." There is a walk
\ppendix III.)
THE STEEL WORKERS
times fails. Three crane men and a rigger met death in this way
during the year. Some engineers say it would be diificult to have
railings on cranes and crane runways; no one says it would be
impossible; indeed, some mills have installed them.
Imagine now that along beside this narrow runway is strung
an electric wire carrying the current for the arc lights. It is
within easy reach of a man on the runway. If a repair man
becomes dizzy, and puts his hand on the wire to steady himself,
he may strike a place where the insulation is worn oflF, get a shock,
and fall. Two young men, one a boy of eighteen, were killed in
just that way. The absence of railings makes these runways,
where so frequently the crane man, the electrician, and the re-
pair man must go, dangerous enough, but to string electric wires
where they can be used as hand rails seems absurd. There is
no certainty that the insulation of any wire is safe or that it may
not be worn out.*
Coming now to the "falls," we find 24 men killed by falling
from a height, or into pits or vats. Five of these accidents hap-
pened in connection with the construction or repair of blast
furnaces. Of these, two were due to defects in scaffolding, and
two to absence of railings, for which the man killed was re-
sponsible. The rest were such falls as might occur in any big
mill. Two men fell from ladders, and one from a stairway
owing to sudden dizziness. In a number of cases nothing could
be learned except that the man was killed by a fall. In two
cases the evidence indicates youth, inexperience, and lack of
instruction.
Much is being done of late to prevent such accidents. In
the large mills many railings are pointed out with pride to visitors,
as recent safety devices. But much remains to be done in this
line. Certainly in all high places where work has to be done at
regular intervals, workmen should be protected by suitable rail-
ings. There are, however, many kinds of work, particularly in
repairing and construction, which require men to go aloft in un-
usual places where it would be unreasonable to expect a railing.
*
In "standard practice" among electricians, I am told, every live wire is
considered as a bare wire, particularly if the insulation has been standing for any
length of time.
69
But in general, the distinction made between regular runways in
mid-air and places where special men go to make special repairs
ought to be interpreted generously; a hand rail is not expensive
to put up.
The four men killed by falling into pits or vats were foreign-
ers. One was at work beside a galvanizing vat "pickling" coils
of wire which were let down into the vat by block and tackle. A
coil fell on the far side of the tank. The man reached across to
put his hook into it, lost his balance, and fell in. In the foreman's
report it is suggested that he need not have done this, because
there were men on the other side who could more easily have
reached it. There was no fence or railing about this vat. Of
the three other accidents little is known; they all occurred at
night.
Eight men were killed by the falling of piled material, a
common accident in steel mills. It occurs often during the process
of loading or piling bars, angles, pipes, or scrap. Sometimes a
defective appliance is the cause, sometimes careless piling. Thus in
one case billets of steel were being loaded on "a shaky buggy;" a
watchman who saw that it was going to break down, called to the
men to get out of the way, but one, a foreigner, did not understand
the warning and was killed. In another instance, the chain holding
steel billets on a wagon broke, letting a 400 pound billet fall on a
man. Two men were killed in loading cars with pipe. In one
case the pipes "spread" owing to careless piling; in the other case
two pipes started to roll, and, apparently because there was not
a sufficient block, rolled off the end of the car and crushed the man
who happened to be stooping at the axle box. In these cases, as
in the case of loading cranes, it is the Slavic common laborer who
is killed.
The falling of a pile is more common at the tube mills than
anywhere else, because perfectly round pipe is harder to pile safely
than any other material. There can always be seen in the mill
yards at McKeesport great square piles of finished pipe, sometimes
15
or 20 feet high. At first glance they look solid and secure
enough, but a closer examination reveals the danger in the pile.
Between the layers of pipe are placed narrow strips of wood,
seven-eighths of an inch to two inches thick, with a small block
70
THE STEEL WORKERS
or cleat sometimes nailed on the end, and sometimes merely
wedged in under the outside pipe. Between the bottom layers
these wooden strips are crushed to half their original thickness by
the weight of the pile. If one of these strips, thus weakened, is
broken off by an accidental blow, the chances are that the outer
pipes will drop oflf and the whole pile fall. This risk seems need-
lessly great. The suggestion has been made that if oak wedges
with an inverted groove were used the pipe could not slip ; and also
that it would be possible to use light channel iron, or some other
fairly rigid and substantial material, between the layers of pipes,
and that such material could be bent up at the ends so as to hold
the pipes from rolling much more securely than they are held by
the present method.
Another danger is the giving way of the foundation, or
sinking of the ground underneath the pile. The pipes at the tube
works are frequently piled on a too light foundation. One of the
accidents on the list perhaps illustrates this. Two Russian
laborers were standing on one pile handing pipe up to men on a
second pile, which was considerably higher, being 20 feet from the
ground. Suddenly one end of this pile sank, and
300 21-inch
pipes rolled off on to the lower pile, crushing the life out of the
two Russians. The testimony attributed the accident to various
causes. Some said that the wooden strips between the lower
layers were found broken in two after the accident, others that the
cleats used to hold the pipes had not been nailed on, still others
that the ground gave way under one end of the pile. Obviously
some support was inadequate.
It is unfortunate that this study of accidents in the steel
mills is so limited. If we were considering 5,000 fatalities instead
of
195
we should be able to classify the accidents here left in the
miscellaneous group, and draw useful conclusions from them.
Also, if full and fairly trustworthy accounts of each serious injury
were available, it would be possible to study the causes of non-
fatal as well as of fatal accidents. The latter limitation is pecul-
iarly unfortunate in case of the steel industry, first because the
proportion of injuries to deaths is much greater than in railroading
and mining, and second because the causes of injury differ from
the causes of death more decidedly.
7'
But confessing its limitations, something has been learned
from this study. The swift, fierce fires, the mighty processes, by
which ore is made into iron and iron into steel, mean death to
many workers. This we knew, or guessed, before. But we have
learned further that railroads in the yards, dinkey trains through-
out the mills, and traveling cranes overhead, as destroyers of life
are much more to be feared than blast furnaces, converters, and
rolling mills. We have learned also that as many men are killed
by falls as by explosions of hot metal ; that death by electric shock
is more common than death by furnace gas. Have these observa-
tions any bearing upon the question of prevention?
TABLE II.
195
FATALITIES IN STEEL MAKING, CLASSIFIED BY
CAUSES
Cause Number Fatalities
Hot metal explosions 22
Asphyxiation by furnace gas .
Operation of rolls
Total
Operation of broad gauge railroad
"
" narrow gauge railroad
"
" cranes . . . .
Total
Falling from height or into pit
Electric shock . . . .
Loading and piling of steel
and iron products .
5
10
THE STEEL WORKERS
of silence with regard to the number and character of their acci-
dents, largely on the ground that any other policy would result in
unintelligent hysterical outcry and clamor on the part of the public.
If accidents in steel mills were altogether a result of processes
which only experts can understand, there might be some reason
in such a policy. But finding that at least
57
per cent of the fatal
accidents studied were due to ordinary understandable causes, we
can maintain not only that the public has a right to know the
facts but that its possession of this knowledge is an important fac-
tor in the prevention of accidents.
If legislation is in view, there is a second significance in this
57
per cent of "simple" accidents. They serve to unite the steel
M13CEL-
LAAeOVS
Diagram 5.
Per Cent of Fatali- /

S4 %
TIES IN Steel Making Due to Vari-
t-XPLO-
ASPAYXIAT]0/i\
OPeRAriQA
OP ROLLS
19%
OPERATIOA
OP
I
ous Groups of Causes.
I
PALLIAG,
ELEC/BROAP
GAVGe
TKIC SHDQK,
/RAILROAD, AAR-
LOADIAG
WroW GAVGe
PILING
/raILROAP,
STEEL
/CRAnE^
20%
/
37%
industry with other industries in regard to its commonest accidents.
Industrial railroads and traveling cranes are common in all large
construction companies; in almost all factories there is repair work,
cleaning, oiling, etc., to be done at a dangerous height; it would be
hard to find a mill which does not use electricity. Therefore, legis-
lation looking to the prevention of the commonest accidents of
the steel mills need not be special legislation for one industry. It
can be an extension of the present factory law.
One or two other conclusions press for statement. There
can be no doubt that the unrelaxing tension and speed in the Amer-
ican steel mill makes for danger. To go slower would be to go
backward in industry, and that is more than can be expected of
73
America. But by shortening hours of work the dangers of speed
can be lessened; the minds and bodies of the men can be kept
up to the pace of the mill. Greater intensity of work necessitates
longer periods of relaxation. If the strain of the work cannot be
lessened the duration must be. Think of the crane man, upon
whose alertness and care depend the lives of several others.
His is a hot, unpleasant, lonely job. There is no one to spell
him. He cannot get down from his cab for any reason. And
he works twelve hours every day in the year
*
except Christmas
and the Fourth of
July. No steel company can maintain that
it has done everything to prevent accidents until it has reduced
the working hours of men in such responsible positions.
Another observation which one cannot fail to make is not
only that some companies maintain higher standards of safety
than others, but that different plants of the same company, differ-
ent parts of the same plant, are not kept up to equal standards of
safety. The reason is obvious. "This isn't one of our best
plants," an inspector will say. "You see, we're very much
crowded here and that makes things more dangerous. Eventually,
I suppose, we'll have to abandon this plant." Or, "This part of
the
mill is old. We haven't put safety devices in here. It would
hardly pay. We are going to tear all this down in a few years."
Ordinary business economy, to be sure. But meanwhile men
go on working in the crowded plant where things are not safe, men
go on working in the old, badly lighted part of the mill where it
"isn't worth while" to put in guards.
This sort of economy is of a piece with that of the miner
who wants to finish loading his car and takes his chance of a
fall of slate by failing to put up needed posts. It is human na-
ture, but taking chances with other men's lives ought not to be
so easy.
Let me illustrate by what I learned about the "skull
cracker." Each time a ladle is filled with molten metal, part of
*
In March, 1910, the executive officials of the United States Steel Corpora-
tion took steps to enforce a rule passed by the Finance Committee in
1907,
hitherto
remaining a dead letter. The order does away with loading, unloading, unneces-
sary repair work and other forms of special Sunday labor, and requires a 24-hour
interval in the production of ingots. Blast furnaces and other continuous opera-
tions were not affected by this Sunday order.
74
THE STEEL WORKERS
the liquid mass cools and hardens round the sides before it can be
emptied. By successive filling and pouring this accumulates
until a "skull" is formed, which of course reduces the capacity of
the ladle. It must be removed, broken up, and melted over again.
The device used to break up these "skulls," and also pieces of
"scrap" which are to be melted over, is called a "skull cracker."
A big pear-shaped iron weight is lifted about 60 feet in the air and
dropped. It comes down with force enough to break the iron
piled under it into pieces fit for the furnace. The danger in this
operation, from the flying chunks of iron, would be apparent to a
child. Three men on our list were injured in this way,one while
working 200 feet away. While he was working at a skull cracker
for the Carnegie Steel Company, a big piece of scrap struck and
crushed the leg of Andrew Antonik, so that it had to be ampu-
tated. He said in telling of his injury,
"
The scrap always flies
like that, but in the daytime we can dodge the pieces. At night
you can't see well enough to dodge them."
In one mill two skull crackers were used. One was some
distance removed from all other operations, and fenced in on three
sides by a three-inch solid board fence some
30
feet high. The
other was right in the center of things where men were passing
frequently, it had no fence about it, and no protection for the men
using it except a small, battered wooden shield. The danger to
the workmen passing by was apparent from the fact that our guide
was careful to take us on a wide detour around it.
In another mill a superintendent to whom these two skull
crackers were described, said, "Well, it's the same way in our mill.
We've got one skull cracker that's fenced in and one that isn't.
I suppose it's that way in most every mill. You see, the new ones
are fenced in, and the old ones aren't."
75
CHAPTER V
OTHER WORKERS
TO
make the story of our year-long industrial disaster com-
plete, we must consider accidents outside the three great
employment groups. One hundred and thirty-five men
who were neither railroaders, miners, nor steel workers, were
killed in the course of their regular work. These fatalities were
of the sort which might have occurred in any industrial com-
munity and are therefore of more than local interest. In
their occurrence we find the same peculiar dangers of modern
work,
power-driven machinery, electricity, explosives, etc.,

which have been discussed. But we also find many risks of work
which have no peculiar relation to modern times,accidents such
as those of teaming and river work, which might have happened a
thousand years ago.
TABLE 12.122 FATALITIES IN MISCELLANEOUS EMPLOYMENTS
Number
Killed
Construction plants, electrical works, machine shops, foundries,
factories, etc
44
Elevator accidents
19
Construction work 18
Excavation work 8
Gas companies
;
Electric lighting, telegraph, and telephone companies . . 11
Street railways
4
Teaming
Q
River work
4
Total number killed in these employments . . . 122
These remaining fatalities have been classified in a somewhat
arbitrary way. In the first group are considered the accidents of
construction plants, electrical works, factories, foundries, and
machine shops, because most of the accidents in each of these
industries are of a nature common to all. Many indeed are similar
76
OTHER WORKERS
to those described in the last chapter. For instance, we find eight
more men killed by the operation of electric cranes. In three of
these cases a man was struck by a swinging load, in four the load
fell, owing to the breaking of rope, cable, or hook. In one case a
window washer was crushed on the crane runway. The story of
this accident we give in detail:
In August, igo6, Nicholas Kost, a young Greek, came to
America to join his brother, leaving his wife and two chil-
dren in Turkey. Neither of the brothers could speak a word
of English, but through Russian friends they got work at
a large electric and manufacturing plant. They were put
into a gang of eight janitors. In the latter part of April, these
eight men were set to washing windows in the mill. This is a
long job. By May they had got to Section D, where there
are a great many windows along the crane runway. The
general foreman told the foreman of the window cleaners
that he better postpone cleaning these windows till Sunday,
when the crane would not be running. But the latter re-
plied that he had other windows to clean on Sunday. So the
window cleaners were put to work while the crane was running.
Nicholas Kost among the others was instructed to look out for
the crane, and when he saw it coming, to
"
tilt the window out
and stand in the recess." The crane man, too, was told to
keep a watch out for the window cleaners, and to call out a
warning when he approached one. There are no signals on this
crane and it runs quietly, so that in the noise of the mill its ap-
proach cannot be anticipated. All day long the work went on
without mishap. But just before quitting time the crane
man for the first time failed to give warnmg, the vigilance
of Nicholas Kost had relaxed, and he was caught and crushed
against a post by the wheel of the crane. He was able to
walk home, but died the next day.
This story is taken from testimony of witnesses at the
inquest; from the statement which Louis, the brother of Nicholas,
made to the investigator; and from the company's record. There
was no material difference in the three accounts, except that the
company's record alone concluded that the death was due to the
carelessness of Nicholas Kost himself. Must [we accept this as
the one reasonable and final conclusion ? Certainly Kost's fail-
ure to protect himself against the irregular movements of an
77
electric crane, while cleaning windows
40
feet from the ground, is
not the only failure to consider in this case.
Many other accidents typical of the steel mills are repeated
in this group. Thus, four men were killed by electric shock, two
by a collapsing pile of material, four by railroad trains in the
yards, and two by a fall.
With the exception of 1 1 miscellaneous cases, the other
accidents in the first group of
44
are connected with emery wheels,
cog-wheels, circular saws, and shafting. The factory law of
Pennsylvania has this to say about such mechanisms
:
Section II. "The owner or person in charge of an
establishment where machinery is used shall provide belt
shifters or other mechanical contrivances for the purpose
of throwing on or off pulleys. Whenever practicable, all
machinery shall be provided with loose pulleys. All vats,
pans, saws, planers, cogs, gearing, beltmg, shafting, set-
screws, grindstones, emery wheels, flywheels and machinery
of every description, shall be properly guarded."
In spite of this sweeping command to the industrial estab-
lishments of the state, in Allegheny County alone in the year of our
study 1 1 men* were caught up in belts and killed; one was struck
and killed by the belt of a flywheel; one by a piece of a bursting
grindstone; and three died as a result of having their arms caught
in machinery. This takes no account of the non-fatal injuries from
such causes. In our short list, amounting perhaps to half the
injuries of a quarter of the year in one county, four hands were
hopelessly mutilated by circular saws; one man was injured by
the bursting of an unguarded emery wheel, and tenf men were
caught in apparently uncovered gearing.
This list of accidents merely emphasizes the fact that the law
as to guarding machinery is not enforced in Allegheny G)unty,t a
fact well known to all who have walked through the mills with
*
This includes three cases in the steel mills.
t
This includes cases in the steel mills.
J
Conditions described, as already noted, were those of 1906, 1907 and 1908.
There have been no developments in the factory inspection department in Penn-
sylvania to warrant the assumption that there has been any radical change since
then in standards of enforcement.
78
OTHER WORKERS
their eyes open. Moreover, where an attempt is made to comply
with the law, the words "properly guarded" are evidently inter-
preted freely to suit the convenience of the employer. Take for
instance, the gearing at the side of roll-tables in the steel mills.
Sometimes it is absolutely uncovered; often there is a strip of iron
a foot wide across the top; in a few mills there is a complete lat-
ticed iron guard covering top and sides, with a hinge at the corner
so that it can be lifted instead of removed for oiling or repairing
the gears. This wide latitude of interpretation would make the
law difficult for the most conscientious deputy factory inspector
to enforce. If a set of standard guards were adopted by the
factory department as standard for each of the common kinds
of machinery, the law might be effective. Thus, devices are on
the market entirely adequate to protect workmen from cutting
their hands on wood-sawing machines, and a shield has been de-
vised which practically eliminates the danger from a bursting em-
ery wheel. If such guards and shields could be adopted by the
factory department as standard and familiar to each inspector,
evasion would be less easy. As it is, anything that looks like an
effort at protection apparently passes for "properly guarded."
Accidents from belts and shafts are not so easily disposed
of. They happen in two ways: A man passing near, or working
beside, the shaft may be caught in the belt, or a man may be caught
up while putting the belt on the shaft. Accidents of the first class
can be prevented by a proper guard. Five of the shaft accidents
were of this class. Accidents of the second class depend upon the
speed at which the shaft is running, and more yet upon the skill
and experience of the man throwing the belt on. Of six killed
in this way only two were experienced in the work. A ladder
broke under one of them and, grabbing for the belt to save him-
self a fall, he met a more terrible fate on the shaft. Fellow work-
men of the other, a common Slavic laborer, assert that the shaft
was not slowed down enough. In the other four cases the accident
was due to the inexperience of the man killed. Two were Slavs
of only a few days' experience in a factory. Two were fourteen-
year-old American boys. One of these boys was obeying the
direct orders of his foreman in trying to throw on the belt; the
other had done it often with his foreman watching.
79
Next to the telephone, the elevator is perhaps the most
indispensable requirement of modern city life. Without the ele-
vator the present concentration of business in a great city would be
impossible. The sky-scraper without it is inconceivable. But,
like most of our modern devices for annihilating time and space,
the elevator operates at a heavy cost. Our table shows
19
fatali-
ties due to elevators, and this number includes only the "indus-
trial" elevator accidents; namely, those in which the person killed
was engaged at the time in his regular work.
Elevators seem to offer a peculiar temptation to recklessness;
14
of these
19
accidents involved carelessness. Here are a few
instances. An errand boy poked his head through a small window
in a shaft and was killed by the descending elevator. An elevator
boy put his head over the gate after he had started the elevator
upward, and was caught. One of the janitors in an office building,
in a hurry to get his work done, attempted, against the rules of the
building, to run an elevator and was killed. A seventeen-year-old
dressmaker in a department store, running for an elevator that
had started upward, slipped and fell through the opening.
In many of the cases, however, the carelessness is not all on
one side. For instance, a man delivering goods at a restaurant,
seeing no one on hand to run the elevator, tried to run it himself,
although this was contrary to the rule. The elevator was out of
order, and as he stepped on, it fell with him to the bottom of the
shaft. No warning sign had been put up. In several instances,
the owner of the elevator was exclusively at fault. In the case
of an old night watchman, who fell down a freight elevator shaft
in the dark, it was proven that no gates guarded the shaft.
The factory law of Pennsylvania recognizes the dangers of
freight elevators (which are open usually on three or four sides).
It requires gates or doors at every floor, so constructed as to open
and close automatically by the action of the elevator as it passes.
That this law is not strictly enforced is proven (by the large pro-
portion of fatal accidents in which the inquest brings out the fact
that there were no automatic gates, that they were out of order, that
they had been tied up for special work and not let down again, etc.
And, although the law requires that the door or gate shall "form a
substantial surface when closed," it is apparent, as in the cases of
80
OTHER WORKERS
guards for machinery, that there is no standard. One can see
about the city gates of every type, from a close wire fence three
feet high to a single five-inch bar about three feet from the floor.
With passenger elevators, which are enclosed on all sides, the
danger is much less, but it is not eliminated. A very careless
operator may leave the door open when he takes the elevator
away, and almost any operator will start the elevator and draw
the door simultaneously, leaving for a moment an open space
through which a person might fall. A Pennsylvania act of May
30,
1895,
requires every elevator "then in use or thereafter con-
structed
"
to be equipped with an automatic locking device, but
this statute is not part of the Factory Law, and in Pittsburgh
there is no pretence of enforcing it with regard to passenger eleva-
tors. Such a law rigidly enforced would make the usual elevator
accident impossible.
The house smiths working on narrow beams at the top of
unfinished sky-scrapers, are among the thrilling figures of modern
city life, and the skill of these "performers" is such that they
rarely fall. Five were killed during the year in Pittsburgh. The
others who lost their lives in construction work were carpenters,
bricklayers, painters, and laborers. In most cases the accident
was a fall. Two only were apparently inevitable deaths. Two
were due to a defective scaffolding placed by the man who
was killed. Five were due to a defect over which the victim had
no control. Take for example the death of a young bricklayer's
apprentice, working on a stack at the filtration plant. A rotten
plank broke with him, and he fell 182 feet inside the stack.
Digging down into the earth involves almost as great danger
as building up above it. In ditch digging there is the risk of the
bank caving in ; in quarrying the danger of a heavy rolling stone.
But in all excavating work the greatest risks are from the explo-
sives used. It takes a vigilant foreman to prevent accidents from
dynamite among the ignorant Italians who usually handle it.
One of the entirely unnecessary accidents of the year was due to
the foolhardiness of an Italian named Leone. He and a number
of other Italians were sitting around a fire at noontime. The
foreman warned him to move certain sticks of dynamite away
from the fire, but Leone, who was proud of his experience,
6
81
replied that he knew what he was doing. The dynamite remained,
and an explosion occurred which killed three of his fellow country-
men and left Leone himself a cripple.
Italians are also almost exclusively employed in laying gas
pipe. Five were killed in this work. As an example of their
fates, here is the story of Ferdinando DiVito and Giuseppe Corecato:
These two were sent by the foreman to cut off a 2-inch
service line from a 20-inch gas main. DiVito got down into the
hole, cut off the service pipe, and was attempting to put in a
2-inch plug when the escaping gas overcame him. Corecato,
seeing that his friend was overcome, tried to pull him out of
the hole. But he was not strong enough alone, and there
'was no help at hand. He also finally succumbed to the
gas, and fell into the hole with DiVito. Five hours later the
foreman missed them. He went with others and with ropes
pulled up out of the hole the two bodies which told the story
of this tragedy.
Here was a hero of whom the Carnegie Hero Fund Commis-
sion never heard. No one became interested in the case but the
Italian priest, through whose efforts the gas company was induced
to pay for Corecato's funeral and send $100 to Italy for the main-
tenance of his wife and two children. As for the old widowed
mother of DiVito, who for three years had depended upon him
for support, no one knows what has become of her.
In mills and mines the danger of electric shock is a secondary
and incidental risk, one which might be almost entirely removed.
But to the lineman, who deals every working day with electric
power, it is a constant and apparently unavoidable danger. A
lineman may touch a high voltage wire by mistake, or he may
take hold of a low voltage wire which has become highly charged
by crossing a high voltage wire at some distance. Thus the tele-
phone man, while he deals directly with low voltage wires, runs
just as much risk through the unforeseen crossing of wires, as the
arc light man, who knows that he is dealing with dangerous wires.
We can "chain the lightning," but it is always waiting its chance
to strike. Nine linemen were killed during the year, and in no-
82
OTHER WORKERS
case did evidence at the inquest indicate that any one was at
fault.
The story of transportation does not end with the railroads.
Much of it at Pittsburgh is done by the freight boats on the three
rivers. This work also takes its toll of human life. Four "river-
men" were drowned during the year. We are likely to forget,
too, the importance of the teamster in the business of transporta-
tion. His job is a hazardous one. Crowded streets, trolleys,
railroad-crossings, unmanageable horses, accounted for the
deaths of nine teamsters during the year.*
Street railway accidents rarely result in injury to the men
who run the cars. Only four traction employes were killed during
the year. In two cases a car "got away," because of a defective
brake. In a third case a conductor, just about to start out from
the barns, was run down by a car while he stood between the
tracks putting his trolley on the wire. On account of a defective
headlight the motorman failed to see him. In the fourth case a
car cleaner was crushed against a post in the barns while standing
on the step of a car.f
This chapter with its arbitrary groupings and somewhat
desultory description of the accidents of many employments has
little value except to emphasize the dreary commonness of work
accidents. We need not go to steel districts and railroad centres
to find dangerous trades. In and around every city, work is
being done which involves risk of life and limb to the men who do
it. These risks are not wholly inevitable. Here too is something
to fight about and not forget.
*
Two of these men were intoxicated. Tlie others were not in any way at
fault.
"t
Space is lacking to describe the miscellaneous accidents mentioned in
Table 12,
page ](). Many of them only happened to be work accidents. Thus a
street car collision in which a messenger boy was killed is considered a work acci-
dent, because the boy was at the time engaged in his regular work. Others were
inherently industrial in character but were few of a kind.
83
CHAPTER VI
PERSONAL FACTOR IN INDUSTRIAL
ACCI DENTS
"
/^ O you've come to Pittsburgh to study accidents, have
^^
you?" says the superintendent, or the claim agent, or the
W^-^ the general manager, as the case may be. "Well, I've
been [in this business fifteen years and I can tell you one thing
right now,
95
per cent of our accidents are due to the careless-
ness of the man who gets hurt. Why, you simply wouldn't be-
lieve the things they'll do. For instance, I remember a man,"
and he goes on to relate the most telling incident he knows, to

prove his assertion.
This is the almost invariable reaction of the Pittsburgh
employer and his representatives to a query about industrial
accidents. And the statements of such men are the chief source
of effective public opinion on the subject in Pittsburgh. There
are many people, to be sure, who view the whole situation
through startling red headlines and whispered tales of horror,
^who
believe, for instance, that numbers of men are burned up in fur-
naces every year, the story of whose destruction never gets beyond
the mill. There are also thousands of people, including most of
the workingmen themselves, who think about each accident as a
distinct and separate incident, without generalizing or drawing
conclusions. Neither of these groups, however, forms an effectual
element in public opinion ; one is hysterical, the other inarticulate.
Most of the men in the community whose opinions count, have
made up their minds about this accident question from what
they have heard employers, superintendents, casualty managers
say. In other words, they believe that "95 per cent of the acci-
dents are due to the carelessness of the men." Those emphatic,
reiterated assertions, those tales of recklessness often repeated,
84
Drawn by Joseph Stella
A Geeenee: Lad from Hekzegovina
PERSONAL FACTOR IN INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS
have grown into a solid, inert mass of opinion among business
and professional men in the community, a heap of unreasoned
conviction.
A clear understanding is needed of the extent to which the
personal factor enters into the causes of industrial accidents if
ways of prevention are to be developed and if we are to have any
basis for judgment as to the equity of the present system of dis-
tributing the accident loss. My sources for such an analysis were
in many respects unsatisfactory. The coroner's records were as a
rule meager, sometimes illegible, and almost never clear and satis-
fying in detail. The testimony, moreover, has a tendency to lean
to one side. The witnesses are employes of the company, includ-
ing almost always the superior of the man killed. It is to his in-
terest first to clear himself of all implication ; second, to clear his
employer. The easiest and safest way of accomplishing these ends
is to blame the dead man. The same motives, in perhaps lesser
degree, affect the fellow workmen who testify. It was seldom
possible to supplement the inquest story by a conversation with
eye-witnesses of the accident, and only in 191 cases was the em-
ployer's record available.*
In the absence of any other analysis of causes of work-acci-
dents based on American experience, this is offered, not as proving
conclusions, but as containing indications.
Whenever in any of the versions of the accident some respon-
sibility was indicated, that indication is included in the tabula-
tion. An accident is charged against the victim of it, if his act or
omission in any way contributed to it, whether it was due to
his carelessness, ignorance, or any other failing. The same rule
is followed in the "fellow workmen" column. Between accidents
attributable to the employer and those attributable to the super-
intendent or foreman, a rather sharp and arbitrary line was
necessarily drawn. If the accident was due to some defective
condition in the working plan or appliances, or to the furnishing
of insufficient or inadequate material, it was checked in the
"employer" column. But if the accident was due to some special
failure in superintendence, as for instance, placing of ignorant
*
The fact that the analysis is based on fatal accidents only, is also a
material limitation.
85
men in dangerous positions, failure to warn, mistaken and danger-
ous orders, then it was charged, not against the employer, but
against the superintendent or foreman.
TABLE 13.^410 WORK-ACCIDENT FATALITIES, CLASSIFIED BY EM-
PLOYMENT AND BY INDICATIONS OF RESPONSIBILITY*
A teamster standing on a heavy load of machinery and driving
out of the factory, bent down to escape the top of the gateway; as
he did so, some piece of iron under him slipped; he lost his bal-
ance, fell to the ground and was run over. One by one, here and
there throughout the country, these dreary things are happening.
There is little reason for lingering on this class of accidents.
One cannot point to any very immediate hope of prevention.
Safer ways of doing many things will in time be devised, but there
will always be dangerous trades. My purpose in dwelling just
here upon these accidents, is to make it clear that since 28 per
cent of the fatalities are
"
unavoidable, " it cannot be true that
95
per cent are due to the carelessness of the men killed.
In fact, considering all the evidence available, we had indi-
cation of some responsibility on the part of the victim in 132
out
of
410 fatalities; of his sole responsibility in 68 fatalities. Even
these
132 cases demand analysis. They represent not just "care-
lessness" as the word is commonly used, but a long list of human
weaknesses, some common to us all, some resulting from special
environment, some for which the man himself is not responsible,
some for which he is.
Ignorance covers a large share of these cases, the ignorance
of young boys, of those who are "green" at their job, of the
tongue-tied alien, who finds himself for the first time a part of
swift and mighty processes. In 22 out of 132
deaths in which the
victim can be held accountable, he was "green." One was on
his first night's work in a mill; one had been at his work four
hours; another three days; eight, less than a month; four, less
than two months; seven, less than six months. Nearly all these
men were foreigners and eight of them had been among English-
speaking people less than one year.
For example, in several cases where a miner was killed by a
fall of slate, the evidence indicated that not enough posts had been
used. In four such cases the man killed was a "greener." One
had worked in a mine but two months. Two railroad cases are
equally in point.
Garbia Lubitch, a Hungarian, who had been in America
five months, was set to work alone digging a ditch under the
87
railroad tracks in a mill yard. He was working between
the ties, when a train backed down without warning and
ran over him. A foreman had told him in English to work
at the side.
Thomas Korenz, a Slav, who had worked as a trestle
laborer fourteen days and could speak no English, was sent
with three of his countrymen to do some work under a car.
Later, as a switching engine was about to couple on to the
cars on this track, a brakeman was sent to warn any men
who might be underneath. The three who could understand,
hurried out from under the car, forgetting to explain the
warning to Korenz. The brakeman, thinking that all was
safe, signaled to the engineer to come ahead, and Korenz
was killed.
Thirteen of the
132 who were in a measure responsible
for their own deaths, were not men but boys. A fourteen-year-
old assistant chemist was run over by an engine in the yards of a
steel mill at night. A thirteen-year-old boy tried to pull up a
freight elevator because one of the girls in the shop asked him if
he could. It came up suddenly and fast, and struck him while
he was leaning over. Two sixteen-year-old boys were killed while
meddling with elevators. A newly landed Croatian lad of seven-
teen was killed by fooling with a switch with wet gloves on, watch-
ing the sparks fly.
In all these cases it could be said that there was no excuse.
There was a path outside the tracks where the little chemist should
have walked. The Croatian had been warned to keep away from
the switch. The others had no business trying to run the ele-
vators. It is all true, but they were children. We are too
likely to think that a laborer must be grown up. We might
expect that ten hours' work a day would take the nonsense out of
any boy, but it doesn't. These very boys, full of mischief and
daring in dangerous workshops, the boys who get hurt, are first
cousins to the boys who, notwithstanding all the trouble they
make, are most prized and most loved in the schools.
Two boys were killed in the Homestead steel works while
they were asleep. Both accidents happened at 1
130
in the morn-
ing. One boy was a "pull-up," fifteen years old, who had worked
Immigrant Labohee
a Slav
Photo by Hine
eight hours out of a thirteen-hour night turn. He had a few
minutes to rest, and went back of the furnace to He down in a
wheelbarrow. He fell asleep and was struck and killed by the
extending arm of a ladle which the crane man was bringing back
to the pit. The other was an eighteen-year-old "hook-on" who,
after seven hours of his working night had passed, climbed into
a buggy and went to sleep. The crane man, not knowing this,
lowered an iron bucket on the buggy and killed him.
Many kinds of carelessness which we should heartily
condemn in a grown man, must be expected in a boy. For
this reason we class these
13
cases with the 22 cases of igno-
rance.
Next there were 12 deaths due to a condition on the part of
the man killed over which he had no immediate control. A
repair man climbing to a high place became suddenly dizzy and
fell, although there was a railing to protect him. A young
lineman, with a weak heart, was electrocuted by taking hold of a
wire supposed to be dead but which had crossed another wire
carrying
250 volts,not enough to kill an ordinary man. A
brakeman was run down in the yards, because of slight deafness.
One man, afflicted with epilepsy, fell in a fit upon a steam exhaust
and inhaled steam until he died. Here it might be said with an
air of finality, "While these men were not immediately responsi-
ble, they were responsible for selecting occupations for which
they were unfit." Are we sure that they were responsible?
Reynolds, the epileptic, for instance, had a wife and four little
girls under fourteen. Once before he had fallen from a crane
and crippled his foot. Soon after he came back to work he was
found lying on the railroad track just outside the works. After
this he was discharged, but he came back and begged for work,
and was finally taken on again to do brass filing for a few months
until he could find something else. It was in an effort to hide
his weakness that he met death, for when he felt the seizure
coming on he got up quickly and went through a door to a place
where no one could see him. It was there that he fell upon the
steam exhaust.
Such men as these are seldom in a position to choose an
occupation suited to their handicap. Society might do well to
89
protect them by a law setting certain physical standards for
all those who seek employment in dangerous trades.
In eight cases there is evidence that intoxication of the
victim was the cause of death. In two of these the evidence is
very slight. In the others it is convincing,a river watchman
found drowned, with an empty whiskey bottle in his pocket; a
drunken teamster who fell out of his wagon; a brakeman on a
steel company railroad who came to his work intoxicated, tried
to get on to a moving train and fell under the wheels, etc. There
is nothing new to be said about such cases, except that they are
rare. In only eight out of 410
fatalities, less than 2 per cent,
is there any indication that the drunkenness of the man killed
caused his death.
We have now covered
47
of the 132
fatalities which would be
put down on the average employer's record as "due to careless-
ness" of the workman. In 22 cases the "carelessness" is found
to be ignorance; in
13
cases it is extreme youth; in
4
cases it
is physical weakness; in 8 cases it is drunkenness. Eighty-five
cases are left in which there is indication, strictly speaking, of
"carelessness" in one of its many dictionary meanings. Still,
for a real understanding of industrial accidents these
85
cases
cannot be classed as arising from the same cause.
Webster, among many synonyms for
"
careless," gives three
which will help us to understand the problem of the careless
workman: (i) "heedless,"
(2)
"inattentive,"
(3)
"rash."
Carelessness of the first kind need be considered but briefly.
It is exasperating and hopeless, but fortunately rare. Koroshic,
who appeared in the second story of the introduction, is a good
example. A similar case was that of an Italian, Domenico
Regreto, who had been digging a ditch in the yards of the West-
inghouse Machine Works. Late in the afternoon, when it was
getting dark, he wanted to rest awhile. He sat down on a car
track and leaned up against a car. An engine came, pushing
along some cars to couple on to the one against which he was lean-
ing. The conductor saw Regreto, but too late, and of course when
the cars bumped he was killed. He had worked, for two years
about these yards. "Heedless" is too mild a word. It was the
heedlessness of a fool.
90
Some employers state that many of their workmen are of
this type, but the stories of the 410 accidents considered do not
bear out this opinion. Nor is it likely that the record of American
industries for speed, efficiency, and output, could have been won
with any considerable proportion of such workmen. A larger
proportion of these "careless" cases belong rather under the term
"inattentive." It may strike the reader at first that there is no
great difference between this word and "heedless," and perhaps
there is not. But the divisions will at least serve to demonstrate
that the whole story is not told when we say that a man was
"careless." They are at least a beginning toward clear thinking
on this subject.
To illustrate the distinction: No thinking man would de-
scribe in the same terms the Italian who took his rest against the
company's rolling stock, and a brakeman who was struck in the
night by a piece of overhanging bridge construction about which
the engineer had earlier warned him, or a rigger who was struck
in the breast by a heavy roll swinging from a crane, which he might
have dodged by stepping aside more quickly.
In steel mills an alert mind is the first requirement for safety.
Even a visitor who has no concern in what is going on must keep
a lively attention fixed upon his surroundings. With those who
are doing the work, this attention is bound to be secondary and
incidental, but to insure their safety it must be constant and keen.
However instinctive this vigilance may become, it cannot be
unfailing. Human powers of attention are naturally limited
in at least two ways; heed can be given to but a limited number
of things at a time, and to any one thing for but a limited time.
Moreover, in the condition and environment of those in
"
danger-
ous occupations," there are often influences working to weaken
the power of attention. The speed and intensity of the work;
the heat and noise of the place, the weariness of the workers,^-
all these things tend to numb the faculties most needed for pro-
tection.
Between inattention and recklessness or rashness there is a
wider distinction. Neither kind of carelessness so far described is
of the same nature as that of the brakeman who stands in the
middle of the track to board an approaching yard engine, ali
9'
though he knows there is a safer way, or that of the machinist
who throws a belt on without slowing down the shaft. Such
acts as these are rash,the conscious taking of unnecessary risks.
A flagman, for instance, started to run between two cars to give
a signal; the cars came together and crushed him. Paul Maczko,
a Slav, in a hurry to get some tools, ran between rolls and roll
table in a steel mill; a red hot rail shot out of the rolls just in
time to strike him. A fireman, who was late, ran up on a trestle
to catch his train, missed his reach and fell.
There is undoubtedly much of this spontaneous recklessness,
especially among railroaders and structural iron workers, but few
accidents result from it. A trapeze performer does his act a
thousand times without missing. Through the demands of their
profession, the yard brakeman and the housesmith acquire the
same accurate discernment of distances, the same perfection of
muscular co-ordination and control.
But another kind of recklessness, more deliberate than
impulsive, often results in accidents.
Joseph Karlick, a Hun-
garian carpenter, was putting up a guard rail and platform under
some shafting. His coat caught in a set screw and he was carried
round on the wheel and killed. Karlick was an experienced man,
and if he had requested it the wheel would have been stopped.
Henry Powell and several other men were piling up plates with
the use of an electric crane. Regular blocks were provided for
separating the plates, but as these were at a distance and the men
were "in a rush," they used some castings which were at hand.
Powell went in between two piles to unhook the crane chain from
the last load of plates. A casting broke and allowed one of the
piles to topple over and crush him.
The deliberate failure to take a precaution, illustrated by
the latter group of cases, is a kind of recklessness in which the chief
element is haste. In the spontaneous, impulsive kind of reckless-
ness, illustrated by the first group of cases, the moving spirit is
daring, "taking chances," the gambling instinct. In almost
all reckless acts connected with work, however, both these ele-
*
This case is a very good example of those accidents for which both em-
ployer and victim are responsible. The Pennsylvania factory law requires that
all set screws shall be covered.
92
A Lucky Brakeman. Seven Serious Injuries in Five Years,
AND Still on the
Job
ments are present. There is some ease or time-saving secured
by almost every risk that workmen wilHngly take.
Let us look into the origin and meaning of these two ele-
ments in recklessness. To begin with, the typical railroaders
and structural workers of today were boys only yesterday,
boys with a more than ordinary love of risk and daring, else they
could not have become what they are. The law of the "survival
of the fittest" prevails without hindrance in these dangerous
trades. Take such a boy, then, and put him to work in an environ-
ment of constant danger. At first he is afraid, but the necessities
of the work, as well as his temperament, help him to conquer his
fear. As he loses the fear, he acquires the recklessness. This
is natural, inevitable. A yard master of twenty years' railroading
experience was asked whether he was afraid when he first went on
the road. He said,
"
1 shall never forget the first night I was on. I was only
seventeen then, and I was afraid every time I went to do anything,
though I never let on. This lasted for about a week with me.
Then I began to get over it. Now 1 never think of the danger.
I don't feel any different about going to work in the yards than
I would about working round the place here.
"
Every man who starts in railroading has a fear at the be-
ginning. Sometimes it lasts a few weeks. Sometimes he is
always afraid, no matter how many years he is on the road.
Such a man will never become a practical railroader, though,
even if he has forty years' experience. With the average, I
should say, the fear lasts about a month."
And this man statedas did almost every railroader I talked
withthat, although he knew it was safer to get on a car or engine
at the side, he always stood in the middle of the track.
"
Why,"
he said, "one reason we do it is that it's easy and simple and takes
less effort than getting on at the side. You just put your foot
on the run-board and the force of the car coming toward you throws
you right up on."
There is no puzzle about this recklessness among brakemen,
nor about any similar recklessness. If a hundred times a day a man
is required to take necessary risks, it is not in reason to expect
him to stop there and never take an unnecessary risk. Extreme
93
caution is as unprofessional among the men in dangerous trades
as fear would be in a soldier.
The reckless workman, then, is a man whose naturally
daring temper has been selected, and then encouraged and accentu-
ated, by an occupation involving constant risk.
But as has been said, there is almost always another element
in recklessness,a desire to save time and avoid effort. This
is an even more common human tendency. No one will take
the slow, hard, safe way of doing a thing if there is a quick, easy
way which is not too dangerous. This universal tendency is
heightened in workshops. Sometimes, as in piece work, it . is
encouraged by the worker's direct financial interest in the output.
Oftener it is intensified by' the pressure and speed at which the
whole plant is run,an expression of the employer's direct
financial interest in the output. One of the older and wiser mill
superintendents in the Pittsburgh District told me that the one
greatest cause of danger in the steel mills is the tremendous rush
of the work.
"In the mills in England," he said, "they begin to work
about 6, stop at 8.30 for forty-five minutes for the men to get
breakfast; stop again at i for an hour for the men to get dinner,
and stop again at
5.30
for half an hour. At these periods every-
thing stops. The machinery is quiet. This is the reason why the
English mills do not produce as much steel in the same length
of time as the American mills. Here the machinery never stops.
Another shift is always ready and waiting to step into the place
of the shift that is leaving. Not a moment is lost. If a mill
stops three minutes for repairs, or for any other cause, a detailed
report of this must be made by the men in charge. If this happens
two or three times under one man, the matter will be taken up
with a question as to his efficiency. Under this kind of a drive,
how can anybody be careful?"
When we read, then, of a man who went up to make repairs
without stopping the crane, or of a man who tried to throw a belt
on without slowing down the shaft, we must not lay the resulting
accident unquestioningly to his own personal, ill-considered haste.
Perhaps he was but a part of a great machine going too fast for
safety. Every man in the process must keep the pace of the whole.
94
He can no more go his own gait than a spoke in a wheel can go
its own gait.
The analysis of those accidents which are commonly spoken
of as due to the "carelessness of the man injured" is now completed.
Instead of
95
per cent, only
32
per cent* of the fatal accidents can
be laid in a measure to the responsibility of the victims. And
dissecting this
32
per cent, we find 1 1 per cent not due to careless-
ness, strictly speaking,
5
per cent being due to ignorance,
3
per
cent to youth, i per cent to physical weakness, and 2 per cent to
drunkenness. This leaves but 2 1 per cent of the fatalities actually
due to carelessness. A study of this 21 per cent of men whose
deaths were due, wholly or partly, to their own carelessness,
reveals that some of these men were heedless, some inattentive,
and some reckless.
For the heedless ones no defence is made. For the inatten-
tive we maintain that human powers of attention, universally
limited, are in their case further limited by the conditions under
which the work is done
^long hours, heat, noise, intense speed.

For the reckless ones we maintain that natural inclination is in
their case encouraged and inevitably increased by an occupation
involving constant risk; recklessness is part of the trade. Not
all accidents due to inattention and recklessness can be thus
defended, but speaking generally, these two kinds of carelessness
cannot fairly be called faults of the workman.
Those accidents which involve the responsibility of a fellow
workman of the man who is hurt, are subject to a similar classi-
fication. In
56
out of 410 fatalities, we had indications of some
responsibility on the part of the fellow workman; in 28 fatalities
some act or omission on the part of fellow workmen was the sole
cause. Several of these were cases of ignorance or incompetence.
For instance, William Wintors, crane operator at Dilworth and
Porter's, ran his crane into an open switch and it fell to the ground;
the switch had been left open through the mistake of a foreigner
who did not understand English. In the other cases some one of
*
It must be remembered that this
32
per cent includes all cases in which
the evidence indicated responsibility of victim. In over half of these cases there was
indication also of the responsibility of .others, i. e., fellow-workman, foreman or
employer.
95
the three forms of carelessness are found. Five men were run
over because an engineer or fireman failed to give warning with
whistle or bell. A train clerk was killed because an engineer
started before he had received the signal. Adam Yaworski was
crushed by a scrap box, which slipped from the crane chains be-
cause it had been insecurely fastened by a fellow workman. A
careless crane man allowed his empty crane hooks to hang too
low; he also forgot to give any warning to the men below. One of
the big iron hooks struck Julian Romanofski in the back of his
head, killing him instantly.
Often an accident results from a lack of co-operation; a
failure on the part of both the man hurt and a fellow workman.
Thus it was with the death of Bogata. He was oiling one of the
great collapsible iron buckets operated by a crane in the ore yards.
The crane man, not knowing he was there, started to manipulate
the bucket, and Bogata was crushed. Both men had failed in
care.
In the carelessness of fellow workmen the same elements
exist in about the same proportions,ignorance, youth, weakness,
drunkenness, heedlessness, inattention and rashness. Yet when
the death of another results it is hard to look upon any of these
without unreasoning condemnation.
Probably, in modern industry, more actual responsibility for
safety rests upon the foremen and under superintendents, those
immediately directing the work, than upon any one else. For
this reason we must make a sharp distinction between those who
are in positions of authority and the workers. There were indi-
cations of some responsibility on the part of the foreman in
49
out of 410 fatalities ; of his sole responsibility in
19. There are
all kinds of foremen: foremen so cowardly that they will send
men into danger where they would not go themselves, and fore-
men so brave that they will order their men to stand back while
they go in themselves. There is the story of an Irish foreman who
ordered a lot of Italians to work under a dangerous overhanging
bank while he stood clear of the hazard. The bank fell and one
of them was killed. And there is the story of an Italian sub-fore-
man, in charge of sixteen men, who, when he had waited five
or ten minutes for a charge of dynamite to go off, warned the
96
Irish Iron Worker
Phoio by Hine
men to keep out of the way and got down into the ditch to
see what was the trouble.
Just
as he got there the charge ex-
ploded and killed him.
More common, however, is the foreman who, through hurry,
indifference, or thoughtlessness, sends "green" men into positions
which mean danger to them, or stands by and allows incompetent
people to try difficult and risky operations. Such is the mine
foreman who allows two "greeners" to work in a room together
without an experienced man. Such was the foreman or "boss"
who regularly allowed Alfred Hopkins, a boy of fourteen, to adjust
the belt on a shaft. On October
17, 1906,
the belt slipped off the
main shaft when Hopkins was alone in the room. He started to
adjust it, as usual, was caught in the belt and carried round the
shaft. When they took him down he was dead.*
The enforcement of rules for safety must, of course, lie with
those in authority. Often serious accidents occur from a violation
of rules. Often, too, a violation of rules is regularly ignored by
foremen and superintendents. Here are two cases illustrating the
point, one of which was described in the chapter on mine-workers.
Fritz Collins had occasion to go up on a crane to
make repairs. Instead of going up the pole, he signaled to
the crane man, and rode up on the spreader of the crane.
The spreader in going up hit the cage and Collins was
knocked off, the spreader falling on top of him. The testi-
mony revealed that rules were posted forbidding the men to
ride up on the crane in this way, but that it was a customary
performance with which the foremen were familiar and which
they did not prevent.
John Muschenitch, a dumper at the tipple of the Oak-
dale mine, was working overtime one night on the stock pile
and rode down to the tipple in an empty coal car. These
cars are run by electricity, the trolley being only seven and
one-half feet above the rails. As he started to get out of the
car, Muschenitch happened to touch this trolley with his neck
*
From the company's office in answer to a question with regard to the cause
of this accident, there came this statement: "Deceased was running a chaplet
machine and got caught in the belt, swung to shaft above, and killed. Shaft was
between eight and nine feet above the floor, so accident must have been due to
carelessness." This is typical of the unintelligent way in which accidents are
disposed of by the word "carelessness."
7
97
and was electrocuted. The significant thing about this inci-
dent is that, although it was against the rules to ride in the
empty cars, Muschenitch's boss, the weighmaster, not only
let him ride but got in and rode with him.
Many accidents for which a foreman is partly or wholly
responsible are simply the result of mistakes on his part. Where
several people are working together in a series of somewhat com-
plicated operations, the first necessity is co-operation, perfect
"working together." In many cases where a man is sent into a
dangerous place to make repairs, it would seem that the foreman
or superintendent should look out for his safety. At Rankin
the ore is brought up from the ore beds to the
"
kipping buckets
"
in a chain of cars moved by an electric motor. One day the coup-
ling between two of these cars broke, and George Schustic was
sent by his foreman to fasten them together with a chain. Mean-
while the motorman, who had not been told that a man was work-
ing between the cars, started the motor which moved the chain.
Schustic was killed. The foreman's responsibility seems unmis-
takable.
But it must not be forgotten that the foreman is human;
his recklessness is largely the result of his environment; his
powers of attention are often taxed beyond their endurance by
the tension of work, by noise and heat, and by weariness. More-
over, the foreman is always under the greatest incentive to in-
crease output. Pressure is brought to bear upon him in various
ways. In the steel mills, for instance, bonus schemes, emulation,
fear of discharge or desire for preferment, are constantly driving
him. All this results in tremendous accomplishment, but it does
not tend to make the foreman careful.
Referring back now to Table
13
(page
86), we find that
there was indication of some responsibility on the part of the em-
ployer in
147
of the 410 fatalities; of his sole responsibility in
94
cases. Here again we do not mean that each accident was caused by
a personal conscious failure on the part of the employer; but rather
that the accident can be traced, in whole or in part, to an inade-
quacy in that part of the productive machinery which the em-
Jjloyer
furnishes, and for which he, if any one, is responsible. Thus
an accident which occurs because a chain breaks is checked in the
98
'
'employer" column, although it is not possible absolutely to insure
the soundness of chains, just as an accident which occurs because
a workman is ignorant is checked in the "employe" column,
although it is not possible for a workman to guarantee his own
quick-wittedness.
For an intelligent understanding of the "careless employer"
one must consider not only his mental attitude, but also the actual
mediums through which his intentions, good, bad or indifferent,
must operate. In the first place, he does not exercise care
directly, but through an army of superintendents, inspectors, fore-
men, etc. In the second place, his provisions for safety must
very often depend upon the sufficiency of material things which,
as we have suggested, it is always difficult and sometimes impos-
sible to guarantee. The employer's "carelessness," then, is a
matter not only of his own mental attitude, but of that of his
agents, and sometimes of the "perversity of inanimate things."
Most of these
147
instances of negligence in employers
come under failure in the "first duty"to provide a safe place to
work. They divide themselves into two main groups. In the
first come those accidents which are due, strictly speaking, to
defects ; namely, some condition of plant or appliance which was
not planned or intended.
Among the fatalities resulting from such defects, there were
a few where the defect was perfectly plain, and a few where the
accident was necessary to reveal it. But most of them can be
laid to imperfect inspection. One story of a breaking scaffold
has been already told ; in another case four men were killed because
a platform, ladder, or plank gave way under them. Twenty-two
men were killed because something over their heads gave way and
a heavy object fell upon them. The commonest instance of this
is the breaking of crane chains. One man was killed by the falling
of a coal trestle, another crushed by the collapse of the floor above
him. A cracked grindstone, a steam-pipe valve which would not
work, an electric wire with the insulation worn off, etc.these
are some of the other defects from which death resulted.
In railroading the defects are of a different order. A broken
link in a brake chain, couplers that are out of order, three cases of
an old "weak" car which gave way in a slight collision, an engine
99
sent out for yard work without foot board and grab irons, a piece
of iron left sticking in the guard rail, etc.
Some of these defects, by the mere recital of them, prove
inexcusable neglect. But most of them are explained, just as the
workman's disregard of his own safety is chiefly explained, by the
pressure and speed of work. There can be no absolute standard
of safety, for no employer can keep his equipment in perfect
repair every day in the year. The classification of this sort of
carelessness is a matter of degree. One can simply say that more
attention given to increase of output tends to lessen attention
given to increase of safety.
The second group of failures in
"
the employer's first duty,"
is of a very different nature from these "defects" we have con-
sidered. Reasonable provision for safety in the construction of
a plant, or in the organization of the work, should be part of the
employer's deliberate plan, and it is hard to find excuse for the
lack of it. Under this heading come a large number of fatalities.
As has been stated, the law of Pennsylvania requires that
"
all vats, pans, saws, planers, cogs, gearing, belting, shafting, set
screws, grindstones, emery wheels and machinery of every descrip-
tion shall be properly guarded."
Andrew Jubreed,* on April
19, 1907,
was caught in a
shaft around which there was no railing, and killed. This
was in the Twenty-ninth Street Works of the Carnegie Steel
Company.
On October
19, 1906,
Gusatija Kosanovich was lifting
something under the direction of a foreman when his foot
slipped and got caught in the uncovered cogwheels of a roll
table. He died in twenty minutes. This was at the South
Side Plant of the Jones and Laughlin Company.
On August 21, 1906,
Walter V. B. Calhoun was painting
the iron work above some shafting at the
John
Eichley,
Jr.,
Company's Works at Twentieth Street. His coat got caught
in an uncovered set screw, he was carried round the shaft,
and killed.
*
In these paragraphs the actual names are given, the evidence having been
secured solely from the coroner's records.
100
Fhoto by Hine
Steel Woekek
a Genuine
American
\
Each of these fatalities resulted from a violation of the.'
Pennsylvania law.
George Romonofsky was crushed while making a
chain coupling on the Union Railroad, August
5,
1906.
Anthony Gallagher fell from a five-foot platform at the
top of a furnace at Jones and Laughlin's. The platform
had no railing.
On March
14, 1907,
Frank Shellaby was killed by
falling against an uncovered switchboard at the Westinghouse
Air Brake Company.
In each of these cases, and many others like them, reasonable
provisions for safety had not been made, although no requirements
of the Pennsylvania law had been violated.
Many an accident happens because of the crowding of
machinery into a small space.
Clifford Rea, a boy of eighteen, was oiling machinery for
the Union Storage Company. In order to oil one machine he
had to go into a space thirteen inches wide, between a heavy
sliding door and a revolving flywheel. While he was there
the door was suddenly opened; Rea instinctively leaned
back a little, and was instantly caught in the wheel.
Insufficient lighting in the mills at night, and the absence
of warning signs in foreign languages, are causes of accident too
frequent to be ignored; but even more amazing are the hundreds
of inquest records of men who were killed because of the inade-
quacy or the total absence of signals, warnings, or signs of imme-
diate danger. This kind of accident is found in every line of work.
John McCaffrey, motorman in the Bridgeville Mine of
the Pittsburgh Coal Company, was coming out of the mine
with a train of loaded cars; a collision occurred, and he was
thrown off and killed. And we read that there was no trip-
rider on the rear of the forward train to keep watch; the
foreman stated that they had not been using trip-riders.
A car cleaner was working under a coal car on a siding
when an engine ran some other cars in on the siding with-
out warning. They struck this standing car, and the man
lOI
underneath was killed. The superintendent testified that he
didn't know whose duty it was to warn men underneath
cars.
Frank Stanko, employed at the Pressed Steel Car Com-
pany, was killed in a similar manner while working under a
car, and the foreman testified that he had no one to give
signals.
Accidents such as these, resulting from a lack of the most
obviously necessary signal systems, are so common that one is
forced to consider them due not to an occasional incompetent
foreman, for whose failures the employer may be often only theo-
retically responsible, but to a lack of provision for safety in the
plan and organization of work. This kind of carelessness is as
inexcusable in an employer as deliberate indifference to safety
in the construction of the working place.
There is a final class of accidents for which, regardless of the
immediate cause, the employer must be held responsible. There
were killed, in the year's industrial accidents, ten children who
had not yet reached the age of sixteen. In three cases the accident
was not due to any danger inherent in the child's work; in seven
the accident was a direct outcome of unsuitable employment.
For the deaths of these seven we must primarily blame the respec-
tive employers, because they were in a position to prevent the
employment of children in such work.
Several of these accidents have been already described in
another connection. Two more need telling:
William Rock, fourteen years old, employed by the
Pittsburgh Brewing Company at Duquesne, on November
14, 1906,
while trying to put a belt on a pulley, was caught
up in the machinery and killed.
Frank Lenox, thirteen years old, employed in the C.
M. Harper Brick Works at Elizabeth, on September
17, 1906,
while coming down a narrow stairway from the "screens,"
slipped and fell into a tempering machine. He was killed
before the machine could be stopped.
It should be borne in mind that this inquiry has been a study
of industrial fatalities rather than of establishments. Conceiv-
102
ably, some Pittsburgh employers, through either good luck or
unexampled precautions, might have had no casualties whatever
during the periods studied and their records would not have come
within our notice. We have not attempted to appraise the eflforts
of some superintendents to prevent accidents any more than we
have analyzed the psychology of the careful workmen who during
long service in dangerous occupations have escaped injury. We
have limited our analysis to the facts at our command; that is, to
the accidents which happened during the year studied.
In so far as the employer's relation to industrial accidents
is revealed by the history of this year's fatalities, we have found
much deliberate disregard for safety in the construction of plant
and equipment, and in the organization of work; we have found
a long list of defects, not all of which the employer could have
avoided, but most of which careful inspection would have revealed
and immediate repair have rendered harmless; we have found
those directly representing the employer in positions of authority
often neglectful of safety; we have found cases of children regu-
larly employed in work or in surroundings dangerous to them on
account of their youth.
TABLE 14. INDICATIONS AS TO RESPONSIBILITY FOR
377
INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS RESULTING IN DEATH*
Number
of
Per Cent
Causes Attributed Accidents
of
Total
Cause attributed solely to employers
or those who represent them in
positions of authority ... 113 29.97
Cause attributed solely to those killed
or their fellow workmen . . 105 27.85
Cause attributed to both the above
classes 60 15.91
Cause attributed to nether of the
above classes
99
26.27
Total
377
100.00
To sum up, the indications in regard to responsibility may
be classified in a way which separates the two main agents of pro-
duction,the employer and employe,
^with respect to accidents.

We find (Table
14)
that in
29.97
P^""
<^^"t of the fatalities of the
Notice that this is a table of accidents, not of fatalities. In 410 fatalities
out of 526
our data was sufficient to show indications as to responsibility. These
410 fatalities, however, resulted from
377
accidents.
103
year, such indications as we have attribute the cause solely to the
employers or to those representing them in positions of authority;
in
27.85
per cent solely to those killed or their fellow workmen;
in
15.91
per cent jointly to these two classes; in
26.27
per cent to
neither.
0%
10% 20% 30% 40%
Cause attributed solely to era-'\
ployers or those who represent >
them in positions of authority
j
Cause attributed solely to those
\
killed or their fdlow workmen
J
Cause attributed to both the)
above classes
j
Cause attributed to neither of
)
the above classes
J
M^^HrilHi^d.
97Z
CHAPTER VII
SUGGESTIONS FOR PREVENTION
IN
the foregoing chapter the attempt has been made to show
the relation of workmen, superintendents, and employers to
the happening of accidents, and to search out and define the
various elements in the so-called negligence, or
"
carelessness," of
each. Leaving out, for the time being, all question of blame, such
an analysis must inevitably throw some light upon the problem
of preventing accidents.
Take first the
29
per cent of fatal accidents attributable
solely to employers, or those who represent them in positions of
authority. Deaths due to lack of provision for safety in the
original construction of the working place, and in the general plan
of work, might have been avoided by expressly providing for
safety in such construction and plan ; those due to the employment
of children at unsuitable work might have been avoided by not
employing children ; most of the deaths caused by defects in plant
or equipment could have been prevented by a more frequent
and careful inspection and by immediate repair; many due to
incompetence, indifference, etc., in superintendents and foremen,
might not have occurred if these men had been made to feel that,
without exercising skill and care in safeguarding the workers,
they could not "make good." In short if, by any form of per-
suasion or compulsion, it could be brought to pass that the pre-
vention of accidents should be a motive with employers at all
times,
present at times of construction, present at times of

engaging and organizing and changing the force, present through
every day of operation,the larger part of this first
29
per cent
of fatal accidents would be done away with.
For the second group, the
27
per cent attributed solely to
those killed or their fellow workmen, we must go back to our
analysis of the "careless workman" in order to suggest the lines
105
of possible prevention. Where "carelessness" is youth, or igno-
rance, or weakness, there is a remedy. Minimum requirements
of age, experience, or physical fitness, can be established for
certain dangerous occupations. Yet the enforcement of such
tests would be very limited, and to do away entirely with accidents
of this class, the "prevention motive" in the employer must
again be so strengthened that no hope of profit will induce him
to employ boys in the mills, no stress of competition, no emptiness
of the labor market, induce him to employ newly landed foreigners
in positions where, through their ignorance, their* own lives or
the lives of others are endangered.
The man who goes to his work intoxicated, the heedless
fool
în dealing with these also the employer is the only agent
through whom society can act. Discipline alone can prevent
their being dangerous to themselves and to others.
As for that "carelessness" of workmen which is mere human
rashness,here we cannot say, "Create a motive for carefulness
in those who lack it," for the very strongest motive is already
present, the care for life and limb. But the employer has con-
siderable opportunity to modify the natural tendency to reckless-
ness in his workmen by establishing a different attitude toward
safety in the conduct of his plant.*
The long hours of labor, which cause so much of the "care-
lessness" that is inattention, are not an inevitable condition of
production; here at least the state can act directly, if it will. The
high speed, and unremitting tension, characteristic of all our in-
dustrial activities, which are the other great causes of inattention,
and which are also the means of encouraging and increasing
recklessness in the workers, can be lessened, but the state can do
little toward this end in a direct way, so long as competition in-
spires, creates, and rules these industrial activities. The only way
is to make the lives and limbs of his employes as important to
an employer as the output.
In short, we find that in the prevention of the accidents
of almost all these groups the will of the employer is pre-eminently
important. Abandoning earlier classifications, it may be stated
*
Note campaign of education and co-operation described by Mr. Beyer in
Appendix III.
1 06
that the chief preventable conditions from which work-acci-
dents result are:
1
.
Lack of provision for safety in construction.
2. Long hours of work.
3.
Too great speed maintained in many lines of work.
4.
Inadequate plant inspection.
5.
Failure to remedy known defects.
6. Inadequate warning and signal systems.
7.
Inadequate instruction and direction of ignorant workers.
I have separated the first two conditions because they indi-
cate the public's chief lines of direct attack through prohibitive
legislation. The industrial accident rate can be reduced by
better factory acts, making safety requirements that shall be more
definite and capable of enforcement than the present ones, and
extending those safety requirements so as to cover, for instance,
the stringing of electric wires in mills, the placing of hand rails
along crane runways. The mining law could also be improved
in the matter of safety requirements. A state safety appliance
act for railroads, bringing requirements up to the standard set by
the federal act, could be enacted. Provisions of this kind are not
impossible to enforce. But if direct protective legislation is to be
effective, within the limited field in which safety rules are practi-
cable, inspectors must possess a technical mastery of the industry
they deal with, inspection must be thorough and frequent, and the
penalty for failure to comply with orders must be swift and sure.
As we shall see, in discussing the means by which public
opinion may reach the employer, the state authorities in Pennsyl-
vania do not even require reports of all accidents: much less are
they charged with the duty of supervising all industrial occupa-
tions in which accidents happen. We discovered, moreover, many
instances of unguarded set-screws, unprotected gearings, etc., which
were clearly contrary to the law of the state, and therefore fell
within the scope of the factory department. In regard to the
present status of factory inspection in Pennsylvania, Mrs. Florence
Kelley, formerly chief factory inspector of Illinois, who made a
general report on the situation for the Pittsburgh Survey, writes
:*
*Chariiies and the Commons, March 6, iqoq.
107
In Pennsylvania there is no civil service law applying
to the positions of the factory inspector or his deputies.
These are and always have been purely political appoint-
ments. They are not even "labor" appointments. Faithful
inspectors insistent that the law should be obeyed, may be
removed at will in the interests of powerful employers.
This places a premium upon making friends with powerful
interests, winking at violations of law, avoiding prosecution,
publicity and everything that might provoke hostility either
to the department or to the individual deputy.
The number of inspectors is sadly insufficient. An im-
portant part of Allegheny County was for years entrusted to
the inspection of a man who lived at Altoona.* This district
included Braddock, Homestead and McKeesport, with their
highly developed and unusually dangerous industries.
If the statute were as effective as the best law of any
state, and if the chief inspector were inspired by modern
ideals of labor legislation, competent and enlightened, it
would still be true that the present staff of five in the Pitts-
burgh District could not cover the ground by reason of its
insufficient numbers. . . . The wording of the Pennsyl-
vania statute is so vague and broad that under its provisions
intelligent and zealous inspectors might greatly reduce many
forms of present danger except those arising from cold, glare,
darkness and speed.
There is, however, no comprehensive attempt to do
so. In a cork factory I saw scores of insufficiently guarded
saws of a highly dangerous type. The deputy inspector
who accompanied me had no eyes for these sinister objects,
but confined all observation to children and their certificates.
We passed a boy working at an insufficiently guarded saw,
whose hand was bandaged after being hurt at that same
saw. When 1 called attention to this, the deputy said that
there was a specialist on the staff who devoted himself to
machinery and safeguards. Persistent inquiry covering a
month failed to identify him. He appears never to have ex-
isted.
State inspection at best is ineffective unless backed up by
rigorous prosecution of flagrant offenders. On this point Mrs.
Kelley says:
Current publication of the exact details of all prosecu-
tions begun for violations of labor laws has a two-fold
*
1
13
Miles from Pittsburgh.
108
Courtesy Wcstinghouse Machine Company
Automatic Sceew Machine Encased and Gears Guarded
Courtesy Westmghouse Machine Company
Turret Lathes, All Gears Guarded
value. It is the best deterrent, for employers dislike to
have the community know that they are accused of breaking
the law. Full publicity in this regard is also the best as-
surance of the integrity of the inspection staff. Every
prosecution of an employer is incidentally a trial of the in-
spection force. For when inspectors must constantly ap-
pear as witnesses in court and endure cross examination by
able lawyers such as employers corhmonly retain, this in itself
is a permanent stimulus to careful, accurate work and a safe-
guard against temptation to blackmail or to accept bribes.
Where, however, mystery enshrouds the procedure of a
department in relation to violations of the labor law, an in-
quiring public tends to make sinister inferences. Why is
there no record of prosecutions in the report of the factory
inspectors of Pennsylvania for
1907?
Were there no pro-
secutions ? Or was none of them successful ? Are the courts
so clogged that suits are brought with difficulty? If so, why
does not the department make known this extenuating cir-
cumstance ?
This concealment of violations of the factory laws is
fortunately unique in the practice of state departments of
factory inspection. Where bona fide enforcement of the laws
is achieved, the particulars are published, and publicity helps
to deter other potential offenders. The omission of informa-
tion about prosecutions is, perhaps, the most self-condemn-
ing item in the whole disgraceful report of the Pennsylvania
State Department of Factory Inspection for
1907.
The factory inspection headquarters of such a great indus-
trial district as Pittsburgh could well be an office where tech-
nical experts would constantly be studying the work processes
of the district, with laboratory facilities for experiment and
demonstration of protective devices calculated to reduce acci-
dents. The factory inspector's office in Birmingham, England, for
instance, which is in close co-operation with courts, employers
and workmen, reduced the annual number of crane accidents due
to one variety of crane from 21 to three. How far the state
inspection agency in Pittsburgh falls short of this standard
is indicated by Mrs. Kelley. The recent establishment of the
mining experiment station by the Federal Government offers a
practical example of a similar sort, and offers it, by chance, in
Pittsburgh itself.
Directly, by means of statute, then, if made effective by
109
honest and efficient factory, mining and railroad departments,
the public could do much to reduce those accidents due to lack
of provision for safety in construction.
Furthermore, a shorter work day in all employments where
accidents are common, could be secured directly by legislation.
This, if established and enforced, might be expected to decrease
greatly those accidents due to inattention on the part of foremen
and workers.
But all the other preventable conditions named must be
dealt with for the most part indirectly, through the will of the
employer. The law can, under good administration, actually
bring to pass such mechanical protections as railings and guards,
and it can prevent men from working twelve hours in twenty-
four. But it can much less effectively prescribe how often chains
are to be inspected, or at what stage a defective car is to be re-
tired from use, or what signaling system is to be inaugurated for
the protection of men in defenceless positions, or what part of
the work is to be done by ignorant foreigners, or at what speed
work is to be carried on. Many of these things are too intricately
connected with the special problems of different industries to be
reached by law. Moreover, they are the details of daily manage-
ment in each particular enterprise, and must depend upon the will
of him who directs it.*
To reach this group of causes, therefore, the prevention of
accidents must be made of primary importance to each employer.
How can the motive for prevention be strengthened in him, urged
as he is by all the forces of a competitive industrial society to
make economy and rapidity of production his controlling motives ?
In the first place employers will reckon with this responsi-
bility for the prevention of accidents just about as fast as the
conscience of society is aroused on the subject. A striking sign
that this kind of civilization has begun is the recent rapid exten-
sion of safety inspection by many large companies.
For instance, in April,
1908, a "Committee on Preven-
* Illustrating this point. Dr. Frankel in his book entitled "Workingmen's
Insurance in Europe," cites the statement that the private mutual organization of
employers for the prevention of accidents and the introduction of safety devices in
Milan called the Associazione degli industriali d'ltaliaper preveniregli infortunidi la-
voro, has been more effective in reducing accidents than all other influences combined.
no
tion" was appointed in the United States Steel Corporation,
composed of five members, including the prominent casualty
managers* of the constituent companies. Special inspectors are
selected by this committee to go through the plants of companies
with which they have no interested connection, and make recom-
mendations for increasing the safety of the men. These recom-
mendations, if backed by the committee, are carried out. In
addition to this system of mutual inspection, which has many
valuable features, the Carnegie Steel Company, the American
Steel and Wire Company, the National Tube Company, and
possibly others, each now employs at least one man to devote
his entire time to studying their mills with the purpose of pre-
venting accidents. The Carnegie Steel Company's inspector
told me in the spring of
1908,
that he had made 2000 recommen-
dations in seven months.
An effective public opinion would develop more quickly
in industrial communities if a complete report of all accidents
were required. The present factory law provides a fine or
imprisonment for the owner or superintendent of any indus-
trial establishment who fails to report a serious accident, but
while the state factory inspector's report for
19071
shows that
only
295
fatal accidents were reported for the whole state of
Pennsylvania, there were in the year covered by this study (six
months of which coincide with the year covered by the factory
inspector's report), 260 fatalities from work-accidents in and
around the industrial establishments of Allegheny County alone.
A greater discrepancy could undoubtedly be shown in the non-
fatal accidents, if we had the year's list of injuries in Allegheny
County. Thus the inspector states that
2364
serious non-fatal
accidents were reported to him from the industrial establish-
ments of the state for the year
1907.
Using the accidents of
April, May, and
June
as a basis for calculation, and counting every
accident serious which disabled a man for four weeks or more,
we conclude that there were probably 1500} serious non-fatal
*
The chief of the claim department is usually called a casualty manager,
f
Report for 1908 gives 1
14
fatal -accidents and
336
serious injuries.
J
Among one-half the hospital cases for three months, there were 187 such
serious accidents in and around industrial establishments."
Ill
accidents in the industrial establishments of Allegheny Qjunty
alone for the year
1907.
The factory inspector's report further states that of the
295
fatal accidents reported to him, only
59
fell within the jurisdiction
of his department and that of the
2364
non-fatal accidents re-
ported only
689
fell within his jurisdiction. Apparently it is the
business of factory inspectors to investigate only those accidents
which might have resulted from a violation of the factory law.
Thus crane accidents,
"
dinkey" accidents, falls, etc.,the most
common kind of serious accidents in the steel mills,are quite
outside the province of the factory department. And finally,
of all those work-accidents which have nothing to do with rail-
roads, mines, or industrial establishments,* namely, accidents
which happen to line men, gas men, structural iron workers, car-
periters, painters, etc., not even a report is required.
To recapitulate: First, the commonwealth of Pennsylvania,
so far as we know, does not keep records of serious accidents to
the employes of railroads. Second, its record of accidents to
employes of industrial establishments is of little value; because,
as the law is now enforced, but a small proportion of these acci-
dents are actually reported, and because, of the number reported
to the department, less than one-third come under its jurisdic-
tion. Third, the state makes no provision for recording serious
accidents in other employments.
Whether the jurisdiction of existing departments should
be extended to cover the work-accidents of which the state
now takes no notice, or whether a new department should be
created whose whole business should be the recording, in-
vestigating, and preventing of accidents in every employment,
I am not prepared to say. But no one will deny that with
so grave and serious a problem before us, a complete public
record of each death and serious injury is an obvious and
primary necessity. Sound and effective public opinion must be
based on facts.
"We can at least be sure," a Pittsburgher may say, "that
the coroner's jury passes upon every fatal accident in Allegheny
*
Among the year's industrial fatalities in Allegheny County, there were
70
which fall outside of these three groups.
I 12
Courtesy Westinghouse Machine Company
Wire Guard Over Electric Switch
Courtesy Westinghouse Machine Company
Guarded Band Saw
County." This is probably true, but it amounted to almost
nothing during the period of this inquiry. Once during the year,
when
14
men had been killed by a blast furnace explosion, the
coroner appointed a jury of practical furnace men, engineers,
and other experts, the inquest lasted several days, and was a
matter of serious public interest. But the inquest over an ordi-
nary mill, mine, or railroad accident was concluded in about
half an hour, and the almost unvarying verdict, "accidental,"
was returned by a sorry-looking crew,experts at nothing but
sitting patiently in the jury box at $2.00 a day. A rule existed
as to the number of inquests in a week on which the same juryman
might serve, but the whole matter was in the coroner's hands,
and the rule was not followed. Of those who commonly served
the worst was a dilapidated individual, selected
"
because he
hung around the office and did errands for the coroner's depu-
ties;" the best was a thin, mild-faced old man of clerical experience,
selected "because he knew enough to write the verdict."* Such
were the men chosen by the coroner from the citizens of Alle-
gheny County to inquire into the causes of more than 500 indus-
trial deaths a year.
The essential weakness in the inquest system, however,
lies deeper than this. According to their time-honored function
the coroner's jury in Pennsylvania can return but one of two
verdicts, "accidental" and "murder." A jury of the wisest
men might fail to be useful in an industrial accident inquest if
their only function was to pronounce one of these two words.
An indictment for criminal negligence against an employer is
almost unheard of in Allegheny County. So far as these accident
cases go, then, the coroner's inquests are a waste of time and
money. There is not even a full public record of the evidence
in each case kept on file. The stenographer takes the evidence
in shorthand, and keeps it in her possession; whoever wishes to
see it must pay her to transcribe it for him. The only really
available public record of evidence is the incomplete long-
hand account, written by the clerk while the witness was
speaking.
*
The qualifications" of these two jurors I have direct from two important
members of the office force.
8
113
How can the coroner's inquests be made eflfective in arousing
public opinion in regard to the accident situation ? It can not
be expected that verdicts of "criminal negligence" will multiply.
Modern industrial concerns are so large and complicated in their
management that it is almost never possible to locate the "crimi-
nal." The usefulness of the inquest could be developed in another
direction. Occasionally at present the coroner's jury escapes
its dilemma by returning a verdict "accidental," with recom-
mendations to the employer for protecting the lives of his employes.
This gives us a suggestion. With an intelligent jury, composed
of a practical railroader, a miner, a steel-worker, and three engi-
neers, such recommendations could be frequent and valuable.
If, in addition, a voluntary safety committee of citizens were to
take up the recommendations and urge employers to carry them
out, the coroner's inquests would be of great service in the com-
munity. Furthermore, the coroner might be required to issue an
official statement with regard to all accident inquests, including
the name of the employer, the nature of the accident, and the
recommendations made. Such a statement, if published regularly
once a week in the newspapers, would furnish reliable information
to the public upon the subject of accidents.
Were employers stimulated by a public opinion aroused in
these various ways, they would more generally exert that deter-
mination to prevent accidents without which, as we have seen, the
majority of accidents cannot be eliminated. And yet, in the face
of the unremitting pressure for output, the motive for prevention
can never be compelling until to each injury and death is affixed
a uniform and unescapable penalty. If accidents became a
heavy and determinable cost to the business not dependent upon
the cleverness of lawyers, the leanings of judges, or the sym-
pathies of juries, but directly proportioned to the number of
deaths and the number and seriousness of injuries among the
men on the payroll, then the prevention of them would become
of direct economic interest to the employer. One economic mo-
tive would be set ôff against another. If safe, slow ways of
producing involve a reduction in profits, we must see that the
human waste resulting from dangerous, quick ways shall involve
a greater reduction in profits. This is not because the employer
114
is wicked and must be punished, but because he, like most of
us, is held closely in the grip of economic motives.
Better factory and railroad acts, the public records of
accidents, an intelligently aroused public opinion, a law making
every serious accident a direct and unmistakable expense to
the business,these are some of the means of improving the
employer's motive. Yet, with all these means, we shall not be
able to make the protection of workmen his first interest, for
clearly his first interest must be production. Herein lies the
strong argument of the socialists. It will be impossible, they say,
materially to modify the employer's motive so long as industry
is carried on under a regime of competition; the law of the com-
petitive struggle will prove stronger than any statutes which
society may seek to superimpose upon it; legislation will, they
maintain, make an employer stop for a moment to take thought
for safety, but the force of competition will soon drive him on.
But the way is open for democracy to bring all these forces
to bear upon the motives of the employer before accepting the
conclusion that modern industry cannot be carried on under a
competitive regime without the present wholesale destruction of
the workers.
H5
PART II
ECONOMIC COST OF WORK-ACCIDENTS
CHAPTER VI 11
DISTRIBUTION OF THE BURDEN OF
INCOME LOSS
IF
we were to regard the year's industrial fatalities in Alle-
gheny county as one overwhelming disaster in which the
dead numbered
526,
its most appalling feature would be that
it fell exclusively upon workers, bread-winners. Among those
killed there were no aged helpless persons, no idle merry-makers,
no unresponsible children. The people who perished were of
those upon whom the world leans. The burden of poverty,
therefore, which follows all great calamities was here so especially
dire, that we can for a time forget the burden of grief and view the
problem from a purely economic standpoint.
TABLE 15.ECONOMIC RESPONSIBILITIES OF 467* PERSONS KILLED
IN WORK-ACCIDENTS IN ALLEGHENY COUNTY,
JULY, 1906, TO
JULY, 1907
Married
In
59
cases of single men it was impossible to learn whether they
contributed to the support of a family or not. Among the re-
maining
209
single persons whose economic responsibilities were
learned,
39
were the sole or chief support of a family,
90
had
regularly contributed in various lesser degrees to the support of
a family, while 80 had been quite without dependents.
Among
467
cases of death by industrial accident, in which
the economic position of the deceased was learned, therefore, we find
that while 80, or
17
per cent, meant no economic loss to the sur-
vivors,
90,
or 20 per cent, meant the reduction of a family income,
and
297
(Table
15,
columns A, B,C, D, E), or
63
per cent, whether
in the case of married or unmarried men, meant the sudden cut-
ting off of the sole or chief support of a family. In 206, or
44
per
cent, this family included one or more children under sixteen.
Meant sudden cutting off of sole
or chief support of family
Meant reduction of family in-
come
Meant no economic loss to sur-
DiAGRAM 7.
Economic Significance of
467
Work-fatalities
Was the burden of income loss left wholly upon these
families, or did the employers of the workmen killed share it?
This is the first question, and we have figures with which to
answer it.
In
23
of the 258 married cases nothing could be learned
concerning compensation. From Table 16 we see that among
the
235
remaining cases of married employes killed at work, 10
were settled for an unknown amount ; and in
1 3,
suits were pending.
Let us assume that the plaintifi" will win in seven of these suits,
120
DISTRIBUTION OF THE BURDEN OF INCOME LOSS
and will recover
I5000.*
Let us assume also that five, or one-
half, of the unknown settlements were comparatively large, i. e.,
over $2000. Adding these 12 cases to the eight cases in which
compensation of over
I2000
is known to have been paid, we have
among
235
cases of married men killed, only 20 cases, less than
10 per cent, in which compensation of more than $2000 was paid
to their dependents. Starting at the other end of the table we see
that
59
of the
235
families received not one dollar of compensa-
tion;
65
families received |ioo or less, a sum which would cover
reasonable funeral expenses, but would not replace any of the lost
income;
40
families received something more than funeral ex-
penses, but less than
I500;
while
40
families received more than
this, but not over $2000.
TABLE 16.COMPENSATION PAID BY EMPLOYERS TO DEPENDENTS
OF
235
MARRIED EMPLOYESf KILLED IN WORK-ACCIDENTS
cided for the plaintiff, in only
30
per cent of the cases did they re-
ceive more than
I500,
a sum which would approximate one year's
income of the lowest paid of the workers killed.
Proportion of families which
received 1
100 or less
Proportion which received from
|ioi toljoo
/
Proportion which possibly re-
\
ceived over
I500
Diagram 8.
Compensation Paid by Employers to Dependents of Married

Employes Killed in Work-accidents
The compensation paid to the dependents of single men is
considerably less.
TABLE 17.COMPENSATION PAID BY EMPLOYERS TO DEPENDENTS
OF 120 SINGLE EMPLOYES* KILLED IN WORK-ACCIDENTS, WHO
4 WERE CONTRIBUTING TO THE SUPPORT OF OTHERS
#
amount is unknown and cases in which a suit is pending, only
17.5
per cent of the dependent famiHes received more than
I500.
ir Proportion which received $i 00
or less
r Proportion which received froi
I to
$500
a!
Proportion which possibly re-
1 ceived over
$500
Diagram 9.
Compensation Paid by Employers to Dependents of Single

Employes Killed in Work-accidents, who were Contributing
TO THE Support of Others
The unknown thousands of men injured in the course of a
year's work-accidents are also largely family income providers.
Among 262 such cases whose circumstances could be learned,*
57
per cent were married and only 20 per cent wholly without depen-
dents. In considering the lost income in injury cases we may not
disregard those without dependents, as we may in death cases, for
the problem of existence for a single man disabled and deprived of
income is a serious one, even though there be no family to com-
plicate it.
Hospital charges in
84
per cent of these injury cases were paid
by the employer.f Frequently some outside medical expense was
also met by the employer, as the examination by a. specialist or
the purchase of an artificial limb. We are considering, however, not
the immediate expense of the accident, but the loss of the worker's
income resulting from the accident. The proportion of this
income loss borne by employers in injury cases does not differ
*
The injury tables to follow include in each tabulation all cases taken to
the Allegheny County hospitals during the three months studied, in which the
amount of compensation could be ascertained.
f
Aside from emergency hospital service, which many large companies
maintain as a part of their plant equipment, regular hospital charges for the care
of injured men amount to a heavy expense. See page
144.
123
greatly from that in death cases. Thus, 88 out of
1
58 married
men injured received no compensation for lost income;
41
out of
62 single men contributing to the support of others;
37
out of
53
single men without dependents.
TABLE 18.PROPORTIONS RECEIVING NO COMPENSATION AMONG
273
INJURED MEN
*
Married men ....... 56 per cent
Single men contributing to the support of others . 66 per cent
Single men without dependents . . . .69 per cent
Among those who were compensated in some degree for lost
income due to injury, thirteen
(5.4
per cent of the whole number of
injured) received full pay during the time that they were disabled.
Compensation in the other cases varied without any constant
relation either to need or to the period of disability. The relation
between income loss suffered and restitution made can be best
understood by dividing the 262 injury cases in which both income
and compensation could be learned, into three groups: those to-
tally disabled for life, those partially disabled for life, and those
only temporarily disabled.
In the first group we have six men to consider; one lost an
arm and a leg, one is paralyzed, and four will walk on crutches the
rest of their lives. Three of these men received no compensation.
The highest amount received by any one of them was
I365.
TABLE 19.COMPENSATION PAID TO SIX MEN TOTALLY DISABLED
FOR LIFE. APRIL, MAY, JUNE,
I907
No.
of
Men Amount Paid
3
men . o
I man
$30
I man 125
I man
365
In the second group, those partially disabled for life, we have
27
men. These are men who lost an eye, or a foot, or an arm, for
instance, but in spite of it were able to get work. The earning
power of each one has been in some degree permanently reduced on
account of the injury received. The average reduction in income in
*
In only
273
out of
509
injury cases found on the hospital records, April-
June, 1907,
could compensation be learned, largely because names and addresses
are inaccurately recorded in the hospital books. In 11 of these
273
cases, the
weekly earnings of the man injured could not be ascertained, leaving 262 cases
in which complete information could be tabulated for our later tables.
124
all
27
cases is
29
per cent. Of these men 12 received nothing to
set against this loss, and only two received more than
I500.
TABLE
20.
COMPENSATION PAID TO
27
MEN PARTIALLY DISABLED
FOR LIFE. APRIL, MAY, JUNE,
I907
No.
of
Men Amount Paid
12 men
o
7
men
$100 or less
6 men |ioito$50o
I man
$673
I man
$2,600
Diagram 10.
Compensation Paid to
27
Men Partially Disabled for Life
All men in Tables
19
and 20 suflFered permanent disability,
either total or partial. In the third class, the
229
persons only
temporarily disabled, many received nothing whatever, but the
average compensation is not so completely disproportionate to the
average loss. The total loss of income (weekly earnings multiplied
by weeks of disability in each case), for the 229 cases amounts to
137,677,
while the total compensation is
16,719,
about one-sixth
of the loss.
Permanent injury and permanent disability are not always the
same thing. Many men who sustained serious permanent injury
such as the loss of an eye, were able to go back to the same work
or to work equally well paid. But because such permanent injury is
in many ways a grave and irretrievable loss to a man, and because
it may at any time, through a necessary change in his employment
125
or through after-effects, become the cause of income loss to him,
it is worth while to reconsider separately the compensation received
by men permanently injured. For illustration, take the com-
pensation paid to men who lost an eye, an arm, a leg or two fingers.
Among the 262 cases for which we have complete records there
were in all
27
men who suffered such injury:
TABLE 21.COMPENSATION PAID FOR THE LOSS OF AN EYE
I
No.
of
Men Amount Paid
3
men o
1 man
I 48
2 men
%
50
each
1 man . . $
75
1 man . ... $100
2 men . . . $150
each
I man . . . . S200
TABLE 22.COMPENSATION PAID FOR THE LOSS OF A LEG
No.
of
Men Amount Paid
1 man o
I man
$
55
1 man . .... .... fioo
1 man |iô
I man . . ...
$175
1 man $225
TABLE 23.COMPENSATION PAID FOR THE LOSS OF AN ARM.
No.
of
Men Amount Paid
2 men . . . . . o
1 man . $100
TABLE 24.COMPENSATION PAID FOR LOSS OF TWO FINGERS*
No.
of
Men Amount Paid
5
men . . o
2 men . . $100 each
Thus for the loss of an eye, only one man out of 1 1 received as
much as $200. For the loss of a leg,
$225
was the highest amount
paid in six cases. For the loss of an arm two out of three men got no-
thing. Among seven men who lost two fingers, five received nothing.
Tables of figures are, as a rule, wearisome and confusing.
Perhaps it will be sufficient to note and remember that the propor-
tion of accidents in which no compensation whatever was received
*
Of two men who lost half a hand (three or more fingers) one received
$15
and the other
I250.
126
Meunier:
The
Puddler
O
to^200.
O
to
^300.
Oto|;225.
OioSlOO.
Valuations Put on Men in Pittsburgh in
1907
Actual amounts paid as compensation by employers to twenty-seven workmen
permanently injured in Allegheny County, April, May,
June, of that year
For loss of an eye, $200, $150, $150, $100,
$75, $50, $50, $48, o, o, o.
For loss]_of an arm, S300,
o, o.
For loss of two fingers, $100, $100, o, o, o, o, u.
For loss of leg, $225, $175, $150, $100,
$55,
u.
[For relative significance of these figures see Chapter VIII.]
from the employer to take the place of lost income, is, in case of
both injuries and deaths, including both married and single men,
considerably over
50
per cent. Thus, for the death of
53
per cent
of the married men, and
65
per cent of the single men contributing
to the support of others, no compensation above reasonable funeral
expense (|ioo) was made; in the injury cases,
56
per cent of the
married men, 66 per cent of the single contributing men, and
69
per cent of the non-contributing men, received nothing to make
up for lost income.
For our present purpose this fact is significant enough:
In over one-half of the deaths and injuries resulting from a year's
work-accidents in the Pittsburgh District the employers assumed
absolutely no share of the inevitable income loss.
Social workers will be quick to conclude that a great share of
this burden must eventually have been borne by the community
through some form of charity, public or private, organized or in-
dividual. On this point the Pittsburgh study resulted in some
significant and rather astonishing figures. Out of
526 workmen
killed, the city had the expense of burying six. Apart from this
there were, out of the cases studied, so far as we could discover,
only seven in which any demand had been made upon organized
or institutional charity, and in all of these seven the items of relief
were very small. For instance, two orphan children were being
cared for in an asylum; one blind old man, whose son was killed,
received $1.50 a month from the county for a part of a year.
The list of those aided by private individuals outside the
immediate family, is a little longer. Thirty-eight funerals were
paid for by collections among friends, neighbors, or fellow workmen.
Nineteen families received other help from such private sources.
These instances range from that of a man who was boarded free
while he was disabled, to two instances of systematic begging as a
source of income. All this private, individual aid came direct
from the working people. Even the two who beg, do so from
their own class. One, a widow with four children, begs at the
Slavic Church door; the other begs at the mill-gate on pay day.
Adding these two lists together we have
44
funerals paid
for by charity, and 26 cases aided in other ways by those outside
the immediate family.
127
This situation is partly explained by the fact that the de-
pendents of
149
of the men killed were in Europe, and in
19
other
fatal cases the family went back to the old country soon after the
funeral. In other words,
43
per cent of the fatal accidents in the
Pittsburgh District leave a poverty problem, not in America, but
in Europe.
This statement as to the amount of relief given must be
further qualified by the statement that we ascertained the history
of the family for only about one year after the accident. Undoubt-
edly some of these families will become a burden upon the public.
How great the burden, can only be surmised.* From the pride
and self-respect found among the people we visited, from the
energy and resourcefulness they exhibited in the first year's
struggle, and from their generosity and family loyalty, their will-
ingness to help each other, I judged that few of them would ever
become a burden upon American institutions for relief.
It has been seen that in the great majority of cases compen-
sation from employers covered an exceedingly small part of the in-
come loss from work-accidents, that in over
50
per cent of the
cases it was nothing at all, and that the community, so far as the
indications of this study go, bore an inconsiderable share of the
loss. There are but three parties concerned, and it needs no
further reasoning to show that the income loss from industrial
accidents in the Pittsburgh District falls directly, almost wholly,
and in all likelihood finally, upon the injured workmen and their
dependents.
There are only two grounds on which such a distribution of
the burden can be defended: (i) On the ground that the men
injured in the great majority of these accidents, are themselves
personally and solely responsible for the accidents by which they
are injured;
(2)
on the ground that in all employments which
*
A case'study of
750
institutional children, involving
250 families of the
Pittsburgh District, was made by the Russell Sage Foundation in
1909. One hun-
dred and forty-six of the
750
children, involving 66 families, were dependent
as the immediate result of an industrial accident, or series of such accidents, to
the breadwinner. These figures furnish no basis for estimating what proportion
of the total accident loss in a given year is ultimately shifted upon the public in
the form of care for dependent children. They are significant, however, in indi-
cating that the constant burden borne by the community as a result of industrial
accidents is considerable.
128
involve danger, the workman's wage is large enough amply to cover
his risk.
Certainly the facts brought out by the foregoing study of
accidents do not uphold the first contention. According to our
table of indications on page 86, only
32
per cent* of fatal acci-
dents involved the victims' responsibility to any degree. Subtract-
ing the
39
cases where the victim's "fault" was ignorance, ex-
treme youth, or physical unfitness, we find only
22.3
per cent
caused wholly, or in part, by his negligenceless than one-fourth.
This final percentage of fault, as has been seen, is in large part not
deliberate heedlessness, but rather inattention and recklessness
induced or aggravated by the conditions of modern industry. A
more exhaustive study might result in considerable modification
of these proportions, but it is inconceivable that it would result in
the conclusion that the great majority of work-accidents can be
laid solely to the personal responsibility of the victim.
Considering the second ground upon which the present dis-
tribution of industrial accident losses might be defended: Are the
wages of those in dangerous occupations adjusted to cover their
risk ? Here again we have figures
:
TABLE 25.WEEKLY EARNINGS OF 44O MEN KILLED IN WORK-
ACCIDENTSf
IVeekly Earnings
Under
$10
|lO.OO-|l I.QQ .
i12.00-i14.9Q
.
i15.00-iiQ.Q9 .
i20.00-|2Q.Q9
.
i30.oo or over .
Total
440
100
Over half of these men
(52
per cent) were earning less than
115
a week. That much income, $2.50 a day for a six-day week, is
necessary in the Pittsburgh District,! according to Miss Byington's
*
It is significant that a study of the causes of accidents to workmen in
Germany attributes nearly the same proportion to the workers
29
per cent.
Hartman, K.: German Workingmen's Insurance, Part III, p. 7.
f
In 86 cases earnings could not be ascertained.
X
Homestead: The Households of a Milltown, By Margaret F. Byington,
a companion volume of the Pittsburgh Survey series.
9
129
umber
Study, to secure for a typical family of five the minimum provision
of clothing and shelter that will maintain physical efficiency. On
I15
a week it is possible, but often at the sacrifice of recreations,
to carry a small insurance at ordinary rates. But many of these
men are obviously in the class of greatest risk, and their occupa-
tions, which make insurance especially necessary to them, make
insurance also especially high.
/<*%
UNDER
$15
PER WEEK
I15
AND OVER
S8
tion of the economic loss from industrial accidents revealed by
this study, which leaves the injured man and his dependents to
bear the entire burden in over half the cases and relieves them
only in rare instances of an appreciable share of it,is on the
face of it unjust.
13'
CHAPTER IX
THE EFFECT OF INDUSTRIAL FATALITIES
UPON THE HOME
IT
has been shown that a grave injustice exists in the distribu-
tion of the industrial accident loss in Allegheny County. We
must know what manner and measure of actual hardship this
injustice brings to those who suffer it. The public's concern lies
not only with abstract justice but with economic welfare.
One hundred and forty-nine of the men killed left dependents
in Europe; the families of
19
others went back to the old country
soon after the funeral. Of the fate of these families, nothing is
known at first hand,only here and there a friend's statement
based on a letter, that "the widow begs, and the children are in
rags," that the woman "works in the fields," or "has gone out to
service," or that they have all gone back to the grandparents
"who are old and have nothing."
We were able to follow the fortunes of
132
families of mar-
ried men killed, for about eighteen months after the accident. In
some instances there was no deprivation yet felt. This was the
case in four families to whom compensation of over
$3,000
had
been paid. Next in good fortune came the families of six men
who were insured for over $3,000,the insurance of one running
as high as
$5,500.
Three of these left widows with children grown,
so that the insurance was sufficient. The fourth man was an
engineer earning
$32
a week. He left
$5,500
insurance, but the
oldest of his three boys is only eleven, and the family expenses
have already been cut down. They lived with the wife's parents
and paid
$32
a month rent. After the father died, they took six
rooms for $20. There will be other economic problems before
these three boys come to a working age, even with the wisest
use of
$5,500.
In the other two families the loss was more
132
A
Breadwinner os Three Generations Taken
THE EFFECT OF INDUSTRIAL FATALITIES UPON THE HOME
seriously felt. Robert Merritt, a man of
49,
who earned
I27
a week, left $4,000
insurance. This was used to pay off the
mortgage on the home, and his two sons of sixteen and nineteen
years, who had been in school, went to work. Another man of
thirty-eight, a brakeman earning $20 a week, left
13,350
insurance,
but his two children were only four and five, so his widow
put by the insurance for a future need and took boarders, while
the niece of fifteen whom they were bringing up was taken out
of school to help in the housework.
It is significant that these six out of
132
married men, who
at their death left over
$3,000
as provision for their families,
were receiving exceptionally high wages, and that they were
nearing or past middle age.
TABLE
26.AGE AND INCOME OF THE SIX OUT OF I93 MARRIED
MEN KILLED, WHO LEFT OVER $3,000
TO TAKE THE
PLACE OF LOST INCOME
Weekly Income Age Provision for Death
*
$20 38 $3,350
$27 49
4,000
$32 39
5.500
$36 51 4.500
$40 48 5,000
$50
61 4,000 (or more)
This brings up the point made in the last chapter that the
majority of workmen in dangerous trades have no opportunity
adequately to insure against their special risks. What light do
our facts throw upon the question "Would they do it if they
had the opportunity
?"
Up to the
$15
income no steady relation
between income and savings appears in Table
27,
due possibly to
the small number of cases. Beyond that figure the percentage
making no provision whatever decreases rapidly, and the per-
centage making provision of over
$500
increases with equal
rapidity. This is brought out more clearly in Table 28.
*
This provision includes all insurance or benefits carried, and also savings
in the bank.
TABLE 27.
214
MARRIED MEN KILLED, CLASSIFIED BY WEEKLY
INCOME AND BY PROVISION FOR CALAMITY
Harry Merton, a labor foreman, left a widow and six
children. The company gave |ioo in this case, and the man
had $100
insurance. Three sons, aged twenty, nineteen, and
seventeen, were already working, and a fifteen-year-old boy
left school and went to work. Including the earnings of all
these four sons, the family income was but one-third reduced
by the father's death.
In almost all of the cases, however, where the family seems
to have been able to adjust itself easily to the loss of income,
one can see, with a thoughtful look into the future, that the
greatest hardship is to come. It must not be expected that grown
sons will always remain at home to take the father's place, or
if they do so, that this in itself is not a hardship.
Some widows meet the problem of lost income by taking
another husband. Out of 258 widows left by the year's accidents,
16 had remarried. Only one of these was an American woman.
But remarriage is not so easy and complete a solution of the
difficulty, even in the case of Slavs, as it at first seems to be. It
is usually the widow with the smallest burden who quickly finds
a man to share it with her. In only three cases did the new father
take up the burden of a large family of small children. In four
cases, including that of the one American woman, the widow who
remarried had no children, in five cases only one child. These
16 cases show that there is after all little comfort to be found in
the vague notion that the widows (of foreigners at least) can avoid
all hardship by remarrying.
Let us look now upon some of the harder struggles. In
55
out of the 132 families whose- stories could be ascertained,
the "industrial accident widow" went to work within the year
after her man was killed. In rare cases this meant no hardship.
Mrs. Snyder, for instance, a railroad conductor's widow, takes
five or six railroaders to board. This enables her to keep the same
house, for which she pays $16 a month rent, without touching
the $2,000 that her husband had in the bank. This she is saving
in order to educate her ten-year-old daughter for a higher grade
of work. Another woman, Mrs. Hartmann, a brakeman's wife,
had unusual ability and training. When she was left with a child
of five, fate was kind to her. She received
1
1 3
50
from the Brother-
135
hood, and $1500* from the railroad company, and, through the
eflFort of the company's claim agent, she got a position as proof
reader in a newspaper office, where she makes almost as much as
her husband did. Furthermore, she had a sister who was glad to
look after the little girl in her absence.
Usually, however, when the widow goes to work, it is clean-
ing offices, taking in washing, keeping boarders, starting a little
store, clerking, or working in a factory. She takes anything
that comes "quick and easy." It almost invariably means hard
work, long hours, poor pay, and in most cases children neglected.
It is the bitter, unequal struggle of one person trying to do the
work of two.
Among our 132
families, 22 children were taken out of school
and put to work as a result of the accident,
15
of them being
under sixteen. The youth of many more children will be cut
short as soon as they reach a possible working age, because of the
continuing absence of normal income. More than
470!
children
were left fatherless by the year's industrial accidents in Allegheny
County.
A reduction in the standard of living is the surest sign of
real deprivation. But it is impossible to make an accurate state-
ment in regard to this without a comparative study of family
budgets. Often the lowered scale takes the form of extreme
economy in food and clothes and recreations. Often it means the
giving up of cherished projects,the daughter's music lessons
must stop, or the home they have been struggling to pay for
must go. In
19
cases there was a material reduction in rent for
reasons of economy. An extreme instance of this was the case of
the Puzic family. The widow and six children were found living
in one room, for which they paid
I4.00
a month, while before the
accident they had lived in a
f
12 four-room house. The average
reduction in rent in these
19
cases was
I5.00
a month.
*
This was probably to avoid suit. Hartmann was making a chain coupling
on shop cars, which had been sent down the hump.
\ This number is not given exactly because in three cases it was impossible
to find out whether there were children, and in two cases where it was known that
there were several children the exact number could not be learned. Under
"children" are included all from the unborn infant to the boy or girl who had
not reached their sixteenth birthday before the father's death.
136
M
o
<
o

A few histories,not extreme cases,will best illustrate
what industrial fatalities entail in the homes of the workers:
John Lyman, a spike maker who had worked four
months for Jones and Laughlin, was thrown off a car and
run over in a slight collision. He left a wife and two chil-
dren, aged nine and four. His earnings had been from
$8.00 to
$1
5 a week, and he carried no insurance. The Com-
pany gave her
f
lOO toward the funeral, which cost
$135.
She consulted a lawyer, who told her that she could not get
anything by suing. Fortunately, Mrs. Lyman had a father
and mother living, who owned a small house in Mt. Wash-
ington. She left the three rooms for which her husband
had paid
$9.00
a month, and moved with her children into
two back rooms of her father's house. Then she got a job
cleaning offices at a dollar a day. She must pay her car-fare
ten cents a dayout of this, so that, although she works*
six full days a week she makes but
$5.40.
On this she must
support her family, for the father is not able to help her
financially. In another way, however, her parents are a
great help, for they look after the children while she is at
work. This is important, because she has to go to work a
little after five in the morning, and sometimes does not get
home until nine at night.
Pasquale Cavaliere, an Italian laborer, was killed by an
explosion of dynamite left too near the fire by another Ital-
ian. His widow got
I150.
Thirty dollars of it she used on
the funeral. Mrs. Cavaliere has five children,a daughter
aged seventeen, and four younger ones, twelve, ten, eight,
and one. Soon after the father's death the oldest daughter
married. Mrs. Cavaliere then reduced her rent
I3.00
by
moving into a three-room house. They live at Bandy Farm
in West Liberty. The only work she could find to do was
washing and mending for the laborers who live nearby. Of
this work she does all she can get to do, but earns only two
or three dollars a week. For the rest she and her family de-
f)end
on the young son-in-law who lives nearby. Mrs. Cava-
iere still hopes that something will be done for her.
Mrs. August Stanley, widow of a Pennsylvania Rail-
road brakeman, who was struck by an engine in the yards
at night while on his way to the bunk room after work,
*
As these stories are taken from the investigator's cards, the present tense
is purposely retained.
has four children, the oldest
14,
and all in school. As a
brakeman her husband earned from $20 to $22 a week, and
they paid |io a month rent. Up to seven months after the
accident they were living in the same place. The expenses
of the accident were not heavy. She spent
$155
on the
funeral, of which sum the company paid
I141.
Mrs. Stanley
makes
$3.00
or
$4.00 a week by washing and sewing, and
her thirteen-year-old boy carries papers before and after
school, earning |2.oo a week. Thus with the
I750
from the
Relief Association to which her husband paid
I2.75
a month
dues, and
$1350
from the Brotherhood, they will get along
for a while, if no more disasters befall them. But it will
mean a pinching economy for a family accustomed to a $20
income.
At the time when Samuel YohoVich was killed, his
wife and three children were in Croatia, visiting the grand-
parents. He sent them money regularly, and they were
about to start back when the news of his death came. Mrs.
Yohovich then decided to leave the two youngest children
with her parents, and come back to America with the four-
year-old child, in the hope of getting some help from the
company. She asked for
1 1,000, and got
$450.
This she
keeps in the bank and from it sends
$15
every month for
the support of her children. For a while she "lived round"
among friends. She asked the company for a job, but they
do not employ women and had nothing for her. She asked
them for coal for the winter, and it was refused. Finally she
got a place at a cheap hotel in Sharpsburg. Here she got
I9.00
a month besides board for herself and the child. She
is a good worker, according to the proprietor, but on account
of the hard times and the expense of boarding two, they
are going to keep her only two weeks longer. For the weeks
and months and years to follow Mrs. Yohovich has no plans.
Patrick Feenan, a laborer, killed at
Jones and Laugh-
lin's after
19
years' service there, left a wife and five
children under fourteen. The company paid the funeral
expenses and gave the oldest boy a job. He is thirteen,
and earns $6.00 a week. An old uncle of Mrs. Feenan lives
with them, and his earnings with those of the boy made up
the family income until the hard times came, when both-were
thrown out of work.*
*
In relating these histories an effort is made to give a true picture of the
family struggles. Incidents are related, both fortunate and unfortunate, which
have no direct relation to the accident.
138
Thomas
J.
Barton, employe of
Jones and Laughlin, work-
ing at night with a wrecking train, was run down and killed.
This man was fifty-one, and earned
$9.
50 a week. He had two
sons working, one an electrician and one a machinist, besides
five younger children in school. They owned their own house of
six rooms and had but
1
1,000 more to pay on it, but they
carried no insurance. Mrs. Barton did not try to get money
from the company,even for funeral expenses, which were
$195,
and they did not offer her anything. The oldest son
soon married. This left the family dependent on an eighteen-
year-old machinist making $12 a week. So the next boy,
aged sixteen, left school and became an apprentice, adding
I4.50
to the weekly income; and finally the fourteen-year-
old boy left school and brought in
$3.60 a week as a special
messenger.
William Brown, crane director at the Pressed Steel
Car Company, on October
25, 1906, was struck by a truck
attached to a crane. It was at
5:30
a. m. and the lights in
the mill were not lighted. The foreman testified at the in-
quest that the crane man could not see below on account of
the darkness, and probably for the same reason Brown did
not notice that the truck was so near him. This man was
taken to a hospital and lived for a month after the accident.
The company paid all but $8.00 of the hospital bill, and gave
his widow
$150.
Brown was a man of forty-five, earning
|20 a week. He belonged to the Maccabees, and was in-
sured for $2,000 in that society. There are seven children
in the family, the oldest a rather sickly little girl of four-
teen. In spite of her home cares, Mrs. Brown has been able
to get work to do. She washes curtains and gives a few
music lessons at fifty cents a lesson. She was making in these
ways from
$5.00
to |8.oo a week. Her relatives help her in
clothes and food once in a while. Once she has had to ask
money from the city for shoes and coal.
Mrs. Joseph Gikovitch, widow of a Slavic miner who

was crushed by a fall of slate, was visited ten months after her
husband's death. She has left a fout-room house and is
occupying one room in a basement with her five children
(oldest a daughter of thirteen years). The Carnegie Coal
Company, by which Gikovitch was employed, gave nothing,
but Mrs. Gikovitch received $1,000 from a Slavic benefit
society to which he had belonged, and
$^5
from the Miners'
Accident Fund, to which he had contributed
50
cents a
139
month. After spending
$150
on the funeral, she is appar-
ently trying to save the rest of this money. She keeps a
cow and sells milk, and this is apparently her only source of
income. As the Slavic investigator put it, "She and the
children are living in an evident misery."
Albert Owen was a car repairer on the Pennsylvania
Railroad, making |i2 a week. On October
5,
1906, he was
jerked off the foot-board of an engine and run over. Owen
was insured in the relief association for
$500. For some
time after the accident Mrs. Owen and the three boys, twelve,
ten, and four, lived on this sum with great economy. The
oldest boy is lame and very small for his age. Some one from
the railroad company promised to give him a job as messen-
ger, but when he appeared at the office he was told that he
could not pass the physical examination. Finally, after
more than a year, through the efforts of a minister, he got a
job as messenger boy in an electrical company and earns
$4.00 a week. This lame, undersized boy, not yet fourteen,
is bringing in the family's only income.
In
13
cases the widow took her children and went to live
with her parents. This is but a shifting of the burden within the
family. It means often a lowered standard of living for two fam-
ilies. It means often the crowding of a large family into small
quarters. It means often the burden and anxiety of providing
for a young family put upon old people who should be letting go
the struggle. Here are three typical instances
:
Harry Crindle's widow with her two small boys left her
four-room rented house, after Crindle was killed, and became
a part of her father's family. There were already five in this
family,one boy working besides the father, and three chil-
dren in school. The family income was about
$23
a week.
Both father and son were carpenters. When the widowed
sister and her two children came back, she was able to add
$2.50 a week to the family income. She had, besides this,
I500
from the National Tube Company, by which her husband
was employed, but in order to get it she was obliged to employ
a lawyer and his fee came out of the $500. The rest of
it she must save for a more severe need. Thus before the
accident there were two families:Crindle's family of four,
living on his earnings,
$25
a week, and occupying a four-
room rented house; and his father-in-law's family of six,
140
One of the Mothers
living on the combined earnings of himself and oldest son,
about
I23
a week, and occupying a home of their own. After
the accident we find one family of nine, occupying one house,
and living all together upon an income of
$25.50.
Arthur Link was a foreman for the same company.
He fell from a ladder during the night turn, and was killed.
The company gave Mrs. Link
$85
toward the funeral and
she never tried to get any more because she had no one to
help her. She had two small children, aged five and three.
She owned her own home, except for an |8oo mortgage.
She rented it for $11 a month, and went to live with her
parents. Her father is a laborer, making
$9.60 a week.
Mrs. Link leaves the children with her mother, and goes
out by the day; she does housework in a saloon kept by her
cousin, and makes at best
I3.00
a week. When this family
was visited in February,
1907,
Mrs. Link's house had been
empty for four months and her father had not had work for
two weeks.
William Evans, miner for the Pittsburgh Coal Company,
was a widower. When he was killed, there was left a family
of six, his oldest daughter with a baby, a boy of sixteen who
had been Evans' helper in the mine, a girl of thirteen, and
two boys eleven and eight. There was nothing for this
family to do but scatter. The sixteen-year-old boy went
off and took care of himself by working in a glass factory.
The grown daughter took her baby and youngest brother
and went to live with a sister. This left the two children
of thirteen and eleven, for the grandparents, Evans' father-
and mother-in-law, to take care of. They lived in a small
house, and were supported by an unmarried son of twenty-
three, a miner earning
$ 1
5 a week. The old man is crippled
with rheumatism, and his wife who is sixty-two, after a long
hard life, had given up going out to work, and settled down
to look after her husband and son. When the two children
came back upon her, she began again going out by the day
to do washing for her neighbors. After the first winter the
little girl, then nearly fourteen, got a place to work in a
family for her "keep." This made things easier for the
grandmother. (In this coal company there is a relief asso-
ciation. The men pay
40
cents a month and this provides
I75
benefits if one is killed. To this the company adds
$75,
making
I150.
In Evans' case
$90
was used m the funeral.)
As a result of this one accident, then, we have the standard
of living of one family lowered by the addition of three
141
dependent members, we have a boy of sixteen left to look
out for himself, a girl barely fourteen gone out to service for
her
"
keep," and an old grandmother doing other people's
washing.
In
35
cases the widow and her children received substan-
tial help in other ways from her family, or from the family
of her husband. Very often a sister will take one or two children,
thus leaving the widow freer to work. Sometimes the married
sisters or brothers will help by giving money, or food, or clothes
when they cannot help in any other ways. In several instances,
unmarried brothers assumed the entire support of a family.
Almost always this involved hardship because the aid was given
not from surplus, but by sacrifice.
Such are some of the individual and family hardships that
resulted from the loss of income in 132 fatal accident cases, in
which the man killed was married. But it is not only the families
of married men killed who feel the loss of income. Among those
single men whose fathers were living, we should perhaps expect
to find the son's contribution to the family merely incidental,
not depended upon for livelihood. And in perhaps half the cases,
this is true. But
1
5 out of
54,
or
27.7
per cent, of the fathers in
these cases were not able to work. One was crippled, two were
blind, one had dropsy, one was a hard drinker, the rest were too
old. Moreover, in many cases where the father was still working,
his earnings were those of a common laborer, while the son's were
about twice as much.
On the earnings of Frank Schmidt, a miner of twenty-
two employed by the P. F. Hornell Coal Company, lived
his blind father, his sister who kept house for them, and
two brothers twelve and seven. Another brother, fifteen, was
a trapper in the mine, making
$7.00 a week. The other two
were in school. The winter after Frank was killed they had
a hard time to get along on the trapper boy's wages, reduced
to $4.80 because of less work. For a few months they had
to get
I1.50
a week from the county. In
June the sister
married, and now her husband is the main support of the
family.
Joseph
Koprivia, one of the boys killed in the Home-
stead works at night while asleep, although only fifteen,
142
was earning as much as his father, a laborer of fifty. The
mother is nearly blind, and there is a sister unmarried, and a
boy of five, in the family. They still owe
I400
on their house,
and they are anxious about the future. They counted on
Joseph's help. The Carnegie Steel Company gave the boy's
mother |ioo, which she spent on the funeral.
We have the records of
33
single men, whose mothers were
widows, one whose father had deserted the family years ago, and
two whose parents had both died leaving an orphan family. In
12 of these
36
families the son killed was at the time the only
wage-earner; in nine he was the main support of the family.
The death of a man so situated leaves almost as serious an economic
problem as the death of a married man.
143
CHAPTER X
PROBLEMS OF THE INJURED WORKMAN
WHEN
a working man is disabled, the problem of lost in-
come is usually one of weeks instead of years, but while
it lasts it may involve a more exhausting struggle with
poverty than is caused by the death of a wage-earner. When
a man dies as a result of injury there is at least one less consumer
in the family. When a man is disabled by injury, the number
in the family remains the same, and their situation is further
complicated by the presence of a sick man to be fed and cared
for,an invalid whose recovery is delayed by the very conditions
of increasing poverty and anxiety which his injury caused and
which his recovery alone can terminate.
For families suffering from temporary injury to the wage-
earner, the burden of loss is often lightened in various ways.
In the first place, hospital and medical care is usually paid for
by the employer. In
295
cases of workmen injured and sent to
hospitals we were able to learn who bore the hospital expense.
The employer paid the charges in
253
cases, amounting in all to
17,714.
In eight cases the hospital bill was over $100; in one it
was $420.
Hospital care for the injured workmen thus amounts
to a considerable sum in the course of a year, the major part of
which is borne by Pittsburgh employers. The family of the injured
man is therefore relieved of what otherwise would be a serious ex-
pense in addition to the cutting oif of his wages. Moreover, the size
of the family is reduced during a part of the time of his disability.
In the second place, temporary injuries are the ones most
likely to be generously compensated by the employer. Many
things account for this fact. If disability is short, the sum is
small. If the man is a valuable one, who will come back to the
same work, it is worth while for the company to make it up to
him. Thirteen men received full wages while they were disabled.
144
An Arm Gone at Twenty
This young brakeman when last seen was studying
telegraphy in order to stay in the service
Photo by Hint
The Wounds of Work
When a man's hand is mutilated he keeps
it out of sight
PROBLEMS OF THE
INJURED WORKMAN
Some city employes, as policemen and firemen, regularly receive
full wages in case of temporary disability. Superintendents and
men in important positions of authority, who perhaps need the
compensation least, are very likely to receive full wages, or one-
half. Occasionally such good fortune comes to others.
John
Koroshic, one of several men badly burned in the May 2 1 explosion
at Jones and Laughlin's, was in the hospital two months at a cost
to the company of
$67,
and received also his full wages,*
I224,
for the sixteen weeks he was unable to work. Fifty dollars more
came to him from a Slavic benefit society to which he belonged.
Allowing
$75
for his living during two months after he came
from the hospital, he still had |2oo clear. With this he sent to
the old country for the girl he had left behind, and got married.
Even in a blast furnace explosion,
"
it's an ill wind that blows
nobody good."
In the third place, through the benefit societies so common
in the Pittsburgh District, a man can by monthly payments
provide a small but sure and regular income for his family in case
of his temporary disablement. For instance, in the National
Croatian Society, one can, by paying
$ .56 a month, provide a
sick or accident benefit of $5.00 a week for nine months, and a
death benefit of $800. Obviously
I5.00
a week for a family whose
wage-earner is only temporarily laid off is a much better provi-
sion than $800 for a family whose wage-earner is altogether lost.
Between death and injury benefits secured through relief associa-
tions, the contrast is even greater. That of the Mcintosh Hemp-
hill Company is typical. Fifty cents a month in dues secures a
man
$5.00
a week for 26 weeks of disability, but provides only
1
1 00 in case of his death.
Thus, Morritz Frederick, a German painter, employed by
the Pennsylvania Railroad, who was disabled 20 weeks with a
compound fracture, received no help from the company, but he
drew
$5.00
a week for seven weeks from the Painters' and Deco-
rators' Union, and $5.00
a week for
17
weeks from the Ormsby
Benefit Society of which he was a member. Peter Lilya, a Swede
who cut his ankle on a sheet of tin, also fared pretty well.
*
All the men injured by this second explosion received full wages for the
weeks of their disability.
10
145
He had a wife and six children, and was unable to work for many
weeks, but he belonged to two benefit societies from which he
received together
1
1 1 a week. The company paid all his medical
expenses and gave him $60 besides.
Many, however, even of those but temporarily injured, fare
differently.
John O'Toole, an iron worker, supporting a wife and
child and a father of seventy-two, was employed on construction
work at the Westinghouse Electrical Manufacturing Company. A
plank broke in a riveting scaffold, and O'Toole fell. He was
laid up for
17
weeks with a broken leg and a dislocated shoulder.
During this time another child was born to his wife. The family
lived on his small savings, and
$25
from the company (as against
I420.15
which he would have earned had the plank held). Then
followed three weeks when he had to take light work at $12 a
week instead of his usual work at
$24.75.
Temporary disability,injuries from which a man fully
recovers,can never be the hardest problem to face. Out of
299
injury cases visited,
76
resulted in serious permanent injury.
This does not always mean permanent disability, however. Many
of these men went back to the same work and pay. Laborers
who lose an eye, for instance, can often earn as much afterwards.
One man who lost a hand was able to go back to his old work,
because he was a foreman. Once in a while a man will be forced
by a permanent injury into a new occupation in which he earns
as much as he did before. Thomas Johnston, a young negro
laborer at Jones and Laughlin's mill, whose arms were broken
by a fall of steel laths while he was loading a crane, was totally
disabled for 1 1 weeks. At the end of this time, learning that
his arms would be permanently too crooked and weak for any
kind of mill work, he got a job as cook in a private family for
$7.00
a week and board, practically the same income he had had in the
mill.
But among the
76
men seriously and permanently injured,
10 were totally disabled* for life and
33
were partially disabled
for life. Here we found some of the most hopeless economic
*
We used "disabled" with strict reference to earning capacity. "To-
tally disabled "=unable to earn anything, "Partially disabled"=unable to earn
as much as before accident.
146
problems. Disabled foreigners, particularly if they get a little
money from the company, usually go back to the old country:
George Salkach, after seven weeks in the hospital with
a compound fracture of his leg, went to his employers, the
Rosedale Manufacturing Company, while still on crutches and
tried to get something. He was not satisfied with what they
oifered and through the agency of a foreign banker and
steamship agent on Penn Avenue, he secured
$125, $25
of
which went to pay the agent. In addition to this he had
$27,
a gift collected among his fellow workmen. Thus he was
able to live for two months and pay $10 to a doctor. But
four months after his accident, he spent what was left of his
money on a ticket home. The men who said good-bye to
him, say that he still used crutches and would probably
never get well; he was fifty-three years old when the injury
occurred. In Hungary he has a wife and an imbecile daughter
to support, but fortunately a small land holding to live on.
John Tunay, with other men, was raising a heavy tim-
ber by means of rope and tackle; the rope broke and Tunay
was struck by the falling beam. He was three months in the
hospital at his employer's expense. When he came out he
was a paralytic wreck. Six months later he tried for two
days a job of cleaning bricks which the company gave him,
but he had to give it up. They saw that he could never
work again, and so they gave him
$365
and started him off
for Europe. It is confidently asserted by some claim agents
that a sum like this will keep a family for an indefinite time
in the "Old Country."
Among those disabled by injury, of course the single men
without dependents have the lightest burden:
Raleigh McGee was struck by a timber falling from the
fourth story of a building in process of construction. He was
laid up for 21 weeks, four of which were spent in the hos-
pital at his employer's expense. During the other weeks he
lived on
$64
which was due him from a benefit society, and
his
1
1
50 savings. Then he tried to go back to his old work,
but he had to give that up in five days. The climbing was
too much for him. He got a job firing boilers for
$13.50
a
week, which was just one-half of his former earnings. But
then, no one was dependent upon him.
147
Edward Keane, an independent single man of sixty-four,
who lost his leg as a result of an injury at Jones and Laughlin's,
is pretty well provided for. The company bought him a
wooden leg and gave him a watchman's job. The same fate
seems harder in case of a young man.
Samuel
Jones, a negro hook-on at Homestead, whose
foot was run over by a dinkey and crushed so badly that
he had to lose his leg below the knee, was also given
1
1
50
and a watchman's job. His earnings were cut down from
$16.25 to
I9.90
at the age of twenty-two.
There were several married men permanently injured,
whose problem also for one reason or another was comparatively
easy:
Lewis Pressman, fireman for the Penn Salt Company,
was disabled eight weeks and lost an eye, as a result of a
bursting water-glass. Of his seven children only two were,
working, but he belonged to two lodges, which paid him
$4.00
and
I5.00
a week, and the company in addition to
paying his hospital expenses, gave him half-pay throughout
the two months. Apparently this is the regular custom of
this company in injury cases.
Andrew Fuller, whose left hand was rendered useless
by an injury, received
$673
from his employer, although
there was apparently no chance of damages. In addition
he was given a watchman's job at
1
10.80 per week. (For-
merly he was a carpenter earning |i8 to $21 a week.) Here
there are six children and only one working. The wife took
in washing for several months.
Dominic Thomas, a Slavic miner, crushed by a fall of
slate, still uses a crutch and cane, but he has two boys, sev-
enteen and sixteen, also miners, who support him. For
three months he received
$7.50
a week from the relief
association and for one month
I5.00
a week, in all
$115,
but
I65
of this went to pay the hospital bill. His employer,
the Monongahela River Consolidated Coal and Coke Company,
is one of the few who do not pay the hospital expenses of
injured workmen. It shares in the relief association benefit,
however, paying everything above
$5.00
a week. In this
case its share was
$30.
148
S
H
B Q
1-1
W
O
w
1^
w
w
We have been speaking of the more fortunate of the injured
workmen. Here are some tales of the less fortunate:
Sam Hilton was up on a ladder putting on a belt when
the ladder slipped, and he fell and broke his leg. For seven
weeks he and his wife, his two small children, and his
mother-in-law, had no income, except
I4.00
or
I5.00
which
the mother-in-law earned by working, and the
I5.00
a week
which a brother paid for board. Hilton's wife went to the
company's office, but they gave her nothing. The family
moved to a smaller place, drew on their few savings, and
finally Hilton went back to work too soon, so that he still
suffers pain in his leg.
Andrew Antonik worked in the Homestead Steel Works
at a "skull-cracker,"
a heavy iron weight which is al-

lowed to drop from a height to break up pieces of scrap.
When it falls big chunks of scrap fly in every direction, and
one must be quick to dodge them. On the night of April
29, 1907,
"Andy" failed to dodge in time. (Perhaps his 24-
hour shift the d.ay before had something to do with this lack
of agility.) His leg was crushed and had to be taken off
below the knee. A year later "Andy" was found sitting in
the back yard of the house where he boarded. He had called
at the company's office the October before with an interpreter
and received
$ 1
50, and the promise of an artificial leg and light
work as soon as he should be able to get round. Fifty dollars
he sent to his wife in Europe, for she has five children to take
care of, the oldest a deaf and dumb girl of thirteen. The rest
he had used to pay his board and lodging,
$ 1
5 a month, for
the seven months since he had come from the hospital.
Now there was nothing left. His wife, he said, was doing
housework at
| .72 a week, which was not enough to keep
the family.
Joseph
Sadonski,another man who lost his leg,after
going three times to the company's office (Crucible Steel Com-
pany) secured $100, an artificial leg, and promise of work
for life. He was made a watchman, working 12 hours for
1
1 .00. This makes an income of |6.oo, whereas formerly he
had made 1
10.80. He and his wife and child manage to get
along by living in one room and taking a boarder. But "the
promise of work for life" means of course only while the mill
runs full. For two months during hard times he had no
149
work, and when we saw him he was working only two or
three days a week.
George Hampton, another employe of the Crucible Steel
Company, lost his leg below the knee. The company paid
his hospital expenses, and gave him
$55
"as a present." Up
to two months after the accident he had not been able to get
any work. At first he used to beg from his fellow workmen
on Saturdayand get often $11 or |i2 a week. He used
this carefully and was able to save up and buy himself a
wooden leg for
$70.
But for many months the mill had been
closed and the men had nothing to give. He has no children,
and his wife occasionally gets a day's work. They moved to
cheaper rooms, saving $2.00 a month. There is a sister-in-law
who works as a domestic, leaving her baby in the care of
Hampton's wife. When we found them, they had had no
money for a week but
I1.25
which Mrs. Hampton had earned
by a day's work in Wilkinsburg.
Antonio Tcherkes, "roller off" on No.
3
lap weld fur-
nace, in the Continental Department of the National Tube
Company, grabbed a red hot pipe with his hands one day in
order to save his life. The pipe had struck another pipe which
had got caught in the guard and was thus shoved out against
Tcherkes. He was five weeks in the hospital and seven
weeks disabled at home. During this time he could send
nothing to his wife and two children "on the other side."
He did not go to the office to ask for compensation, because
he could not talk English and had no friends who could.
He said "it seemed hopeless to go." Tcherkes' hands are
permanently disfigured and weakened so that he can never
do hard work. He secured a very good job, operating the
levers in the same mill where he had worked before. He
makes a little less, but it is easy work and not nearly so
hot. Yet he has no contract with the company which will
make his continued employment secure.
Henry Fisk, a water tender for the Pittsburgh Railway
Company, lost his eye; a glass tube in the engine burst. He
was disabled for two months. The company gave him work
as a laborer at
I9.60
a week, but no money compensation.
This means a reduction of $6.
1
5 a week for Fisk, his wife,
and three small children. More recently he scalded his foot,
because he could not see well. This lost him two weeks'
time.
150
PROBLEMS OF THE
INJURED WORKMAN
John
Karlich, laborer for the Carnegie Steel Company,
while loading a crane, caught his arm between a steel cable
and a wheel. (Some one failed to wait for the signal and be-
gan to hoist too soon.) The arm was all but wrenched off.
Karlich has been married ten years and had five children, the
oldest six. When he went to settle with the company, they
offered him $ioo and an artificial arm. Not satisfied with
this he engaged a lawyer who got
$300
for him but took
$
1 00 as his fee. He went back to work for the company as
a labor foreman, making $10 a week instead of
1 13
as he had
before the accident.
Alfred Putnam, employed by the Pennsylvania Rail-
road, was working on a freight train at night. Either the
brake chain or the shaft broke, and Putnam was thrown
between the cars. He lost his right arm and his left leg.
He was a man of twenty-three, with a wife and two children
looking to him for support. The Pennsylvania Railroad
Company makes no direct compensation for injuries to its
workmen. But it pays the running expenses and deficit of a
relief association. To this Putnam belonged. He was in
the third class, paying
I2.25
a month dues, and when injured
his benefits amounted to
I10.50
a week for a year, and
$5.25
a week afterwards. Putnam had earned |2i a week. His
wife now adds a little to their
I5.25
benefit by taking in
sewing.
At the end of this long recital it may be said, "There is
nothing unique about these sufferings. You could tell the same
tale if you should follow up the after-eifects of disease in work-
ing people's families. A widow whose husband is killed in the
mill is no worse off than one whose husband dies of typhoid fever.
Why should society concern itself with the economic after-effects
of one disaster and not of the other?" For answer let us see where
we stand. In the last two chapters it has been shown that the
undistributed economic loss from work-accidents in Allegheny
County means hardship, struggle, and defeat to those upon whom
it rests,that it amounts to a serious drag upon the prosperity
of the community's wage-earners. This in itself is perhaps an
insufficient ground for social action. But in the earlier chap-
ters it was pointed out that this loss is suffered by the injured
workmen, without relation to their individual responsibility
151
for it. Not hardship alone, but hardship an outcome of injustice,
that is the situation.
Consider the matter in another light. In work-accidents we
have a peculiar kind of disaster, by which, roughly speaking, only
wage-earners are affected, and which falls upon them in addition
to all the disasters that are the common lot. A special cloud
always threatens the home of the worker in dangerous trades,
because his daily work involves physical risk to him, and on his
life and strength depend the comfort and happiness of his family.
What is his "work" then ? Is it any concern of society? First of
all, to be sure, it is his way of making a living, but it is also neces-
sary to his employer's way of making a living, and finally it is
necessary to society's way of making a living. In other words,
the wage-earner's work, however individually managed and con-
trolled, however competitively bargained for, is a part of a great
undertaking in which society as a whole shares and by which it
profits. If in many of the fundamental operations of this under-
taking there is constant danger to life and limb, it is not just that
those whose lot falls in this part of the work should endure not
only all the physical torture that comes with injury, but also
almost the entire economic loss which inevitably follows it. It
is not just that the wives and children, mothers and fathers,
of those who do this part of the work, should not only bear the
constant dread, the shock, the grief and longing, but also pay in
their own harder struggles, and lesser opportunities and nar-
rowed lives, the money-cost of the tragedy. The physical suffer-
ing of the injured we cannot share. We cannot satisfy the
longing or lessen the grief. But the economic loss we can share.
Our failure to do this is an injustice to the wage-earner; and the
outcome of this injustice is misery.
152
CHAPTER XI
POLICY OF CERTAIN COMPANIES
THE
facts set forth in the last three chapters bring us to
the conclusion that a new adjustment of the work-acci-
dent loss is demanded. Before concluding that legisla-
tion is necessary to accomplish this end, however, let us consider
whether there are in the situation today any hopeful elements
which promise a voluntary solution. So far as the Pittsburgh
District is concerned, the hopeful elements fall into three groups:
(i) The more or less consistently generous policy of certain com-
panies in making individual settlements;
(2)
the establishment of
relief associations; and
(3)
the existence of the Carnegie Relief
Fund. These will be taken up in their order.
While it is true that certain employers in Allegheny County
consistently assume no responsibility for the families of their
injured and killed employes, and are guided in making settlements
merely by the legal risk involved, it is equally true that some em-
ployers voluntarily assume a limited responsibility for these
victims and aim at a certain consistency in carrying it out, regard-
less of liability. Foremost among those who meet this volun-
tarily assumed responsibility by making a settlement separately
in each case that comes up, stand the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie
Railroad Company and the American Steel and Wire Company.
In the accompanying tables, giving the disposition of all the cases
of injury and death among the employes of those two companies
during the periods covered, a certain consistent policy is observ-
able.
There were, as we have pointed out in a former chapter,
several cases of injury and death in Allegheny County for
which higher compensation was received than in any of these
cases. But so far as could be discovered, among those employers
in the Pittsburgh District who have to deal with a large number of
153
TABLE 29.AMOUNTS PAID BY
PITTSBURGH AND LAKE ERIE
RAILROAD COMPANY
A. In 13 Cases of Death of Em-
ployes, July, igo6, to
June 31, 1907
To IVidows
of
Married Men
I.
2.
3-
4-
I:
11,500
625
7'5
50
400
320
500
3,500
(a foreigner;
in Europe).
(suit likely)
relatives
TABLE 30.AMOUNTS PAID BY
AMERICAN STEEL AND WIRE
COMPANY
A. In Eight Cases of Death of
Employes, July i, 1906 to June
31, 1907
To IVidows
of
Married Men
I.
I250
2-
475
3-
375
4. 500
5. 540
To Dependents
of
Single Men
1.
I50
(a foreigner; relatives

in Europe).
2.
yj
2.
in Europe).
3. 250
3-
4. 300
5.
167
(Aunt only relative).
To Dependents
of
Single Men
I200
in Europe),
in Europe),
in Europe).
400
400
B. In Five Cases of Injury to Em-
ployes DURING April, May, and
June, 1907
Extent
of
Injury
12 wks.' temp, disability.
6
" "
"
10
" "
"
Amount
Paid
$25
100
125
50
50 7
B. In Thirteen Cases of Injury to
Employes during April, May, and
June, 1907
Extent
of
Injury
16 wks.' temp, disability.
5
" "
2
4
"
3
"
"
14
" "
4
"
Eye lost
Sight injured.
Three fingers lost.
and watchman's job.
Left hand useless.
49
wks.' total disability;
unfitted for heavy work
for life. (Case of prob-
able liability).
accidents, and who make direct settlements, there were no other
companies which made a regular practice of sharing some part of
the income loss caused by each accident. Of these two compa-
nies the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Company average the more
liberal payments for English-speaking families. The American
Steel and Wire Company's policy was the more consistent, how-
ever, because to the non-resident relatives of foreigners killed it
paid practically the same compensation as to dependents who
are in the United States. The Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Com-
pany paid only funeral expenses in such cases, largely, it was said,
because of the difficulty of getting the money into the right hands
in Europe. Both companies will go far above their usual range of
payments in order to avoid a possibly successful suit against them,
but not in order to avoid the cost and annoyance of defending an
ill-advised suit.
The policy of these two companies represents the most
that was being done in the year studied by those employers
who dealt directly and separately with each accident case; and
considering the law on this subject, it is a comparatively broad
and generous policy. In the seven "temporary disability" cases
of the American Steel and Wire Company, there is a fairly
reasonable relation between the weeks of income loss and the com-
pensation received. But the compensation made by these compa-
nies to the widows of married men killed is not in reasonable
proportion to the loss. Leaving out the two extreme cases (the
$50
given for the funeral of an Italian whose relatives were in
Europe, and the
$3500
given to avoid suit), the average of all 11
cases of married men killed is
I552.
It is not necessary to point
out that this amount is hardly a considerable portion of the loss
suffered by the widow and children of a wage-earner killed in the
prime of his working life,
yet it represents the height to which

Pittsburgh employers had gone in regularly sharing the economic
burden resulting from fatal accidents to their employes.
By way of comparison, as shown in Table
3 1
, we found the
Jones and Laughlin Steel Company giving no more than funeral
expenses to over one-half of the families
(
1
7 out of
28) ; the Pressed
Steel Car Company giving no more than funeral expenses to over
one-half of the families (six out of
10); the National Tube Com-
"55
pany giving more than this to only seven out of
13
families. The
record for the smaller companies as a whole was even less en-
couraging.
In nearly
43
per cent of cases they did not even give
funeral expenses, and in only
24
per cent did they give more than
funeral expenses. Taking all these companies together, it was
ascertained that to 82 out of 121 families of married employes
killed, or to
67
per cent, these employers gave nothing more than
funeral expenses. These figures are in marked contrast to those
given above for the American Steel and Wire Company and the
Pittsburgh and Lake Erie.
TABLE 31.COMPENSATION TO THE DEPENDENTS OF 121 MARRIED
MEN KILLED IN WORK-ACCIDENTS PAID BY EMPLOYERS OF
ALLEGHENY COUNTY, NOT INCLUDING PITTSBURGH AND LAKE
ERIE RAILROAD COMPANY, AMERICAN STEEL AND WIRE COM-
PANY, OR CARNEGIE STEEL COMPANY
The Crippled
Watchman
a Type
bution of the loss. In the first place, where it prevails the
amounts given are not adequate, especially in cases of death. It
is not to be anticipated that by any immediate legislative ad-
justment of this burden, the employer would share each loss
equally with the family of the employe killed. But on the
other hand, we must not be satisfied with
I500
as the employer's
share of a loss borne by the family which may be estimated at
114,271
.*
In the second place, this comparatively generous policy
is, as has been seen, far from general.
Another group of employers has been spoken of who volun-
tarily assume a limited responsibility for the victims of accidents
in their industries, by establishing relief associations to which
they regularly contribute.
About
23
per cent of the men killed and injured by industrial
accidents in Allegheny County belong to some relief association.
Relief associations are primarily organizations for mutual insur-
ance, in which the members pay dues, entitling them to benefits
in case of injury, sickness or death. They differ fundamen-
tally from other such societies in the fact that their membership
is limited to the employes of one company, also usually in that
they are started on the initiative of the employer, and that
they nearly always receive contributions from him. Reference
will not be made to those few associations in which the employer
has no part, because we are concerned primarily, not with the
workman's methods of insuring himself against accident losses,
but with the method and extent of his employer's sharing in those
losses. Nor shall we take up in this chapter those relief associa-
tions which require a contract of release secured from the employe.
The establishment of such associations is not properly a policy
adopted by an employer in spite of the existing law, but rather
an adjustment to the present law, a method of escape from it.
In no two relief associations are the employers' methods
of contributing exactly the same. Thus, the United Coal Com-
pany gives a lump sum of from $100 to
$500
to start each branch.
The New York and Cleveland Gas Coal Company pays
$25
a
*
This is an average reached in
193
cases of married men killed, by multiply-
ing the yearly income of each man by his expectation of life, and subtracting
$300
for each year to cover the amount which would have been expended on his own
maintenance.
month to each branch. The Pittsburgh Coal Company pays one-
half of the death benefits, and all over
I5.00
a week of the injury
benefit. The Mcintosh Hemphill Company gives |ioo a year.
The McClintic Marshall Construction Company guarantees defi-
ciencies in the fund.* See Table
32.
The Westinghouse Machine Company Mutual Aid Society,
organized in
1884, can be considered typical of those in which
the employers' contribution is comparatively large. Each mem-
ber of this association pays
$ .50 a month in dues, and in return
is entitled to
I5.00
a week in case of disability from sickness,
and
$7.50
a week in case of disability from injury, with a six
months' limit in each case. There is also a death benefit,
|ioo
if the member dies from natural causes, and
I150
if the death
is caused by accident. At its organization the Westinghouse
Machine Company gave
$250 to this association, and in addition
it contributes one-third of the injury benefit and one-third of
the accidental death benefit.
Relief associations of this simple type do much good.
Employes are encouraged to be provident, and employers, through
their contributions, voluntarily assume a share of each accident
loss. It must be remembered, however, that the employers'
share of the loss thus voluntarily assumed is exceedingly small.
In the best associations of this type the employer contributes
about one-third of the benefit. This does not mean that he
makes good one-third of the income loss in case of accident, for
benefits are but a fraction of wages. In injury cases, it means,
roughly, one-third of one-half of the income loss so long as bene-
fits continue,six months at the most. In death cases it most
commonly means one-third of the funeral expenses. The compen-
sation paid by employers through their contribution to such relief
associations, though more uniform and consistent, is considerably
less in amount than the average settlement made by the Pittsburgh
and Lake Erie Company or the American Steel and Wire Com-
pany. Here again,, then, we find an important acknowledgment
of the principle that an employer should share the accident loss,
but in practice the assumption of an inconsiderable portion of it.
*
The 23d Annual Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Labor contains a de-
tailed study of Workmen's Insurance and benefit funds in the U. S.
.58
TABLE 32.DUES, BENEFITS AND CONTRIBUTIONS FROM EMPLOYER
IN EIGHT RELIEF ASSOCIATIONS NOT FOUNDED ON
CONTRACT OF RELEASE.*
Company
In considering the policy of different employers the Carnegie
Steel Company so far has been purposely left out. In a study of
accidents this company warrants special consideration, not only
because, with its enormous pay-roll, it has more employes injured
and killed than any other company, but also because of the Car-
negie Relief Fund. The existence of this fund we have called the
third "hopeful feature" in the situation. From this fund a
certain uniform compensation is paid to employes of the Carnegie
Steel Company and its constituent companies injured while at
work, and to the dependents of employes killed while at work.
The sum paid to a widow is
I500,
with |ioo additional for every
child under sixteen. To the family of a single man killed,
I500
is paid if it can be proved that he was a regular contributor to
the support of the family. Thus benefits are based not upon
earnings, but to a certain extent upon need.
Payments made from this fund were included in the tables
on page 121, showing "Compensation paid to the dependents of
men killed." But strictly speaking, the benefits paid out of the
Carnegie Relief Fund are not part of the compensation made by
the Carnegie Steel Company to its employes for injury. The
fact that benefits are paid from the fund, even in cases where a
law suit has been brought and won against the Carnegie Steel
Company, makes clear the separateness of the two institutions.*
The fund was established and is administered as the personal
gift of Andrew Carnegie. It is no more a part of the policy of the
Carnegie Steel Company than is the wholesale endowment of
libraries.
^BLE 33.-
TABLE
34.COMPENSATION RECEIVED BY THE
42
WIDOWS ENTERED
IN TABLE
33,
PLUS CARNEGIE RELIEF BENEFITS
Number
of
Families Amount Received
I .... . o
5
. . . . 1 100 or less
5
. ... . . loi to
$500
20 . . ...
501 to 1000
8 . ... looi to 2000
3
. . . . . ... Over 2000
From these tables it is clear that the Carnegie Steel Company,
considered separately from the Relief Fund, is not in the class of
consistently liberal employers. To the families of only
1
3 out of
42
married employes killed, did it give more than funeral expenses.
This is a smaller proportion than in the case of Jones and Laughlin,
The National Tube Company, or the Pressed Steel Car Company.
But, with the addition of the Carnegie Relief benefits, the
families of men killed in the employ of the Carnegie Steel Company
are on an average better off than those men killed in the employ
of any of the companies we have mentioned, including the Pitts-
burgh and Lake Erie Railroad Company and the American Steel
and Wire Company. For, including Relief Fund benefits, while
there were six out of
42
Carnegie Steel Company families who
received no more than funeral expenses,
31
out of
42,
or nearly
74
per cent, received more than
$500.
This relief fund is of practical benefit to so many families
affected by fatal industrial accidents in the Pittsburgh District
that it deserves our special consideration. In 1901 Mr. Carnegie
gave $4,000,000 in trust "to provide for the employes of the Car-
negie Company, .... injured in its service and for those dependent
upon such employes as are killed."* To quote further from Mr.
Carnegie's letter creating the trust, "This fund is not intended
to be used as a substitute for what the company has been in the
habit of doing in such casesfar from itit is intended to go
still further, and give to the injured and to their employes who
are needy in old age, through no fault of their own, some provision
against want as long as needed, or until young children can be-
come self-supporting.
"
I make this first use of surplus wealth upon retiring from
*
The fund also provides for a small pension in case of retirement because
of old age or incapacity.
II
161
business as an acknowledgment of the deep debt which I owe to
the workmen, who have contributed so greatly to my success."
To administer this bequest the "Andrew Carnegie Relief
Fund," later changed to the "Carnegie Relief Fund,"* was estab-
lished
January i, 1902. Over a million dollars interest from that
fund has since been paid out according to the scheme of benefits
already described. Roughly,
40 per cent has gone for pensions,
50
per cent for death benefits and only 8 per cent for injury benefits.
That part of the original plan which provided benefits for all
injuries causing disability of more than two weeks, at the rate of
$1.00 a day for married men and
$ .75
a day for single men, had
to be abandoned because the injuries proved so numerous that the
fund would not hold
out.f Since
July
i,
1905,
benefits have been
paid from the fund only in case of the most serious injuries, those
resulting in disability for more than one year. In such cases ben-
efits are paid only until the injured man can get work. Thus, if a
man who has lost a leg can secure a job as watchman, either with
the Carnegie Company or with some other, his benefits cease.
Injury or death must result from "accidents or cases of
sunstroke or heat exhaustion, occurring during, and in direct
and proper connection with, the performance of duty in the service
of the company," in order to make the victims eligible for bene-
fits. Accidents due to an individual's "physical condition or
tendency (except in cases of sunstroke or heat exhaustion), to
intoxication, to the use of stimulants or narcotics, or while engaged
in any unlawful or immoral acts," are expressly excluded in the
rules for administering the fund. Benefits are denied in few
fatal cases, however. The wife and children of an immigrant work-
man are not discriminated against if they are living abroad. Out
of 42
cases which we investigated, of married employes killed,
the regular benefits had been paid to all but 10 of the widows
at the time of our inquiryeighteen months after the accident.
One case was still unsettled because of the difficulty of establishing
the identity of foreign dependents. In another case the widow
had been denied benefits because she had no marriage certificate,
*The Carnegie Relief Fund has now been consolidated with the U.S.
Steel Corporation's Pension Fund. See footnote at end of chapter.
t
This suggests the obvious limitation of a fixed fund in providing com-
pensation for accidents among a constantly increasing labor force.
162
and did not establish by proof a common law marriage. Benefits
were refused in a third case "because the deceased had unneces-
sarily exposed himself to danger." A fourth case was that of a
man named Andrew Semik who died in the hospital three days
after his eyes had been injured by an explosion of lime. The
hospital surgeon and an oculist both stated that they could not
say that, had he not died, he would have lost his sight,that
he was an alcoholic subject and his death was due to delirium
tremens. Benefits were therefore refused to his widow. Of the
other cases, the officers of the Relief Fund had never received no-
tice from the responsible companies.
Granting that the Carnegie Relief Fund, in spite of its
limitations, is a most beneficial institution, does its establishment
suggest a solution of our problem? In the spirit of the gift, and
in the method of its administration, lies a recognition of the
principle of compensation for the accidents of an industry out of
the gains of the industry, quite apart from any question of the
employer's negligence; this, as a voluntary step in the direction
of industrial justice, is of great significance. It is hopeful. But
there is no reason to think that this principle will rapidly become
popular among retired capitalists. The fund has been in existence
six years, and there are, as far as I know, no others like it. We
cannot wait until wealthy men, generally, see fit to turn some of
their gains back to make up for death and injury in the indus-
tries by which they have grown rich.
We have considered the generous policy of certain employers
in settling with injured employes, and of other employers in contrib-
uting to relief associations, and we have dwelt upon the benefits of
the Carnegie Relief Fund, to determine whether the solution of our
problem lies in any or all of these somewhat hopeful indications.
And we are brought to the conclusion that these features of the
situation are hopeful, chiefly because in each of them lies the
recognition of a certain principlethe principle that an industrial
enterprise should regularly share the economic loss resulting from
accidents to its employes in the course of their work. We do
not belittle the significance of that recognition. But, as we have
seen, it did not lead these employers to assume a large enough share
163
of the loss to remedy the inequality of its distribution. The bulk
of the burden still fell upon the injured workman and his family.
So long as the employer's sharing in the accident loss remains
merely a voluntary matter, only the largest and most prosperous
employers can afford to assume more than a small share. For, no
matter how generous he may be, the stress of competition will
prevent the average employer from unnecessarily incurring a large
cost which his competitor does not incur.*
Moreover, there is no reason to believe that this limited
recognition of the principle will soon become general. Policies
such as those of the American Steel and Wire Company and the
Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad Company are not common
enough to be said to represent a tendency among Pittsburgh
employers; the type of relief association we have described in
which the employer makes a small contribution to the insurance
of his workmen without gaining anything in return, is not on the
increase in the Pittsburgh District; the Carnegie Relief Fund is
a genus by itself.
*0n May i, iqio, the United States Steel Corporation introduced for one
year's trial a plan of relief for injured employes, which provides for regular uniform
payments in case of injury and death by accidents of employment. To carry out
this plan the Steel Corporation has established a fund of 18,000,000 which is to be
consolidated with the 14,000,000 Carnegie Relief Fund. The whole will be called
the U. S. Steel and Carnegie Pension Fund. This may be considered a striking
development of the generous policy of certain employers in making accident
settlements where the present law recognizes no liability. In this plan, too,
there is the advantage to the workman of knowing definitely what he can ex-
pect. The "relief," of which the company bears the whole expense, is roughly
from 18 months' to two years' wages in case of death, and from
35
per cent of
wages up to
I2.00
per day in case of disability, limited to one year. (See Appendix
VI.) These rates are much higher than those regularly paid by any employer
in the Pittsburgh District whose policy in dealing with accident cases was revealed
by our study. The adoption of this plan is significant, not only as a further important
recognition of the principle that an industry should regularly share the economic
loss to employes injured by its accidents, but also as showing the extent to which
the largest corporations can go in adding to their costs of production without regard
to the action of lesser competitors. 1 1 does not, however, invalidate our conclusion
as to the inevitable limitations of voluntary compensation schemes with respect
to the average employers.
The compensation plan of the International Harvester Co., which provides
rates of compensation decidedly higher than those provided in the Steel Cor-
poration plan, is printed in Appendix VII.
164
CONCLUSION OF PARTS I AND II
THE
facts set forth in Part I concerning work-accidents in
Allegiieny County in the year
July, 1906, to
July, 1907,
have
revealed that while roughly one-third of the accidents are
unavoidable, and one-third due to the human weaknesses of the
workmen, often accentuated by their occupation and environment,
about one-third are due to an insufficient provision for the safety of
workmen on the part of their employers. The facts set forth in
Part 1 1 have revealed that the inevitable economic loss resulting
from these accidents rests in the great majority of cases almost alto-
gether upon the workmen injured or the dependents of those
killed, and that this burden is disastrous to the welfare of their
families. The facts set forth in Parts I and II, taken together,
have revealed that the economic loss is neither distributed so as
to furnish the strongest inducement for the prevention of accidents
in general nor adjusted according to the "fault" of the parties
concerned in each accident.
Our facts therefore, in so far as they are representative, re-
veal a two-fold wrong serious enough and of sufficient extent to
justify legislative interference.
Considered in the light of social economy, these facts again
justify such action. The continuing recurrence of preventable
work-accidents is not only an injustice to the victims but also
clearly a tremendous social waste.* One need not argue that it
would be good social economy to check it. It is almost equally
clear that in the distribution of the accident loss, the public wel-
fare is concerned. We have seen that in Allegheny County the
bulk of it falls in the shape of lost income upon the injured work-
men and their families,those least able to bear it. It is dis-
tributed so that it means the greatest possible amount of hardship.
It is not necessary to point out that such individual hard-
ships as we have described are a tax upon a community's real
prosperity. Every child robbed of free growth and education,
compelled to go to work too soon, is a loss to the community, a
*
For a money estimate of this social loss, see Appendix IX.
165
loss of possible, vigorous, thinking citizenship. Every young
family, whose income-provider has been taken, whose children
are left neglected, while the mother, overburdened with care and
anxiety, struggles to do the work of two,every such thwarted
family represents a social loss. Every mother left to an old age
of bitterness and hard work, unaided by the income of the strong
son who knew her worth, represents a loss to the community.
Every helpless cripple left an unwilling burden on those who can
ill afford to support him is a burden upon society. Every serious
injury to a bread-winner, with weary weeks of sickness passed in a
scene of increasing poverty, with recovery retarded by anxiety,
with savings dwindling away and debts looming bigger and bigger,
the courage and cheer of the two homebuilders finally lost in the
long disaster and perhaps never to be regainedevery such
instance is a community loss. A law which leaves the economic
burden of work-accidents wholly upon the workers, then, not
only does them an injustice, but makes out of a largely necessary
loss an absolutely unnecessary amount of privation.
In social economy therefore, as well as in simple justice, there
is reason for legislative interference to prevent work-accidents, and
to effect a more rational distribution of the loss entailed by them.
1 66
PART III
"EMPLOYERS'
LIABILITY"
CHAPTER XII
THE LAW
IN
this study, from a legal point of view, the cart has been
put before the horse. We have set forth the actual economic
results of a law before stating what that law is, because it
is easier to pass judgment upon facts before the mind is confused
with theories. It has been seen how the work-accident loss in
Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, is distributed, and what actual
hardship results. The principles of law which account for, and
(presumably) have been held to justify, that distribution must
now be examined and judged.
Up to
1907,
the rules governing an employer's liability to
his workmen for personal injury in Pennsylvania were merely
rules of the common law. In order to understand them we must
begin with a word or two about the law in personal injury cases
generally. If one person injures another unintentionally but
through want of due care (and due care is what the average pru-
dent man would use in similar circumstances), he is civilly liable
to the injured one for the amount of harm, estimated in money,
which his want of care has caused. This seems a natural and fair
adjustment of burdens. When one is unduly careless, and thereby
hurts another, he should make up for it in so far as money can.
There are three important additional features of this law:
First, contributory negligence on the part of the injured
person defeats recovery.
Second, as a rule of negligence,and it is important to bear
this in mind,a master is responsible for the
negligence of his
servant while engaged in the master's work. This is on the prin-
ciple of
"
respondeat superior." It is the master who is having
the work done; he must insure its being done with reasonable
care. Whether he does the work himself, or through
an agent,
the burden of responsibility is manifestly well placed.
It all goes
169
back to the fundamental principle that each must exercise his
own rights in such a way as not to impair the rights of others;
and when one delegates the exercise of his rights to an agent, they
are none the less his rights that are exercised, and he should be
and is responsible for the manner in which they are exercised.*
Third, the burden of proving negligence is upon the plain-
tifp; of proving contributory negligence upon the defendant.f
Now, in the application of this general law to an employer's
liability for negligence which results in injury to his employes
while they are carrying on his work, some rather material
modifications and changes occur. All these modifications are
based on one idea. The law holds that the employer is in a
diiferent relation to his employes because they have made a con-
tract with him in which certain elements are implied. The law
assumes that the two parties are free and on an equal footing in
making this contract. It is the contract of hire. The servant
is not obliged to work for the master, he can take work or leave it
as he likes; but if he takes the work he makes a contract in which
the law implies that he assumes certain risks, (i) He assumes the
risk of all the ordinary dangers of the employment.
(2)
He
assumes the risk of all extraordinary dangers, such as those which
arise from defective machinery and an unsafe place to work or from
hasty and dangerous methods, if he knew about these, or might
reasonably be expected to know about them and accepts the work
in spite of them, or, if he finds out about them, or might have
found out about them with the exercise of ordinary care, and
continues working in spite of them.
(3)
Finally, he assumes the
risk of all dangers arising from the carelessness, ignorance, or
incompetency of his fellow employes.
Thus we see that the general principle of individual responsi-
bility for negligence has been pretty well modified in respect to
the relations of employer and employe. Now let us take up these
assumed risks more in detail, showing by actual illustrations just
what they mean.
*
This principle does not, of course, exclude the agent or servant in ques-
tion from liability also.
t
In most states the burden of proving the absence of contributory negli-
gence on his own part as well'as the burden of proving negligence on the part of
the defendant rests upon the plaintiff.
170
THE LAW
(i) The first is simple, and, comparatively speaking, reason-
able. In a large number of modern industries certain accidents
are inevitable. It is not as safe to mine coal, make steel rails,
or manufacture explosives, as it is to practice law or dig potatoes.
If a man chooses one calling rather than another, the danger is
his own lookout. An employer does not insure the lives and limbs
of his employes, and the law takes it for granted that for the extra
risk involved in some occupations ample compensation is furnished
in an extra reward stipulated for in this very contract of hire.
However, it is not merely the risk of accidents happening
in spite of every safety precaution and protection, which the
employe assumes; he assumes the risk of the work as it is ordi-
narily carried on. Thus, a telephone lineman gets a shock from
an uncovered electric light wire that he touches in passing, and
this is an incident of his employment.
(15
Dist., 323.)* Or a
laborer working in a quarry is badly injured by a heavy stone
falling on him; this is a risk which a quarry workman assumes.
(215
Pa.,
34.)
But again, the handle of a bucket hauling
4,000
pounds of iron out of the hold of a vessel, pulls out, letting the
whole mass of iron fall on a workman in the hold. Upon this
bucket, which had been used for eighteen years, the handle was
merely clamped, while upon newer buckets the handle is forged.
Nevertheless, since the plaintiff cannot show that the old and
less safe buckets are not still in common use, he cannot hold the
employer liable for his injury. He has suffered from an ordinary
danger of his employment, and he took the risk. (McGeegan
and Hughes,
1
5 Dist.,
249.)
So much then for this first exception;
the employe undertakes to suffer all the risks of his employ-
ment as it is usually carried on.
(2)
The second exception goes farther. The employe as-
sumes all extraordinary and unusual risks, not incident to his
employment, if he knew or could reasonably be expected to have
known of the danger, and continued working. He assumes all
patent risks and all latent risks of which he is informed. For
instance, a seventeen-year-old girl working in a laundry called
*A1I cases used in illustration are taken from Pennsylvania decisions of
recent years, which pretty fairly represent the common law rules of employers'
liability in all the states. Modification of the common law by statute will be
considered later.
171
the attention of a foreman to a loose board in front of the rolls
where she was working. She said it interfered with her work,
but made no definite complaint with regard to its danger, and she
went on working. Nothing was done. Finally, while she was
cleaning the machine, the loose board flew up and threw her hands
between the rolls, where they were crushed. She could not recover
damages for this injury, because she had assumed the risk of a
condition which she ought to have known was dangerous. (Hen-
derson V. Hogentagler,
9
Dauph.,
246.) Or again, a man working
near a defective crane is injured by its breaking. There is no
evidence that he knew of the defect, but it had been plain for three
months. "He ought to have known of it." (Lindberg v. Na-
tional Tube Company,
213 Pa.,
545.)
In this case, as in many,
we see how the very obviousness of the defect, which it seems
should fix the responsibility upon the employer, is a means of his
avoiding responsibility.
There is, however, one exception to this rule of the law.
If an employe, when he sees a defect or a possible danger, com-
plains of it to his employer or to his superior who is directing the
work, and if the employer or his superior promises to repair it,
and if the employe relies upon the promise, and if the danger
is not imminent,then the servant is relieved of his assumption
of risk even though he continues to work; provided, however,
that if the employe continues to work after a reasonable time has
passed without the promise to repair being carried out,then he
is deemed to have "waived" his objections, and "assumed the
risk" again.
(4
Super., 621.) This valuable exception is well
hedged about with "ifs." For example: A bolt protruded near
an elevator shaft; the plaintiff complained of it to the foreman.
Later he stumbled over it and fell down the shaft, but his complaint
to the foreman was immaterial in fixing liability, since the foreman
had not promised to change it. (Moudy v. The Penn Steel
Casting Company, 10 Del.,
14.)
(3)
Finally the employe assumes all risk due to the negli-
gence of fellow employes. This is the most vital distinction be-
tween the general law of negligence, and the law of negligence
as between master and servant. "A master is responsible for
the negligence of his servants in course of employment without
172
THE LAW
regard for their reputation except in case of fellow servants."
(77
Pa.,
238.) As between the master and a servant injured, it
is only demanded of the master that he shall have taken due
care in employing fellow servants of ordinary skill and care-
fulness. To illustrate: Suppose a yard master in Philadelphia,
by reputation a reasonably careful man, puts a car of dynamite
at the end of a train of cars instead of in the middle, as the
rule of the company requires, and because of this carelessness
the dynamite car is blown up in a collision many miles from
Philadelphia. A cow browsing in a field near the track and a
station agent keeping his lonely post in a small country station
next to the field, are both blown to pieces. Now, in such a case
the farmer could recover for the loss of his cow; but the station
agent's widow could not recover for the loss of her husband
because he was a fellow servant of the man whose mistake or
carelessness caused the accident. Yet he had no more to do with
that fellow servant's act, or with the employment of him, than
the farmer's cow had.*
This famous fellow-servant rule, which, except where
limited by statute, prevails in all the states, is comparatively
recent in origin. First came the English case of Priestly v.
Fowler in
1837,
in which Lord Abinger held that a master was not
liable to his servant for injuries received as a result of the breaking
down of
a
van on which the servant was riding, the van having
been carelessly overloaded by another servant. In this case
the injured servant was apparently in a position to know of the
overloading. This decision is not based upon a clearly conceived
principle. Lord Abinger begins by stating that there is no pre-
cedent for such an action by a servant against a master, and goes
on to show to what a "ridiculous extreme" such a liability if
once admitted might be carried. "A master would be liable to a
footman for drunkenness, neglect, or want of skill in a coachman,
for the upholsterer's negligence in sending in a crazy bedstead,
for the negligence of a cook in not cleaning the copper vessels
*
To show that this hypothetical case is not extreme I need only refer to
Reiser v. The Pennsylvania Railroad
(152
Pa.,
38),
which held that a telegraph
operator and a fireman on an engine are fellow servants; or to Kennelly v. Balti-
more and Ohio Railroad (166 Pa., 60), which held that the brakeman of one train
and the engineer of another are fellow servants.
properly, and for the butcher's negligence in supplying the family
with meat of a quality injurious to health," etc. He concludes
that, "the inconvenience and absurdity of the consequences is a
sufficient argument against this principle."*
The only tangible arguments put forth in this opinion are
these: That the servant was at liberty to take the risk or not as
he chose; that he was just as likely to know of the danger as the
master, and would often be more so; finally, that to allow such
actions would discourage the servant's diligence in protecting
the master against the negligence of other servants, which dili-
gence affords also a better security to the servant than any action
against the master for damages could possibly afford.
The first American case in which the rule was laid down was
Murray v. The South Carolina Railroad,t decided in 1841. Here
the plaintiff was a fireman, injured when his engine was thrown
off the track as a direct result of the engineer's negligence. The
latter had refused to stop the engine when his attention was called
to an obstacle on the track. In the argument with which the
court supports its decision, denying the liability of the railroad
company in this case, there is the first rather unconvincing state-
ment of the principle on which the fellow-servant rule has come
to rest. It is pointed out that this would be a new order of
liability, which if allowed, must rest upon the contract of hire,
since an employe is neither a passenger nor a stranger.
"
But,"
says Judge
Evans, "is it incident to this contract that the company
should guarantee him against the negligence of his co-servants?"
It has long been established that the servant takes upon himself
the ordinary risks of his vocation. "Why not the extraordinary
ones?" It is further suggested in a concurring opinion that the
servant's reward is designed to cover the unusual dangers.
It is interesting to note that in this case there is good reason-
i ng as well as common sense to be found in the dissenting opinion
of Judge
O'Neall, who holds fast to the general rules of negligence,
which make a man liable for the negligence of his servants. He
*
This curious mingling of the cook and the coachman, who serve the master,
with the upholsterer and the butcher, with whom he trades, is enough to show that
the learned justice had not worked out clearly in his own mind a principle upon
which to base a fellow-servant rule of wide application.
f
26 Am. Dec, 268
'74
THE LAW
says: "If it arose out of any of the old-fashioned modes of con-
veyance, managed by the defendants themselves, could there be
a doubt that they would be liable if the injury resulted from
negligence ? Suppose it had been a stage coach driven by the
owner and the plaintiff was hired as a guard?" He maintains
that the risks assumed by a servant on entering his employment
do not include negligence, either on the part of the employer
himself, or his agents. And finally, "But if we are to look to
policy, then I should argue that the more liability imposed on
the railroad company, the more care and prudence would be
thereby elicited. This result is what the community desires."
(36
Am. Dec, 268.) It would appear that this wise judge over-
estimated the good sense of "the community," for from that day
to this we have desired speed rather than safety, large output
rather than careful processes. And the courts, in hesitating to
hamper the rapid development of our railroads and industries
by imposing more liability, have but reflected our spirit.
It remained for a New England case to establish definitely
and finally the basis of reason on which the fellow-servant rule
was to rest. In the case of Farwell v. The B. and W. Railroad
Corporation
(4
Metcalf,
49),
the plaintiff, an engineer, was suing the
railroad because of injuries received as a result of the carelessness
of the switchman in not changing a switch. On the one hand,
the switchman had been long in the employ of the company and
was generally regarded as a careful and trusty man. On the
other hand, the engineer was evidently in a position where he
could not possibly know of or guard against the carelessness which
resulted in his injury. Hence this case presented the question
squarely: Is an employer to be liable to one employe for the
negligence of another employe, when neither the employer nor
the injured employe could reasonably have been expected to
foresee that negligence ? The gist of Chief Justice Shaw's argu-
ment in deciding this question is as follows : The employer can not
be liable to his own employe in tort, as he would be ordinarily
in case of the negligence of an agent of his, because "the employe
does not stand towards him in the relation of a stranger. The
employe is not a stranger but one whose rights are regulated
by contract, express or implied." If then the employer is liable,
'75
his liability must depend upon the implied contract made when
the employe entered his employment. So far it is easy to follow
his legal reasoning. But he goes on to assert, "This implied con-
tract between master and servant does not extend to indemnify the
servant against the negligence of anyone but the master himself."
It is on this assumption that the fellow-servant rule rests. We
naturally ask: Why does the law assume this, rather than the
equally possible and plausible assumption, that the implied con-
tract between master and servant indemnifies the servant against
the negligence of the master and any of his agents while engaged
in his work ? There must be good reasons for making the former
assumption, because it involves a radical departure from the ac-
cepted rules of negligence which the latter assumption does not
involve. The reasons advanced by Chief Justice Shaw seem to
be these: (i) That justice and policy demand it, because in a large
number of cases where fellow employes really work together,
the employe is in a better position to look out for, guard against,
or prevent such negligence than the employer;
(2)
that such
negligence of a fellow workman is but one of the ordinary risks
of a dangerous calling, which are assumed by the employe with
full knowledge and with freedom to choose, and that in legal
presumption higher wages compensate him for the greater risks
involved.*
This fellow-servant doctrine, finally established by Chief
Justice Shaw in the Massachusetts case we have just considered,
is, except for some special statutes to be mentioned later, in a
whole and flourishing condition in the United States today. In
applying this rule, the question who are to be considered fellow
servants is of paramount importance.
The question naturally divides itself into two parts
:
(i) Is there to be any limitation of the rule on the ground
that men are employed in different departments, at different kinds
of work, and situated at great distances from one another ? Are
these nevertheless fellow servants ? Generally speaking they are.
Thus, railroad trainmen are held to be fellow servants of a car
*
(i) is admitted to be a secondary consideration on which the rule can not
rest; indeed the case he is deciding is quite outside it; (2) is but another assump-
tion. Thus the argument comes dangerously near to being
"
the law assumes this
because it assumes it."
176
THE LAW
repairer.
(17
W. N. C,
73.)
A station master and an engineer
are fellow servants. (21 W. N. C,
45.)
Track hands and train
hands are fellow servants.
(197
Pa.,
384.)
Brakemen, con-
ductors, engineers, and firemen, on the same or different trains
of one road, are fellow servants. A girl in the tailoring department
of a store has been held to be a fellow servant of the boy who runs
the elevator in the store.
(198
Pa., 1 12.) In Pennsylvania, and
in most of the other states, all who work for a common employer
and in pursuit of the same purpose, are fellow servants, whether
they work side by side or miles apart.
(2)
Is there any limitation to the fellow-servant doctrine
on the ground of difference in rank, authority, etc.? Here we
touch upon a diificult and much discussed feature of the rule.
In Pennsylvania, up to the passing of the Casey Act, June 10,
1907,
foremen, bosses, and even superintendents, have been as a rule
considered fellow servants of the men under them or in the same
employ. Even though an accident happened to an employe
as a direct result of a negligent order from his superior, the em-
ployer was not liable because the superior was held to be a fellow
servant of the injured man. There has grown up, however, a
certain limitation of this wide application of the rule in what is
called "the vice-principal" doctrine. It is this: A superior is
either a fellow servant or a vice-principal; in the latter case he
directly represents the employer and the employer is responsible
for his acts. Now suppose that an injury has been caused by
the carelessness of a "superior servant;" the plaintiff, in order
to establish the negligence of the employer and thus fix liability
on him, must prove one of two things: Either (i) that the superior
was, in the very act in which he was negligent, performing one
of his master's "absolute personal" duties (these duties will be
mentioned later) ; or
(2)
that he, the superior, was in control of
the entire business, or a direct branch of it, and that the employer
exercised no direction or control.* In (i) the superior is held to
represent the employer because of the nature of the act he is
*
It is worth while to note that there is a hole on the other side of this rule
where the employer may slip out. For in many cases where the employer exercises
no "direction or control," the
"
superior servant" is really an independent contractor,
and in such a case the employer is again not liable for his acts, provided he was
not negligent in selecting the contractor, (qi Pa., 183 and 198 Pa., 586.)
12
177
performing. In
(2)
it is iiis regular position wliich makes liim
vice-principal. The case of Lewis v. Siefert (116 Pa., 628) is
one of the most liberal applications of this vice-principal doctrine.
There a train despatcher was held to be a vice-principal and the
railroad was held liable to an employe for his negligence. On
the other hand the case of Spancake v. The Philadelphia and Read-
ing Railroad
(148
Pa.,
184)
is typical of a large number of cases
which the vice-principal rule would not touch. In that case a
track foreman was in charge of half a dozen men repairing the
road bed. It was his duty to warn the men of an approaching
train. As a result of his failure to do this one of the men was
run over and killed. This man's widow was not allowed to recover
against the company because the foreman was a fellow servant
of her husband.
But this will no longer be the rule in Pennsylvania. The
Employers' Liability Act of
1907
has apparently removed man-
agers, superintendents, and foremen from the class of fellow ser-
vants and made them vice-principals, for whose acts the em-
ployer is responsible. It further provides that when an injury
is caused or contributed to by "the negligence of any person in
charge of or directing the particular work in which the employe
was engaged at the time of the injury," the defence, "negligence
of a fellow servant," shall not avail the employer. While the
Casey Act has thus done away with the most unreasonable appli-
cations of the fellow-servant rule, we must remember that it
still leaves the employe assuming the risk of the carelessness or
incompetence of all mere employes like himself, whether they
are working shoulder to shoulder with him or a thousand miles
away.
These three modifications in the case of master and servant
of the general law of negligence (the assumption on the part of a
servant of the ordinary risks of the trade, of special risks of which
he has notice, and of risks from the negligence of fellow servants),
are often spoken of as the "assumption of risk rule" and the
"fellow-servant rule," but it seems logically a little more correct
to put them all into one group as designating what is meant by
the implied assumption of risk in the servant's contract of hire.
It is this three-fold assumption which makes the employer's lia-
178
THE LAW
bility for negligence to his employe quite different from his liability
for negligence to the public at large.
Now, there is another way of stating the liability relation
existing between employer and employe. Perhaps it is a fairer
because a positive way. It is often said that the employer has
three
"
absolute duties" to perform with regard to his employes:
to exercise due care in furnishing (i) a safe place to work and safe
appliances;
(2)
a sufficient number of competent and careful
employes;
(3)
instructions and warning when they could reason-
ably be regarded as necessary. Thus, where the plaintiff was
injured by an explosion of gas in a mine and it was shown that the
employer had failed to furnish lumber to board up the "cut-
throughs," although the superintendent had notified him, and that
the explosion was due to this lack of the customary boarding up,
the employer was held liable.
(3
1 Super.,
447;
Saylor v. The Coal
Company.) And again, where the foreman of a shop, with the
approval of the president of the company, left a heavy door leaning
up in a dangerous way against the wall so that it fell on a boy
who came to work before daylight the next morning, knowing
nothing about it, the company was held liable. (Delaney v. Penn
Steel Casting Co.,
30
Super.,
387.)
These cases illustrate the
interpretation of the employer's duty to furnish a reasonably
safe place to work.
In the case of Huntingdon and Broad Top Railroad v.
Decker
(84
Pa.,
419),
an engineer of one train had been killed in
collision with another. The plaintiff, his wife, in suing the rail-
road for damages, proved that the conductor of the second train
was habitually intemperate and unfit for service; that the colli-
sion was wholly the result of this conductor's carelessness and
incompetence; and that his bad habits were known to the super-
intendent by whom he was employed and retained in the service
of the company. She won her suit, on the ground that the em-
ployer had here failed in the second duty,he had not been duly
careful in furnishing competent fellow workmen.
To fulfill the third duty the employer must warn all employes
of hidden dangers, and instruct very young employes in regard
to all dangers that would not be obvious to them. For instance:
A thirteen-year-old boy was, without instructions, set to loading
'79
dynamite into a hole, and through a consequent explosion he was
made totally blind. The company was held liable. (White and
Northwood Cemetery Co.,
15
Dist.,
358.)
Also, where a girl,
seventeen years old, was put to work at a mangle in a laundry
without instructions as to its danger, and where the customary
guard-rail was absent, and as a result of her ignorance of the ma-
chine and this defect her hands were caught'and crushed, the com-
pany was held liable. (Greenan v. Eggeling,
30
Super.,
253.)
Now that these three absolute duties have been stated and
examples of their positive application considered, let us study
carefully their limitations, in order to find out how far they would
actually operate in most cases to safeguard or compensate the
employe.
(i) Take the first duty, to provide a reasonably safe place
to work. It cannot be too emphatically insisted that the test
of safety is not, according to the law, danger, but always ordinary
usage. Suppose, for instance, that a man has been injured as a
result of the giving out of some mechanical appliance at a critical
moment. It is not enough for him to show that the use of this
appliance was dangerous and likely to result in accident; that there
was a newer and safer appliance in use at the time; that the use
of this appliance was a direct violation of a statute expressly
designed to protect employes.* These things, though they may
be evidence of negligence, do not necessarily constitute negligence.
The plaintiff in order to show that his employer has violated his
duty toward him, must show that the unsafe appliance which
caused the accident was of such kind or in such condition that it
would not be commonly used in such work. Ordinary usage then,
*
In 1894 a man was killed by falling through the joists and girders of a
building, which were not covered as required by a statute of
1893,
expressly in-
tended to prevent such accidents. His wife brought suit, alleging that the em-
ployer had been negligent in not complying with this statute. She was non-
suited because no other ground of negligence was alleged. (Mack v. Wright, 180
Pa.,
472.)
That the violation of a statute is not in itself proof of negligence in most
jurisdictions, is evidenced by the fact that in many of the safety appliance acts
passed by different states there is included a special provision that a violation of
the act shall be prima facie evidence of negligence or negligence per se. This
point has been much discussed. The true view would seem to be that where the
statute itself furnishes a test of negligence one should not be required to go back of
that to the usual uncertain test of usage.
180
THE LAW
is the only and final test. Now, suppose the plaintiff had proven
that the appliance in question would not bear even this test.
Then, his employer could still defeat his recovery, by showing
that the defect or bad condition was plain, that the employe ought
to have seen it, and that in continuing to work there he assumed
the risk.
(2)
Next, in regard to the duty of providing competent
fellow workmen. The employer fulfills this duty completely
by using ordinary care in selecting and discharging workmen.
Thus a plaintiff, if his injury has been caused by an incompetent
employe, must show that the employer employed or retained him,
actually knowing him to be incompetent, or that the employe
in question had a reputation for incompetency which the employer
with the exercise of due care should have known. To illustrate:
While a woman employed as a car cleaner was working in a car
in the yards, a shifting engine struck that car with such force
that she was thrown and severely injured about the face and head,
and that she partially lost the sight of one eye. This was due to
the carelessness of the engineer on the shifting engine, who,
the plaintiff maintained, was an intemperate person and unfit
for his position. She proved that he had been drunk three times
within a few weeks, the last time on the night before the accident.
But she was non-suited because she could not show either that
this was actually known to the employer, or that the engineer
had a reputation for intemperance, which the employer should
have known.
(49
Pitt. L.
J.,
84.)
On examination these first two duties appear to be qualified
and limited rather than "absolute." The law furnishes to the
employe no insurance against injuries arising from an unsafe
place to work or incompetent fellow workmen. It merely re-
quires the employer to exercise that degree of care which is cus-
tomary in providing against such dangers.
(3)
As to the third duty, to give proper instruction, we
find it most often resorted to in cases where very young employes
have been injured. The rule seems to be that young children
should always be instructed with regard to their particular task,
but this is narrowly interpreted. In a recent case, a boy of
thirteen was instructed about his task in respect to a certain
181
machine, but not told how to stop it. In some way a nut got
caught in the cogs and he tried to poke it out with a stick while
the machine was running, because he did not know how to stop it.
As a result his hand was drawn in between the cogs. It was held
in this case that he had gone outside of his line of employment
;
that his hand would not have been caught if he had stuck to the
job assigned him. No recovery was allowed. (Michalofski v.
Pittsburgh Screw and Bolt Co., 213
Pa.,
563.)
If the rule could be
applied with such severe literalness in the case of a small boy,
it is easy to see how little this duty of instruction would avail a
grown man. Furthermore, the law assumes that a man in seek-
ing a certain employment represents himself as reasonably familiar
with it.
For the sake of clearness the question of an employer's
liability for negligence to his employe has been examined from
two standpoints: First, by showing how the ordinary liability
for negligence is modified in this relation by a three-fold assump-
tion of risk implied in the servant's contract of hire; second, by
setting forth the three duties of care which the employer owes his
employes, and showing that each duty is limited by the standard
of performance which in all cases is but the customary practice.
Let it be clear, however, that the duties set forth from the second
standpoint are always qualified by the servant's implied assump-
tion of risk set forth from the first standpoint.
Returning again to the first statement of the law, we found
that the assumption of risk implied by law in the contract be-
tween them, furnishes the master with three possible lines of
defense to an action brought against him by his servant on the
ground of negligence. It must now be added that there is still
another defense open to him,contributory negligence. The
master escapes the penalty of his negligence if he can show that
the servant, by his own negligent act or omission, contributed
to the accident which caused his injury. This is true with regard
to negligence in general. But in these master and servant cases
the defense of contributory negligence, although perhaps theo-
retically reasonable, may well work injustice oftener than justice.
For we have seen that most of the "carelessness" of workmen,*
*
Part I, Chapter V.
182
THE LAW
which is not the stupidity and awkwardness of ignorance, or the
inattention inevitable in the conditions under which the work
is done, is a kind of freedom and fearlessness which goes with
rapid and dangerous work and is necessary to it. Imagine a
structural iron worker who was "careful of himself." How long
would he hold his job ?
The test of what constitutes "contributory negligence" is
vague; i. e., "what an ordinarily prudent man would not do under
the circumstances." It is practically impossible to apply such a
test justly to workmen engaged in hazardous occupations.
In the legal significance of a written release we find another
general rule of law which has an especially important bearing
on employers' liability cases. A release is a written contract.
And in any action for damages, if the employer can produce a
document signed by the plaintiff, in which he agreed for a con-
sideration to relieve the employer of all liability in connection
with his injury, this is a perfect defense, and it cannot be set
aside unless the plaintiff can offer "clear, indubitable and con-
vincing" proof that he did not know what he was signing, or
that the release was obtained by fraud or false representation.
It is apparent in the statement of this rule that it is open to
serious abuses, especially in the case of ignorant workmen and
foreigners. Nor is it hard to imagine that a corporation's claim
agent, coming upon a family in the first confusion of a disaster and
offering ready money for their immediate needs, might often se-
cure a release hastily considered and only half understood, even
among intelligent American working people. Once having signed
a release the injured man has lost his chance to recover at law.
This rule in regard to releases is a consistent following of the law
of written contracts, but in cases of this kind, considering the rel-
ative situation of the two parties, its rigid application is not
calculated to promote justice.
In addition to this usual rule with regard to releases, there
is a special ruling in Pennsylvania, which has become famous.
Many railroads and some other corporations maintain a relief
association, supposedly voluntary, but to which the men must
belong if they wish to hold their jobs. To this the men are re-
quired to contribute monthly from their wages. In the Pennsyl-
183
vania Railroad system the company bears the expense of manage-
ment and guarantees the benefit. In other systems the company
sometimes contributes a definite amount, or a certain proportion.
The most ardent advocates of such a reHef association agree that
it is not a benevolent scheme on the part of the railroad, but
rather an association for mutual benefit. In return for its com-
paratively small part of the contribution, the company feels
relieved of all financial obligation toward the men injured in its ser-
vice and also secures a comparatively steady force of employes,
since men who leave the service must forfeit all right to the bene-
fits for which they have paid dues. The employe on his part is
insured against accident or death at a rate considerably lower
than a man in his occupation could get with an insurance company.
In these associations the employe signs an application when he
joins, in which he agrees that the acceptance of benefits in case
of death or injury shall act as a release of all claims against the
company, and that he will sign the necessary papers to execute
,this release when he "accepts the benefits." It is well known
that a contract whereby the employe agreed beforehand to
exonerate his employer from liability for negligence, would be
void as against public policy, but this contract made on joining
the relief association has been held valid in Pennsylvania on the
ground that the employe in making it does not actually bargain
away a future right, because he does not make his choice until
after the liability, if any, has arisen. "The party retains the right
of action until after knowledge of the facts and an opportunity
to choose." (Ringle u. The Pennsylvania Railroad, 164 Pa.,
529,
and Johnson v. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad,
163
Pa., 127.)*
An important point apparently has been overlooked in
this reasoning. There are two future "rights" concerned. If
a man pays dues to an association for the purpose of insuring
himself in case of injury, he has a "right" to some return for these
payments when the injury occurs. Also, quite apart from this,
*
Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, Texas, North Dakota, South Dakota
and South Carolina provide by statute that no such contract of "insurance, reHef,
benefit, or indemnity, entered into prior to the injury, nor the acceptance of such
insurance, rehef, benefit, or indemnity, shall constitute a bar or defense." Most
of these statutes refer to railroads exclusively. The Federal Employers' Liability
Act of IQ08 contains a similar provision.
184
THE LAW
if a man is injured through the negligence of his employer he has a
"right" to bring suit for damages. These two "rights" exist
side by side; there is no reason in justice why the exercise of one
should preclude the exercise of the other. Yet the man who joins
a relief association and begins to pay dues, at the same time
promising that if he accepts benefits in case of injury he will
relieve his employer of all liability, actually bargains away one
of these rights before it has arisen. The fact that he does not say
which he will give up until they have both arisen, is immaterial.
Another unusual feature of the employers' liability situa-
tion in Pennsylvania should be mentioned here. Under the
common law, there was no recovery in case of death, on the
general principle that an action for injury dies with the person.
But in
1855
a statute was passed in Pennsylvania providing that
certain persons shall be entitled to recover damages for an injury
causing death,the husband, widow, children, or parents, of the
deceased. Similar statutory provision for the survival of this
action for death has been made in all the states. But in Pennsyl-
vania the statute has been declared by the courts to be for the
benefit of citizens only; a non-resident alien has no rights under
it. (Deni v. the Pennsylvania Railroad, 181 Pa.,
525,
and
Maiorano v. Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 216 Pa., 402.) Thus
if a Polish or Italian laborer, supporting a family in the "old
country," is killed, his family though they may have been utterly
dependent on him, have no right of action for the injury causing
his death. In a recent disaster in a steel mill at Butler, Pennsyl-
vania,
14
foreigners were killed. All of them were married, but
only two had wives in this country. Here, whatever the negli-
gence may prove to have been, the company is relieved of all
but one-seventh of its actual liability under this interpretation
of the statute. This seems to put a premium upon killing out-
right.
The error of such exclusion of non-resident aliens from the
statutory right of action for death, comes home to us most strongly
from the standpoint of prevention. It is comparatively easy to
forget the destitute widow and children, or the old mother, in
some unheard-of region in Croatia. But when we consider that
in over
25
per cent of the fatal accidents in the great steel industry,
185
the law of Pennsylvania furnishes absolutely no incentive to pre-
vent future fatalities from the same cause, we can not treat the
error lightly.
Finally, in all consideration of the employers' liability law,
we must remember that the burden of proving negligence is
always upon the plaintiff. This is a fundamental principle.
The occurrence of an accident does not raise a legal presumption
of negligence on the part of the employer. The injured employe
must give evidence which tends to show negligence in order to
get his case before the jury. If he fails in this he is nonsuited.
We hear on every side that if one can get a case of this kind be-
fore the jury, say a case of an injured man, or a widow and chil-
dren, against a corporation, the jury is always on the side of the
injured. This is probably true, but it is more than offset by the
power residing in the judge to keep the case from going to the
jury by a nonsuit or to set aside the verdict.
If, thus far, the rights of the parties at law in cases involving
the question of an employer's liability to his employe for negli-
gence have been fairly set forth, all will agree that at some points
the law unduly favors the employer, although there will be much
diflference of opinion as to what features are unfair.
But, quite apart from the law, there are inequalities in the
actual situation of the parties. First comes the matter of delay.
The courts are so behindhand that in congested districts it is
usually two or three years after an action is commenced before
it is tried, and if an appeal is taken it is sometimes five years
before the case is settled. Two or three years means nothing
in the life of a great corporation. Indeed, its case is likely to gain
rather than lose by the delay, since the burden of proof rests on
the plaintiff, and the circumstances of the accident become less
distinct in the minds of the witnesses with the lapse of time.
But what does this delay mean in the life of a working man' whose
earning power is diminished or perhaps entirely lost through the
very accident in question, or in the lives of the widow and children
left helpless by the sudden death of their provider ? The immedi-
ate need here is so great, the delay of trial so long, that it is not
astonishing that most cases are settled out of court.
Another respect in which the parties in these cases are on
1 86
THE LAW
an unequal footing, is the matter of obtaining witnesses. The
burden of proof, as we have seen, rests upon the plaintiff. He
can do nothing without witnesses, and his only witnesses in the
majority of cases are his foreman and his fellow workmen, em-
ployes of the same company. It stands to reason that they will
not as a rule testify freely against their employer. It would take
a large-minded employer to retain in his service a man who had
deliberately and knowingly spoken against his interests. And
even though it is true that in some large concerns an employe
who thus testified would not actually be discharged, neverthe-
less the fear of dismissal would be likely to keep his mouth
shut.
Here let us sum up the whole situation. On the one side
are the so-called absolute duties of the master: to furnish a reason-
ably safe place to work, reasonably competent employes, and
instructions when they are reasonably necessary, the test in all
cases being ordinary usage. On the other side, in the first place,
the burden of proof in showing that in a given instance the master
failed to fulfill one of these duties (the only way in which his
negligence can be shown), rests upon the plaintiff, or servant.
In the second place, the following defenses are available to the
'
master in such an action: (i) "Assumption of risk,"that the in-
jury which the plaintiff suffered belonged in the class of risks which
he assumed; namely, that it was caused by an ordinary danger
of such work, or by a danger which the plaintiff knew about,
or should have known about, and that he continued working in
spite of it.
(2)
"Negligence of a fellow servant,"that the negli-
gence resulting in the servant's injury was not a failure on the
employer's part, but on the part of a fellow servant of the plaintiff,
and therefore that he, the employer, was not liable since this
too was a risk assumed by the servant.
(3)
"
Contributory negli-
gence,"^that the injury was caused in part by the plaintiff's own
negligence. Finally, in the actual working out of the course of jus-
tice, we find: (i) that the rule in regard to setting aside a written
contract, as applied to the releases in master and servant cases
(while theoretically
logical and consistent), considering the actual
relative situation of the two parties clearly protects the strong
against the weak;
(2)
that there is an unavoidable delay in bring-
187
ing the case to trial, and that this delay means poverty and
anxiety to the employe, but a mere postponement of annoyance
to the employer; and
(3)
that it is usually to the economic interest
of the witnesses necessary to prove the plaintiff's case to stand
by the defendant, their employer.
Almost every element of unfairness in this law arises, I
think, from one misconception; namely, that the two parties
are on an equal footing. In the eyes of the law every working
man, from the trained American locomotive engineer with a
strong union behind him, to the newly-landed
"
Hunkie," tongue-
tied and bewildered, is on an equal footing with the United States
Steel Corporation in all its masterfully concentrated power. In
the contract of hire, the law assumes that the workman is as free
to accept or refuse a job as the employer is to take or drop him.
In the matter of the release, the law assumes that the stricken
and terrified widow of an ignorant laboring man is in a posi-
tion of equal understanding and enlightenment in regard to
the respective interests of the parties, with the hardened claim
agent employed by the corporation. The law is behindhand,
and the law makers have been blind. With their minds thoroughly
steeped in old ideas of theoretical equality and freedom of con-
tract, they have gone on, content with the "logic of the law,"
oblivious to actual facts.
"
But," says one of them, almost stirred out of this mental
satisfaction, "what can be done about it ? We must have a rule.
There cannot be one law for large employers and another for small
employers. You cannot have one law for the skilled mechanic
in demand and another for the day laborer looking for a job."
It is true, there must be one rule. And all that can be hoped for
is a rule that is fair in the average case. For all these years we
have read into the unwritten contract of hire by the courts' de-
cisions, a broad and unlimited assumption of risk on the workman's
part. Thus, where justice and public policy demand it we might
with reason read into the contract of hire, by statute, an equally
broad but wisely limited assumption of risk on the employer's
part. Surely if we depart from certain ancient legal precedents,
if we keep our abstract theories of right merely as a framework
for our thinking, if we frankly consider the economic forces that
188
THE LAW
govern the employment of labor, and take into account the high
degree of organization, the extreme division of labor, the speed
and intensity, which characterize modern industry, then it should
be possible to work out a law of employers' liability which will
approximate justice in the existing industrial world far more
closely than does the law just examined.
189
CHAPTER XIII
BY-PRODUCTS O F . "E M P LO Y E R S
'
LIABILITY"
IF
its operation in Allegheny County is typical, the enr-
ployers' liability law of Pennsylvania is of little positive
value. It does not to any large extent encourage the preven-
tion of work-accidents, nor does it greatly aid those who suiTer
economic loss from them. Yet it determines the system by which
restitution is or is not made to the victims of such accidents, and
this system, considering its small accomplishment, is amazingly
complicated and expensive. So complicated and expensive is it,
that one might condemn the law, almost without considering its
purpose or results, for the method in which it operates.
The root of this evil is the uncertainty in its operation.
From an examination of the law one would conclude that it would
allow recovery in but few accidents, and our study of actual cases
bears out this conclusion. But the application of the law to a
given case is not a matter of certainty and the amount of a possible
recovery is undetermined. Consequently every serious accident
means to the injured party the hope of recovering a "big verdict,"
and to the employer the fear of such a recovery. Out of these
expectations arise long and costly law suits. Let us consider how
such proceedings serve the plaintiff.
In the first place, there is a protracted delay between the
injury and a recovery at law. If a suit is brought in a United
States court, it may be determined within a year. If it is brought
in Common Pleas, it must wait often more than two years on ac-
count of the crowded court calendars, and if a verdict is rendered
for the plaintiff the case will almost invariably be appealed by
the defendant employer, because he always has hopes of getting
a different application of the law. In those rare cases in which
190
BY-PRODUCTS OF EMPLOYERS LIABILITY
damages are recovered, therefore, the suit may last from three to
five years.
Such delay is of course a serious disadvantage to the plaintiff
in many kinds of litigation, but in employers' liability cases it is
particularly disastrous, because the earnings of the "plaintiff"
family, seldom large enough to provide a considerable reserve, have
either been cut off or seriously reduced. An immediate living
income is what the widow and children of a workman need,
not
I3.000
at the end of a five-year fight.
In the second place, the economic helplessness of the plaintiff
in cases of this kind, makes it absolutely necessary to bring the
suit on a contingent fee basis. While the exacting of a contingent
fee is not necessarily grasping and unscrupulous, as some people
think, nevertheless the practice has its abuses. If a man without
property or money comes to a lawyer and asks him to sue another
party for negligence, the only possible contract the lawyer can
make with him is:
"
If I lose, it's my loss; if I win, you pay me a
certain percentage of the recovery;" and it is obvious that that
percentage must be large enough to allow the attorney to make
up his losses on unsuccessful suits out of his gains in successful
suits. Plenty of honest lawyers make such contracts, reserving
perhaps a third or a fourth of the recovery as their contingent
fee. But another class of lawyers
graphically called "ambu-

lance chasers"*seek out the injured and persuade them to bring
suit without considering the opportunities they may have of a
peaceful settlement, and at the same time exact an excessive con-
tingent fee, 40 per cent to
50
per cent, or even more. Lawyers of
this type are of course encouraged by the uncertain application
of the liability law, and their activities are often a distinct dis-
advantage to the injured party.
A form of insurance is offered by the Employes' Legal
Security Corporation, recently established in Pittsburgh, through
which a workman can keep out of the hands of unscrupulous
*
As a matter of fact we found the typical ambulance chaser engaged to
only a small extent in employers' liability litigations in Allegheny County. Decisions
for the plaintiff in these master and servant cases have been so rare in Pennsyl-
vania, that there is little encouragement for him. Street railway accidents
involving passengers and way-farers have furnished a more profitable field for his
activities.
IQI
contingent fee lawyers. For one dollar a year this company will
furnish a workman legal advice at all times, and if he is injured,
will send a' representative "to the scene of the accident to interview
the witnesses, secure signed statements and affidavits, take photo-
graphs, and procure such other evidence as is necessary to protect
his legal rights." If the injured man wants to sue for damages,
the security corporation will take the case on a contingent fee of
25
per cent. If a union joins as a body, the corporation will
furnish attorneys without cost "to defend the union, its officers
and members, in suits, civil or criminal, growing out of strikes,
lockouts or injunction proceedings." This corporation is a pri-
vate venture for profit. Certain trade unions have established
a legal department of their own which performs the same service.
If all workingmen could protect themselves in some such corporate
way against their own ignorance and against the expert methods
of claim agents and ambulance chasers, much would be gained.
But suing for negligence would still be a costly method of securing
compensation for injury.
Turning to the defendant's side of the situation, we find
that the operation of this law, which means such small gain to
the injured workman, means, nevertheless, a considerable expense
to employers. Although recoveries are actually secured in but
a small proportion of the accidents that occur, the employer,
because of the uncertain and unequal application of the law,
must be prepared to fight a suit over every accident. The always
threatening possibility of having to pay heavy damages as the
result of an accident, puts him to the expense of maintaining a
special claim department and hiring expert attorneys, although
he rarely pays a verdict.
To a small employer confronted with this expensive uncer-
tainty, employers' liability insurance* is of great advantage.
*
Most employers' liability insurance companies issue also what is called
a "workmen's collective policy" by which they agree "to indemnify the assured
against bodily injuries sustained by any person while employed by the assured."
This form of insurance was not common enough in the Pittsburgh industries at
the time of our investigation to warrant discussion in the text. Such a policy
really insures the workman against accident in a limited amount (half wages during
disability, usually up to 26 weeks, with
52
weeks' wages for death or loss of both
hands, both feet or both eyes), but the premiums are not paid by the employer;
they are deducted from the monthly wages of his employes. Moreover, an em-
192
The operation of the law does not mean a regular and certain
expense to an employer; it is an incalculable risk. The cost
of each accident hangs upon a number of "chances"the cir-
cumstances of the accident, the intelligence of the plaintiff, the
cleverness of his attorney, the leanings of the judge, the mood of
the jury. It is an opportunity to secure himself against all these
chances that the liability company offers to an employer. He
takes out a liability policy with premiums based upon his payroll
and the risks of his work. In return the insurance company
completely takes over his legal liability* in connection with acci-
dents to his employes. When an accident happens, the employer
sends in a full report of it to the insurance company, and then he
is done with it. If there is any question of liability the claim
agent of the insurance company looks into the case and settles
it if possible. If a suit is brought which cannot be settled satis-
factorily, the insurance company defends in place of the employer.
Thus the employer not only provides against the risk of occasional
recoveries, and avoids the constant expense of maintaining a
claim department, but secures a further ecomonic advantagehe
has an excusef for denying all appeals for compensation on grounds
merely of sympathy. He may say to a faithful employe who has
been injured, or to the widow of one of his old workmen killed in
an accident,
"
I have nothing to do with this. I refer you to the
insurance company."
William Day, an iron worker employed by one of the large
construction companies, which carries liability insurance to cover
accidents to its road men, stumbled over a pile of iron, broke his
leg, and was disabled ten weeks. His wife had given birth to a
third child two days before the accident. The other children
were two and four years old. There was no insurance, they had
ployer usually secures a release of liability from employes covered by the policy
and thus secures his liability policy from the same insurance company at very low
rates. The collective insurance policy may have been devised by the insurance
companies as an encouragement to the employers' generosity, but it has not
worked out that way.
*
There is a limit to the amount of risk assumed by the insurance company
usually $5,000
in any one injury, and $10,000 in any one accident.
f
Sometimes liability companies require that an employer shall not interfere
or make any settlement at his own expense because such action might be inter-
preted as an acknowledgment of liability.
13
193
heavy doctor's bills to pay, and were in great need. Day finally
wrote to his employers saying that he had heard that they carried
insurance for their men,* and if so, would they please send it to
him right away. "It is now that I need help," he wrote. "My
family would be hungry today except for our friends." In reply
to this letter he was referred to the liability company with which
his employer was insured. This company, of course, paid no
attention to his appeal as there was no legal liability in the case.
Manifestly the injured workman loses, rather than gains,
when his employer takes out a liability insurance policy. He
loses, to begin with, his chance of appealing for compensation
on other than legal grounds. For by the terms of its policy the
insurance company contracts only to assume the employer's legal
liability, not to underwrite his moral responsibilities, or carry
out the promptings of his sympathy. In the second place, if
the workman has a claim and commences a suit, he must fight
the insurance company, a powerful organization equipped with
system, money, skill, and experiencein all likelihood a bigger
legal person, a more formidable antagonist, than his employer.
Employers' liability insurance is moreover necessarily ex-
pensive, because under the present law the risk insured against
is practically incalculable. On account of the high rates and be-
cause liability insurance hurts their relations with their employes,
many of the large companies in the Pittsburgh District, which
carried these policies, have given them up. They find it better in
the long run to maintain their own claim departments, and hire
their own attorneys.
Liability insurance, then, while it solves a difficult problem
for the small employer, probably does not lessen the cost of acci-
dents to employers as a whole, and undoubtedly reduces the in-
jured workman's chances of compensation.
We have seen that the employers' liability law, which only
occasionally and after long delay secures restitution to the victims
of accidents, means, nevertheless, a considerable expense to
employers,to which we must add that it burdens the state
with the cost of much fruitless litigation. This wastefulness in
*
This is a common mistake; employes often think that an employer is
insuring them against injury by taking out liability insurance.
194
operation makes a strong indictment against that law. There
are, however, more serious charges against it.
First, it destroys good will between employes and employers.
Often a workman who had struggled through weeks of disability
without help, told me that he had not gone to the company about
it because he thought it was their business to send some one to
him. Later, in interviewing the claim agent of that company,
I would very likely learn that they never went to see their injured
men, because they did not believe in "hunting trouble," or be-
cause the workmen were suspicious and would think that they
had come to force an unfair settlement. Often, too, an employer
told me that he had meant to make a generous settlement in a
certain case, but was irritated by the intervention of a lawyer for
the plaintiff, and had determined to fight the case to the bitter end.
More important even than this loss of confidence between
employer and workman, is the direct inducement for the attorneys
of both sides to wrongful practices. Many cases are conducted
honestly. But the contingent fee lawyer who hastily visits an
injured man in order to urge him on to litigation, is well matched
by the claim agent who hastily visits him in order to urge him to
a settlement.* The plaintiff's attorney who "manufactures" a
witness to fit his case, is no worse than the defendant's attorney
who bribes a witness to disappear. The employers' liability law
is an encouragement to dishonesty, and both sides play the game.
Most large employers are well aware of these evils in the
liability situation. Some, as has been explained, seek to escape
the uncertain cost and the annoyance involved in settling their
own accident cases, by shifting the whole responsibility to an
insurance company. Others attempt to get rid of all the evils
of the situation, both for themselves and their employes, by con-
tract. They establish relief associations similar to those described
in Chapter XI but make membership in them practically a
condition of employment, and secure from each employe a signed
agreement that if he accepts benefits from the association in case
*
An ignorant man is helpless in the hands of either. He becomes the victim
of the one that gets there first. It is indeed an ungrateful nation that continues
to turn over the men who are injured in the interests of industrial progress, to the
tender mercies of the "ambulance chaser" and the typical claim agent.
'95
of injury, he will relieve the employer of all legal liability in
connection with the accident, and that he will sign a full release
of his claims* Relief associations of this type are a direct out-
come of the liability law, and therefore merit a careful discussion
here. The advantage of such contracts both to employers and
employes should be considered with a view to determining whether
they furnish a satisfactory escape from the evils of the system we
have just described.
In this undertaking we can do no better than describe the
Pennsylvania Railroad Voluntary Relief Department.! 'ts re-
markably successful operation for
23
years makes it worthy of our
special study. This relief association is in fact as well as in name
a "department" of the company. It is in the executive charge
of a superintendent whose directions are subject to the control
of the general manager of the company. The general manager
and ten contributing members of the relief fund, make up the
advisory committee, the superintendent acting as secretary. Of
the ten members, five are actually elected representatives of the
men, and five are appointed by the board of directors of the
company. Thus, to begin with the company has a majority of
one in the committee. It stands to reason that "if any member of
the committee shall cease to be employed by the company, or shall
for any reason cease to be a member of the Relief Fund he shall
cease to be a member of the committee," and there is also a provi-
sion in the constitution, that "to fill vacancies occurring on the
advisory committee," the members to represent the contributing
employes shall be designated by the general manager. Finally,
the control of the company is made absolute by a provision
that amendments proposed by the advisory committee do not
become operative unless adopted by a majority of the whole com-
mittee and approved by the board of directors of the company.
Thus it is clear that the Pennsylvania Railroad Relief Depart-
ment is not a democratic organizationj controlled by its members.
*
This contract applies to the beneficiaries in case the member is killed.
t
For detailed study of this Relief Association and others, see 23d Annual
Report of the U. S. Commissioner of labor.
t
It is difficult to see how any organization representing one employer and
his employes, and limited to them, could be in a real sense democratic, because
one "interest" would always be in a position to arbitrarily end the term of office
of the representatives of the other
"
interest."
196
Employes who join this association are classified according
to their earnings. The dues and corresponding benefits in each
class are given in the accompanying table:
TABLE
35.DUES, BENEFITS,* ETC., IN PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD
RELIEF DEPARTMENT, I909
TABLE 36.BENEFITS PAID BY PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD RELIEF
DEPARTMENT, FEBRUARY 1 5, 1886, TO FEBRUARY 1 5,
I909
For sickness death benefits . . . $5,101,133.26
For sickness disablement benefits . . 6,767,349.31
For accident death benefits . . . $2,016,829.65
For accident disablement benefits . .
3,548,747.19
111,868,482.57
5,565,576.84
Aggregate $17,434,059.41
It is important to notice, however, that from this fund
benefits are paid for sickness and natural death, as well as for injury
and accidental death. It is with the scheme solely as an accident
insurance fund that we are concerned here. If we subtract from
the sum total of members' contributions
(117,685,137.58),
the
111,868,482.57
paid out in benefits for disability and death from
natural causes toward which the employer may not be expected
to contribute, we have left
$5,816,655.01,
which we must properly
consider the contribution of the employes toward insurance against
accident. In considering this relief department as an arrangement
by which the employer agrees to contribute to his employes' in-
surance against accident, we shall set off his entire contribution,
13,31 1,538.40,
against this
$5,816,655.01
of the members' contribu-
tions which is expended for accident benefits exclusively. Roughly,
therefore, the employer contributes one-third and the employes
two-thirds. To be accurate, the employer contributes toward
the accident insurance provided by the relief association
36.3
per
cent.
Another way of estimating the importance of the company's
contribution to this department is to compare the opportunities
of insurance oifered in this association with those offered in unions,
benefit societies, and insurance companies. For
$36
a year, a
Pennsylvania Railroad employe not over forty-five years of age
of Class IV who passes the physical examination, can secure in the
relief association, as we have seen, reasonable benefits for ordinary
disability of any kind and
1 1,000 for his family in case he dies.
Compare this for instance with the following opportunities:
In the Prudential Life Insurance Company, a man in a
strictly hazardous trade, if he is accepted, can, at the age of
198
thirty, by paying
$31.63
a year, secure to his family $1,000 in
case of death, but no provision for disability. In the "Protected
Home Circle,"* a freight brakeman, by paying
I45.36
a year,
can secure a death benefit of
$3,000,
but no disability benefits.
Through what is known as industrial insurance, in the Prudential
Company, by paying
$ .35
a week or $18.20 a year, a man of thirty
can secure
$500
for his family at his death. In the Brotherhood
of Railroad Trainmen,
$33
a year will secure a death benefit of
$1350,
a disability benefit of $5.00 for eight weeks, and
I3.00
for the next succeeding eight weeks, and a total disability benefit
of
$1350.
Of these, the opportunities offered by the Brotherhood of
Railroad Trainmen are by far the most favorable, yet they are
decidedly less favorable than those offered by the relief depart-
ment of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. With rates
$3.00
a year less, the brotherhood offers a death benefit
$350
higher, but
its disability benefits are very much less; namely,
$5.00
for eight
weeks and $3.00 for the next eight weeks, with a positive limit of
$1350,
as against
$14
for
52
weeks and
$7.00 thereafter without
limit, in the relief department. It is apparent, then, that the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company, by establishing this relief de-
partment, making up its occasional deficiencies, and meeting its
running expenses, enables its employes, by paying only
$3.00 a
year more, to insure themselves against death almost as well,
and against disability nearly three times as well, as they are
able to insure themselves in an organization financed entirely
by themselves.
In return for this financial contribution toward the insurance
of its employes, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company practically
gains immunity from legal claims for negligence, with all the at-
tendant expense and friction. In every application for member-
ship in the relief association occurs the following sentence: "And
I agree that the acceptance of benefits from the said relief fund
for injury or death shall operate as a release of all claims for dam-
ages against said company, arising from such injury or death,
which could be made by or through me, and that I or my legal
*
If a benefit association is not conducted on a strictly actuarial basis there
is of course the disadvantage of insecurity.
199
representatives will execute such further instrument as may be
necessary formally to evidence such acquittance." In this agree-
ment we find the true meaning of this relief association. It is an
attempt upon the part of employers to get rid, by contract, of
the delay, expense, friction, and uncertainty of the employers' lia-
bility situation, both for themselves and their employes. And it
is a successful attempt. Membership in these associations is in
practice made a condition of employment for new men, and hence
in time all employes will have signed the above contract. Nearly
all of them when injured will choose the certainty of benefits for
which they have paid dues, rather than the uncertainty of a law
suit with the loss of those benefits. Consequently, a relief asso-
ciation founded upon the contract of release ultimately does away
with litigation over accidents.
Why then do not these relief associations, voluntarily estab-
lished by employers, promise the real solution of the whole
problem ?
The legal aspects of the contract of release have already been
considered. It does, in
effect,
allow the employe to bargain
away a right that has not arisen, and the employer to purchase
immunity from the civil consequences of a future wrongful act.*
These are theoretical criticisms. A more practical objection is
that by such a contract with his employes an employer almost
altogether frees himself from the deterrent effect of the liability
law, which though comparatively inefl'ective to prevent accidents,
is nevertheless better than no law. The eighteen-year-old rail-
roader who was killed on the "hump" during his first night in the
yards, as result both of his inexperience and of a defective brake
on the cut of cars behind him,t was a member of the Pennsyl-
*
It may be worth while to reiterate that the employe does not in so many
words surrender his right to sue when he joins the Relief Association. He simply
agrees that the acceptance of benefits shall operate as a release of all claims for
damages. As it is commonly explained by advocates of the system, he is "per-
fectly free to sue." But, if he sues he loses the benefits for which he has paid dues.
If he takes the benefits he loses his right to sue. The practical effect of the con-
tract is therefore to relieve the employer of liability for negligence, for very few
men, when forced to choose between the two rightsthe right to benefits to which
they are entitled and the right to sue for damageswill choose the latter. See
page 184.
t
See Chapter II.
200
vania Railroad relief association. His mother needed money,
and she took the |i,ooo due her from this association, signing
the release according to the agreement. Her son's death therefore
cost the railroad company
I363.*
If that boy had been insured
with the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, instead of in the
relief association, his mother would have received
I1350
in
benefits. She would still have been free to sue the company for
negligence. No scheme by which employers escape the penalty
of the existing law without suifering an equally deterrent penalty,
will bring an effective solution of the accident problem.
A second practical objection to relief associations is that in
them the workman's own insurance of himself is bound up with his
contract of employment. The employer's insurance of his work-
men against accident depends upon their continuing in his em-
ploy. But the workman's insurance of himself need not and
should not depend upon his engagement with one employer.
If a man leaves the employ of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company
for any reason, no matter how many years he may have paid dues
to the relief association, his right to benefits ceases; he is no longer
a member of the fund; and he gets no return for his contributions.
It may be said that this is no real hardship, because the workman
has had the return for his money, the protection of the insurance
during the years of his employment. But from the point of view
of life insurance, the workman may well question the advantages
of a policy for which he may pay premiums from his youth up,
only to forfeit it by quitting or losing his job in the fifties, when
to secure another policy he must pay very much higher rates.
Another real danger lies in thus making the workman's
own provision against accident a part of his engagement with a par-
ticular employer, a danger to the workman's freedom. If a man
in a certain employment has for many years contributed from
$ .75
to
I3.75
a month toward a fund for his insurance, he will
think twice before he gives up all right to a return on those pay-
ments by voluntarily leaving that employment. The certainty of
losing the benefit from his insurance dues if he leaves a certain
employment gives the workman a strong, practical motive against
strikes. The relief association, therefore, tends to injure the col-
*
Employer's contribution to fund is
36.3
per cent.
201
lective strength of labor, which is its only practical security in
bargaining with the large corporate employers of today.
While obviously it is sound business policy for a railroad
or any other corporation, by schemes of this kind, to make it
to the interest of its workmen to stay with the company, and thus
secure a steady force of employes, it is by no means clear that it is
sound social policy to allow such schemes to operate without
regulation.
It is clear then that membership in a relief department,
such as that maintained by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company,
is not an unqualified advantage to the employes who join it.
It encourages them to make provision against disability, and it
secures to them a small but certain contribution from their
employer in case of accident,about one-fourth of the monthly
wages for injury, and something under one-half of one year's wages
for death. But on the other hand, by joining such a relief associa-
tion employes do in effect free the employer from liability for
negligence, thus relieving him of whatever incentive to prevention
is furnished by the present liability law and at the same time
destroying their own remote chance of real indemnity for injury.
They furthermore seriously endanger their own collective strength.
A railroader might much better insure 'himself a little less ad-
vantageously in his own union, hold on to his freedom, and retain
his right to sue.
Some one may still urge, "Granted that the disadvantages
of the release contract often outweigh its advantages from the
workman's point of view, still the men are free to make it or not.
They need not join the relief association unless they want to
there's no compulsion about it. We find printed upon the cover of
the constitution,
'
Pennsylvania Railroad Voluntary Relief Asso-
ciation.'" Titles are often misleading. It is significant that those
relief associations which employes are free to join or not as
they like, do not as a rule make the word "voluntary" a part
of their title, while those in which membership is practically a
condition of employment, declare the association "voluntary"
in large type wherever its title is printed.
It is not seriously claimed that these relief associations are
202
really voluntary. In regulation No.
17
of the Pennsylvania Rail-
road Relief we read,
"
Noemployewill be required to become a mem-
ber of the relief fund." This, of course, is literally true. They do
not discharge men for not joining the "Relief," but this does not
commit them to employing new men who refuse to join it. If a
man applies for work and is accepted he is expected to join the
Relief. If he refuses he finds that for some reason or other he
is not needed. The only exception is, of course, in those com-
paratively rare cases in which the company needs the workman
more than he needs the work. Whenever the company has the
advantage in the employment bargain, which it will be easily
granted is usually the case, joining the Relief is compulsory; that
is, it is a condition of employment. This is expressed in various
ways. The secretary of one relief association, when asked if
it was voluntary, said, "Well, it is and it isn't, but no man works
in the shops of this company who does not belong to the Relief."
Another said, "It is voluntary because it claims to be, and
compulsory because every man must join in order to obtain
work."*
In this compulsory feature of the relief association lies
another danger to organized labor. A man who is compelled to
join a relief association must often drop the insurance which he
carried in his union, because he can not pay dues to both. Mutual
insurance is a most important element in the strength of the rail-
road brotherhoods, and the usefulness of the Relief in drawing men
away from union insurance and thus weakening unionism among
their employes, was not overlooked by the great railroad com-
panies which established these funds.
*
A former Pennsylvania Railroad official writes of the Relief Department
as follows:
"I never knew the Pennsylvania Railroad to discharge a person in their
employ for refusing to join the Relief. 1 have known pressure, amounting almost
to coercion, to be brought to bear and when it failed to get the employe in, I have
known the employing officer to connive at the employe's resignation for some other
reason.
"As to new employes, however, the man is asked to join and if he is dis-
inclined they try and make him see the advantages of the scheme. If he declines
to join he is told he must be examined physically anyway before he can be given
employment, and when he comes back to see if he passed, if he still refuses to join,
he is told his 'eye-sight is not good enough' or something like that, and doesn't
get the job, unless they need men temporarily and can't get enough who will
join.'-'
203
Let it be understood that the harmful features of the Penn-
sylvania Railroad Relief Fund, which have been set forth here,
are not peculiar to that organization. They are all but essential
to any similar organization established under the present liability
law. If an employer is to maintain an extensive organization
for the insurance of his employes, at considerable expense, he
must make membership practically compulsory, and he must
exact the contract of release, because he cannot afford to maintain
both the relief department and the fighting equipment necessary
to meet his liability for negligence. Moreover, the practical and
legal difficulties of extending the privileges of the fund to those
who have left the service are obvious.
So far we have considered the relief association as an escape
from the incidental evils of the employers' liability situation.
It is hardly necessary to point out that such an association does
not materially affect the distribution of the accident loss. The
Pennsylvania Railroad Company by its contribution to the Relief
does not lift from the shoulders of its workmen any large share of
that burden.
Let us see what proportion its contribution bears to the
actual income loss suffered by the injured man. For example,
a Pennsylvania Railroad brakeman is making
I85
a month. He
belongs to the third class of the Relief, paying
I3.00
a month in
dues. One night he is walking the top of a fast freight, slips and
falls, breaking his leg. The company pays all his hospital and
medical expenses, and as a member of the Relief in the third class
he receives
$14
a week while disabled. It has been shown that
the company contributes
36.3
per cent of the fund. We may
consider that
36.3
per cent of the
$14
benefit, or
I5.08,
is paid
by the employer. In other words, the brakeman's income loss is
|20 a week and the company makes up to him a little more than
one-fourth of it. Now suppose that, instead of breaking his leg,
he falls between the ends of the cars and is run over. His widow
and children receive
1 1
,000 from the Relief, about what he would
have earned in the 12 months succeeding. It is not possible to
state what their loss is, but we can estimate it. If the brakeman
was killed at the age of thirty, his normal expectation of life was
35
years. But assuming that he would have worked at his trade
204
but
25
years more, at
$85
a month, he would have earned
125,500.
Estimating what he would spend on himself during
35
years at
110,500 (or
I300
a year), and subtracting this, we have a figure
which pretty fairly represents the economic loss to his family
by his death at the age of thirty
$15,000. The relief association

makes up |i,ooo of this. To this |i,ooo the employer's contribu-
tion is
36.3
per cent, or
$363.
Thus, upon the death of one of
their brakemen by an accident of his work, the Pennsylvania Rail-
road Company loses
I363,
while the widow and children of the man
killed lose a potential $15,000.*
The proportion which the company's contribution bears to
the total income loss suffered by the families of its employes
injured and killed by accident can be suggested in another way.
The amount contributed by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company
to the Relief Association has averaged
1143,979
P^''
year. In
Allegheny County alone in one year
65
of their employes were
killed by accident in the course of employment, 28 of them mar-
ried,
1
5 of them single men with dependents. The average wage of
these
43
was
1 16.31 per week, or $848.12 per year. Three years'
wages of these
43
men would amount to
$109,407.48.
Thus the
first three years' income loss resulting from a year's fatal accidents
to their employes in one county of one state, amounted to more
than two-thirds of the company's yearly contribution to a relief
association covering employes injured and killed over its entire
road.
These associations no doubt represent the efforts of em-
ployers who in the absence of wise laws are seeking the elements
of a rational scheme, and a contract of this kind by the terms of
which the employer would assume a fair share of the accident
loss is, of course, conceivable. But under present laws the adop-
tion of such a plan would put the average employer at a serious
disadvantage with competitors. So long as the institution of
such associations is optional with employers and the terms left to
their discretion, they promise no satisfactory adjustment of the
accident burden.
*
I have purposely used instances of unavoidable accidents hereinjuries
due to the "ordinary risks of the trade." The proportion of loss borne by the
railroad, through its contribution to the relief association, would of course be the
same, no matter how the accident occurred.
205
My conclusion with regard to the value of such relief associa-
tions as that of the Pennsylvania Railroad is, therefore, that
while they encourage the workman to providence and do away
with many evils incident to the operation of the liability law,
these advantages are largely offset by the fact that, in order to
secure them, the workman is practically forced to give up a future
right, the employer is allowed to escape from whatever incentive
to prevention is furnished by the present law, and the strength
of organized labor is impaired. Furthermore, a contract with his
employes by which the employer contributes less than one-fourth
of a man's wages when he is disabled by accident, and pays out
$363
when a thousand dollar man is killed, does not fairly and
wisely adjust the burden of accident loss; obviously, therefore, a
relief association founded upon such a contract does not go to
the root of the problem we have set forth.
To conclude this inventory of "by-products," we may state
that the present employers' liability law is not only in many of its
principles unjust, but also in its method of operation harmful to the
interests of all concerned. To summarize:
1. It is wasteful:
(a) The statee xpends a large amount in fruitless liti-
gation.
(b) Employers expend a large amount, as the result
of work-accidents, only a small part of which is
actually paid in settlement of accident claims.
(c) The injured employes spend nearly half of what
they get in settlements and damages to pay the
costs of fighting for it.*
2. It is slow; recovery is long delayed, while the need is
immediate.
3.
It fosters misunderstanding and bitterness between
employer and employes.
4.
It encourages both parties to dishonest methods.
5.
The institutions which have been resorted to as an escape
from its evils, liability insurance and relief asso-
ciations based upon a contract of release, are
often advantageous to employers, but disad-
vantageous in important respects to employes.
*
For estimate of wastes involved, see Appendix IV.
206
CHAPTER XIV
LEGISLATION
ON
the facts set forth, legislative interference is warranted,
and the question becomes. How shall we legislate ? To
which question there are, speaking in the most general
terms, two answers offered.
The first is, reconstruct the law, retaining the basis of negli-
gence, but taking away such defenses as now unjustifiably protect
the employer. This can be done without departing from any
fundamental legal principle. We have seen that all the defenses
except one arise from an assumption that certain risks are as-
sumed by the workman in the contract of hire, upon which con-
tract the master's liability and the servant's rights depend. With-
out in the least attacking this theory, we can greatly modify and
limit these defenses by changing our view of what is implied in that
contract. And indeed this is a course already begun in almost
every state of the Union. Pennsylvania is among the last of
thirty states to modify or limit by statute the operation of the
fellow-servant rule. Most of these statutes apply only to railroads
or mines, but the Pennsylvania act, as we have seen, is universal in
its application so far as it goes, while Colorado has abolished the
fellow-servant rule altogether, making an employer liable for the
negligence of his employes, when the person injured is another em-
ploye, just as he would be if the person injured were a stranger.
Another group of statutes has made inroads upon the
implied assumption of extraordinary risks by denying its applica-
tion where an injury has resulted from the violation of a special
safety appliance act. A recent statute in Ohio, applying to
railroads, goes further, providing that an employe injured as
the result of a defect "shall not be deemed to have assumed the
risk occasioned by that defect, although continuing in the employ-
ment of such railroad company after knowledge of such defect."
207
Oregon, also, has a statute, applying to railroads only, which
declares that knowledge of a defect shall not of itself be a bar to
recovery.
The "contributory negligence" defense has been attacked
in several states by the introduction of the principle of "compara-
tive negligence," which allows the court, where the employer's
negligence predominates, to apportion damages according to the
relative degree of negligence upon each side.
Taking all the states into consideration, therefore, we find
that some attempt has been made to increase the common law
liability of the employer at every possible point.
The recent Federal Employers' Liability Act practically
combines all the radical changes that have been made in the laws
of the different states. In respect to injuries to employes while
engaged in interstate commerce, an employer is by this act
held liable, (i) when the injury was caused by the negligence of a
fellow servant of the plaintiff,
(2)
when it was caused by a defect
of which the plaintiflF had knowledge, and
(3)
in comparative
degree, even when the accident was slightly contributed to by
the negligence of the plaintiff. In other words, this act takes
from the employer at one stroke those defenses which have pro-
tected him for fifty years, but which can no longer in reason or
justice be maintained. It abolishes the "fellow-servant" rule,
making an employer liable for the negligence of all his agents, to
employes as well as to strangers. It denies the extreme applica-
tion of the "assumption of risk" rule, making it impossible for an
employe to assume the risks of his employer's negligence. It
modifies the operation of the "contributory negligence" rule,
making it possible, in a case where the employer's negligence
has been gross and the employe's slight in comparison, for the jury
to adjust damages accordingly. If each state should enact a
general employers' liability law modeled after the federal act, we
should have reached the limit to which laws based on negligence
can go in dealing with the industrial accident loss.
In the light of social economy, however, even such a complete
development of the first plan is of very limited value; for it would
leave the burden of accidents in which negligence plays no part on
the individual workman, and by requiring a lawsuit to determine
208
LEGISLATION
liability, it would leave the penalty for each accident still an un-
certainty. These limitations will be considered later.
The other way in which the rights of master and servant
in regard to accidents of employment may be adjusted, is by the
enactment of a law which, abandoning altogether the theory of
"liability for negligence," should require an employer to compen-
sate all his employes injured in the course of their work according
to a limited uniform rate, without regard to the cause of the acci-
dent, except where it results from the intended wrongful act of
the injured person. Such a law would both extend and limit
the employer's liabilityextend it to cover practically all injuries
to his employes in the course of their work, and limit it to a certain
fixed and moderate proportion of the economic loss resulting from
each injury. This plan, which is the basis of all modern European
legislation upon the subject, is a fundamental departure from the
common law principle of negligence. It creates a personal
liability where there has been no breach of contract or wrongful
act or omission. Whereas court decisions in master and servant
cases since
1850 have read into the contract of hire an assumption
upon the part of the workman of the risk of all accidents except
those due to the negligence of his employer, a law carrying out
this plan would practically attach to the contract of hire a promise
upon the part of the employer to insure his workman in a limited
degree against loss arising from the accidents of his employment.*
This radical departure is variously defended: (i) upon the
theory that "when a person on his own responsibility and for
his own profit sets in motion agencies which create risks for others,
he ought to be civilly responsible for the consequences," but that
the law should determine the limit of his liability;!
(2)
upon the
principle that each industry should "bear its own costs in human
life as well as in wear and tear on machinery;"
(3)
upon the
practical ground that the compensation required, becoming a
regular cost of production, would be transferred by the employer
*The first legislation in the United States to recognize this principle is a
Montana statute which goes into effect October, 1910. See Appendix V.
]
From the English Departmental Report of 1897. Ernest Freund in his
Police Power, says, "The principle that inevitable loss should be borne not by the /
person on whom it may happen to fall, but by the person who profits by the danger- /
ous business to which it is incidental, emphasizes a very intelligent idea of justice."
'
14
209
to the consumers of his product in the form of a slightly increased
selling price, and thus would result in taking a share of the economic
loss of each accident in each industry from the worker's family
upon whom it is a heavy burden, disastrous in its consequence,
and distributing it among the whole body of consumers, upon
whom it would be no burden at all.
Germany first, in
1884,
then Austria, Finland, England,
France, Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, and Hungary, in
the order given, have enacted legislation embodying this idea.
Perhaps we are fortunate in being among the last of civilized
countries to abandon the old liability law with regard to industrial
accidents. While it may be a shame to us to be so far behind, it
is a distinct advantage to have the new laws in actual operation
before us. Europe can be our laboratory.*
The foreign systems differ greatly in detail, but fall into two
general groupsthose in which the employer is merely required
to compensate his injured workmen on a uniform plan, and those
in which he is also required to insure against this indemnity.
A considerable confusion of terms has arisen in writing and
speaking of these two systems. In the former system, typified
by the English law, a workman is assured indemnity from his
employer for accidents. In the latter, typified by the German
system, this indemnity is doubly assured, because the employer
is compelled to insure himself against it. Thus, in a certain sense,
both systems may be called "workmen's accident insurance."
But to avoid confusion, it is better to call the English scheme
"compensation," and the German scheme "insurance."
The German compulsory worlgngmen's insurance law is
elaborate, covering sickness, accident, invalidity and old age.
The provisions relating to accidents are briefly as follows:
I . Workmen (and foremen with yearly earnings of not
more than
$714)
in manufacture, mining, agriculture, forestry,
building, transportation, navigation, and some other occupa-
tions, are protected by this compulsory compensation and
insurance scheme.
*
A report on the European systems of insurance and compensation, made
for the Russell Sage Foundation by Dr. Lee K. Frankel (in press), under the title
"Workingmen's Insurance in Europe." Charities Publication Committee, New
York.
210
LEGISLATION
2. Compensation is due in all cases except where the
injury was intentionally self-inflicted.
3.
Employers are required to compensate employes
injured, and the dependents of tiiose killed in their employ-
ment, as follows:
In non-fatal cases. Beginning with the 14th week* of
disability, full medical assistance, and two-thirdsf of regular
earnings, or less according to extent of disability.
fn fatal cases. Funeral benefit, equal to one-fifteenth
of annual earnings, and income for dependents as follows:
For widow (until remarriage), 20 per cent of husband's
regular earnings ; for each child up to the fifteenth birthday
20 per cent ; but income of family not to exceed 60 per cent
of deceased's regular earnings.
4.
Disputes are settled by boards of arbitration from
which appeals may be taken to the Imperial Insurance
Office.
5.
Employers in each industry are required by law
to form accident insurance associations to which all contrib-
ute (according to payroll and risk of trade) in order to
insure the payment to every employe injured of the com-
pensation fixed by law.
6. Right to sue under Employers' Liability Act is
not retained for workmen covered by this act.
This scheme has certain striking features, (i) By re-
quiring compensation for all injuries except those intentionally
self-inflicted, it altogether eliminates disputes over questions of
negligence.
(2)
By requiring employers to insure, it protects
the injured workman, even in case of his employer's bankruptcy.
(3)
The employers' associations, formed for purposes of insurance
as required by law, become agencies for preventing accidents and
for securing the best medical help for injured workmen. This
comes about inevitably because assessments depend directly upon
*
Another general law requires all workmen with an annual income not over
$480
engaged in manufacturing or trade, to be insured against sickness in local
associations, the workmen to pay two-thirds of the premiums and the employer one-
third. During the first thirteen weeks of disability from injury a man is entitled to
benefits from this association. Thus the employer is not altogether free from the
burden of accidents resulting in short temporary disability, while the benefits in
case of serious disability, as well as fatal accidents, are a charge solely upon the
employer.
J-
If the workman injured is so helpless as to require care, the compensation
may be increased up to lOO per cent of his earnings. Such cases, however, are
exceedingly rare.
211
the frequency of serious accidents among all the workmen in all
the plants in an association, and it is to the interest of all the
employers in each association, jointly, to keep down their assess-
ments.*
In England, in
1893,
the law and public opinion in regard
to employers' liability presented practically the same situation
that we have in our states today. England then had the corii-
mon law of master and servant, modified by the Employers'
Liability Act of 1880, which defined the provisions of the common
law and limited somewhat the application of the fellow-servant
rule. Dissatisfaction with the law was evident on all sides.f
After various unsuccessful attempts to increase liability by
attacking the "fellow-servant" and "assumption of risk" de-
fenses, the principle already recognized in German and Austrian
legislation, namely, "certain compensation, limited in amount,
for all accidents of industry," gained the favor of public opin-
ion. As a result, the Workmen's Compensation Act was passed
in
1897.
This act was limited in its application to employes on rail-
ways, in factories, mines, quarries, in engineering work, and in
construction work on buildings above thirty feet. In
1900,
agricultural workers were added, and by the Act of 1906 prac-
tically all employes were added, even domestic servants.
J
The main provisions of the English law as it now stands
are these:
1. Workmen in practically all occupations are pro-
tected by the terms of the act.
2. Compensation is due in all cases except when it is
proved that injury was due to
"
the serious and wilful mis-
conduct" of the workman injured; it is due even in such
cases when injury results in death or serious and -permanent
disablement.
3.
Employers are required to compensate those injured
*
These excellent incidental benefits of compulsory insurance in Germany
are simply and graphically set forth in an article by William Hard called "Pen-
sioners of Peace,
'
published in Everybody's Magazine, October,
1908.
t
In America today we have the same rules of common law modified by
similar statutes and we have the same dissatisfaction.
X
By this act also, employers are required to compensate workmen disabled
by six specific industrial diseases.
212
LEGISLATION
and the dependents of those killed in their employment, ac-
cording to the following fixed rates
:
Fatal cases. Three years' earnings to dependents if
there be any. If not, funeral expenses, not to exceed ten
pounds
(I40.67).
Non-fatal cases. A weeklj payment not to exceed
50
per cent of average weekly earnmgs, fixed according to degree
of disability. This payment continues so long as disability
lasts.*
4.
Disputes arising under the act, if not settled by
agreement, are settled by arbitration. The judge of the
county court acts as arbiter, or a single arbiter appointed
by him may act. An appeal on questions of law may be
taken from his decision to the court of appeal, and from
there to the House of Lords.
5.
The employer may insure, or not, against the indem-
nity. In case of the bankruptcy of an employer, if he is
insured against the liability in this act, the rights of the em-
ployer against the insurance company are transferred to the
injured workman. An employer may organize a scheme of
accident insurance which shall exempt him from the provi-
sions of this act, provided he secures a certificate from the
Registrar of Friendly Societies that the provisions of his
scheme are not less favorable to the workman than the
provisions of this act, and that a majority of the workmen
are in favor of the scheme. No scheme can be certified
which makes membership a condition of employment, and
every scheme in order to be certified must have provisions
enabling a workman to withdraw. Complaint can always be
made to the registrar by workmen included in such a scheme.
6. An employe injured may claim compensation under
this act or sue for damages under previous laws, as he
chooses, but may not do both. If, however, he fails in a
suit, he may have his compensation awarded under this
act, with the costs of his unsuccessful suit subtracted.
The English law has been in operation twelve years. It
is no longer an experiment. Accounts diflêr as to the practical
value of some of its provisions and changes will no doubt be made
in it from time to time as experience proves their necessity. But
the fact that after a nine years' trial in a limited field the law was
extended to cover all employments, shows that the compensation
principle has become an accepted factor in British industry.
*
Details and exceptions omitted.
213
The French compensation law, enacted for certain trades
in
1898, and later extended to include almost all employments,
differs in some important respects from both the German and the
English laws. Its main provisions are as follows:
1. Workmen in practically all occupations fall within
the act.
2. Compensation is due in all cases except where
accident was caused intentionally by victim; if due to
inexcusable fault of victim or employer, compensation may
by a court order be respectively decreased or increased, but
never increased to exceed actual earnings of victim.
3.
Employers are required to compensate employes
injured, and the dependents of those killed by accidents,
according to these rates:
Fatal cases, (a) Funeral expenses not exceeding 100
francs
($19.30).
(b) Annual pensions to dependent heirs not exceeding
60 per cent of annual wages of deceased, distributed as
follows: To widow or widower, 20 per cent* until death or
remarriage, in which latter case a final sum equal to three
annual payments.
To children under sixteen years of age, if one parent
survives;
15
per cent if there is but one child,
25
per cent
if>[there are two children,
35
per cent if there are three chil-
dren,
40
per cent if there are four or more children. To
each child under sixteen years of age, if neither parent sur-
vives, 20 per cent ; total amount not to exceed 60 per cent.
To each ascendant and to each descendant under sixteen
years of age dependent upon deceased, if no widow or
children survive, 10 per cent, the aggregate not to exceed
30
per cent.
Non-fatal cases, (a) Expenses of medical or surgical
treatment.
(b) If permanently disabled, a pension of
66f
per cent
of annual wages for total disability and one-half loss of earn-
ing capacity for partial disability.
(c) If temporarily disabled, an allowance of
50
per
cent of daily wages, beginning with fifth day and includmg
Sundays and holidays, unless disability lasts more than ten
days, when payments become due from the first day.
4.
Disputes as to pensions, or as to sums over
300
francs
($57.90),
may be carried into higher civil courts.
*
If annual wages exceed 2,400 francs
($463.20),
only one-fourth of the
excess is considered in computing pensions.
214
LEGISLATION
Judgment of local justice of the peace is final in lesser
cases.
5.
Employers are not required to insure against the
indemnity, but they may insure in approved private com-
panies and mutual insurance associations; also, in case of
Bensions,
the state offers them an opportunity to insure,
loreover, the state guarantees against the loss
of
pension
payments on account
of
insolvency
of
employers or insurance
organisations, and is reimbursed by a special tax on em-
ployers allowed by this act. Payments in case of death
and permanent disability are considered "pensions." Thus
temporary disability payments, medical and funeral ex-
penses, are the only forms of compensation not absolutely
guaranteed to the injured. For these an injured employe
has a preferred claim on the property of the employer.
6. Employes injured in accidents covered by this law
do not have recourse to the liability law.
This law has certain distinct advantages over the English
Compensation Act.
{a) In practically all cases of serious and long extended
need resulting from injury, compensation is guaranteed.
Qj)
Compensation for total disability and for death is
somewhat higher.
(c) Compensation includes medical expenses in all cases.
{d) Compensation is more carefully adjusted to need,
especially in cases of death. Thus only 20 per cent of wages
is allowed to a widow without children, but as much as 60
per cent of wages to a widow with four or more children.
{e) By disallowing compensation only in cases of self-
inflicted injury, and by abrogating the workman's right to
sue his employer for negligence, the possibilities of dispute
are reduced to a minimum, while the provision allowing the
court to order compensation to be decreased or increased in
cases where the accident was "due to inexcusable fault of
victim or employer" respectively, preserves in the new law
what was essentially just in the old law.
As to the operation of this law, we have no first-hand evi-
dence to offer. We can, however, quote from a report of the
minister of labor to the President of the French Republic,
July
25,
1908: "From year to year, the application of industrial acci-
dent legislation has become more certain, being victorious over
the hesitation, uncertainties, and the errors of interpretation
215
inevitable at first; it has entered definitely into the economic
and juridic life of the country, and the new principles which it
has introduced have triumphed with a completeness that deserves
to attract attention."
In remedial legislation dealing with the work-accident
problem, three chief ends are desired: the prevention of unneces-
sary accidents, a just and wise distribution of the economic loss,
and the elimination of waste in the process of that distribution.
In the light of these desired ends let us consider the relative ad-
vantages of the two plans described; namely, (i) increasing the
employer's liability along the lines of negligence, and
(2)
requir-
ing limited uniform compensation for all accidents regardless of
the cause.
We have found that many preventable accidents occur,
some due to the so-called "carelessness" of the workman, and
some due to the so-called "carelessness" of the employer and his
representatives. Whether the law which determines who shall
suffer the cost of accidents has any effect upon either of these
groups of preventable accidents, could be positively determined
only by a comparative study of accidents under differing laws.
It is sometimes argued that if the workman were made sure of
compensation for every injury, he would become more careless.*
This does not seem true. It is not reasonable to suppose that
a railroader, who, when a coupler fails to work, is in the habit
of taking his time, signaling the engineer, and waiting for the
cars to come together instead of going between them would, under
a different law, say to himself "Well, I can make this thing work
quick and easy by going in between the cars. It's risky, but if
I lose an arm I get something. If the cars come together and
crush me, my wife will get three years' wages." If the fear of
death or injury does not insure caution in the workman, we can
not hope to instil it by holding over him the fear of poverty.
On the other hand, we have maintained that in developing
carefulness on the part of employers, the size and sureness of the
penalty they must pay for accidents is an important factor. The
*
A large steel manufacturer of Birmingham, England, who was opposed
to the Compensation Act on this ground, was eager to admit, after the act had been
in operation, that accidents had not increased. He is now a thorough believer in
the fairness of the compensation principle if applied to all employers in a trade.
216
LEGISLATION
employer's "carelessness" is usually of a kind which he could
have avoided by deliberate thought. It is involved in the con-
struction of his plant, the selection of materials, the engaging of
foremen, the organization of work, and making of repairs. The
act or omission which constitutes his carelessness, is remote in
time from the risk to life and limb. Nor is it a risk to his own life
and limb, but to the lives and limbs of persons with whom he has
no personal relation and whom he has perhaps never seen. At
the time when he is careless he is in a position to consider the cost.
Which is the more important as an incentive to care in in-
dustrial administration, the size or the sureness of the penalty ?
That is our question. An extension of employers' liability on the
basis of negligence would result in comparatively large recoveries
against employers in many cases that now cost them nothing,
but recoveries depending on a suit at law and therefore full of
uncertainties; whereas, the uniform compensation plan would
result in limited recoveries, somewhat smaller in amount but
absolutely certain.
Suppose, for instance, one of the steel companies in the
Pittsburgh District employs several thousand men whose average
earnings are $800 a year. Which will be the better inducement
to thoughtful, inventive, unceasing vigilance for safety, a law
which makes every fatality inevitably and immediately cost the
company
12,400 (three years' wages), or a law which threatens it
with a possible penalty of
$5,000
in about one-half* of its fatalities,
a penalty which any number of chances may aid it to avoid
a penalty which in any event it can put off paying from two
to five years ?
As to the second result to be aimed at by legislation on this
subject, a just and wise distribution of the work-accident loss, it
is of course clear that no extension of an employer's liability on
the basis of negligence could make him liable for unavoidable ac-
cidents nor for accidents due exclusively to negligence on the part
of the injured. According to our analysis in Chapter VI, 28 per
cent of the fatalities studied were unavoidable and
17
per cent
*
In Table
13,
page 86, we found out of 410 fatalities indications of some
responsibility on the part of the employer in
147
cases, of the foreman in
49,
and
the fellow workman in
56.
217
were due solely to the responsibility of the victim. Therefore, if
our estimate of the causes of accidents^ is correct, the most radi-
cal extension of "employers' liability" for negligence would still
leave the injured workman and his family to suffer the entire eco-
nomic loss in nearly half of all work-accidents.
On the other hand, to greatly extend the employer's liability
while leaving the amount of possible recovery unlimited, and
dependent as it is today not upon reason but largely upon preju-
dice and sympathy, might often put an oppressive burden upon
an employer. It is the intention of the present law that the
damages recovered in a personal injury suit shall equal the eco-
nomic loss sustained by the plaintiff as a result of the injury,
with sometimes an allowance for pain and suffering. Very often,
however, the jury, influenced by the pitiful condition of the
plaintiff or by an instinctive desire to injure a corporation, allows
an excessive recovery. Therefore, a law greatly extending the
employer's liability, with the present high and uncertain measure
of damages, might prove an excessive burden and in case of small
employers sometimes a ruinous one.
In short, to extend liability logically and equitably, we should
have to require an employer to make up to a man injured through
the negligence of that employer or any of his agents the entire
economic loss,not one year's wages, nor three years' wages, but
the potential net earnings of a lifetime cut short; and we should
have to allow the injured to suffer the entire loss in all other
accidents. By substituting a compensation system, we should
require the employer to assume a limited and regular share of the
loss in every accident,assume it as a regular cost in his business
to be reckoned in his selling prices. Thus, in every case the em-
ploye would still suffer perhaps half the income loss, but the other
half would be distributed by way of the employer through the
whole body of consumers ; in no case would the burden fall in its
entirety upon the household of the injured workman. If we were
seeking merely justice between individuals in the solution of this
problem, there would be room for discussion between these two
plans. But we are seeking as well a distribution of the loss which
shall be to the best interests of all concerned, the employer, the
workmen, and the public.
218
LEGISLATION
Considering the two propositions in the light of the third
desired endeHmination of waste in distributing the loss, waste
not only of time and money, but of good willit is apparent that
a law requiring employers to compensate all employes injured
according to a uniform method, would do away with most of
the grounds of dispute which make the present law so wasteful
in its operation. Once determine that the accident is an acci-
dent of employment, and compensation in most cases would fol-
low automatically, based in amount upon wages and extent of
disability.
On the other hand it may be said with some reason that
the evils and abuses incident to the operation of the present law,
would continue and possibly be intensified in the operation of
laws extending the employer's liability on the basis of negligence.
There would be more litigation; hence more delay. There would
be brighter prospects for the ambulance chaser; hence more
activity on his part. There would be more chances of recovery
against employers; hence greater temptation to fraud in the
claim agent. The employer's risk would increase; hence liability
insurance rates would go up and the wastes of the present system
be to that extent increased. The number of accidents in which
recovery is possible would be greater; hence contention between
employer and employes, with its trail of bitterness, distrust, and
ill will, would increase.
It is not necessarily true, however, that all these evils would
increase. It might be that the simplification of the law which
would accompany a removal of the illogical and unjust defenses
now protecting the employer, would mean a more uniform appli-
cation of it, fewer possibilities of dispute. We might therefore
reasonably expect that direct settlements between the parties
would more and more take the place of litigation, and thus lessen
rather than increase the waste in the operation of our present
law. Nevertheless, it is obvious that a system which requires
the personal responsibility for each accident to be proven in
order to determine upon whom the loss shall rest, occasions
more dispute than one in which, say, half the loss in each case
is as a matter of course to be borne by the employer.
It is too early to prophesy how Pennsylvania or the other
219
American states will legislate for the prevention of work-accidents
and for the better distribution of the resultant economic loss. But
if this study of the situation in Allegheny County proves to have
any constructive value, it will be to suggest that a new law to go
to the root of the problem, must meet these three requirements:
I. In order to furnish the most effective incentive for
the prevention of work-accidents, it must make every serious ac-
cident a certain and considerable expense to the employer.
II. In order to bring about a fairer distribution of the
economic loss entailed by work-accidents, it must shift a con-
siderable share of the burden of each accident from the family
immediately affected to the business, and thus to the whole body
of consumers.
III. In order to do away with the wastefulness, dishonesty,
and ill will characteristic of litigation under the present law, it
must reduce the possibilities of dispute between the parties to a
minimum.
In regard to the existing law of employers' liability and its
consequences, our findings, founded on the accident experience of
one great industrial district, lead inexorably to certain conclu-
sions. The law in many of its principles is unjust; in operation
it uses up time, money, and good will, to little purpose; it fur-
nishes small incentive for the prevention of work-accidents, and
leaves well-nigh the whole economic burden of work-accidents
to be borne by the injured workman and his dependents, with con-
sequent hardship and privation. It is to be condemned from
the standpoints of justice, method, and practical utility.
220
APPENDICES
APPENDIX I
THE TEMPER OF THE WORKERS UNDER
TRIAL*
CRYSTAL EASTMAN
MEMBER STAFF PITTSBURGH SURVEY
TO
Study industrial accidents from the "home" side has
been my business for a year. To acquaint myself daily
with households doubly disabled by sickness and loss of
income, to see strong men just learning to face life maimed, to
visit home after home where sudden death has visited,a dread-
ful business, you might say. Yet it has left with me impressions
of personality, character, and spirit, which make the year's work
a precious experience.
The first thing brought home to me was that working people
do not have "the luxury of grief." The daily tyranny of hard
work in their lives, leaves little time for pondering the unanswer-
able "Why
?"
of sorrow.
For instance, Mrs. Dennison, the widow of a brakeman
who was killed on the Pennsylvania Railroad, spent no quiet
days of solitary mourning. She was left with six children, the
oldest eleven. All the money she had was $500
from the Railroad
Relief Association,! to which her husband had belonged,
I450
which the men on her husband's division raised, and
I30
which
his own crew gave. The company gave her $20 toward the fu-
neral.
With some of this money she rented and stocked up a
little candy and notion store, using the three rooms in the back
to live in. Here she tended store, and cooked, and sewed, and
Reprinted from Charities and the Commons, January 2, 1Q09.
f
The company pays the running expenses of this association.
223
ironed, for herself and the six. She would have done her own
washing too, she told me, but she couldn't leave the store long
enough to hang her clothes up in the yard. She made a reasonable
success of the enterprise, enough to pay for rent and food, until
the hard times came. After that she steadily lost money. So
now she has put in her application for a chance to clean cars for
the railroad at $1.21 a day. For this privilege she must wait
her turn among the other widows; and when she gets it she must
leave her children in one another's care from six in the morning
till six at night. They are now two, four, six, eight, ten, and
twelve, respectively. Mrs. Dennison will not have time to sit
down and grieve over the death of her husband for many years to
come.
One mother, whose thin face haunts me, has been able to
endure her tragedy only through this necessity of work. She
had a daughter, just seventeen, who was employed in the dress-
making department of one of the big stores in Pittsburgh. This
girl, Ella, was eager and gay, with a heart full of kindness. She
was everybody's favorite in the workroom; at home she meant
laughter and good will for them all. To her mother, Ella was
joy and gladness,life itself. One morning this little dressmaker,
after leaving her wraps on the eleventh floor, found that she was
a few moments late. She ran for the elevator to go to her work-
room above. The elevator was just starting up, with the door
half closed. Ella tried to make it, slipped, and fell down the
shaft.
This tragedy demoralized the working force of the store for
two days. In the hunted, suffering eyes of the mother one reads
that she cannot forget, night or day. She feels that Ella's em-
ployers were generous in giving her
I500,
but it would make no
difference "if they gave her the whole store." In the back of her
mind are always two visions alternating,the merry girl who sat
eating her breakfast at a corner of the kitchen table that morning,
laughing and teasing her mother, and then, as she ran out to take
the car, looked back to smile and say good-bye,this is one.
The other,that unthinkable fall down eleven stories and the
crash at the bottom of the shaft. I felt that nothing but the daily
insistence of work,cooking and washing for her husband and
224
THE TEMPER OF THE WORKERS UNDER TRIAL
two grown sons, and caring for the two younger children,had
saved this mother's reason.
Another striking instance of the pressure of work in poor
people's lives was in the family of Harry Nelson. They lived on
the South Side, near the
Jones and Laughlin Steel Works, where
the father and two grown sons and Harry, who was nineteen,
were employed. Two younger boys were in school. One Sunday
night, on the way home after his twelve hours' work, Harry said
to his father that he'd "give a lot" not to go back to the mill
that night. (There was another twelve hours' work to come before
he could sleep, for this was Harry's "double shift.") He didn't
tell his mother he was tired, because he knew she would beg him
not to go back to work. Harry was ambitious; he was an elec-
trician's helper, getting fifteen dollars a week, and he did not want
to lose his job. At
7.30
he was back in the mill, and at 8 he
was up on an electric crane, making some repairs. When he
was through he started along the narrow runway of the crane to
a place where he could climb down. The air was full of steam;
some say that he was blinded by^this; others, that he must have
been a little dizzy. At any rate, to steady himself he reached for
an electric wire that was strung along there. He happened to
touch a part that was not insulated, got a slight shock, and fell
thirty-five feet to the floor of the mill.
After Harry was killed, the two older boys left the mill and
looked for work in another city. But the father had no choice;
he was too old to find new work. His fifteen a week was all the
more indispensable now because Harry had given all his money
to his mother, and the two older boys had paid generously for
board. In three days the father was back in his old place at the
cold saw, within sight of the place where Harry fell.
Thus work may be a cruelty as well as a blessing. But in
any case it leaves the workers little time to dwell upon their
misfortunes. When they do speak of them, it is almost always
in a "matter-of-course" way. This is not, I think, because they
lack feeling, but because they are so used to trouble that the
thought of it has ceased to rouse them.
That poor people are used to trouble is a commonplace.
I mean by "trouble," the less subtle disappointments of life,
IS 225
those which come with disease, injury, and premature death. Of
all these rougher blows of fortune, the poor family gets more than
an even share. This stands to reason, if experience has not al-
ready convinced one of it. To the ordinary causes of sickness,
unsanitary dwellings, overcrowding, undue exposure, overwork,

lack of necessary vacation, work under poisonous conditions,
to all these, poor people are much more constantly exposed than
others. To injury and death caused by accident they are also
more exposed. Poor people's children play in dangerous places,
on the street, near railroad tracks. The poor man's dwelling is
not often fireproof. Poor people do most of the hazardous work
in the world, and the accidents connected with work form the
majority of all accidents.
Moreover, the poor family is, in a material way, less able
to meet these disasters when they come than the well-to-do
family. This is in some degree due to ignorance, for ignorance,
whether as cause or result, almost always goes with poverty. In
a very large degree, however, it is due to poverty itself. It is
because they have no reserve fuijd to fall back on in emergencies.
Suppose a young steel worker with a family gets a long, sharp
chip of steel in his eye. He cannot go to the best specialist, to
the man who knows all that anybody knows about saving eyes.
Through ignorance or lack of interest on the part of the doctor
who treats him, he loses his eye. Thus an injury which might
mean but a few weeks of fearful anxiety to a well-to-do man, may
result in lasting misery to a poor man. In the same way, too,
what might often be in a well-to-do family a short struggle with
disease, crowned with success, is more likely to be in a poor family
an unrelieved tragedy.
Thus are the poor, by reason of their very poverty, not only
more open to attack from these bodily foes, but also, and again
by reason of their poverty, less equipped to fight and conquer
them.
"
St. George killed the dragon; St. George wore the finest
armor of his day and his sword was tested steel."
With these workers whom I met,
poor people, not as the

charity visitor knows them, but poor as the rank and file of wage-
earners are poor,misfortune is almost part of the regular course
of things. They are used to hard knocks, if not yet in their own
226
lives, then in the lives of their relatives, friends, and neighbors.
Consequently, there is often in their attitude toward trouble a
certain matter-of-fact calmness which looks like indifference.
Thus, I have had a mother tell me about her sixteen-year-old son's
losing two fingers in the mill. She couldn't remember exactly
how or when it happened; she thought he had lost only a week's
work; and she had no comment upon it but that it might have
been worse. An old steel worker whom I questioned about his
injuries answered, "I never got hurt any to speak of." After
persistent inquiry, however, he recalled that he had once fractured
his skull, that a few years later he had lost half of a finger, and
that only three years ago he was laid up for nine weeks with a
crushed foot. Troubles like these are the common lot; they are
not treasured up and remembered against fate.
Often I have found in young women a surprisingly
"
middle-
aged" way of looking at trouble. I remember, for instance,
Mrs. Coleman, whose husband was a freight conductor. They
had been married nine years, and had made out pretty well up to
the last two years, although the wife, as she somewhat proudly
explained, had had three children, two miscarriages, and an
operation during this time. On Christmas night,
1903,
Coleman
had his arm crushed in a railroad accident. He was disabled for
three months, and went back to work with a partially crippled
arm. Three weeks later, as he was numbering cars, an iron bar
rolled oif the load and broke his nose. This laid him up again
for five weeks and left his face permanently disfigured. He
has been troubled ever since with nose-bleeding, so that he has
to lay off every little while, and the doctor says he must have an
operation before he can be cured. Since this second injury a
fourth child has come. When I saw her, Mrs. Coleman was just
recovering from a bad attack of grip, which had increased their
expenses. To help along in this hard luck time they took two
railroad men to lodge and board in their three-room flat; one of
these men had been killed on the road the week before I called.
Here are troubles enough, and yet this young woman had no special
complaint against fortune.
"
Yes," she said, as she rose to open the door for me, the last
baby dangling over one arm, "we've had a bad time these last
227
two years, and now with him only working two or three days a
week, I guess it'll be worse. But then,"with a smile, "what
can you do about it
?"
On the same day I talked with a much older woman. She
was too worn out to smile at her troubles, but she had the same
"everyday" attitude toward them. Ten months ago they had
been doing well. Her husband was earnmg ten dollars a week at
odd jobs; two sons, twenty and seventeen, were getting fifteen
dollars a week each as lead buflfers in a coffin works; she and her
daughter kept house and did a little sewing; and they all lived
happily together. Then one day her husband was brought home
with a smashed foot and a leg broken in two places, as a result
of a bad fall. He had been on a ladder, painting, when the cornice
gave way and he jumped to save himself. For five months they
kept him at the hospital free of charge, and for four months more
he went back on crutches for treatment. Finally they told him
to come back for an operation, but on the day after the operation
they sent him away again with a bill of three dollars for the time
he had been there. His wife had to help him home, and he was
in bed when I called. The doctor had said it would be better
for him to stay at the hospital, but the superintendent decided
that they could not treat him in the ward for nothing any longer.
The wife laughed a little grimly when she told me this.
"Why," she said,
"
I can't pay a dollar and a half a day to
that hospital. Ever since he got hurt I've been cleaning offices.
All 1 can make is six dollars a week and I have to pay car fares out
of that."
"Well," I said, "how about your sons? They are making
good wages."
"Oh, they were," she answered, "but Harry, the oldest one,
has been home for five months. He's got gastritis, and the doctor
says it's from lead poisoning. You know he's a lead buffer on
coffins. He don't seem to get much better."
"And the other boy," I said, "does he go right on doing the
same work?"
"Yes, Charlie,1 don't know what we'd do if he lost his
job. He's been on half time now for three months, and that means
only
I7.50
a week."
228
To add to the general desolation in this home, the flood had
been in and covered the lower floor, leaving everything smeared
with a dry, muddy paste. In the midst of it all sat this tired
woman of fifty, who had just come home from her five early
morning hours of office scrubbing; and she was less concerned
with the bitterness of her struggle with life than she was with the
immediate problem of how to get her maimed old man up to the
hospital every other day for treatment.
This unquestioning acceptance of misfortune does not often
amount to either a commendable cheerfulness or a deplorable
apathy. Occasionally, however, it approaches heroism. I think
the most courageous person I met during the year was Mrs. Herman
Baum, a German woman of forty-five or thereabouts, who, after
nine years of disappointment and defeat, still meets the days as
they come with an unbroken spirit. She came to America as a
girl of nineteen and went out to service. At twenty-three she
married. Her "man" turned out ugly; he drank and was al-
ways mean to her. His parents, who thought he had married
beneath him, took a dislike to her and joined him in making her
unhappy. They lived along in this way for fifteen years, during
which time she bore him seven children. One day, in his work as
a moulder, he received a slight injury, from which blood poisoning
set in. After this his mind was affected; be became silent, morose,
and uglier than ever, giving his wife hardly a moment, day or
night, when she was not in fear of him. After a year or so during
which he grew steadily worse, he shot himself one night, leaving
her with the seven children, another one coming, and no resources
except a heavily mortgaged house and |8oo insurance. She had
no relatives; her father had been run over by a train, soon after
coming to America, and her only brother had been drowned in
river work a few years before.
It was in August, 1906, that Mrs. Baum's husband killed
himself. In September a baby was born, only to die before winter.
The two older children got work and brought in ten dollars a week
between them, while Mrs. Baum took in washing and made two
or three dollars a week. Thus things went pretty well until
June, 1907,
when the second boy, Harry, the jolly one, who
"kept all their spirits up with his jokes," was all but killed in an
229
elevator accident at the box factory where he worked. When,
after four months at the hospital, he came home with a permanent
lameness, and strict orders never again to do heavy work, he
turned to selling papers, and is now making about
$
i .40 a week.
After half their small income was cut off by this accident, Mrs.
Baum tried to run a grocery store in the front part of her house,
but she lost money at it and was forced to give it up. When I
saw her, she was hanging somebody's washing up in the yard.
She took me into her spotless kitchen and told me this story, not
eagerly, as if pouring out her troubles, but only after many ques-
tions, rather reluctantly, and with sometimes an apologetic smile.
Here, I thought, is a heroine of modern realistic tragedy; the
dramatist would have her lost in bitter retrospect. But she was
not; she sat there smiling a bit ruefully, and wondered whether
she must put aside her sturdy German pride next week, and go to
the Poor Board for help.
Some people, especially the Irish, even get amusement out
of the number and variety of their troubles. This is true of the
Learys, whose six years of married life have been crowded with
disasters. To begin with, Andy, the husband, who is a brakeman,
has had nine accidents on the road in five years, so many that his
wife could not distinguish in her memory the one of a year ago
which I had come to inquire about. Twice he has been near death.
Once the priest performed the last offices, but Andy pulled through
after all. Besides all these injuries, none of them less severe than
a broken bone, he accidentally shot himself one day and nearly
died from that. "And look at him now!" said Mrs. Leary.
(Andy is a handsome Irishman, and the picture of health.) In
addition to all this, they have lost two children by diphtheria.
Mrs. Leary's outlook on life seems to be a mingling of humor
and superstition. She told me, with incongruous awesomeness
in her Irish brogue, how she had heard the "death whistle" out-
side the door three times on the night that her little boy died.
And one night, when Andy had to stay at home to take care of
her, the brakeman sent in his place was killed. She thinks this
is a
"
sign," and has no doubt of Andy's ultimate fate.
"Oh yis," said she, "the docthers say ye can't kill Andy,
but I know betther. He'll be a-comin' home dead soon. Ivery

230
time I hear a knock at the dhoor, I thinks to mesilf, 'There now,
it's thim, comin' to tell me Andy's kilt.' Andy, he jokes about

it. Ony this marnin' afther I'd been givin' him his breakfast, he
starts to go to work out the back dhoor, an' 1 says, 'Andy, why
don't you niver go out the front dhoor?' 'Oh, Leary,' says he,
(that's what he calls meLeary)
'
Leary,' says he,
'
the back
dhoor's good enough for me. I'll be a-comin' by the front dhoor
soon enough, an' I won't be walkin'.'
"
With so many misfortunes the Learys have not been able
to save anything. Four times Andy tried to join the Brotherhood
of Railroad Trainmen, but each time after his papers were made
out and he had paid down his dollar, and the day had come to
join, he couldn't get together the necessary nine dollars for the
first payment. With all this, there is an unfailing humor and
philosophy in the Leary household which is irresistible.
Among railroad men generally there is a certain laughing,
soldier spirit. It is part of the faith; no true "railroader" is
without it. Perhaps this spirit leans to recklessness with some of
the younger ones, but I believe it is just as essential to the running
of a railroad as is the executive skill of the Hills and Harrimans.
This spirit stands by the men in danger and makes them meet
death bravely. It stands often a harder test; you will not break
the spirit of a railroader by cutting off his arm or giving him a
wooden leg. Out of fifteen railroad men I visited, who had re-
ceived permanent injuries, all but four have gone back to the road.
Two of the four are totally unable to do work of any kind. Another
has gone home for a few weeks until he can "get used to his
wooden leg," when he will be ready for any job the road will give
him. The other, a twenty-year-old boy who lost his right arm
at the shoulder, has learned to write with his left hand and is
studying telegraphy as hard as he can, in order to stick by the
railroad.
Of the eleven who are back on the road, nine were able to
go into the same work and pay, but two had to take lower jobs
on account of partial disability. This meant in each case five
or six dollars a week less, but neither man complained ; he took it
as part of the day's work. What the railroader dreads is having
to quit the road altogether. A watchman's job will be accepted
231
with a good deal of cheer. Notice the spirit of the one-legged
watchman at your crossing, who is very likely a man dropped from
an active, exciting occupation at eighty dollars a month to flagging
a crossing for forty. He is still in the game. But try to retire a
railroader on a pension while he is able to work, and you will
break his heart.
To a large extent, the railroaders' wives reflect this spirit.
They are quite resigned to the risks and dangers of the "mister's"
trade. But with the mothers, especially those whose husbands
have followed more quiet callings, it is different. They lead an
anxious life.
In every dangerous occupation there is not this sustaining
common courage to help a man endure gaily a lifelong depriva-
tion. A certain degree of independence and fraternity in a group
is necessary to bring it about. Many go forth from the steel mills
maimed for life, who have no such spirit to uphold them. I re-
member one night in Homestead seeing a boy on crutches, with
one leg gone. He was about nineteen, with blue eyes and a shock
of yellow hair falling down low on his forehead. In his face was
that desperate look of defiance which comes with a recent deform-
ity. He was trying with all his young will to be indifferent to
the stares of the crowd, while in every nerve he felt them. All
this and a weary hopelessness were written in his sullen child-
face.
I have shown how grief is crowded out of the lives of working
people, and how their frequent experience of trouble gives them
an ordinary manner in speaking of it. These things largely ac-
count for the opinion held by many, that working people do not
feel their sorrows as keenly as others do.
Furthermore, 1 found among working people almost no
pretence of feeling where none exists. This too, might give rise
to such an opinion. Where the death of a husband has meant
merely a loss of income, with the attending problems of struggle
and adjustment, there is no effort to have it appear otherwise.
Where it has aroused only a feeling of bitterness toward the
employer, this is not concealed either. But where the death of
the bread-winner has meant not merely an economic problem,
not merely a legal battle, but heartache and emptiness,that is
232
written, real and unmistakable, in the faces of those left. And in
the case of sons, where there may be no question of income, it is
often possible to tell in the first glance at the mother whether this
boy who was killed was "one of her children," or the child of her
heart. There is an outspoken genuineness about these people
which allows them neither to make a show of grief where there is
none, nor to hide real suffering even from a stranger.
Mrs. Leary took the accidents of "Andy" lightly. If he
should happen to be killed some day her heart would not be
broken. She spoke of the death of her baby three months be-
fore without feeling, mentioning the doctor's bills. But when I
asked her to tell me about her oldest boy who died two years ago
of diphtheria, I could see at once that I was on different ground.
Her eyes filled with tears, and there was grief and longing in her
voice as she talked about him. You see he was only five, but they
understood each other. When she was unhappy he knew it.
He would climb up in her lap, she said, and put his arms around
her neck and say, "Don't cry. Mommy; I love you."
Mrs. Burns, a pretty Irish widow, whose husband was crushed
while coupling cars, is obviously well satisfied with the $4,000
insurance he left. She takes boarders and is carefully saving the
insurance money for her little girl's education. Her aifections
are set on this child. She has a tender memory of her Tom as
he started off to work whistling that last morning, but she makes
no pretence to mourn for him. She frankly admits that her
marriage was not successful enough to make her risk it again.
Thus it is with Mrs. Andrews, a woman whose husband was
killed in the mill. I found her smiling and contented a year later.
Her man had been good and faithful while he lived, but after he
died, her brother came to live with her and help her raise her two
boys. He earned just as much, and she was perfectly satisfied
with the situation.
On the other hand, I knew of a six months' bride who shot
herself three weeks after her husband was killed. And a young
German woman, whose father had been run over by a dinkey
engine in the mill, said to me in a choking voice, "Oh, when it
comes to tellin' how he died, it breaks my heart." I have seen
mothers and fathers in middle life who had become broken and
233
old in a year after the death of a son, and a few women whom I
visited eighteen months after such a tragedy were literally un-
able to speak of it.
There was one wild-eyed little Scotch woman, Mrs. Mac
Gregor, who refused to talk with me at all. I learned from a
neighbor that she had twice been insane. Some years ago, when
they had lived near the railroad, a little three-year-old girl of
hers, who was playing before the house, ran in front of a train.
The mother reached the child just in time to touch her dress as
the engine tore her away. The mother lost her reason and was
sent to an asylum. After six or eight months she recovered and
came home. Then, one morning two years later, she got word to
come at once to the hospital, that her son was dying. He was a
lineman at the Edgar Thomson works, and had left home to go
to work as usual two hours before. In some way,no one ever
knew how,he had fallen from a ladder and broken his skull.
After this second blow the mother was again insane.
Then there was an old father, Macdougal, who had had three
sons. One died of smallpox, and one was killed in a steel mill.
The third was a railroad engineer. On the night of March
13,
1907,
he was taking a heavy freight across a bridge at Deer Creek,
Harmarsville. The creek was high and the pier gave way; the
engine and first cars went crashing into the water below, carrying
three men to death. The bodies of the fireman and conductor
were recovered next day, but young Macdougal, the engineer, was
never found. They say the old man's hair turned white in twenty-
four hours, and that he can still be found on fair days walking
along the banks of the creek, looking for his son. But for the
most part mothers and fathers do not lose their hold on things.
Their lives go on as before. You can know perhaps only from a
weary sadness in the mother's eyes that the light of their lives has
gone out.
Death does not always mean sorrow, and these working
people, it seems to me, feel no pressure of convention upon them
to appear sorrowful when they are not. But where affection is
strong and love is deep, tragedies are as real with them as with
any people I have known.
Wherever love is found there is the chance of grief; there is
234
potential tragedy. And it is in poor families, I think, that one
finds the most close and lasting aflFection.
So often, in looking up a fatal accident case, I would come
upon an intimate and devoted family group. The case of Will
Gordon, for instance,there was a holiday drama I shall not
soon forget. The Gordon family was a large one. Father and
mother were living, and three working sons lived at home, besides
four younger children. Then there were two married daughters,
who lived near by and kept in close touch with the family. Will,
the oldest son, although he was twenty-eight was the greatest
"home boy" of them all. He still handed every pay envelope
over to his mother, unopened, as he had done when a child. His
working life had been varied. First he tried the railroad, but he
was slight, and the work was too much for him. Then for a
while he did river work with one of his younger brothers who was
on a government job. But in this he soon developed a chronic
cough, and his mother was afraid of consumption. So finally he
got a job with the Pressed Steel Car Company, as a pipe fitter's
helper. Here the work was lighter and seemed to agree with him.
Every two weeks he brought home twenty-five dollars and handed
it over to his mother. Meanwhile his father, who was fifty, had
taken a job at the Oil Refinery, firing boilers at night.
The boys considered this a dangerous job for the old man,
and almost every night one of them would go with him. Will
felt most strongly about it and was always begging his father to
give it up. On Christmas evening,
1906,
the son's arguments pre-
vailed and his father promised to give up the job. This made
them all especially happy on the next day, when the two married
daughters came home with their families to celebrate Christmas.
During the day they planned that the whole family should gather
at the oldest daughter's house for New Year's. All the boys
were to have a holiday except Will, and he promised to get off
at noon, if he could, to eat the New Year's dinner with them.
The day came, the family was gathered and the dinner was ready.
With much joking and laughter and good-humored impatience,
they were waiting for Will. In the midst of it came a boy with a
scared face to say that Will had been killed at the works. He had
been sent to repair a leak in a pipe. The steam was left on;
235
the pipe burst; and he and Wilson, the pipe fitter, were scalded
to death. The father put on his coat and hurried down to the mill
to keep them from sending his boy's body to the morgue.
This family affection shows its true nature in times of trouble.
Barring what seemed to me an unusual number of deserting hus-
bands, I was impressed with the faithfulness of these people to
one another in struggle and distress. There was Mrs. Frederick,
for instance, a Swiss woman whose husband was killed in a run-
away, while driving for a wholesale liquor dealer. Just a week
before the accident they had bought a small house with a |6oo
mortgage on it, and Mr. Frederick said to his wife, as they were
looking over the deed: "Now we can begin to get along, and lift
up our heads, and stop worrying."
Since her husband's death, even with the |i,ooo insurance,
it has been hard to keep things going and continue payments on
the house. There are four children and only one is old enough to
work. Just in this troublous time, too, the family burdens have
increased. Mrs. Frederick's mother has come from Switzerland,
old, feeble and without income; and her step-daughter, who had
been away from home and independent for years, after lying in a
hospital six weeks with a fever, has now come home, weak and
helpless, to stay until she is able to work. Mrs. Frederick does
not for a moment question the rightfulness of these burdens. The
old grandmother and the convalescent daughter help her around
the house; she takes in washing; the boy's wages are good. On
the whole she is cheerful. The last thing she said to me, as she
stood in the open door, was, "Oh, we'll get on somehow. We'll
all work together, and if we have to, we'll starve together."
Another pathetic and almost humorous instance of family
loyalty is the case of a man named Benson. I was hunting for
the wife of a brakeman who had been killed in the same wreck
with the engineer Macdougal of whom I have spoken. I was told
that I could learn about her at this Benson's house. I went there
and found it a tumble-down, three-room shanty with a small
shed for a kitchen, crowded in between brick tenements. There
was no carpet on the floor and only a bare table and two kitchen
chairs in the living room. The man's wife was unspeakably
slovenly and, I think, half-witted.
236
When Benson came in, however, I could see that he was
different. He was only twenty-six. His father had been a
riverman, and he himself was born in a "shanty-boat." Owing to
his mother's early carelessness he had lost one eye. When he
grew up, he left the river and became a teamster, and in good
times he made a living. At the time I saw him, however, he had
had only one or two days' work a week for four months. The
hard times, and the wife, I am sure,not any natural shiftlessness
in the man,accounted for the desolation of his home. There
was something fine in Benson's face, a certain modest look of
steadfastness and pride,the pride of the "family protector."
This protectorship extended even to the remote connections by
marriage of the miserable creature who was his wife, for I found
that the brakeman's widow, whom he had taken in and cared for
after her husband's death, was his wife's sister-in-law. Further
questioning revealed that this widow had an old mother who had
also been dependent on the earnings of the brakeman.
"And what has become of the mother?" I asked.
"Oh," he said, "she lives here, too. She makes her home
with me."
There he sat, this one-eyed teamster, in his barren, rented,
three-room castle, and told me in a simple, serious way, as though
it were to be expected in good families, that his wife's sister-in-law's
mother "made her home with him."
It is not uncommon to find a loyalty like this in relations
where one would least expect it. I have quite lost faith in the
unkind stepmother of fairy-tale tradition. It is a stepdaughter
whom Mrs. Frederick, the Swiss woman, is caring for in the midst
of her struggle. Three or four times I found a woman utterly
uncomforted after the loss of a stepson. There was Conley, for
instance, a car inspector who was killed in a wreck. A step-
mother had brought him up since he was ten years old, loving
him as few mothers love their own sons. And he gave her back
a real devotion. When his friends would ask him why he didn't
have some fun with his money instead of giving it all to his folks,
he used to say,
"Well, fellows, home ain't a boarding house."
It is not unusual to find young men giving up their own
237
prospects, to take up the burden of the family at the sudden death
of the father. But the most memorable instance I remember of
self-sacrifice on the part of a son was that of James Brennan, a
switchman, who was killed on the Baltimore and Ohio in No-
vember, 1906. He, too, was only stepson and stepbrother to the
family he fathered. Thomas Brennan, an Englishman, had mar-
ried in the seventies and come to America, where his wife bore
him two sons and then died. Soon after, he went back to England
and married a sister of his first wife and brought her here to take
care of his children. He soon proved worthless as a provider.
He lived oif and on with his family, but contributed less and less
to their support, and finally left them entirely. The second wife
was not strong, and after the birth of her last child, became an
invahd. The burden of the family thus fell upon the shoulders of
the two boys, her nephews and stepsons. They went to work at
eleven and twelve. Arthur, the younger, was drowned at eighteen,
leaving James, the older son, as the only support.
This young man never deserted his post. During the later
years his burden increased. His stepsister made a runaway mar-
riage at eighteen and in two years was deserted by her husband
and came home with a child. A feeble old grandmother of eighty-
eight came over from England to be taken care of. His step-
mother became crippled with rheumatism and lay in bed for two
years. In June of the year he was killed, he sent her away to a
sanatorium to get well. She had been there for five months, had
gained twelve pounds and was doing well when the telegram came
to tell her of his death. She came home to face the struggle of life
without him,an aged mother on her hands, a boy of ten, and an
inconsequent daughter with a baby,and she herself an invalid,
suff'ering constantly. One would say that the mere problem of
existence would be all-absorbing for that woman. Yet, when I
found her a year later, it was the emptiness of her life without this
stepson rather than the loss of his income that was her tragedy.
There are all kinds of people everywhere. This is the only
final conclusion. It is not easy, therefore, to describe the spirit in
which the working people meet trouble. They meet it in all the
ways there are. But most of those I met had an "every-day"
attitude toward misfortune. This seems to support the opinion
238
many hold, that poor people do not feel their tragedies deeply.
But I think it is to be explained rather by the fact that they are
too busy to entertain grief, that trouble is too common among
them to arouse exclamation, and that they make no show of feeling
where there is none. That they know the deepest sorrow is
obvious to one who has seen the loyalties and lasting affections
which make up so much of their lives. I found usual in families, a
generous affection which could rise to self-sacrifice and devotion in
time of trial ; and sometimes between two members of a family, a
rare love, exclusive and complete, so that the death of one left the
other in an empty world.
Tales of trouble like these are worth listening to, chiefly as
they reveal the spirit of the people who suffered. It is with this
thought that I have told them. But if by revealing a dreary re-
currence of the same kind of misfortune in home after home, these
stories have roused in the reader's mind a question, perhaps a
protest, this too, is worth while. By a study of these work-ac-
cidents in their happening, by a counting of the cost to the worker
and his family, to the employer, and to society,as at present
the cost is distributed,we hope to answer that question. Possi-
bly we shall justify that protest.
239
APPENDIX II
THE PROCESS OF MAKING STEEL*
JOHN ANDREWS FITCH
THERE
are three separate stages in the process of manu-
facture before a bank of red iron ore is transformed
into a pile of steel rails or of steel beams for a sky-
scraper. There is the reduction of the ore to pig iron, the pro-
cess of changing the pig iron into steel, and finally, the rolling of
the steel to bring it to the shape desired.
Blast furnaces are hollow, barrel-shaped structures of
masonry and steel, eighty-five to one hundred feet in height, and
twenty to twenty-five feet in diameter at the bulge. Alternate
loads of ore, coke and limestone,the latter as a flux,are run
in little cars up an inclined track and dumped into the top of the
furnace. The heat is introduced through a dozen or more pipes
called tuyeres (pronounced
"
tweers") which penetrate the walls
of the structure at points encircling its circumference about seven
feet from the base or hearth. Through these tuyeres air is in-
troduced which has been heated in one of the stoves,the im-
mense boiler-like structures set on end, usually four in a row,
which accompany every blast furnace. The temperature of the
air is somewhere near i,ooo degrees Fahrenheit as it enters the
furnace, and it is driven at a pressure that forces it through the
whole mass above, igniting the coke and creating such heat that
the material in the stack becomes molten just above the tuyere
level. The feeding of the furnace at the top never ceases, day
or night, and every four hours the men knock the fire clay out of
the tapping hole at the hearth, letting a hundred tons or more
of the liquid pig iron flow out and down a runner, and empty
Reprinted from Charities and the Commons, March
5,
IQ09.
240
THE PROCESS OF MAKING STEEL
itself into brick-lined ladles that stand waiting on a railroad
track.
The iron at this point may be run into molds, hardening
into the pig iron bars about two feet long to which the steel
worker of a dozen years ago was accustomed. Today, however,
in the operation of blast furnaces that serve steel works, it is not
often that the product is allowed to cool before it is transformed
into steel. A locomotive couples onto the train of ladles with
their seething contents,wicked little blue flames leaping up
here and there on the surface,and delivers them at the Besse-
mer or the open-hearth departments of the steel works.
The Bessemer process,so called from its discoverer. Sir
Henry Bessemer,consists in blowing air through a quantity of
molten iron and changing its constituents of silicon and carbon
by oxidation. A Bessemer converter is like an immense egg-
shaped barrel hung on axles placed at the middle point. There
is a double bottom. The upper one is perforated with many little
holes a quarter to a half inch in diameter. The space between
the bottoms is an air chamber and into this space air is driven
which is forced on through the perforated bottom and thr ugh
the eighteen inches or so of molten iron, freeing it from its im-
purities, and issuing at the converter mouth in a roar of flame.
The spectacular Bessemer converter is now giving way to
the open-hearth furnace, which is more prosaic and more depend-
able. An open-hearth furnace is a structure of brick-work re-
sembling an oven. Through the oven's door, the molten iron
direct from the blast furnace is poured from a ladle, or pig iron
bars are dumped from boxes which are thrust in by the mighty
arm of the charging machine. Intense heat is made to play
upon the surface from a gas flame which is admitted now from
one end, now from the other, and the change to steel is effected
by boiling six or eight hours.
The steel, whether made by one process or by the other,
is poured into a ladle which will hold fifteen to twenty tons.
This ladle is swung by a crane around to a position just above a
train of ingot molds which stand waiting on little trucks on a
narrow gauge railroad track. Through a hole in the bottom of
the ladle the steel is poured into each mold, filling it to the top.
i6
241
When the steel has cooled sufficiently to stand, the molds are
stripped off and the ingot stands exposed,a massive block of
steel, six or seven feet high, a foot to two feet thick and glowing
red.
At this point the steel is still soft in the hot center of the
ingot, but too hard on the outside for rolling, so the train is hauled
by the puffing little "dinkey" engine, over to the soaking pits.
An overhead crane with a pair of jaws like ice tongs, seizes each
ingot and lowers it into a pit where a gas flame keeps the surface
at the right temperature while the heart is cooling down to a con-
dition such that it may be worked. In other words, the heat is
equalized, or, as the steel workers say, the ingot is thoroughly
"soaked."
The block of steel is then ready for the blooming mill.
The overhead crane seizes it again and sets it on end in a sort of
dump cart, which, when all is ready, tips over and deposits it
on a roll-table, a succession of steel rollers, so arranged that
they revolve and carry the ingot forward or backward at the will
of the man operating the lever. These roll-tables extend on each
side of the blooming mill itself which is made on the principle of
a clothes wringer. Two huge rolls of steel are placed the right
distance apart, the roll-table is set in motion, and the ingot dives
between the rolls with a bang and a shower of sparks. The
engines are reversed, the rolls are brought a little closer by the
deft movement of a lever, and the slightly flattened ingot comes
back through on a second pass. From time to time great iron
fingers reach through between the rolls of the roll-table and tip
the ingot one-quarter way over, so that it may receive pressure
on all sides.
This process is kept up until the ingot has become an elon-
gated bar, many feet long and reduced in thickness according to
the shape that it is finally to have. By the time the blooming
mill has done its work, the steel is too cold for further rolling,
and it is cut into lengths about six feet long. These are taken
to the reheating furnaces to be brought to a temperature sufficient
for the final working.
All mills that work the steel over into marketable shapes
are called finishing mills, and there are different kinds, according
242
THE PROCESS OF MAKING STEEL
to the article produced, as structural, rail, or plate mills. In
these mills, the rolling process corresponds to that of the blooming
mill, but the rolls are generally shaped diflferently. The rolls of
a plate mill are similar to those of a blooming mill because a
flat surface, only, is desired; but in a rail mill, for example,
there are a series of rolls or "trains" of rolls through which the
bar must pass. The space between the first two rolls is so shaped
as to indent the bar as it passes through. The next rolls make
this indentation more distinct, and so on until the perfect rail
emerges. In other special mills a similar process is followed.
The final step is the straightening, cutting and piling of the stock,
before the shipment.
243
APPENDIX III
SAFETY PROVISIONS IN THE UNITED
STATES STEEL CORPORATION*
DAVID S. BEYER
Chief Safety Inspector, American Steel and Wire Company
AT
the outset, it should be explained that this article is not
intended to be either "popular" or "technical," in the
L accepted sense of these terms. If it were framed on purely
technical lines, it would presuppose a thorough knowledge on the
part of its readers, of power generation,of machinery,of in-
dustrial organization,and would resolve itself largely into a
statement of rules, specifications, methods, and appliances, that
would be both uninteresting and incomprehensible to any one who
did not have this knowledge. On the other hand, to explain to
an outsider the mechanical construction and operation of, for
instance, the different types of electric cranes, with the accidents
which may occur on them,and to make clear the value of the
rules and safety devices which have been worked out to prevent
such accidents,might readily fill the entire space allotted to this
article. The attempt will be, rather, to touch in a general way on
some of the principal features of safety work in its present stage of
development in the United States Steel Corporation, and to give
some impression of the problems encountered, and how they are
being solved in a practical way.
This work is a logical outgrowth of association with the
accidents which must inevitably accompany the use of machinery.
It is probably safe to say that the "casualty" or "accident" de-
partment has always preceded the "safety" department; that
dealing with the men who have been injured has brought about a
*
Reprinted from The Survey, May
7,
iQio.
244
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SAFETY PROVISIONS IN THE U. S. STEEL CORPORATION
desire to prevent the recurrence of accidents. From the first
scattering efforts in this direction have grown more systematic
methods, until accident prevention has developed such a variety
of detail and such breadth of possibilities, that it is fast becoming
a technical branch of itself. What was originally a species of self-
defense, has broadened out into more humanitarian lines, until
at present it is being taken up on a scale that would not have been
dreamed of in this country a few years ago. Safeguards once
considered entirely satisfactory are being replaced by others of
improved construction. New forms of protection are constantly
being devised.
In some of the companies which were brought together in
190 1 to form the United States Steel Corporation, organized
safety departments have existed for the last fifteen years; in all
of them more and more attention has been given to safeguarding
employes, until at present each of the main constituent companies
has a corps of trained specialists who devote their time to studying
the causes of accidents and to devising means to prevent them.
New impetus was given this work by the interest manifested in it,
and the policy adopted toward it by the officials for the steel
corporation. Every year all the men in charge of these matters
for the several subsidiary companies have been called together at
the general offices in New York for discussion of the problems
connected with their work, the first general meeting being held
in May, 1906. At these meetings the officers of the corporation
have given assurances of support to the subsidiary companies
in every practical undertaking for the prevention of accidents.
This resulted in the formation in April,
1908,
of a central com-
mittee of safety.
THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF SAFETY
This committee is composed of five members representing
subsidiary companies operating the largest plants and mills, with
an officer of the United States Steel Corporation acting as chair-
man. It was empowered to appoint inspectors to examine the
various plants and equipment, and submit reports of safety con-
ditions, with suggestions for improvement. The committee was
further requested to record and disseminate data on regulations,
245
rules, devices, etc.< tending toward safer working conditions in
tiie plants.
Some idea of the breadth of the field before the new com-
mittee may be gained from the fact that it includes
143
manu-
facturing plants, in addition to mining and transportation prop-
erties, employing in all approximately 200,000 men.
The committee has selected as its inspectors men already
engaged in safety work in the subsidiary companies;in other
words, the matter has resolved itself largely into a system of inter-
company inspection, which gives the plants inspected the benefit
of new viewpoint and varied experience and at the same time
enables the inspectors themselves to see what is being done else-
where, and to carry back new ideas and devices to their own plants.
The plan has worked well and has been of great assistance to the
several companies, who hitherto had been coping with their own
safety problems without definite knowledge of what other mem-
bers of the great corporation family were doing.
Meetings of the committee are held about once a month,
when arrangements for inspection are made, and reports con-
sidered. Drawings, photographs, rules, specifications, etc., are
submitted for consideration, and such as seem desirable are sent
out to all the companies. During the two years since the instiga-
tion of this central committee of safety, its inspectors have re-
ported to it, in round numbers, 6,000 recommendations for in-
creasing the safety of employes in the plants, mills, mines, and on
the railroads and steamship lines of the organization. Of these
recommendations ninety-three per cent have been adopted by the
committee and carried out by the subsidiary companies. New
appliances, guards for the protection of machinery, and other
means for safeguarding the workmen, to the number of one hun-
dred or more each year, have been submitted for the consideration
of the committee, and through the committee have been brought
to the attention of and adopted by the subsidiary companies.
There has been no attempt to establish a uniform safety
organization in each of these companies, since the conditions vary
so greatly that this would be impracticable; the Carnegie Steel
Company has twenty-seven diffêrent plants, the Illinois Steel
Company, six, the National Tube Company, thirteen, the American
246
Sheet and Tin Plate Company, thirty-four, the American Bridge
Company, sixteen, the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company,
seven, and the American Steel and Wire Company, thirty-two.
In some cases the plants of a company are grouped within a
radius of a few miles, in others they are located in as many as ten
or twelve states. While each company thus has its own safety
organization, which has been evolved during a period of years,
there are many features common to all. The following pages
treat particularly of the organization and methods used in the
American Steel and Wire Company, but it should be borne in mind
that many of the devices and ideas found in its plants were se-
cured from some of the other companies mentioned, through the
central committee of safety and the system of inter-company in-
spection.
The American Steel and Wire Company has plants in Wor-
cester, Mass.; New Haven, Conn.; Trenton, N.
J.;
Pittsburgh,
Donora, Allentown and Sharon, Pa.; Cleveland and Salem, Ohio;
Anderson, Ind.; DeKalb, Joliet and Waukegan, 111.; San Fran-
cisco, Cal., and Hamilton, Canada. Its equipment includes docks
and ore handling machinery, blast furnaces, open hearth furnaces,
Bessemer converters, blooming mills, plate mills and rod mills;
finishing departments for making nails, fence, market wire, etc.,
as well as specialty departments for springs, electric cables, rail
bonds, wire rope and flat wire. It unloads a boat of ore from the
Michigan mines at its docks in Cleveland, reduces this to pig iron
in its blast furnaces, converts the iron into steel ingots in open
hearth or Bessemer departments, rolls these ingots out into billets
in a blooming mill, reduces the billets to a quarter-inch rod in the
rod mills, and draws this rod down into the wire from which your
watch spring is made, or your telephone connected up.
To do this there is a great variety of machinery, and the
problem of bringing this equipment up to approved standards
of safety, and maintaining it in this condition, is complicated by
the widely separated locations of the plants. The logical out-
come has been to place the responsibility largely in the plants
themselves, with such oversight and assistance as are necessary
to obtain satisfactory results. Accordingly, special inspectors
have been appointed and local inspection committees organized.
247
There are two of these inspection committees in each mill, one
called the "foremen's committee," and the other the "work-
men's committee."
LOCAL COMMITTEE
The foremen's committee usually includes the assistant
superintendent of the plant, the master mechanic, chief electrician,
and a department foreman or two. Some of these members are
retained permanently on the committee, so that they may gradu-
ally become educated to the full scope of the work. By changing
one or two members at intervals, numbers of foremen receive the
benefit of this experience. It is the duty of the foremen's com-
mittee to make an inspection of the plant either semi-monthly or
monthly, and turn in a written report; furthermore, they go over
the recommendations of the workmen's committee, which reports
weekly.
The workmen's committee is entirely distinct, and is taken
from the rank and file of our mill employes; for example, there may
be a machinist, an electrician and a wire drawer,or a roller, a
millwright, and a carpenter, etc., etc. These men are selected by
the superintendent in consultation with the foreman from whose
department they are taken, workmen of good intelligence being
chosen, who will take an interest and be able to make their work
count. There are from two to four men in this workmen's com-
mittee, depending on the size of the plant; they serve on the com-
mittee for a month, making one inspection a week, each inspection
consuming about a day. At the end of the month an entirely new
committee is appointed, and both the incoming and outgoing
committees meet with the superintendent who explains to them
something of the object of their committee work. Those who have
completed their term of service are told that they are to consider
themselves permanently on the safety committee, and to feel free
at any time to mention anything which they think conducive to
their own safety or that of their fellow employes. The men,
pleased, of course, at the opportunity to meet the head of the plant,
take considerable pride and interest in the safety work, and are
coming to realize more fully its importance. Several superin-
tendents state that the early members of these committees are
248
Still making suggestions, and they undoubtedly bring up many
things that otherwise they would not mention at all.
The details of the committee organization are left largely to
the local managers, who adapt the scheme to local conditions and
bring some of their own ideas into play. One superintendent
makes out the lists of workmen's committees for several months,
and posts them in the mill so that the men will see them and
know some time ahead that they are to serve on the committee.
He says that they like to see their names used in this way, and
"load up" in advance for the time when they are to begin this
service. At another plant it is customary to have one member of
the foremen's committee go about with the workmen's committee,
to explain and discuss any problems which may come up. While
there are these local variations in the different plants, the plan and
scope of the work are the same in all : each committee makes a
written report of its inspection, the recommendations of which
are numbered, and the numbers of any incomplete items are all
shown on a monthly statement until they have been carried out, as
mentioned later.
Our experience with these committees has been uniformly
satisfactory; benefits accrue both from the actual recommenda-
tions, and from the enlivened interest which the men are taking in
safety appliances. A master mechanic of one of the large plants
said a few days ago, that he can notice a decided change in the
attitude of the men toward safety matters since these committees
were established; that where he used to have difficulty in keeping
any safeguards in place, the men are now looking out for them and
helping keep them up. Some of the things they bring to light
are such as might escape an outside inspector in a dozen trips
through the mill. For instance, one of the workmen's committees
recently called attention to a platform which was so placed that
when it rained the water deflected back into the "mixer building"
where melted iron is constantly being handled; this water lying
in pools on the floor would cause a serious explosion if hot metal
were spilled into it. Other items refer to gear covers which have
been taken off and not replaced; to steam which forms in cold
weather and obscures an open reservoir; to elevator gates which
have been tied up so as to make them ineffective; to places which
are poorly lighted at night, etc., etc.
249
MILL SAFETY INSPECTORS
There are certain classes of equipment that require thorough
inspection at frequent intervals by men of special training, who
can go over them in greater detail than is possible for the mill
committees. In this class are electric traveling and locomotive
cranes, engine stops, elevators, shop equipment, cars, locomotives,
etc., and for them special inspectors have been appointed, who
make a weekly report on a printed form. At present we have
nine such forms in use, similar in arrangement to the crane report
ANIERICAN STEEL & "WIRE CO.
SAFETY INSPECTION OF CRANES.
CRAN No.
-WORKS
DATE
Drnms. Chains, Cablis aid Hooks
Wliotls and Flantes
Brakes and Bells
Sweep Brnshis and Bnmpers
Track Clamps
Draw Bars and Posh-Poles
Motors, Generators, Electric Wiring, etc.
Foot-Walks and Railings
Warning Signs
Ini Other Part Not Specified Ahoie
Boos Operator Considir Crane Sale ?
Shoold Crane he Shot Oowo Immedlatelii
Until Bepalred 7
Designate Parts Inspected and found O. K. by
"
X."
Designate Defective Parts by a letter, using A, B, C, etc. and give explanation of Defect In Blank Space Below
Form used for weekly inspection report of special machinery; these forms
(5x8 inches with wide margin at bottom for memoranda) are filled out by the
local safety inspectors in each plant.
shown above. It will be noted that the important parts are all
specified, and each part is checked off on the form as the in-
spector goes over the cranes; one of the headings requires the man
who is operating the machine to state his opinion as to its safety,
and there is a provision for stopping it at once if any serious defects
250
-.^j^yj^^m^
are found. There are at present 28 men engaged in such special
inspection in the American Steel and Wire Company plants, aside
from the local committees. In the larger works this takes all of
one man's time, while in smaller ones, two or three days per week
may be sufficient, the inspector working as a machinist, electrician,
etc., the rest of the time.
The reports of foremen's committees, workmen's committees,
and safety inspector, are compiled once a month, and copies sent
to the general offices of the company. These statements include
all new items, and at the end of each report, show the "Recom-
mendations Completed During Current Monthly," "Previous
Recommendations Incomplete," "Recommendations Objected
To." This gives a monthly survey, from which a good idea may
be obtained of the general condition and progress at each plant,
and additional pressure may be brought to bear where the progress
is not satisfactory.
Aside from the practical value of the recommendations
secured, there is a moral effect in this varied inspection which
must not be overlooked. The foremen, millwrights, and repair
menall who are in any way responsible for the condition of the
machineryare stimulated to greater care and attention in keep-
ing everything in good shape. The knowledge that any defects
will be mentioned on an inspection report (sometimes on two or
three) , each week until the defect has been remedied or the delay
investigated, undoubtedly does much to prevent tardiness in
carrying out this work. During the month of January, 1910,
there were approximately
1,500 specific recommendations made
by these different inspectors and inspection committees in the
American Steel and Wire Company's plants. Of these over
500
had been entirely completed before the end of the month, with
material ordered and work under way on a great many more.
BOILER PLANTS
In mills driven by steam engines the boiler plant is the
primary source of power. It generates steam which is piped to
the engines, and is a storehouse of energy so great that when any
mischance releases this energy in the form of an explosion, build-
ings are demolished and lives endangered. The possibility of
251
such catastrophes has been so emphasized by repeated boiler
explosions, that most states and municipalities have laws requir-
ing a systematic inspection of boilers by authorized inspectors.
In the United States Steel Corporation this is done by an outside
inspection company which makes a specialty of boiler insurance,
each boiler being thoroughly inspected at least once in six months.
In addition to this inspection, which is directed mainly to
the detection of corrosion or defects which might lead to an ex-
plosion, many minor arrangements can be made to contribute
to the safety of men whose duties require their presence in and
about boiler plants. The failure of a part in a boiler or steam
pipe, insignificant in itself, can instantly involve men and ma-
chinery in a cloud of blinding vapor, so that ladders and passages
that would be safe under normal conditions, may bring misfortune
upon the workmen groping about with ineffective vision. Under
such conditions prompt and unimpeded access is needed to over-
head valves and connections, stairways being preferable to vertical
or inclined ladders, and all stairways, walks, tops of boilers, etc.,
across which it is necessary for workmen to pass, should be thor-
oughly protected by hand rails, and well lighted. Plates i and
2 show stairways in one of our boiler plants.
The arrangement of piping may be such as to form what is
known as a "water pocket," that is, a place where water gathers
from the condensation of the steam. The opening of a valve will
shoot this water forward with sledge hammer effect, bringing
disaster to the piping system or the machinery to which steam is
furnished, and endangering the lives of all who may be near.
Water pockets should be guarded against in designing a system of
steam piping, but where oversight or necessity has brought about
such a form of construction, the danger has been obviated by
placing a "drip" in the water pocket, that is, a small drain with a
valve through which the objectionable water may be allowed to
flow from the pipe before a main valve is opened.
Many plants are provided with a tunnel underneath the
boilers, through which, where coal fuel is used, the ashes are re-
moved; not infrequently these tunnels are so arranged that there
is a "dead end," from which there is no means of egress. A
break which would let steam or hot water flow into the tunnel and
252
cut off escape by the one outlet provided, would be liable to scald
or suifocate any workman who happened to be in this section of
the tunnel. Six cases of tunnels with "dead ends," which have
come under our observation in the past two years, have been cor-
rected by providing additional doors, ladders, or other outlets.
Every boiler is equipped with a gauge glass, that is, a vertical
glass tube about three-quarters of an inch in diameter, by which
the height of the water in the boiler can be known. These glasses
frequently break, as they are subjected to the same steam pressure
as the boiler itself, which may be from loo to
1
50 pounds per square
inch, with a temperature of from
300 to
350
degrees Fahrenheit.
When a boiler tender opens the valve after putting in a new glass,
it is liable to explode before his face like the cannon cracker which
the boy celebrating the Fourth of
July
holds too long after light-
ing, and the results are much the samemore or less severe cuts
and burns, and possible destruction of his sight. Danger from
"this source has been eliminated by using the gauge glass guard
shown in Plates
3
and
4.
This guard is made of sheet steel and
can be turned in front of the glass when anyone is working about
it; after the work is done it is swung around back of the glass so
as not to interfere with the view of the water.
A number of our boiler plants have been equipped with
non-return valves, which only come into play in case of an ac-
cident. There may be 10,000 H.P. of boilers connected into one
piping system, so that if any part of a boiler or main steampipe
fails this stored up energy will be released with terrific force at
the point where the break occurs, until valves can be closed or
fires drawn and the boilers cooled down. The non-return valve
closes automatically in case of accidents of this sort, and thus
brings the system under control without the risk which must be
taken by men going in to close the valves by hand.
Three connections are necessary for each boilerone through
which water to be evaporated is admitted ; a connection from the
boiler to the main piping through which the steam is carried away
;
and a connection to a system of "blow-off" piping, so that the
sediment which settles from the water can be blown out at intervals.
Entrance to a boiler is obtained by means of a "manhole," which
is just about large enough to enable an average sized man to
253
wriggle through comfortably, a process which cannot be accom-
plished very quickly. Thus the workman who enters a boiler,
while other boilers of the same plant are in use, is necessarily at
the mercy of the men outside, as the accidental opening of a
valve might result in his serious scalding. There are long rows of
these valves exactly alike and mistakes are liable to occur; to
guard against this the valves have been numbered and red warning
signs marked
"
Dangerdo not move," are hung on them when
anyone is in a boiler. Wherever practicable, it is made the duty
of the man doing the work to place these warning signs.
ENGINE INSTALLATIONS
The power which turns the shafting and drives the machinery
in our mills, is furnished chiefly by large steam engines. These
engines have fly-wheels weighing from twenty-five to seventy-five
tons each, running at a rim speed of five or six thousand feet per
minute. The energy stored in one of these wheels when operating
is about equivalent to an average sized passenger locomotive,
running at the rate of sixty miles an hour. If an engine is al-
lowed to speed up, additional energy is imparted to the fly-wheel
until it bursts from centrifugal force, unloosing a power which
might be likened,' roughly, to a locomotive and a train of several
cars, ploughing their way through the mill at the rate of "a-mile-
a-minute." This terrific force is controlled and held in check by
the "governor," which is usually an arrangement of two fly-balls
revolving at a speed proportionate to that of the engine, and
automatically reducing or increasing the steam supply. Certain
parts of the governor may break and cause the engine to "race,"
and if the engineer cannot get a valve closed quickly enough the
fly-wheel will "explode."
There is a safety attachment on the governor, which is
intended to stop the engine in such emergencies,- but engineers
frequently allow this attachment to become ineffective. On a
single inspection trip, this was the case with ten out of sixteen
engines observed. In one instance a roll of waste was placed
under the governor bracket, in another a wood block was used,
in others the bolts were clamped so as to produce the same result,
in two or three cases the man in charge simply said he had "forgot"
254
to fix it up after a shutdown. One grayhaired engineer of perhaps
fifty years to whom I spoke about this condition, minimized the
danger, saying,
"
I have been running this engine now for six years
and have never had an accident," and yet on further questioning
he admitted that such an accident might occur at any time, due to
that insignificant handful of waste, and that probably he would be
the first man injured. Each of the men running these engines
realized what might result from their interfering with the action
of the governor, yet they all took the chance, because it never had
happened in their experience.
To improve matters we are having counterweighted brackets
placed under the engine governors, so that they will drop out
automatically when the engine is running, without any attention
from the engineer, and a written report is made weekly on one of
the inspection blanks previously mentioned, which shows whether
this safety feature is being used or not. As an additional safe-
guard, practically all the large engines in this company have been
equipped with automatic stop valves having a speed limit at-
tachment. These are intended to shut the engine down auto-
matically when it exceeds a certain safe speed, and the valve may
be closed also by pushing an electric button in various parts of the
mill. At intervals here and there in the different departments
there are little blue lights, each of which marks the location of a
push button for the engine stop system. Sometimes they are on a
column, sometimes suspended over a machine, and there are any-
where from five or six up to forty or fifty of them in each system.
If a man is caught in the machinery, or there is a breakdown of
any sort, one of these buttons is pushed, which shuts off the steam
and stops the engine. Nearly one hundred of these stops have
been installed in plants of the American Steel and Wire Company.
The push buttons operate by electricity, and the small
wires which carry the current to the engine room may be broken,
the push buttons may get out of order, or the batteries develop
defects; here, if anywhere, "eternal vigilance" is the price of
safety, and we have arranged that the daily shutting down of the
engines shall be by means of these buttons, and that once a week
each button shall be pushed with a man at the engine throttle
to see that it works properly,the speed limit tried, the voltage
255
of the batteries taken, and the lines tested for breaks; all of this
being reported on a printed form. In several places butterfly
valves have been placed in steam lines to engines, that is, a
valve which closes instantly by pulling a lever, and chains or
wire ropes are carried from this lever to convenient points for
stopping the engine from a distance.
MOTOR STOPS
In departments driven by electricity, we have motor stops
corresponding to the automatic engine stops described. In
some cases these are arranged to operate by push buttons, and
in others a rope is carried directly from the machinery to the
switch controlling the motor, so that the switch can be pulled by
means of the rope in case of emergency. Plate 6 shows a series
of machines having a stop of this sort. There is an operator at
each set of rolls. Recently when one of them had his hand caught
he cried out, and several of his fellow operators pulled the rope
with such vigor that the switch was torn bodily from the board.
The motor was stopped so quickly that only the tips of the injured
man's fingers went into the rolls, whereas his whole hand would
undoubtedly have been crushed but for this safety stop.
ELECTRIC CRANES
Electric cranes have been called the "giant laborers" of the
mills. They pick up a ladle weighing twenty tons, with fifty
tons more of molten iron inside it, carry, and pour it as readily as
if it were a cup of tea. Heavy rolls and housings used in the
mills are lifted out and replaced by them, and in many depart-
ments all of the daily tonnage is handled one or more times by
cranes. They are excellent servants, but sometimes they blunder,
and a ladle of steel upset may mean disaster to a dozen men.
There are gears and wheels which mangle; and twenty, thirty,
forty feet of space underneath the man who falls from a crane
bridge.
Some one has said that the education of a child should
begin with its grandparents; certainly the best time to safe-
guard a crane is before it is bought. This method can be used
when new machinery is being obtained, and in order to insure
256
Plate ii.
View in Nail Mill Showing Safety Hoods over Emery Grinders,

WHICH are Flanged out of a Solid Piece of Steel Plate
The foot treadle must be held down while the grinder is being used ; as soon as
the treadle is released a spring throws the overhead belt on to the "loose" pulley,
stopping the grinder automatically. Walks for oilers will be noted in the trusses
at the top of picture; in this case they are fenced in with boards, although pipes or
structural railings are frequently used
proper attention to these matters by crane builders, standard
safety specifications iiave been prepared for use in ordering new
equipment for tiie American Steel and Wire Company. These
specifications provide for a foot-walk" on the side of the crane
bridge, with a toe-board along the edge of this walk; exposed
gears are to be covered and overhung gears eliminated. (Ex-
amples of these conditions are shown in Plates
7
and 8.) Limit
switches are required to prevent a load being lifted too high and
breaking away from the drum ; a safety switch is to be placed on
the upper part of the bridge so that a workman can throw out this
switch and prevent anyone starting the crane from the cab while
he is at work; safety couplings, brakes and bumpers are specified;
also a gong which the operator can ring to warn anyone under-
neath of the approach of the crane; a brush or prong is required
which moves along the track in front of the crane wheel, and would
push aside a hand or foot resting on the rail of the runway before
it would be crushed by the wheel. Wire ropes are also specified
for hoisting purposes instead of the chains which have been used
largely in the past; the failure of a single link in a chain means
dropping the load, while several members of a wire rope may be
broken without interfering with its service, and the broken strands
give warning of weakness which would not be apparent in a chain.
One of the most important safety provisions for a crane is a
foot-walk on the bridge (see Plate
7),
for the use of the crane
operator, who must go all over his crane every day or two to oil
and inspect it, and for the repair men, who must handle tools and
remove and replace parts of the crane. Where a foot-walk is not
provided, it is necessary to walk on the upper edge of the girder,
the surface of which is bisected by a rail, and broken up by rivets
and bolts, and is, moreover, frequently slippery with grease or oil
which drips from the bearings. If mention is made at the time
the order is placed, any of the standard crane builders will furnish
a foot-walk on the crane; but of course it adds slightly to the cost,
and in view of the competitive bids on such work, it is only natural
that the foot-walk should be omitted if it is not distinctly specified.
Where these general matters have not been considered in
designing and arranging the different parts of a crane, it is difficult,
and sometimes impossible, for an operating company to make all
17
257
of the above safety provisions, but whenever practicable they are
being installed on our old equipment.
FOR WIRE DRAWING EQUIPMENT
Plate
9
shows the arrangement of a modern wire mill.
A coil of rods or wire is placed on a reel, from which it is drawn
through a die to a revolving block, the opening in the die being
smaller than the original wire, so as to decrease its diameter. It is
possible by this process of cold drawing to reduce a quarter-inch
rod to the thickness of a hair, that is, one or two thousandths of
an inch.
There are several things which may occur to endanger the
wire drawer. If the wire does not uncoil freely the reel may be
dragged forward and crush him against the frame of the machine;
a loop may spring over the top of the reel and catch his arm or
foot, so that if the block is not stopped promptly the loop will
tighten and lacerate, or even cut off the member; or the wire may
break, and the flying end put out an eye, or cause a scratch or
puncture wound from which blood poisoning may result.
In the center of Plate
9
is shown a battery of levers sticking
up from the floor. Each of these levers is arranged so that when
it is thrown forward it automatically stops one of the drawing
blocks. All that is necessary for the wire drawer to do is to place
the wire through the eye in the upper end of the lever, and any
tangle or flying loop will shut off the power without further effort
on his part ; or he can push the lever forward by hand and thus
stop the block without going any nearer to it, thus eliminating
the danger of being struck by the end of the wire.
In all of our wire mills some form of this stop has been put
in. A number of different applications of it were assembled on one
drawing and prints sent to each plant. 1 1 is simple and effective,
the only objections to it being the amount of floor space it occupies
and the second's time it takes to place the wire through the lever.
It may save an arm, an eye, or even a lifeand yet some of
the workmen have broken them off, others have refused to use
them, and after a campaign of several years along this line, one
never goes into a mill without seeing some places where the opera-
tors carry the wire past the safety lever without using it.
258
H
I
MISCELLANEOUS SAFETY PROVISIONS
In addition to the more common forms of protection, such
as the elimination of projecting set-screws, covering of gears
(Plate lo), erecting of railings, etc., there are a great many provi-
sions which could not be described in detail in an article of this
sort. One of the dangerous occupations in the mill is that of
oiling shafting and machinery. Wherever practicable, arrange-
ments have been made to do this while the equipment is not in
operation ; in some cases oil cans are used having light spouts ten
or twelve feet long, which enable a man to oil overhead shafting
without leaving the floor; in other cases railed walks have been
erected along lines of shafting, so that the bearings may be reached
without unnecessary risk or inconvenience.
Standard scaiTolds with handrails are provided for the use of
painters, riggers, etc., and a "painter's chair" has been designed
which has a safety belt so that if a man were to fall out of the seat
the belt would still hold him. Rules regarding the construction,
inspection and testing of this equipment have been posted in all
of the shops where such appliances are used.
Counterweights are being boxed so that they cannot fall on
anyone in case a rope or chain breaks; covers and shields are
provided for emery grinders (Plate ii); safety stops of various
kinds are arranged to enable machines to be shut down quickly
in case anyone is caught; blacksmith's tools are inspected to see
that the edges are not allowed to "mushroom" until some one is
struck with a flying chip; storage yards are inspected to see that
material is not piled too close to the tracks; planer beds are covered
in the machine shops and safety cylinders provided for all jointers
in carpenter shops.
Accidents which occur are studied with a view of deter-
mining means for preventing similar accidents, and a constant
effort is made to anticipate danger in any form before it results in
an accident.
General specifications, rules, drawings and photographs of
standard appliances, are being compiled in a handbook, which
it is intended shall be to the safety inspector what the standard
reference books are to the engineer; these handbooks will be
259
furnished to those who are responsible for the design, installation
and maintenance of equipment in our mills.
NEW PLANTS
In erecting a new plant or in making extensions to an old
one, much of the machinery is bought in practically completed
form from outside manufacturers. When gear covers, etc., have
to be adapted to old machines the results are always more or less
unsatisfactory; the arrangement may be such as to afford no
adequate means for attaching a guard, or a cover which protects
one part of the machine may interfere with some of the other
working parts. These difficulties can all be avoided if sufficient
thought and attention are given to safety considerations when
new machinery is being designed, as the different parts can then be
arranged most advantageously. In planning a new plant, the
drawings are all checked over to see that the latest safety provi-
sions have been included; the following note was inserted in a
contract prepared recently for a mill to be erected by the American
Steel and Wire Company:
Safeguarding of gears, spindles, couplings, collars, set-
screws, keys, etc., will be covered as fully as possible in the
drawings which we furnish, but it is understood that these
features shall be subject to the approval of our inspectors,
who shall have free access at all times to the machinery while
it is in process of construction and erection.
In addition to the detailed specifications for various classes
of equipment, each of our purchasing agents has been supplied
with the following stamp, with the object of further stimulating
interest in safeguards on the part of machinery builders.
Provisions
for
safeguarding workmen should be brought to our
attention, as we will consider them in selecting new machinery and
equipment.
This notice is stamped on correspondence, and the results
which are already in evidence show that it is having a beneficial
effect, from which other companies will profit as well as our own.
The demand for more thorough safety precautions is be-
260
Plate 14.
Mill Switch Board Showing Method of Marking Electrical

Equipment
The small sign at the top of the picture reading "DangerKeep Away"
is made of non-conducting fiber and is hung over a switch when anyone is working
on the machinery it controls
Plate 15.
Protective Device for

Trap Doors
The guard rods rest on ledge of door
frame when the cover is raised, and drop
Plate x6.
Warning Sign to Attract

Attention to Workmen Overhead
Intended to prevent injury from falling
tools or material
coming recognized by manufacturers generally, and when re-
quested most of them will furnish very good forms of protection.
Plates 12 and
13
illustrate the improvement which is being made
in machine tools and crane design; where open gears were the
rule a few years ago, everything is now smoothly covered, and the
gearing is practically invisible.
THE HUMAN ELEMENT
From statistics which have been prepared both in this
country and in Germany, it would appear that about one-third
of the total number of industrial accidents are attributable in
whole or in part directly to carelessness or negligence on the part
of the workers themselves. In other words, a considerable per-
centage of the accidents which occur can be charged to the human
element and cannot be prevented by mechanical safeguards. If
they are to be materially reduced they require other treatment.
The problem here is largely a psychological one, and we are
working on it in a number of different ways. Men are prone to
take chances, and it is not surprising if the same spirit which
causes one man to ignore a cold until pneumonia succeeds it, or to
risk his home in the stock market, causes another to take reckless
liberties with a red hot rod. Anyone who has watched a gang of
structural workers twenty stories in the air scaling the steel
columns of a new building, must be impressed with the needless
risks that these men take.
We are endeavoring to bring about a change of sentiment
among the workmen; to make them realize that it is quite as
worthy and honorable to be careful and not to take such risks, as it
is to assume the reckless, dare-devil attitude that is often found.
There are dining rooms in practically all of our plants where the
foremen assemble for lunch, with a more or less informal business
meeting after the meal. Reports of accidents are discussed here,
letters of instructions and general safety recommendations are
taken up; talks are given; and a constant effort is made to impress
upon the foremen their responsibility in warning the men in their
charge, or cautioning them when they see them in any dangerous
practice.
When the men receive their pay envelopes, they find little
261
"
sermonettes " printed on the back of the envelopes, urging them
to take care for the safety of themselves and others. These are
placed also on cer-
tain printed forms
which are used
largely in the mills,
such as the sheets
on which the time
distribution of the
men is recorded,
and those on which
requisitions for ma-
terial are filled out.
The following word-
ings are a few of
these which have
been used for this
purpose:
"The ex-
ercise of care
to prevent ac-
cidents is a
dutywhich you
owe to your-
self and your
fellow em-
ployes."
"Always be careful and take no risks."
"Carelessness as to the safety of yourself or others will
be suificient cause for dismissal."
"The more you insist upon carefulness on the part of
others, as well as exercise it yourself, the safer it will be for all."
"Repoft all injuries however trivial; blood poisoning is
the result of neglected wounds."*
Realizing that what is sometimes classed as carelessness may
be merely thoughtlessness or lack of understanding, signs are
posted in the mills which are intended to keep the necessity for
caution fresh in the mind. Following a newspaper account of an
*
This is intended to encourage the men to make use of the hospital facilities
described later.
262
Plate 17.
Guard for Frogs made of Steel Plate

-Grill Work Protection for Bins and Hoppers
or ore, into the bin underneath
if not gotten out promptly
accident in an outside company, where three men were crushed to
death in the air cyHnder of a blowing engine, this notice was
posted in each of the blowing engine rooms of the American Steel
and Wire Company:
NOTICE.
All persons are positively forbidden to enter
AN AIR cylinder OF A BLOWING ENGINE UNTIL FLY
WHEELS HAVE BEEN SECURELY BLOCKED, TO PREVENT
POSSIBILITY OF ENGINE TURNING OVER.
Supt.
Signs are placed at ladders or passageways leading to crane
runways, instructing men to notify the crane operator before
doing any work on a crane; warning signs are hung on valves,
switches and controlling levers of various kinds of machinery to
guard against their being started while the men are working where
they might be injured; notices are placed at railroad crossings and
along tracks, in freight elevators, and in other places where they
will attract attention to possible dangers.
Plate
14
shows the warning sign which is used for marking
electrical equipment. It is printed in six languages and is sur-
mounted by branching lines of "red lightning" which ought to
make it universally understood. The smaller sign at the top of
the picture, marked "DangerKeep Away," is made of non-
conducting fibre and is hung over the controlling switch to show
that it should not be operated.
It is difficult to get the men to exercise the continued care
which is necessary to guard against accidents; it has been said
that "familiarity breeds contempt," and this is nowhere more
strikingly demonstrated than in the mills.
While investigating a case recently, where the general fore-
man of a rod mill was injured, one of this man's assistants took
me to the location in the mill where the accident had occurred,
stepping over running lines of red hot rods to reach the exact spot.
263
He explained that a guard of wire netting had been placed at the
rolls, which was supposedly fine enough in mesh to prevent a rod
going through it. By a peculiar chance, however, a rod which
was exactly the same diameter as the opening in the mesh struck
the screen fairly and went straight through it, injuring the man
standing in front. With this catastrophe thus vividly before him,
my guide started to show me another part of the mill, but instead
of going round about somewhat as he might have done, he went
directly along a line of guide pipes through which hot rods were
running at the rate of i,ioo feet a minute. In doing so, he said
apologetically, "We'd better hurry here, as a rod sometimes
jumps from the pipes." If a loaded rifle were mounted in a mill
and arranged to discharge at uncertain intervals, a man who
passed in front of it would be considered foolish, and yet this is
practically what some men are doing daily in the mills.
I later talked to the injured foreman and he assured me that
he had been positive that the screen was fine enough to stop any-
thing which would be rolled there, and had been greatly surprised
to find that the rod could get through ; he saw it coming and tried
to "dodge" it, but was not quick enough. As it was, he escaped
very fortunately from what might have been a fatal injury.
Although th^ hot rod practically passed through his body, pene-
trating a liing in its course he was in the hospital but two weeks,
and was back at his regular duties in the mill four months later.
Anyone who is familiar with mill conditions, or, to put it
more broadly, who knows something of human nature, realizes
how difficult it is to change the accustomed method of doing things.
When a safety appliance is installed it may involve some incon-
venience to the workmen, it requires adjustment and repairs,
at least it is something new, and the man who has been getting
along without it for several years is generally against it. If he
has never seen an accident of the kind in question it seems a very
remote possibility to him.
It is a slow process of education, but by continued agitation,
by thorough inspection in which officials and workmen join for
the common good, by commending what is good and holding it
up as a model for all, the standard of safety conditions is being
steadily raised.
264
tF
In"
13
o
o
M
o
Bi
w
1^
PL,
RESULTS
In considering tiie results of this work, a comparison of the
number of accidents occurring in the different mills shows much
irregularity. A large percentage of reduction was made in some
plants in
1909,
as compared with the preceding year, but very
little change appeared in others where an equal effort was made to
improve conditions. The total number of accidents, however,
is a very indefinite standard of comparison for several reasons.
Slight injuries, of which no notice was taken a few years ago, are
now reported; a particle of emery dust in the eye, or an insig-
nificant scratch on the hand may become infected later and develop
serious complications, so that greater emphasis is placed on having
all such cases reported promptly so as to have proper attention given
them, even though no time is lost by the man affected.
One is impressed with the capriciousness of fate when con-
fronted with the peculiar ways in which accidents occur. An
engineer had started home one evening at the end of the turn, but
stopped for a moment to explain to the night man why he had
been five minutes late in going on duty that morning; in doing
so he placed his elbow on the end of the engine cylinder; and just
at that moment the connecting rod broke and the cylinder head
was knocked out, injuring him fatally. In September,
1909,
there
were three isolated fatal accidents in one of the Pittsburgh mills,
while there was none in all of the other thirty odd plants of the
American Steel and Wire Company; in the succeeding month
two men met fatal injury in one of the Cleveland mills, while, as
before, these were the only fatalities for the entire company.
On the other hand, there are quite as striking instances
where what might have been serious catastrophes have resulted in
no harm. In one of our plants there is a group of machines in
a building adjacent to the boiler plant. A couple of years ago the
main belt furnishing power to these machines broke about mid-
night, and it was decided that it was useless to try to repair the
belt that night, so the men were sent home. A little later a high
wind which was blowing tore down the boiler stacks, and they
fell over the building in which these men had been employed a
short time before; parts of the wall were knocked down and a
section of the roof fell in. The next morning the heavy beams
265
and timbers which were lying over these machines indicated what
might have resulted if that main belt had not snapped and the
men had remained at work. Notwithstanding the fact that two
buildings were wrecked, and a sixteen-inch steam main was broken
in the boiler plant, no one was injured.
Such occurrences introduce a large element of chance, which
tends to invalidate any comparison from month to month, or year
to year, and the plants are being constantly extended, giving an
increasing number of employes to be considered. With these
varying factors it would require a detailed study and analysis
of classified injuries extending over a period of years, to give any
convincing statistical information as to the decrease effected;
and so far we have been concentrating on the active work of acci-
dent prevention, rather than on theoretical research of this nature.
We are very certain, however, as to the results, and numer-
ous specific instances which might be cited give definite clues as
to what is being accomplished. In one of our eastern plants, power
is furnished to three floors of a wire mill by a motor located in the
basement. We planned an installation of push buttons for stop-
ping the motor from the different floors, but had considerable
difficulty in getting a safe arrangement on account of the fact that
a high voltage current was used. For several months experi-
mental work was conducted and various devices and expedients
were tried, until finally a satisfactory arrangement was secured.
Shortly after the installation was completed an operator was
caught, on the second floor of the building, and was drawn to
the block; his assistant pushed a button and stopped the ma-
chinery almost instantly, preventing any serious injury. Without
the stopping device this man would probably have been killed,
as it would have been necessary to go from the second floor to the
basement to shut down the motor. There have been three spe-
cific instances in the last year where these motor stops have been
similarly effective.
There have been several cases during the same period, where
accidents have occurred in places covered by recommendations of
safety inspectors, before these places could be safeguarded, showing
conclusively that it is possible to anticipate trouble of this sort.
During an inspection tour of a plant outside the American Steel
266
and Wire Company, the writer went over various features of
tiie electrical installation with the chief electrician of the plant.
Among other points which were mentioned was the provision of
sweep brushes in front of the crane wheels, as some of the cranes
had these while others did not. The electrician acknowledged
the value of this device, and said that it would be placed on all
cranes as promptly as possible. The day following a man had his
arm cut off by one of the unprotected cranes. He was holding to
the girder with his arm across the track while adjusting an electric
wire, and had failed to notify the crane operator that he was there.
If the crane had been equipped with brushes, the most serious
result, regardless of his lack of ordinary precaution, would have
been a fall of about six feet to a platform. Numerous instances of
this sort could be cited, and while it is generally impossible to
point out a particular safeguard and say it has prevented an acci-
dent, it is obvious that the thousands of protective devices which
have been installed in the various plants of the company, must
frequently prevent injuries which would otherwise occur.
CARE OF THE INJURED, BENEFITS, PENSIONS
In concluding it might be well to mention briefly the
methods used by the American Steel and Wire Company in caring
for injured men, and those who are incapacitated by sickness or
who have reached the age limit for retirement.
There is an emergency hospital at each plant to give prompt
aid to the injured; these hospitals are fully equipped with surgical
instruments, dressings, beds, etc., and each is in charge of a com-
petent surgeon paid by the company. In the larger plants, where
circumstances warrant, nurses are in constant attendance. Very
serious cases are sent to the public hospitals at the company's
expense, and all injured men are cared for until they have fully
recovered, irrespective of the manner in which their injuries were
received. In cases of prolonged disability financial assistance is
given to the injured man, according to the merits of the case,
based on his age, family relations, and record as to term of service
and faithfulness. These injury benefits are dispensed equitably
without consideration as to whether the company is legally re-
sponsible for the injury or not.
267
In each plant there is a "mill committee" composed chiefly
of foremen, whose duty it is to seek out and visit faithful employes
who may have become sick and destitute. This committee in-
vestigates such cases and makes recommendations for financial
relief for those whom it considers deserving. During the year
1909
more than
$7,000
was distributed gratuitously in this way by the
American Steel and Wire Gjmpany.
There is, in addition, a pension department, which was
established in January, 1902. Pensions are granted to employes
who have reached the age of sixty-five and who have been in the
service of the company, or any of its predecessors, for ten years;
also to any who have reached the age of fifty-five and are physi-
cally disqualified for further service, providing they have been
employed the preceding ten consecutive years.
The following uniform method is used in computing the
amount of these pensions: For each year of service, one per cent
of the average monthly pay for the ten years preceding retirement,
is allowed; for example, a man who has been in the service of the
company for forty years, and his drawn an average of seventy-five
dollars a month for the last ten years, would be given forty per
cent of seventy-five dollars, or thirty dollars a month pension.
Pensioners are allowed to seek employment elsewhere if they desire,
and the utmost freedom of travel and residence is given them.
In
1909
the American Steel and Wire Company had
419
retired
pensioners, some of them being located in England, Ireland and
Sweden, besides various parts of the United States; they re-
ceived in pensions during the year a total of
$56,712.
The pension
fund is maintained entirely by the company, without assessment
or contribution from the employes.
268
APPENDIX IV
QUOTATIONS FROM FIRST REPORT OF
NEW YORK STATE EMPLOYERS'
LIABILITY COMMISSION
EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY
THE
Gjmmission is strongly of opinion that the present
legal system of employers' liability in force in this state
(and practically everywhere else in the United States)
in industrial employments is fundamentally wrong and unwise
and needs radical change.
The workman injured in his employment must of necessity
bear the burden of his injury. The pain and suffering are his,
and no system of law can change or shift that burden. But if
that injury be not one which he has wilfully brought on himself,
but has arisen from the hazard of his work, we are unanimously of
opinion that the workman should be so placed by the law that he
shall have the right to call for and receive such prompt and certain
compensation as will keep him and those dependent on him from
destitution. We are further convinced that in industries in this
state as they now exist, the workmen are not able to solve this
accident difficulty for themselves. Were the laisse:( jaire system
of political economy working without friction, a workman en-
gaged in hazardous employments would command and receive
wages high enough to enable him to carry the risks of trade ac-
cident and insure themand there would be no problem. The
accident relief burden reflected in wages would be an element in
the cost of the industrial product which the consumers of that
product must pay. But that theory does not work out. Wages
are not relatively higher in the most dangerous trades. The
269
accident risk is a minor element in fixing wages, and the workers
in dangerous trades are in the majority of cases not able to
carry adequate insurance, and in a large proportion of cases
seem to carry no insurance. In view of that fact, we are con-
vinced that the wise policy for the state should be to throw
the burden of accident relief in dangerous trades on the in-
dustry in another way. Though the workman cannot shift
this accident burden upon the cost of the product or upon the
trade, the employers can through their power to fix the selling
price of the product; just as employers now fix their selling
price with reference to the cost of replacing and repairing ma-
chinery, so we would have them make an element of the price
of the product the cost of relieving the injured workers of hazard-
ous industry.
Our present system of dealing with this question in New York
(and the same system prevails in all the United States) is to make
no such provision, to require that the workman assume the risks
of the trade, and to give him a right to sue his employer at law
only when the accident is due to fault of the employer and to
recover from his employer such a sum as shall compensate him
for the damage suiTered. That system discarded in almost every
other industrial country, we regard as inherently unfitted to
modern industrial conditions in dangerous employments, and
grossly unfair to workmen injured by trade risks. In practice
our system with its lawsuits is so uncertain, so full of vexatious
delays and so wasteful and extravagant, that as a whole it is
satisfactory to no class in the community. Moreover, no change
in it can cure its greatest defects unless the change amounts to
abandoning the theory that the employer shall pay only when the
accident is due entirely to his negligence or fault.
Serious as are the theoretical objections to our system of
employers' liability, they are less important than the objections
to the way the system works.
It is apparent that there is general dissatisfaction with the
present system of employers' liability.
The objections which have been urged before us and brought
out by our detailed investigations are as follows"
270
NEW YORK EMPLOYERS LIABILITY COMMISSION
1
.
That only a small proportion of the workmen injured by
accidents of employment get substantial compensation, and,
therefore, as a rule, they and their dependents are forced to a
lower standard of living and often become burdens upon the state
through public or private charity.
2. That the system is wasteful, being costly to employers
and the state, and of small benefit to the victims of accidents.
3.
That the system is slow in operation, involving of necessity
great delay in the settlement of cases.
4.
That the operation of the law breeds antagonism between
employers and employes.
These four objections will be discussed in their order.
FIRST OBJECTION: UNCERTAINTY
The first objection to the operation of our liability system is
that under it only a small proportion of the injured workmen get
substantial damages. This is brought out by the results of the
special investigation by this Commission of fatal accidents of
employment in Erie County in
1907
and
1908, and in Manhattan
borough in
1908.
In 1
15
cases of married men killed by accidents of employ-
ment in Erie County, the total compensation paid to the depen-
dents by employers (with or without suit) was as follows:
o in .
1 1 00 or less in .
$101 to
$500
$501
to $2,000 in
Over $2,000 in .
Suit pending in .
^^
'^llll
1
81 out of 103, or 78.6 per cent of
: !!;
closed cases.
34
cases
14 cases
8 cases
1 1 cases
Total number of cases 1
14
The average earnings of these men was $15.22 per week or
$791.44
per year. As yet only eight of the
114
families, considered
have recovered as much as three times the average yearly earnings
(12,374.22).
Eleven have suits pending against the employer.
Eighty-one, or
78.6
per cent of the famihes whose cases are con-
cluded, got no substantial recoverycompensation in these cases
ranging from |o to
$500.
271
o in
TABLE I. COMPENSATION PAID TO DEPENDENTS OF MARRIED MEN
KILLED IN RAILROADING AND IN OTHER EMPLOYMENTS IN ERIE
COUNTY, I907-I908. (new YORK STATE EMPLOYERS' LIABIL-
ITY COMMISSION)
Railroading
The figures resulting from the study of accidents made by
the Labor Department lead to the same conclusion. Among
1,040* accidents of employment, in which total losses and receipts
could be ascertained, 902 were found to have resulted in but tem-
porary disability,
t
for periods ranging from one week to over a
year. In many of these cases there was permanent injury, such
as the loss of an eye, which did not prevent the man suffering it
from taking up his work at the same wage he earned before the
accident. In
404
of these cases, or
44
per cent, nothing was paid
by the employer, not even medical expenses. In
304
cases the
amount recovered from the employer was less than
50
per cent of
the money loss of wages and expenses.
Seventy-one accidents resulted in permanent partial dis-
ability; i. e., each of these employes was able to go back to work
but, on account of the injury received, could not earn as much as
before the accident. Compensation in these cases was as follows
:
54
out of 60, or go per cent of
closed cases.
in .
Obviously
I500
is inadequate compensation for a total loss
of earning power for life. Therefore, nine of these 10 totally dis-
abled employes got no substantial recovery, and the remaining
one has but a chance of such recovery.
Finally
57
of the accidents investigated by the Labor De-
partment resulted in death. Compensation was paid to the de-
pendents as follows:
in .
TABLE 3. COMPARISON OF LOSSES AND RECEIPTS IN 61 PERMANENT
PARTIAL DISABILITY CASES WITH COMPLETE INFORMATION.
(NEW YORK STATE DEPT. OF LABOR)
Total loss until return to work ....
$32,727.04
All receipts from employers 1 1,048.81
Per cent of receipts to losses . . .
33.8
Cases in which nothing was received,
23,
or
37.7
per cent.
For ten permanent complete disability cases, including only
three years' wage loss, we get the following figures
:
TABLE 4.COMPARISON OF LOSSES AND RECEIPTS IN 10 PERMA-
NENT COMPLETE DISABILITY CASES WITH COMPLETE INFOR-
MATION, (new YORK STATE DEPT. OF LABOR)
Losses Amounts
Medical expenses ... . .
12,574.75
Wages for three years . . 15,475.20
Total . ...
$18,049.95
All receipts from employers ... .
$1,749.00
Per cent of receipts to losses
9.7
Cases in which nothing was received, two, or 20 per cent.
For
53
fatal cases including only three years' wage loss, we
get the following figures
:
TABLE 5. COMPARISON OF LOSSES AND RECEIPTS IN
53
FATAL
CASES WITH COMPLETE INFORMATION. (NEW YORK
STATE DEPT. OF LABOR)
Losses Amounts
Medical and funeral expenses .
19,329.75
Wages for three years . . . 104,590.20
Total ... .
$113,919.95
All receipts from employers
$25,960.53
Per cent of receipts to losses . 22.8
Cases in which nothing more than funeral expenses ($100 limit) was
received, 20, or
37.7
per cent
For 1 1 1 fatal cases (married men) investigated by the Com-
mission,including only three years' wage loss, we get the follow-
ing figures:
276
TABLE 6.COMPARISON OF LOSSES AND RECEIPTS IN III FATAL
CASES (married MEN) WITH COMPLETE INFORMATION. (NEW
YORK STATE EMPLOYERS* LIABILITY COMMISSION)
Losses
Amounts
Medical and funeral expenses . ...
$21,537
Wages for three years . . 278,304
Total $299,901
All receipts from employers (net)
$5>.957
Per cent of receipts to losses . . . . 17.
i
Number of cases in which nothing was received,
48,
or
43.3
per cent.
A comparison of total losses and total receipts here means
very little; these figures, however, strengthen our conclusion that
the bulk of the accident loss is borne by the injured workmen and
their families. They emphasize also the fact that the results of
the present law are arbitrary and unequal, that a few of the
injured get large verdicts while many get nothing. Thus, in the
temporary disability cases a comparison of totals shows that
employers paid nearly one-third of the loss, but yet in
44
per
cent of these cases they paid nothing. In permanent partial
disability cases, payments from employers averaged one-third
of the loss until return to work, and yet over one-third of these
disabled men received nothing. In the 1 1 1 fatal cases compensa-
tion averages
1
7. i per cent of the first three years' loss, but nearly
half of the dependents got nothing.
This inequality is doubtless due largely to the fact that the
law allows recovery in only a small percentage of cases. It may
also in some measure be accounted for by the uncertainties of the
jury system. Undoubtedly also the fact that the injured work-
men are at so great a disadvantage in litigation with their em-
ployers, is important in causing this unevenness; their own
ignorance, the long delay, the technical mysteries of the law,
the fact that the witnesses are as a rule in the defendant's employ
all these factors lessen the workman's chances even when he
has a good case.
These figures result from a study of only about i ,200 accident
cases. Those investigated by the Commission were taken as they
came from the inquest records. Those investigated by the Labor
Department were taken consecutively from their own records for
277
certain industries, omitting only the obviously trivial accidents.
No similar examination has been conducted in America covering
so large a field. But the results of such inquiries as have been
made in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin do not differ greatly from
the result of this study.
The investigation recently conducted in Allegheny county,
Pennsylvania, under the direction of the "Pittsburgh Survey"
showed that .... (Quotation omitted.)
The Wisconsin Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics
reports as follows on the matter of the great financial loss borne
by the workingman
:
"The following shows to what extent this is true in
306
non-fatal cases in which reports were received by mail from work-
ingmen injured while at work:
TABLE 7.DISPOSITION 306 NON-FATAL CASES. (WISCONSIN
BUREAU OF LABOR AND INDUSTRIAL STATISTICS)
Cases Per cent
Received nothing from employer .
Received amount of doctor bills only .
Received amount of part of doctor bills only
Received something in addition to doctor bills
Received something, but not doctor bills .
306 1 00.0
"Put in words, we may say that in two-thirds of the cases
a part or all of the doctor bills were paid, but in less than a third
was anything more paid, and in about one-fourth of the cases
nothing whatever was paid.
"In 131
non-fatal cases in Wisconsin concerning which re-
ports were secured by factory inspectors, the following disposition
was made:
TABLE
8.DISPOSITION I3I NON-FATAL CASES. (WISCONSIN
BUREAU OF LABOR AND INDUSTRIAL STATISTICS)
Received nothing from employer
Received doctor bills only .
Received something besides doctor bills
Received something, but not doctor bills
Not settled
72
TABLE 9.FIFTY-ONE FATAL CASES, OF SETTLEMENTS REPORTED BY
FACTORY INSPECTORS.
(WISCONSIN BUREAU OF LABOR
AND INDUSTRIAL STATISTICS)
Compensation from
Employer
Number
Under
f
100
-16
$100 to $;oo
$500
to $1,000
$1,000 to $3,000
Total
18
9
_8
5'
Finally all of these results are confirmed by the reports made
to the Commission by insurance companieswriting employers' liabil-
ity insurance in New York State and keeping separate records of
such experience. As shown in the following talole,
414,681
acci-
dents were reported to these companies during the periods covered,
and payments had been made in only
52,427
of these cases.* In
only one in every eight accidents reported is any payment made.
TABLE
10. PROPORTION OF PAYMENTS MADE TO NOTICES OF INJURY
RECEIVED FOR VARIOUS YEARS UNDER EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY
POLICIES. (new YORK STATE EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY COMMIS-
SION)
Name
of
Company
Percentage of Payments to
Injuries
Years Injuries
Pay-
ments
Per
cent
Per cent
Equivalent
to
Aetna Life Insurance Company .
Fidelity and Casualty Company
of New York . . . .
Frankfort Insurance Company .
General Accident, Fire and Life
Assurance Corporation .
Standard Accident Insurance
Company
United States Casualty Company
New Amsterdam Casualty
Company
London Guarantee and Accident
Company
Ocean Accident and Guarantee
Corporation . . . .
1Q06-7-8
1897-8-9
1906-7-8
1902-3-4
1906-7-8
I 900-
I
-2
1904-5-6
1906-7-8
1906-7-8
130,635
56,380
3 1 ,090
9.875
39,685
17,616
8,046
61,651
59.103
14,986
8,633
3,000
1,070
3,076
5."85
1,291
7.393
7.793
11.46
15.31
9.46
10.83
7-75
29.43
16.04
11.99
13..8
or 1 in 8.7
or 1 in
6.53
or 1 in 10.56
or 1 in 9.22
or I in 13.22
or I in
3.39
or I in 6.23
or 1 in 8.33
or 1 in
7.58
Totals 414,681 52,427 12.64 or 1 in
7.99
*
These figures include every notice of accident and doubtless many are
trivial, but they serve to check up the results of the detailed study. Significant
279
At the public hearings held by the Commission ample testi-
mony was brought forth to substantiate these conclusions. Dr.
E. T. Devine, general secretary of the Charity Organization
Society of New York City, said:
"About two years ago Mr. F. H. McLean, who was for
some years in the Brooklyn Burdau of Charities, presented a
paper to the State Conference of Charities and Corrections
in which there were some suggestions to which I might refer.
1 have before me here some original records that were used on
that occasion. There were collected from some six different
societies facts about 386 cases of this kind.
"One of the things that Mr. McLean was to find out
about those cases was what compensation had been received.
It was possible to find out anything about that, in only
223
cases, and of those 223 cases some kind of a settlement or
donation was made in just
47
cases; that is, 20 per cent of
the whole. In 80 per cent of the
223 cases, about which we
could get facts, there was no compensation whatever, and no
expectation of any, and among the
47,
in which there was a
settlement, there is an extraordinary crazy-quilt of absurdity
as to what those settlements were. They are typical and we
cannot get any line from any source that will show precisely
what those figures are, and I gave them for this reason be-
cause I believe them to be thoroughly representative of the
settlements made in the cases of this kind."
Hon. P. T. Sherman, ex-commissioner of labor, testified:
"
Now, our law is based on the theory that the employer
should pay the full damages when he defaults, and the em-
ploye should sulTer the damages when he defaults. That is
necessary. Then our law goes on to say that the employe
shall assume the ordinary risks of his business. Those
ordinary risks are
75
per cent of the accidents; and it is a
terrible burden, and it is a burden that the employes cannot
bear. There is no use to say they ought to, but they cannot;
in this connection are the German oflficial tables and the tables of the Wisconsin
and Minnesota Labor Departments, which ascribe
40
to
50 per cent of all industrial
accidents (on the average) as due to nobody's negligence, but to trade risks. The
Austrian tables show
70 per cent attributed to this cause.
280
SO it simply transfers it over to the public and the public
who are not interested in these industries bears this burden,
or friends bear it; it comes back to the public."
From our detailed investigation, borne out as it is by the
results of similar studies in states where the same general law pre-
vails, and strengthened by testimony given before us, we are
brought to the conclusion that under our employers' liability laws,
a large proportion (over
50
per cent) of the workmen injured by
accidents of employment and the dependents of those killed get
nothing or next to nothing, and that only a very small proportion
recover an amount that is in any way commensurate with their
loss.
WAGES IN DANGEROUS TRADES
We are further convinced that the compensation paid to
men employed in dangerous work is not usually high enough to
enable them to insure against this risk. In the industrial fatalities
investigated by the Commission
58.1 per cent* of the men killed
were earning less than
$16 a week. In
78
per cent of these cases
some insurance was collected. Among the cases investigated by
the Labor Department
928,
or 62 per cent, were earning less than
I15
a week. In
29
per cent of these cases some insurance was
collected.!
The total amount of insurance collected was as follows
:
In
902 temporary disability casestotal insurance
recovered
,
$9,406.65
In 60 permanent partial disability casestotal insur-
ance recovered
i
,478.00
In 10 permanent complete disability casestotal insur-
ance recovered
78.00
In
48
fatal casestotal insurance recovered
'3>i
77-30
In 1 1 1 fatal cases (all married men) investigated by
the Commissiontotal insurance recovered . ...
49,874.00
* Under "insurance,'' as the term is used throughout the present discussion,
benefits in fraternal organizations, trade unions and other associations are included
t
Many of those who received no insurance in temporary disability cases,
probably had some insurance against death. The following table shows that
insurance against death is much more common than insurance against disability.
281
The following table shows the amount of insurance* in 211
cases according to wage groups
:
TABLE 11.^MEN KILLED IN INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS, ERIE COUNTY,
DURING
1907
AND I908, AND IN MANHATTAN BOROUGH DURING
1908,
CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO WEEKLY EARNINGS AND INSUR-
ANCE RECOVERED. (nEW YORK STATE DEPT. OF LABOR)
insure against accident at the high rates necessitated by the nature
of their occupation. That wages are not adjusted "to cover
risk" in the actual industrial world of to-day is a matter of common
knowledge.
The testimony before the Commission of those familiar with
the condition of the working classes also brought out the fact that
the risk of the industry is not considered in determining a man's
wages.
If then the industrial accident loss rests almost altogether
upon the workman, and he cannot as a rule adequately insure
against that loss, the result must be disastrous for him and his
dependents. With the major part, and in many cases the whole,
of their income cut off, the injured workman's family, especially
in case of serious and fatal accidents, must depend upon the work
of women and children, or upon the assistance of relatives and
friends, must reduce their standard of living to the detriment of
health, and must often become destitute and dependent upon
charity.
EFFECT ON FAMILIES
That these are the actual results of the situation, our inquiry
has proved. Among i86 families of married men killed by acci-
dents of employment, which were investigated for the Commission,
93*
of the widows had gone to work to support their families;
in nine families children under sixteen had gone to work; in
37
families the rent was reduced; 10 families were found destitute;
33
families had received aid from fellow workmen of the de-
ceased, from relatives and friends, or from charity.
Among
i86t
accidents resulting in death or permanent dis-
ability, investigated by the Labor Department, the known econ-
omic effects were as follows :
33
wives had become wage-earners
;
13
children had left school to go to work, in 16 cases house rent
had been reduced and in 62 cases aid had been received.
These are the known effects of
372
serious industrial
acci-
*
In 14 cases the widow was an invalid or too old to work.
f
Accidents to single as well as married men are included iiere, which ac-
counts for the comparatively small number of families in which definite economic
results were traceable.
283
dents upon the lives of the famiHes concerned. During the year
1908 there were
13,929*
accidents of employment reported to the
Commissioner of Labor, 251
of them fatal;
3,204
of them serious
and permanent;
10,474
of them slight. During the same year,
6,26
if
accidents of employment were reported to the Public
Service Commission of the First District,
2,532!
to the Public
Service Commission of the Second District,
344
of them fatal.
These figures do not cover accidents of construction, ex-

cavation, tunnel work, teaming, freight handling, and other such
occupations. No report is required of such accidents
||
and we
have therefore no means of knowing how many there are. Some
idea of their number, however, can be obtained from an examina-
tion of the coroner's inquest cards and the records of emergency
hospitals. Thus the Commission found that of the
250
fatal
accidents of employment reported to the four coroners of Man-
hattan borough in
1909, 9
had been reported to the Commissioner
of Labor;
44
had been reported to the Public Service Commission
and
197
had not been reported to any state department. Of the
304
fatal accidents of employment reported to the Medical Ex-
aminer of Erie county in
1908,
73
were found in the records of
the Commissioner of Labor,
103 were accidents which should have
been reported to the Public Service Commissionll and 128 had not
been reported to any state department. The Commission also
examined the records of the Bellevue Hospital for 1908. Four
hundred and fifty-one persons injured by accident of employment
*
This figure is exceptionally low. During IQ07 there were 19,206 accidents
reported. During the first three quarters of
190Q
there were
1 7,846 accidents
reported. The exceptionally low figure for IQ08 is accounted for by the financial
depression of that year.
t
Accidents to employes are not classified separately according to their
seriousness by this department. Such a classification is made for all accidents
reported, however.
I
Figures for the second department are approximate only. They are
for the year ending June 30,
1908. The system of reports and filing is such that
it is impossible to determine the number of accidents reported by the calendar year.
Under "fatal," as used by the Public Service Commission, only deaths

occurring within twenty-four hours of the accident are included.
II
Fatal accidents are, however, reported to a coroner or a medical examiner.
^
The Public Service Commission of the Second Department does not re-
quire the name of the person injured or killed to be reported. Hence it was
impossible to determine what proportion of these fatalities had actually been
reported.
284
were received there during the year. Of these,
52
were accidents*
which should have been reported to the Labor Commissioner,
4
were reported to the PubHc Service Commission, and
395
were un-
reported accidents.t
In short, the Commission learned that among
553
fatal
accidents of employment, but
229,
or
41.4
per cent, had been re-
ported. Among
45
1 non-fatal accidents of employment, but
56,
or
12.4
per cent, have been reported. We must conclude then that
the 22,722 reported accidents of employment in 1908
were but a
small proportion of the total number of such accidents occurring
during the year. With such a yearly accident rate in the employ-
ments of the State, it is clear that the harmful results found in
the cases of the
372
accidents studied, must be repeated in a
large and steadily increasing number of families, and thus seriously
aflFect the public welfare
We must conclude that only a small proportion of the work-
men injured by accidents of employment, and the dependents of
those killed get substantial damages; that comparatively few of
the workmen in occupations which involve special hazard are
earning enough to enable them to provide adequate insurance
against it; that, therefore, through accidents of employment,
thousands of working men's families are brought to extreme
poverty and deprivation, the state suffers through the lowered
standard of living of a vast number of its citizens, and the public
is directly burdened with the maintenance of many who become
destitute. This then we find to be the most serious objection to
our present system of employers' liability.
SECOND OBJECTION: WASTE
The second important objection to the law we find to be its
enormous wastefulness.
{
The application of the rules defining
*
Accidents are filed according to the name of the employer in the Labor
Department. Since the name of employer is not given in the hospital records, it
was impossible to determine what proportion of these injuries were actually re-
ported.
(
A detailed study of unreported accidents appears in Appendix XI hereto.
J
By waste
"
in this section is meant all expenditure that fails to accomplish
its social purpose of providing for injured workmen or their families when their
earnings are suspended. A perfect system of accident indemnity would enable
285
an employer's liability is extremely uncertain. Therefore, while,
as has been shown, there are very few accidents in which a re-
covery is actually secured, there are a great many accidents in
which there is a chance of recovery. With so vague, a test of
liability, almost every lawsuit is turned into a race to get before
the jury. This uncertainty arises partly because juries are apt to
be swayed by prejudice, and set the most diverse values on human
life. The machinery of our legal system is complicated and easily
put out of joint. An injured workman must have not only a
cause of action, but the proof of it, and legal proof of fault is often
almost impossible to obtain, particularly when the accident may
itself blot out the proof. The vagueness of the legal test of due
care and the uncertain qualities of juries, and the difficulties of
proof are such that an accident suit against an employer degen-
erates into a game of hide and seek with justice.
And again the uncertainty in the application of the law is an en-
couragement to both sides to prolong the contest to the last court.
As a result of all this uncertainty, to begin with the state is taxed
with a large amount of litigation from which, since recoveries are
rare, small positive good results. Representative lawyers before
us, basing their opinion on their experience, estimate that em-
ployers' liability cases take up almost one-fifth of the time of all
our courts in the State. There is no method of estimating the
time of witnesses and jurors spent in connection with such litiga-
tion. Much more serious than this, however, is the fact that em-
ployers pay out large sums for defense, only a small portion of
which is actually paid out to injured workmen in settlements and
damages.
The following table shows the expenditures for accidents in
1907
in
327
New York State firms employing in all
125,995
men.
The total expense for all these firms was
1255,153.17, $13,365.01
of which was contributed to employes' benefit associations, and
149,250.12
of which was expended for funeral and medical ex-
penses, wages, and other compensation, paid direct to injured em-
workmen or their representatives to get compensation to which they were entitled
as regularly and easily as they got their wages before the accident. Such per-
fection is, of course, impossible in mundane affairs, but the conception of it supplies
a standard by which degrees of wastefulness may be measured.
286
ployes. These two items represent no waste. The
1192,538.04
remaining, includes premiums paid for liability insurance, and
the cost of claims and suits. It is possible to determine with a
fair degree of accuracy what proportion of that sum was used
to pay the costs of avoiding and defending suits, and how much
actually reached the injured employes concerned.
TABLE 12.SUMMARY FOR FIRMS HAVING EXPENDITURES ON AC-
COUNT OF ACCIDENTS IN I907. (NEW YORK STATE DEPT.
OF labor)
insurance, in addition to tiie amount paid for their premiums as
follows
:
In settlements and damages ?5'273-72
Legal expenses and cost of maintaining claim department 6, 180.18
Third,
$1 15,202.64
of it was paid by
299
firms in premiums
to liability insurance companies.*
Of this amount it is impossible to say exactly how much
was actually paid to the injured employes, but we can make a
fairly accurate estimate. The total amount of gross premiums
received during
1906, 1907
and 1908, by ten insurance companies
authorized to write employers' liability insurance in New York
State, was
$23,523,585.!
The total amount expended in the
actual payment of claims to employes injured was
$8,559,795.
In other words, the percentage of payments to premiums was
36.34.
This proportion, the insurance companies agree, is fairly repre-
sentative.
We may assume then that
36.34
per cent of the $n 5,202.64
paid for liability insurance, or
$41,864.64,
was actually paid out in
settlements or damages to injured workmen and their dependents.
The rest of it went to costs of defense, administration expenses,
profit, etc.
Now, if we add to this
$41,864.64,
the amounts given in the
first two groups covering settlements and damages
($57,504.44
and
$5,273.72)
the sum,
$104,642.80,
is the part of the
$192,538.04
paid out by all these employers in connection with accident
claims which was actually paid to the men injured in those ac-
cidents.
Thus, almost half of what the employer pays out is spent
in the business of defense, i. e., to avoid having to pay more.
But there is further waste. It must not be supposed that the
injured workmen and their dependents actually received the whole
of the
$104,642.80 recovered in settlements and damages. The
plaintiff has his fighting costs too, and they are heavy. We do
*
In these liability insurance policies the insurance company agrees to
assume the employer's liability in connection with accidents to his employes to a
limited amountusually Ij.ooo in connection with any one injury and $10,000
in connection with any one accident. Thus the liability company stands in place
of the employer, defending, settling, and paying damages in his place.
t
See table,
p. 3
1 infra.
288
NEW YORK employers' LIABILITY COMMISSION
not know the plaintiffs' attorney's fees in these cases. But in
1
5
1
accident cases investigated by the Labor Department the total
amount of plaintiffs' fees and costs amounted to
22.7
per cent*
of the total gross receipts from employers.
Assuming that this is a fair average of the amount spent in
costs, we must subtract
22.7
per cent of the
1104,642.80 paid out
to employes in settlements and damages in order to arrive at
the net amount actually received by the employes. This leaves
us |8o,888.88 as compared with the original
$192,538.04
which
the employers paid out. In short, less than half of what is ex-
pended by employers on account of accidents to employes actually
reaches the workmen injured by those accidents.
One of the most frequent and bitter complaints made by the
employers of the present system of liability in this State is as to
the attitude and tactics of the plaintiffs' lawyers who work up
negligence cases. It is claimed by the employers that injured
workmen immediately after injuries are besieged by "ambulance
chasers" and "shyster" lawyers, who obtain contingent fee con-
tracts and then stir up strife, antagonism and perjury in the legal
game of getting to the jury.
The answer made to these complaints is that the plaintiffs'
lawyers are no worse than the tricky claim agents of the large cor-
porations and insurance companies, and that under the present
system the happening of the accident is a signal for the suppression,
of evidence and a race between a plaintiff's lawyer with a cof'i-
tingent contract and an equally obnoxious claim agent withy a
form of general release to impose on ignorant workmen. Tliat
this picture has a large element of truth, no lawyer in active
practice in these cases can doubt. That it is a condition which js a
disgrace to the bar, this Commission does not doubt. The situa-
tion is one of the most distressing results of our present system.
But it must not be forgotten that under the present system the
injured workman must have a lawyer, and a competent one, to
protect his rights, and usually can get one only on a promise to
share in the results of the recovery.
/
*
Ninety-seven cases settled directly between the parties are included here.
Of course, the average contingent fee is much higher. It averaged
26.3
per cent
in 46 fatal cases investigated for the Commission tabulated below.
19
289
Our investigation of the lawyers' fees paid in cases of work-
men killed in Erie County, as shown in the following tables, bears
out the contention that the plaintiffs' lawyers in employers'
liability cases often obtain an unfairly large share of the recov-
eries.
TABLE 13.MEN KILLED IN INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS IN ERIE COUNTY
DURING
1907
AND I908, AND IN NEW YORK CITY DURING I908.
TABLE OF TOTAL FEES PAID TO LAWYERS AND NET COMPENSA-
TION IN ALL CASES IN WHICH FEES WERE KNOWN TO HAVE BEEN
PAID. (new YORK STATE EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY COMMISSION)
business it is to defeat the claims of the injured, to the costs of
soHciting business, to the costs of administration, and to profit.
TABLE 14.PERCENTAGE OF ACTUAL PAYMENTS AND GROSS PRE-
MIUMS RECEIVED FOR EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY INSURANCE FOR
THE YEARS I906, I907, I908. (NEW YORK STATE EMPLOYERS*
LIABILITY COMMISSION)
Name
of
Company
*
Totals
Premiums Payments
Per
cent
/Etna Life Insurance Company
Employers' Liability Assurance Corporation
Fidelity and Casualty Company of New York
Frankfort Insurance Company
General Accident Fire and Life Assurance Corporation
Standard Accident Insurance Company
United States Casualty Company .
New Amsterdam Casualty Company .
London Guarantee and Accident Company
Ocean Accident and Guarantee Corporation
Totals
4,216,
3,010,
1.321,
506,
1,502,
2.739.
2,870,
444
608
497
775
v
985
060
036
954
$2,145,
1,595.
1,186,
490.
196,
683,
472.
205,
695.
887,
,928
,126
,991
,015
929
973
783
040
487
523
39.61
37.83
39.42
37.07
38.91
45.50
35-49
33.82
25-39
30.91
$23,523,585 $8,559,795 36.34
The waste on the plaintiff's side is well illustrated by the
following table of contingent fees in
5
1 cases investigated by the
Commission
:
Siê
of fee No.
of cases
Less than
25
per cent in
14
25
per cent to
34.9
per cent in 16
35
per cent to
49.9
per cent in ... . ...
7
50
per cent and over in
14
Total number of cases
51
In all consideration of this second important practical ob-
jection of the employers' liability law, we cannot over-emphasize
the point that in our judgment, it is not the introduction of lia-
*
Figures were also received from the following companies: People's Surety
Co. of N. v.; Philadelphia Casualty Co.; Travelers' Insurance Co.; Maryland
Casualty Co.; Casualty Co. of America. But since the figures returned by these
companies cover all classes of liability experience, they are not included here.
They are tabulated separately in Appendix II of the report.
291
bility insurance, not the contingent fee system, but the nature
of
the system itself, which is responsible for this waste.
If the system of liabiHty be not changed some remedy lies
in supervising the liability insurance companies and limiting their
activities. It is true as reported to us that the supervision of the
State Insurance Department over the business of these companies
is practically limited to investigation of their solvency. It is
true that the policy of the Superintendent of Insurance as to
these companies and some method of standardizing their policies
and forcing detailed statements of their risks and their payments
may better these conditions, but such measures can accomplish
small benefit for the injured workmen.
THIRD OBJECTION: DELAY
A third practical objection to the law is the delay which is
incident to its operation. In those few cases where the injured
workman gets a recovery or a settlement at all commensurate with
his loss, it is often only after a protracted lawsuit. Such cases
last from six months to six years in this State. For a working-
man's family deprived of its usual income by the death or dis-
ability of its chief wage-earner, it is almost as disastrous to wait
several years for a recovery as to get no recovery. They usually
stand in immediate need of funds, and the deprivation of those
years during which their suit is being fought out may well mean
lasting harm, which no ultimate recovery can make up to them.
Such is the almost unanimous opinion of the witnesses
before us. The injured workman is driven to accept whatever
his employer or an insurance company chooses to give him or take
his chance in a lawsuit. Half of the time his lawsuit is doomed
to failure because he has been hurt by some trade risk or lacks the
proof for his case. At best he has a right to retain a lawyer, spend
two months on the pleadings, watch his case from six months to
two years on a calendar and then undergo the lottery of a jury
trial with a technical system of law and rules of evidence, and be-
yond that, appeals and perhaps reversals on questions that do not
go to the merits. Who shall say that is justiceor wisdom, or
good government? If he wins, he wins months after his most
292
urgent need is over. It needs no investigation to show tliat a
system which pays only at the end of months and years of poverty,
and then pays in a lump sum, is not justice to the workman.
FOURTH OBJECTION: BREEDS ANTAGONISM
The fourth and from many points of view the most deplorable
result of the employers' liability law in operation is that it breeds
antagonism between workman and employer. The workman, in-
jured while serving his employer, through no fault of his own,
reasons instinctively that he should get some compensation. If
his employer does not offer to help him, or does not make what he
considers a fair offer, he is glad to listen to the hopes held out to
him by the contingent fee lawyer. The employer, on the other
hand, instinctively reasons that he ought not to have to pay for an
injury to another man which did not result from his fault. He may
through generosity or sympathy, offer to give the injured workman
something to help him out, but if an outside party appears for the
injured man, or if the employer is threatened with a suit, that puts
an end to his feelings of generosity and sympathy. He resents
the claim as an unjust one, and with visions of the jury awarding
a large verdict against him, gets ready to fight. From that time
on the injured workman and his employer are enemies. A peculiar
bitterness seems to enter into these contests, as both parties are
convinced of the injustice of the law and the prejudice of court
and jury.
Where an employer gets rid of all this annoyance and risk
by taking out a liability insurance policy, the situation is by no
means improved. An injured workman who has been referred by
his employer to the claim agent of a large insurance company
with whom he must deal on strictly a legal and business basis,
comes out of that experience with no kindly feelings for his em-
ployer.
A large proportion of the employers of labor in the state
(excepting the very largest) now take out insurance against
liability to respond in damages to their injured employes. Under
the ordinary form of insurance written in this state the insurance
company takes over all charge of relation between the injured
293
man and his employers. From the date of the accident the em-
ployer notifies the insurance company and takes no further steps.
The insurance company treats the accident as a purely business
proposition, settles for as little as it can at once, or if that does not
work it forces the employe to sue, makes use of every possible
delay, uses acute lawyers and takes advantage of its full legal
rights.
It is asserted that in many cases the injured workmen are
represented by lawyers who, preying upon clients and insurers, are
a disgrace to the profession of the bar. Doubtless there is ground
for objection in the conduct of both sides in many cases. The
point to be emphasized is that under our present system of em-
ployers' liability and its necessary concomitant, liability insurance,
there is of necessity a violent antagonism between the injured
employe and the insurance company (which represents the em-
ployer) that leads to sharp practice, delay, perjury and needless
hostility. That deplorable condition of affairs as testified to
by the insurance officials themselves* has seemed to us a necessary
result of two things: first, a system in which every injured workman
is thrown into the lottery of a lawsuit as his only remedy, and
second, the intervention of the insurance company which is fight-
ing lawsuits and settling claims as a business. Here again the
situation seems to be the inevitable result of our legal system.
That the present law, with its uncertain and uneven chances,
promotes distrust and ill-will between employers and employes
to a serious extent we are convinced from the testimony of both.
In our public hearings and in the replies received to our inquiries
this was a very frequent complaint
Our conclusions concerning the working of the employers'
liability law in New York State, based upon testimony given at
our public hearings and upon the results of our inquiries and de-
tailed investigations, have been set forth under the four objections
above discussed. These objections may be summed up as follows:
Our present system leaves the injured workman to stand the
greater part of the industrial accident loss, and because his income
is not equal to it, he and his dependents undergo extreme poverty
*
Testimony of Messrs. Cowles and Brossmith. See also testimony of
Messrs. Clark, Strong, Stillwell, Noyes, and Robinson, Parsons, and others.
294
and often become a burden upon public or private charity; on
the other hand, because of the uncertain and arbitrary chances of
recovery under our system, the state is put to the cost of much
fruitless litigation and employers pay out enormous sums to pro-
tect themselves against liability on account of industrial accidents,
from all of which the victims of those accidents reap little benefit;
finally the system is slow in operation, is an encouragement to
corrupt practices on both sides, and is a great source of antagonism
between employers and employes
295
APPENDIX V
ACCIDENT INSURANCE ACT OF MONTANA
THIS
recent act of Montana is the first state law in which
liability to employes is based on the hazard of a particular
employment. It goes into eflFect October 1,1910. It is
reproduced here not as a standard but as a matter of record and
information.
Laws of Montana
1909. Chapter 67, Page 81.

AN Act to create a State Accident Insurance, and Total Permanent Disability
Fund, for coal miners and employees at coal washers in the State of Montana,
and providing for the maintenance and management of the same; extending
and defining the duties of the State Auditor; and fixing penalties for the
violation of the provisions of this act.
BE it enacted by the Legislative Assembly
of
the State
of
Montana:
Section i. All workmen, laborers, and employees employed in and around
any coal mines, or in and around any coal washers in which coal is treated, except
office employees, superintendents and general managers, shall be insured in ac-
cordance with the provisions of this act, against accidents occurring in the course
of their occupation.
2. AH corporations, partnerships, associations or persons engaged in the

business of operating any coal mine or coal washers in the State of Montana shall
pay to the Auditor of the State, within five days after the monthly wages at the
particular mine shall have beeh paid, one cent per ton on the tonnage of coal
mined and shipped, or sold locally, or having been mined is ready for shipment or
sale during the month for which the wages were paid; and all persons mentioned
in section i employed in and about coal mines shall allow to be deducted from their
gross monthly earnings one per cent thereof, the deduction to be made by the
agent, manager, or foreman of any corporation, association, partnership, person
or persons engaged in the business of operating any coal mine or coal washer, and
paid to the State Auditor within five days after such monthly wages have been paid.
3.
The agent, manager, foreman or accountant of any corporation, partner-
ship, association, person or persons engaged in mining coal in Montana, shall on
or before the fifth day succeeding the pay day at his respective mine, make report
296
under oath to the State Auditor as to the tonnage mined and subject to the pay-
ment of one cent per ton thereon; and stating the gross earnings subject to the
one per cent deduction as provided in this act, accompanied by a certified check
in full for the amount of the tax provided in section 2 of this act. It shall be un-
lawful for any person, employer, employee, corporation, partnership, association
or union to make any contract waiving, avoiding or affecting the full legal effect
of this act.
4. It is hereby made the duty of the State Auditor to receive all moneys as
provided for in this act, and to send the proper acknowledgment to the person
making such remittance. The auditor shall pay all moneys so received by him
to the State Treasurer, who shall keep such sums in safe custody in a distinct fund
to be known as the Employers and Employees Co-operative Insurance and Total
Permanent Disability Fund. The State Treasurer must invest the surplus of this
fund in safe and convertible State, county or city bonds, or bonds of the United
States. All interest accruing from such investments shall be accredited to this
insurance fund. The bond of the State Treasurer shall be liable to such funds,
and it shall be his duty to keep accurate account of the receipts and disbursements
of such money.
5.
The Auditor of State shall keep full statistics of the operation of this
function of his department in the event of death by accident, of any employee
insured under this act, who shall have come to his death in the course of his em-
ployment and by causes arising therein. The Auditor of State upon being satisfied
by adequate evidence of such death shall issue a warrant upon the State Treasurer
to persons dependent upon the deceased, these warrants to issue in the following
order:
(1)
To surviving wife and child, or children, in equal shares, and if neither
wife or child, or children be alive, then
(2)
to surviving parents who are dependent,
or partially so, upon the deceased; if none, then
(3)
to such other relatives of the
deceased as survive him and are dependent upon him, in the sum of three thousand
($3,000)
dollars.
A workman receiving injuries which permanently incapacitate him from
the performance of work shall receive a compensation monthly, not to exceed one
dollar
($1)
a day for each working day. Compensation for permanent injury shall
not be allowed until after the expiration of twelve weeks from the time such in-
juries were sustained, provided that the medical practitioner examines and pro-
nounces the injury as being permanent, compensation may then be allowed from
commencement of disability. The Auditor of State, however, may, when in his
judgment he deems it advisable, use so much of the funds as is necessary in the
procuring of a medical practitioner, for the purpose of examination or treatment
under this act, for such injuries as herein mentioned compensation shall continue
during disability, or until settlement is effected as provided for in section
9
of this
act. Total or permanent disability shall consist of the loss of both legs or both
arms, the total loss of eye sight or paralysis, or other conditions incapacitating
him from work, caused by accident, or injuries received during employment as
specified by this act; provided, that if death, as a result of the injury, ensues at
a period not longer than one year from date of accident the sum of three thousand
297
dollars (|3,ooo) shall be paid the deceased workman's dependents as hereinbefore
provided. The representatives of a foreigner, except the widow or dependent
children, who were not living within the country at the time of the accident, shall
have no claim for the compensation provided for in this act. Such foreign person
shall file their foreign address, if married, with the office of the employer with whom
they are employed and duplicate thereof with the State Auditor, giving their wife's
name and dependent children, and such other identification as may be required
by the Auditor of State. Loss of limb, or eye, caused by accident to a workman
while employed as provided for in this act, shall be compensated for in the sum of
one thousand ($i,ooo) dollars, provided, that in the event there shall be no funds
available in the fund to pay the Auditor's warrant when drawn the same shall draw
interest out of the fund at the rate of ten per cent per annum until such warrant is
called for payment by the Treasurer which shall be as soon as the fund is sufficient
to pay the same with its interest then due.
6. Where a workman is entitled to monthly payments under this act, he

shall file with the Auditor of State, his application for such, together with a certifi-
cate from the county physician of the county wherein he resides, attested before a
notary public.
7. If any person or persons, company or corporation who is then paying

into this insurance fund shall believe that any person or persons are obtaining, or
having made application to obtain benefits hereunder improperly or fraudulently,
and shall file his written request that such person's claim be investigated, the State
Auditor must, upon the receipt of such request, request the secretary of the State
Board of Health to make an examination for the purpose of this act and his cer-
tificate as to the condition of the person or persons with reference to their rights
to benefit under this act shall be conclusive evidence as to his condition.
8. If the workman refuses to submit himself to such examination, or in

any way obstructs the same, his right to compensation under this act shall be
suspended until such examination takes place, and shall absolutely cease unless
he submits himself for an examination within one month after being required to
do so.
Q. When any monthly payment has been made to a workman for any
period whatever, the liability under this act, may on the application by, or on
behalf of the workman, be redeemed by the payment of a lump sum, which in no
instance shall be in excess of the amount specified as death indemnity, and all
monthly payments made prior shall be deducted from such settlement.
10. The Auditor of State shall report in January of each year to the Gov-
ernor of the experience and business of this function of his department, and shall
have plenary power to determine all disputed cases which may arise in its adminis-
tration not herein provided for, and to recommend in his report the rates or pre-
mium necessary in order to preserve such fund, and shall order paid such indemnifi-
cation as herein provided. He shall have power to define the insurance provisions
of this act by regulations not inconsistent therewith and shall prescribe the char-
acter of the monthly or other reports required of the parties liable hereunder and
the character of the proofs of deaths, or to total permanent disability, and shall
298
have power to make all other orders and rules necessary to carry out the true intent
of-this act.
11. No money paid or payable in respect of insurance or monthly com-
pensation under this act shall be capable of being assigned, charged, taken into
execution, or attached, nor shall the same pass to any other person by operation of
law; and the acceptance of pecuniary benefit under the provisions of this act shall
operate to release the person or persons, corporation, partnerships, or associations
causing such injuries or death for which benefits are so claimed, who shall have
paid the assessment provided in section 2 of this act, and also the employer, officers
and agents thereof from all liability and claim arising from such injuries or death.
The commencement of a suit to recover for such injuries or death shall operate as
a forfeiture of the right to benefit under this act.
12. A manager, agent, foreman, accountant, person or persons who repre-

sent any corporation, partnership, association, person or persons, engaged in the
mining or managing of any coal mines or coal washers in Montana, or person or
persons liable for the payments herein provided for who shall violate the intent of
this act by inaccurate reports of tonnage of coal produced by them, or the earnings
of employes in their employ, or who in any manner hinders or obstructs the Audi-
tor of State in ascertaining facts bearing upon any case provided for in this act or
who may refuse correctly to make out such reports as are required by this act, or
as requested by the Auditor of State, or submit to its provisions, when liable
therefor, or who shall fraudulently obtain benefits hereunder shall be fined for
each offense the sum of not less than one hundred (|ioo) dollars nor more than five
hundred
(I500)
dollars and imprisonment in the county jail for a period of not
less than one month nor more than six months, or by both such fine and imprison-
ment.
The proceeds of all fines shall be forwarded to the State Treasurer and by
him credited to the Insurance Fund.
13. This act to be in full force and effect from and after the first day of
October, nineteen hundred and ten, benefits to commence four months thereafter.
Approved March
4, 1909.
299
APPENDIX VI
UNITED STATES STEEL CORPORATION
VOLUNTARY ACCIDENT RELIEF PLAN
PROVIDED BY SUBSIDIARY COMPANIES FOR EMPLOYES
INJURED AND THE FAMILIES OF EMPLOYES
KILLED IN WORK-ACCIDENTS (April
15, 1910)
ACCIDENT RELIEF
1. This plan of relief is a purely voluntary provision made by the company
for the benefit of employes injured and the families of employes killed in the service
of the company and constitutes no contract and confers no right of action. The
entire amount of money required to carry out the plan will be provided by the
company with no contribution whatsoever from the employes.
2. Where the word "manager" appears in this plan of relief it means that
official of the company who has charge of this relief for his company.
3.
The decision of the manager of this relief shall be final with respect to all
questions arising under this plan of relief, and he shall have full discretionary power
in paying relief to meet any conditions which may arise and may not be covered by
this statement.
4.
The privilege of this relief will take effect as soon as an emyloye enters
the service of the company, will continue so long as the plan remains in operation
during such service, and will terminate when he leaves the service.
5.
Payment of this relief will be made only for disablement which has been
caused solely by accidents to employes during and in direct and proper connection
with the performance of duties to which the employes are assigned in the service
of the company, or which they are directed to perform by proper authority, or
from accidents which occur in voluntarily protecting the company's property or
interests. Relief will not be paid unless investigation of the causes and circum-
stances of the injury show that it was accidentally inflicted and that it renders the
employe unable to perform his duties in the service of the company or in any other
occupation.
6. No relief will be paid for the first ten days of disablement nor for a period
longer than fifty-two weeks.
300
U. S. STEEL CORPORATION VOLUNTARY ACCIDENT RELIEF PLAN
7.
No employe will be entitled to receive relief except for the time during
which the surgeon certifies that he is unable to follow his usual or any other oc-
cupation.
8. Employes will not be entitled to receive disablement relief for any time
for which wages are paid them.
Q. The company will provide treatment by surgeons and hospitals of its
selection.
10. The company will furnish artificial limbs and trusses in cases where
these are needed.
11. All men injured in the service of the company must obey the surgeon's
instructions in reporting for examination, using the remedies and following the
treatment prescribed, and going to the hospital if directed. No relief will be paid
unless these instructions are obeyed. All employes who are disabled but not
confined to the house must report in person at the surgeon's office, from time to
time, as reasonably requested, and must keep any other appointments made by
the surgeon.
12. All employes who wish, while disabled, to go away from their usual
place of residence, must first arrange with their employing officer and with the
surgeon in charge as to the absence and the evidence of continued disablement to
be furnished. Such employes must report as often and in such manner as may be
required of them.
13. No relief will be paid to any employe or his family if suit is brought
against the company. In no case whatsoever will the company deal with an at-
torney or with anyone except the injured man or some member of his family in the
matter of relief to be paid under this plan, because it is part of the plan that the
whole amount paid shall be received by the employe and his family.
14. No relief will be paid for injuries caused or contributed to by the intoxi-
cation of the employe injured or his use of stimulants or narcotics or his taking part
in any illegal or immoral acts.
15.
All employes of the company who accept and receive any of this relief
will be required to sign a release to the company.
TEMPORARY DISABLEMENT
16. Under the terms and conditions stated here, employes shall be entitled
to the following temporary disablement relief (but no relief will be paid for the
first ten days nor for longer than fifty-two weeks, as stated in paragraph six)
:
Single Men: Single men who have been five years or less in the service of
the company shall receive thirty-five per cent of the daily wages they were receiv-
ing at the time of the accident. Single men of more than five years' service shall
receive an additional two per cent for each year of service over five years. But
in no case shall single men receive more than
I1.50
per day.
Married men: Married men living with their families who have been in the
service of the company five years or less shall receive fifty per cent of the daily
wages they were receiving at the time of the accident. For each additional year
of service above five years two per cent shall be added to the relief. For each child
301
under sixteen years five per cent shall be added to the relief. But in no case shall
this relief exceed two dollars per day, for married men.
PERMANENT DISABLEMENT
17. The amount of relief which will be paid to employes who have sustained
some permanent disablement, such as the loss of an arm or leg, will depend Ufion
the extent to which such disablement renders it difficult for them to obtain em-
ployment. The kinds of disablement that may occur and the extent to which
each interferes with employment differ so greatly that it is impossible to provide
any adequate schedule of relief which will be paid in all cases of permanent dis-
ablement. The amounts which will be paid in cases not specifically mentioned here
must of necessity be left to the discretion of the manager; but it is the intention of
the company that this discretion shall be so exercised in all cases as to afford sub-
stantial relief corresponding as far as possible with thfi amounts stated below,
considering the special circumstances of each case and the character and extent of
the injury.
(a) For the loss of a hand, twelve months' wages.
(b) For the loss of arm, eighteen months' wages.
(c) For the loss of a foot, nine months' wages.
(d) For the loss of a leg, twelve months' wages.
(e) For the loss of one eye, six months' wages.
DEATH
18. Relief for the families of employes killed in accidents which happen in
the work of the company will be paid only where the death of the employe is shown
to have resulted from an accident (or sunstroke or heat exhaustion) in the work of
the company during and in direct and proper connection with the performance of
duties to which the employe had been assigned in the service of the company or
which he had been directed to perform by proper authority, or from accidents
which occur in voluntarily protecting the company's property or interests.
IQ. Death relief will be paid as soon as possible after the required proof of
cause of death is obtained and a satisfactory release given.
20. The company will pay reasonable funeral expenses, not to exceed |ioo.
21. No relief will be paid for death caused or contributed to by the intoxica-
tion of the employe killed or his use of stimulants or narcotics or his taking part in
any illegal or immoral acts.
22. No relief will be paid to the family of any employe if suit is brought
against the company.
23.
In no case will this relief be paid until the receipt by the company of a
satisfactory release properly executed.
24.
Under the terms and conditions stated here, the widows and children
of the employes killed in accidents which happen in the work of the company shall
be entitled to the following death relief:
302
U. S. STEEL CORPORATION VOLUNTARY ACCIDENT RELIEF PLAN
In the case of married men living with their families, who have been in the
service of the company five
(5)
years or less and leave widows or children under
sixteen
(16)
years of age, the company will pay relief to an amount equal to eighteen
months' wages of the deceased employe. For each additional year of service above
five years, three per cent shall be added to this relief. For each child under sixteen
(16)
years, ten per cent shall be added to this relief.
But in no case shall this death relief exceed three thousand dollars
($3,000.00).
26. This plan of relief will be in operation for only one year from May i,
iQio. If the plan meets with success, it is hoped that some similar plan may be
put in operation for succeeding years.
303
APPENDIX VII
INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT DEPARTMENT
OF INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER
COMPANY AND ASSOCIATED
COMPANIES
THE
International Harvester Company, International Har-
vester Company of Canada, Limited, International Flax
Twine Company, Wisconsin Steel Company, Illinois North-
ern! Railway, Chicago, West Pullman & Southern Railroad
Company, The Owasco River Railway, and Deering Southwestern
Railway, have associated themselves in the administration of
an Industrial Accident Department.*
I. Membership
Employes of the above named companies, who are employed
in the works, twine mills, lumber mills, steel mills, mines, and on
the railroads, are entitled to the benefits of this plan.
2. Purpose of Plan
The purpose of this plan is to insure to employes at the works,
twine, steel and lumber mills, mines, and on the railroads, prompt,
definite and adequate compensation for injuries resulting from
accidents occurring to them while engaged in the performance of
their duties; and also to provide compensation to the widow,
children and relatives who may be dependent upon any employe
whose death results from such accident.
The benefits provided for by this plan will be paid regardless
of legal liability on the part of the Company, and no injured em-
ploye will require legal assistance to collect the money to which he
is entitled. All necessary blanks and information will be fur-
*
Plan effective May i, igio.
304
INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER COMPANY RELIEF PLAN
nished, and settlements will be made as far as possible directly
with the person entitled to receive the benefits.
The Company will make an earnest effort to see that every
dollar which becomes due under this plan is promptly paid, and to
save its employes from the delays and expenses of litigation.
3.
Amount of Compensation
The Company, without any contribution from the employes,
under this plan will pay:
*
In case of death: Three years' average wages, but not less
than
11,500
nor more than
$4,000.
In case of loss of hand, foot, or eye: Special benefits as here-
inafter stated.
In case of other injuries: One-fourth wages during the first
30
days of disability; if disability continues beyond
30
days, one-
half wages during the continuance thereof, but not for more than
104
weeks from the date of the accident. Thereafter, if total dis-
ability continues, a pension will be paid.
4.
Contribution by Employes
The one-fourth wages paid by the Company during the first
thirty days of disability, will be increased to half-wages in favor of
employes who make the following contributions:
Employes earning
I50
a month, or less, six cents per month;
more than
$50
and less than
$100,
eight cents per month; more
than
1
1 00, ten cents per month.
It is estimated that these contributions, together with the
one-fourth wages paid by the Company, will be sufficient to provide
half-pay for all injured employes during the first thirty days of
disability. If experience shows that the employes' contributions
are more than sufficient for this purpose, then the employes' con-
tributions will be reduced accordingly.
5.
Payment of Contributions
Deductions to cover the employes' contributions for benefits
during the first thirty days of disability under this plan, will
(unless the employe gives to the Works superintendent or Board
of Management written notice to the contrary) be made from the
20
305
employes' wages on regular pay-days on the following basis:
Employes earning
$50
or less per month, 6 cents per month;
earning more than
I50
and less than $100 per month, 8 cents per
month; earning more than |ioo per month, 10 cents per month.
6. Co-operation with Company
The Company earnestly desires the co-operation of its em-
ployes in the payment of benefits for the first thirty days of dis-
ability, because it wishes every employe to assist in the prevention
of accidents. The Company has expended large sums in safe-
guarding machinery and in the effort to protect its employes from
injury, but without the active co-operation of the employes many
accidents cannot be avoided. Under this plan the Company and
the employes equally divide the payment of benefits during the
first thirty days of disability, and thus every employe becomes
financially interested in guarding against accidents and in seeing
that his fellow workmen are equally careful. It is hoped that this
mutual interest will lead to active co-operation on the part of the
employes and that thereby accidents will be reduced to a minimum.
7.
Management
This Department will be managed by a Board of Manage-
ment composed of five members appointed by the associated
companies.
All employes necessary to conduct this Department shall be
appointed by the Board. The Board may arrange to have the
benefits paid and the necessary medical examinations made
through the organization of the Employes' Benefit Association.
Should this be done, the Employes' Benefit Association will be
reimbursed for all expenses incident to the work of this Depart-
ment.
8. Operating Expense
AH expenses of this Department shall be paid by the com-
panies associated in the administration thereof. No part of the
contributions from employes shall be used to pay expenses, but
such contributions shall be used solely to pay one-half of the dis-
ability benefits for the first
30
days.
306
international harvester company relief plan
9.
Annual Report
The fiscal year of the Department shall be the calendar year.
A detailed report, including all receipts and disbursements, shall
be printed annually, and employes may procure copies thereof on
application.
10. Medical Examiners
The medical examiners shall be appointed by the Board of
Management. In every case of injury they shall make an exam-
ination of the injured employe; shall decide when an employe is
disabled, and when able to work; and shall perform such other
duties as shall be required of them by the Board of Management.
No bills for medical or surgical treatment shall be paid by
the Company unless the medical examiner or the Works physician
finds it necessary to provide additional or different medical or
surgical treatment, or to remove the patient to a hospital in order
to aid prompt recovery.
11. Disability Benefits
Benefits under this plan will be paid for personal injuries to
employes caused by accidents arising out of and in the course of
their employment at the works, twine, lumber and steel mills,
mines, and on the railroads.
(a) For each working day, or part thereof, during the con-
tinuance of disability:
During the first
30
days of disability one-quarter of the em-
ploye's average daily pay, and an equal amount paid out of the
fund contributed by the employes, if the injured employe is a
contributor to such fund;
After the first
30
days, half-pay during the continuance of
disability, but not for more than 104 weeks from the date of the
accident.
These disability benefits shall be payable every two weeks,
and, in no case, shall exceed $20 a week.
(b) An employe who has received disability benefits under
this plan for the period of 1
04
weeks, and who is then totally dis-
abled, shall, so long as his total disability continues, be paid an
307
annual pension equal to 8 per cent of the death benefit which
would have been payable had the accident resulted in death.
Such pension shall not be less than |io per month, and shall be
payable monthly.
(c) Disability benefits shall be based upon the average daily
wages received during the 60 days worked preceding the accident.
If the injured employe has not been in the Company's employ for
60 days prior to the accident, then upon the average daily wages
received during the period he has worked.
(d) No disability benefits shall be paid unless written claim
therefor be made to the Board of Management within thirty days
after the date of the accident.
12. Special Benefits
Loss
of
Feet and Hands: (a) If the injury causes the im-
mediate severing of, or (in the opinion of the medical examiner or
Works physician) necessitates the amputation of a hand or foot
at or above the wrist or ankle:
One and one-half years' average wages, but in no event less
than
I500
nor more than |2,ooo;
(b) In case of the loss of both hands or both feet, or one
hand and one foot, as aforesaid
:
Four years' average wages, but not less than |2,ooo.
Eyes: (a) In case of the total and irrecoverable loss of the
sight of one eye:
Three-fourths of the average yearly wages;
(b) In case of the total and irrecoverable loss of the sight
of both eyes:
Four years' average wages, but not less than |2,ooo.
Payment
of
Special Benefits: An employe receiving special
benefits shall not be entitled to any other benefits except as here-
inafter stated:
If an employe entitled to special benefits dies before the
payment thereof, no special benefits shall be paid, but his depend-
ent relatives shall be entitled to death benefits as hereinafter
provided. If an employe who has received special benefits dies
as the result of the injury within twelve months from the date
thereof, then death benefits shall be paid, but there shall be de-
308
ducted from such death benefits all sums theretofore paid as
special benefits.
No special benefits shall be paid on the basis of annual wages
exceeding |2,ooo; nor unless the loss of foot, hand or eye shall
occur within twelve months after the date of the injury and shall
be the direct result of the injury, nor unless written claim therefor
be made to the Board of Management within thirty days after
the loss of the hand, foot or eye.
13.
LuMP-SuM Settlements
In case of serious injury, where the employe desires to accept
a lump sum in lieu of weekly disability benefits and pension, the
Board of Management has authority to make full and final settle-
ment with such employe on such terms as may be agreed upon in
writing.
14. Death Benefits
The amount of compensation for death resulting from
accidental injury arising out of and in the course of employment
shall be:
If the employe leaves a widow, child or children, or other
relatives, dependent upon his earnings for their support, benefits
shall be paid as follows:
(a) If death results from such accident before the expiration
of 16 weeks from the date thereof:
Three years' average wages (but not less than
1 1,500
nor
more than
$4,000).
(b) If death results from such accident between the end of
the sixteenth week and the end of the fifty-second week after the
date thereof:
Two years' average wages (but not more than
$3,000),
less
all disability benefits paid.
If the employe leave no widow, children or other relatives,
dependent upon him for their support, then reasonable hospital
and medical expenses, and a further sum for burial expenses not
less than
$75
nor more than fioo.
All death benefits shall be paid to the administrator or exec-
309
utor of the deceased employe, in trust for his widow, children, or
relatives, who were dependent.
No death benefits shall be paid if death result more than
fifty-two weeks after the date of the accident, nor unless a written
claim therefor shall be filed by the executor or administrator of the
deceased employe with the Board of Management within three
months after the employe's death.
15.
Average Yearly Wages
"Average yearly wages" as used herein with reference to
special and death benefits shall be computed as follows:
The employe's average daily wages during the year of his
employment preceding the date of the accident shall be multiplied
by the number of working days in that year. If the injured
employe has not been employed for a whole year, then the average
yearly wages shall be computed by multiplying such employe's
average daily wages, during the time he has been employed, by
the number of working days in the year preceding the date of the
accident.
16. Notice of Accident
To entitle an injured employe to benefits, he must im-
mediately give notice, or cause notice to be given, to his time-
keeper, of the time and place of the accident, the nature and cause
of the injury, and of his residence address, and must submit im-
mediately to a physical examination by the medical examiner or
Works physician, or other physician designated by the Company,
and strictly follow the directions given by such medical examiner
or physician.
The payment of benefits shall cease if the injured employe
refuses to follow the directions of the medical examiner. Works
physician, or physician designated by the Company, and shall
cease when the medical examiner or Works physician reports an
employe who has been injured as able to work.
17.
Disability Defined
The word "disability," whenever used in this plan, means
inability to work at any gainful occupation whatsoever, whether
310
of the kind the employe was engaged in at the time of the injury,
or not.
No benefits shall be paid unless the injury or death is caused,
directly and solely, by an accident arising out of and in the course
of the employment. Benefits shall not be paid for any injury
or death caused by accident unless there shall be external and
visible marks upon the body of physical injuries, which, in case
of death, must have been sufficient to have caused such death.
Benefits shall not be paid for any injury or death resulting from
or caused, directly or indirectly, wholly or in part, by the intoxica-
tion or partial intoxication of the employe, or by his failure to use
the safety appliances provided by the Company, or by his gross
or wilful misconduct.
No benefits shall be paid for injuries resulting from accidents
due to causes beyond the control of the employer, such as riots,
conflagrations, lightning, cyclones, hurricanes, storms, floods,
earthquakes, or any acts of God.
1 8. Meaning of Word "Company"
The word "Company" whenever used in this plan, shall
mean the company for which the employe is working when injured.
19. Adjustment of Claims
The decision of the medical examiner or Works physician as
to the existence and duration of disability shall, subject to the
approval of the Board of Management, be binding upon all em-
ployes. The decision of the Board shall be final in regard to all
questions arising in connection with the administration of the
Department and the payment of benefits; provided, however, that
any employe dissatisfied with the decision of the Board of Manage-
ment, may take an appeal, in writing, to the Trustees of the Em-
ployes' Benefit Association. Such appeal shall be taken in the
same manner, and upon the same notice, as is required by the
Rules of the Benefit Association in the case of appeals from the
decision of the Superintendent of said Association to the Trustees
thereof.
311
work-accidents and the law
20. Acceptance of Benefits
The acceptance of any of the benefits herein provided shall
operate as a release and satisfaction of all claims against the Com-
pany, and all other companies associated in this Department,
arising out of the injury or death for which such benefits are paid.
All persons accepting benefits shall give a written receipt evidenc-
ing such release. No death benefits shall be due or payable unless
such a release shall have been duly executed by all persons who
might legally assert any claim growing out of the death of the
employe. The commencing of any legal action whatsoever against
any of the companies associated in this Department on account of
such injury, by the employe, or in the event of his death, by his
executor, administrator, or personal representatives, shall be a
bar to the recovery of any and all benefits herein provided; but in
such event the employe shall be entitled to have refunded to him
any contributions paid since the receipt by him of disability
benefits, and no more.
The benefits of this plan are offered upon the express condi-
tion that all the rules and regulations herein contained shall be
faithfully and strictly obeyed by the employes, and a complete
compliance with each and all such rules and regulations shall be
and is a condition precedent to the right to receive any benefits
whatsoever.
21. Amendment of Plan
The Company reserves the right to change, alter or modify
these regulations at any time. Notices of all changes shall be
posted at the works, mills, mines and railroad stations at least
thirty days prior to the date the same become effective. Such
changes shall not apply to cases of injury occurring prior to the
date when the change becomes effective.
Note: If the person entitled to receive death benefits so
desires, the Company will pay the amount of death benefits in
monthly instalments of not less than $20 each, and allow
4
per
cent interest upon all unpaid balances.
312
APPENDIX VIII
DUES, BENEFITS AND CONTRIBUTION
FROM EMPLOYER IN FOUR RELIEF
ASSOCIATIONS FOUNDED ON
CONTRACT OF RELEASE
OPERATING IN 1Q07-1908 IN ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
CLASS I
IVage Limit,
Dues and Bene-
fits
Wage limit
Monthly dues .
Death benefit .
Sick benefit
Accident bene-
fit . .
Pennsylvania
Railroad
I35
a month
I -75
$250
I2.80
for
52
weeks; $1.40
after
I3.50
for
52
weeks;
$1.75
after
52 weeks
Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad
Less than
I35
a month
1 1. 00
Accident,
$500;
natural,
f
2^0
$3.00 for 52
weeks
I3.00
for 26
weeks;
I1.50
after 26 weeks
fVestinghouse
Air Brake Co
Less than
$35
a month
I
.50
$150
I5.00
a week
39
weeks
1
5.00 a week
39
weeks
IVestingbouse
Electrical Mjg.
Co.
Less than
I35
I
.50
I200
$5.00 a week for
39
weeks
$5.00 a week
for
39
weeks
Wage limit
Monthly dues
Death benefit
Sick benefit
Accident bene-
fit . .
fe5-l55
a
month
$1.50
1500
$5.60
for 52
weeks;
I2.80
. after
$700
for
52
weeks;
$3
50
after
CLASS II
I35-I50
$2.00
Accident,? 1 000
natural,
$500
$6.00 for 52
weeks
|6.oo for
52
weeks; $3.00
after
52
weeks
3'3
?35-?55
I
75
I150
$7.50
for
39
weeks
$7.50
for
39
weeks
f35-?55
? .90
I250
I7.50
for
weeks
f8.25
for
weeks
39
39
CLASS III
IVage Limit,
Dues and Bene-
fits
APPENDIX IX
A CALCULATION AS TO THE SOCIAL
LOSS INVOLVED IN ONE YEAR'S
WORK-ACCIDENTS IN ALLE-
GHENY COUNTY
THE
accident loss for an industrial district can be estimated
from the standpoint of social economy. Frederick Hoff-
man, statistician of the Prudential Insurance Company,
estimates that the net economic gain to society from the life of
a male wage-earner in mechanical and manufacturing industries
averages
$300
per year,* his normal period of industrial activity
extending from the fifteenth to the sixty-fifth year. This net
gain to society varies extensively throughout the working life.
According to Mr. Hoffman's tables it is but
$75
at the age of
fifteen, while at thirty-two it reaches
I400,
where it remains
until the forty-eighth year, after that rapidly declining so as to
be only
I175
at the age of sixty-five. Multiplying the net ec-
onomic gain for each working year by the probable length of life
according to mortality tables, we may roughly calculate what is
the net economic loss to society involved in the death of a wage-
earner at different ages. Thus the death of a boy at fifteen
means a direct loss of
$15,000,
the death of a man at thirty-two
*
Hoffman, F. L. : Physical and Medical Aspects of Labor and Industry.
Annals of the American Academy, Vol.
27, iqo6, No.
3. By this
$300,
Mr. Hoffman
means to represent the selling value of each worker's product, minus the cost of
materials and wear of machinery, and minus what is consumed by the worker and
his family. Thus suppose a worker produces goods to the value of
1 1,200; his
wages are $600; the cost of materials and the use of capital in tools, etc., involved
is say, $250.
This leaves
$350
which is the surplus wealth produced by that worker
after the cost of maintenance of himself and his family, and the cost of raw ma-
terials, are taken out. This is not nearly all profit, for much of it is lost in the
machinery of distribution; but it represents roughly the surplus which goes to
increase materially the wealth of society. Hence Mr. Hoffman holds it is the
"
net
economic gain."
means a loss of
$11,595,
^^^ the death of an old workman of
sixty-four means a loss of only
$170.
Applying this method of calculation to the actual ages of
the
526 men killed in Allegheny County during the year under
consideration, but using $200 instead of
I300
as the yearly eco-
nomic gain, we find that the net loss to the community at this
reduced estimate was
$3,828,090.
In a similar way we may sum up the net economic loss to
society from non-fatal injuries. According to our estimate
2000 men injured in industrial accidents were sent to the hospitals
of the county during that year. Of these roughly 60 were totally
disabled for life; 192 were partially disabled for life, their
earning capacity reduced on an average
29
per cent; and the
rest were totally disabled for periods ranging from one week to
one year. Reckoning the loss to society from the total or tem-
porary disablement of all these workers on the same basis, but
including the cost of their maintenance during disability, we get
an additional social loss of
$1,320,636.
Loss to society from men totally disabled for life . $734,928
"
" " " partially disabled for life .
372,708
"
" " " " temporarily disabled . . 213,000
11,320,636
To this we must add what it cost the community to care for
all these cases of injury and death. Here, however, we are dealing
with an unknown quantity. The hospital charges for the year's
industrial accident cases would amount to about $80,000,*
which we accept as the minimum of known cost for the med-
ical care involved in a year's industrial accidents. While every year
2000 wealth producers are withdrawn temporarily from any oc-
cupation, and 500 more permanently, as a result of industrial
*
Most of the hospitals of Pittsburgh charge $1.00 a day for ward patients,
none more than
I1.50
a day. It is well known that this charge does not meet the
cost of a surreal case. It is intended to cover bed and board, supplies, and the
simplest service. Accident cases, requiring surgical care, frequent dressing, etc.,
cost the hospital much more than
I7.00,
or even $10, a week. Moreover this
$80,000 does not include the cost of doctor's services and medical expenses after
these 2,000 injured men were discharged from the hospitals. Whether these ex-
penses were met by the employer, or by the public, or by the injured man's
family, they are a social cost.
316
CALCULATION OF SOCIAL LOSS
accidents in Allegheny County, a number of other possible wealth
producers are thus permanently occupied, non-productively, in
the business of patching up, repairing, putting in order, those who
are injured.
By such a method of estimate the net economic loss to society
from one year's work-accidents in Allegheny County would be
as follows:
LOSS TO SOCIETY FROM ONE YEAR'S WORK-ACCIDENTS IN
ALLEGHENY COUNTY
Social Loss
From deaths
3,828,090
From disablements . . 1,320,636
Hospital charges . .... 80,000
$5,228,726*
*
This estimate takes no account, it should be noted, of the loss involved
in the continuous succession of small injuries not serious enough to be taken to a
hospital, nor of injuries more serious, but occurring too far away from a hospital
to make the trip advisable, nor of injuries, often very serious in the matter of dis-
ablement, but not of a nature to require hospital care.
317
APPENDIX X
DATA AS TO RAILROAD ACCIDENTS
(UNITED STATES INTERSTATE
COMMERCE COMMISSION)
NUMBER OF TRAINMEN EMPLOYED, WITH NUMBER KILLED AND
INJURED COUPLING AND UNCOUPLING CARS FOR THE
YEARS ENDING JUNE 30
Year
DATA AS TO RAILROAD ACCIDENTS
DEATHS AND INJURIES OR TRAINMEN FOR FIFTEEN
YEARS.
1833 1894 1895 1836 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 I90S 1903 1304 1905 1906 1907
TIUmMEN EMPLOYED
I7B43S IB0,033 137^31 ieZ.B7S (.SSy UO7OB 178.851 181,188 208.043 828.482 853,680 253,884 265,175 285.656 817 808
1300
APPENDIX XI
RECORD SYSTEM EMPLOYED
IN
general it may be said that in devising a method for ac-
cumulating and registering work-accident data for the Pitts-
burgh Survey, the case record system employed by char-
ity organization societies was used. Especially suggestive were
papers by Sherman C. Kingsley, superintendent of the Chicago
Relief and Aid Association, presented to the National Conference
of Charities and Correction in Minneapolis in the spring of
1907,
which gave the facts about a small group of families, pensioners
of that society, who had been brought into destitution through
industrial accidents. Equally suggestive was a paper by Francis
H. McLean, then superintendent of the Brooklyn Bureau of
Charities, presented to the New York State Conference of Chari-
ties and Correction in the fall of
1907,
giving the facts as to
365
cases cared for by charitable societies in New York and Brooklyn.
With these suggestions in hand, rough blanks were blocked out and
submitted for criticism to Mr. McLean, Mr. Kingsley, Prof. John
R. Commons, University of Wisconsin, Mr. Frederick Hoflfman,
Statistician of the Prudential Insurance Company, Professor
Charles R. Henderson, a member of the Illinois State Industrial
Commission which had made the first public report on this subject
in this country. Miss Lilian Brandt, statistician of the New York
Charity Organization Society, Miss Kate Holladay Claghorn,
statistician of the New York Tenement House Department, Mrs.
Florence Kelley, formerly State Factory Inspector of Illinois, and
others. The blanks, revised in line with these suggestions, were
tried out on a month's cases and the results resubmitted for
criticisms before they were adopted in their final form. Upon
adjoining pages are published:
(A.) Coroner's record blank.
320
RECORD SYSTEM EMPLOYED
(B.) Family Record blank, fatalities, providing for economic
facts.
1^
The first step was to fill out blank A, in so far as the inquest
files supplied data as to the men killed from
July
i, 1906,
to June
30, 1907;
the second, to visit their homes. The industrial towns
in Allegheny County are spread over a wide area. Railway and
street car connections are not of the best. Tenants are constantly
shifting, and a year had elapsed in some cases since the death of
the man. Families of deceased foreigners go back to the old
country. Half a dozen races and tongues were represented. It
was no easy matter to get the information called for, but this was
done in a majority of cases.
The third step was twofold; first, to secure from the em-
ployer his statement of the accident; and, second, to check over
our facts as to wages, payments, etc., with the records of the claim
agents and legal departments. Here we were only partially
successful. The items were furnished by a number of large con-
cerns; they were refused by others. The final step came in
analyzing statistically the data thus gathered, and interpreting
them with illustrative instances from the case records.
A similar plan was employed with respect to hospital cases.
Through the interest of Mr. Francis
J.
Torrance, President of the
Pennsylvania State Board of Charities, we were able to secure
access to the registers of the public hospitals of Allegheny County
and transcribe the hospital records for three months' injury cases.
A card similar to Card A was used for this purpose, and a special
family record card (Blank C) was devised for recording the further
facts secured from the injured men or their families.
The staff included Miss Crystal Eastman, responsible inves-
tigator; and as visitors, Mrs. D. Lucile Field Woodward, Cornell,
A. B., later investigator for the Federal Immigration Commission;
Alexis Sokoloff, civil and mining engineer; Alois B. Koukol,
secretary. National Slavonic Society; and Joseph Stella, artist.
Herbert S. Brown, electrical engineer, was called in consultation
with respect to some of the technical problems. Acknowledgment
is due to Mr.
John Koren, United States Census Expert, and
Miss
Lilian Brandt, for criticisms and suggestions in regard to
statistics.
21
321
4D
**
en
o to S S
E
E
K
O
o
o
m
CO
<
111
CO
u
o
I-
o
tc
t
C9
5
CO
a
3
P4

APPENDIX XII
DATA SECURED CONCERNING ALL
CASES OF MARRIED MEN KILLED IN
WORK-ACCIDENTS IN ALLEGHENY
COUNTY, PA.,
JULY i, 1906,
TO
JUNE 30, 1907
Num-
DATA CONCERNING MARRIED MEN KILLED
Num-
ber
of
Case
Num-
ber
of
Nutn-
Num-
ber
of
Case
NutK-
INDEX
INDEX
Accident Insurance Act of Mon-
tana,
296
Accident Relief Plan, Voluntary,
of the U. S. Steel Corporation,
300
See Work-accidents
Non-resident alien de-
Accidents.
Aliens. See
pendents
Allegheny County, work-accidents
in. See Work-accidents in Alle-
"Ambulance chasers,"
191, 195
American Bridge Company,
65.
American Steel and Wire Company,
51, 60, 62, III,
IS3, IS4, iss, 156,
158, 161, 164, 247ff.
Asphyxiation
Causes of, in steel works,

52, 53
"Assumption of risk rule," 170, 171,
178, 181, 187
Austria
Legislation concerning compensa-

tion for work-accidents, 210
Baltimore & Ohio R. R.,
30, 31
Belgium

tion for work-accidents, 210; soft-
coal miners killed in service,
47;
use
of explosives in mines restricted,
46
Bessemer process, description of,
241
Beyer, David S.
"Safety Provisions in the United

States Steel Corporation," 244-26S
Blast furnace
Explosions,
49;
description of,
50,
240, 241; removing cooling plates
from,
S3
Blooming mill, description of, 242
Braddock, Pa.
Blast furnace explosion,

49;
un-
protected grade crossings,
17
Brakemen
Duties of, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24;

occupational risk,
18, 19, 20, 21, 22,
23. 24, 25
Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen,
199
Butler, Pa.
Blast furnace explosion,
49.
By-product of Employers' Liabil-
ity, 190-206
Byington, Margaret F.
"Homestead: The Households of

a Milltown," 129
C. M. Harper Brick Works, 102.
Carbon Steel Company,
31
Carelessness defined,
90,
95
Carnegie Coal Company,
139
Carnegie Relief Fund,
153, 160, 161,
162, 163, 164
Carnegie Steel Company,
31, 51, 55,
58, 62,
75,
100, III,
143, 151, 160,
161, 162
Casey Act,
177
Causes of work-accidents,
9-15;
among railroaders,
19-32; among
soft-coal miners,
34-46; among
335
INDEX
steel workers,
49-75;
among workers
in miscellaneous employments, 76-
83;
analysis of employers' res-
ponsibility,
8s,
86, 98, 99,
100,
loi, 102, 103, 104;
analysis of fel-
low-workmen's responsibility,
85, 86,
95, 96, 97,
98, 103, 104;
analysis of
victim's responsibility, 85-95, 103,
104; carelessness or contributory
negligence,
3, 19, 20, 23, 28, 29, 38,
42, 44, 45. 54, 56, 58, 70, 80, 81, 87,
88,
89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95;
conclu-
sion regarding,
165;
defective or
dangerous equipment,
3, 19, 20, 22,
23,
25, 26, 30, 31, 32, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44,
49, S4, 56, 58, 63, 64,
6s,
70, 71, 75,
78, 79,
80, 81, 82,
83, 98, 99,
100,101,
102, 103; negligence of fellow-work-
men, 21, 22, 28, 30, 32, 38, 39, 54,
58, 60, 64,
6s,
70, 77, 81,
95, 96,
97, 98;
per cent due to carelessness
of victims,
84, 86, 95, 104;
personal
factor in, 84-104; railroad wrecks,
29, 30, 31, 32
Children
Fatalities to, in work-accidents,

45,
79,
80, 83, 87, 88,
89, 97,
102, 103
Citizen's safety committee, 114
Colorado
Fellow-servant rule abolished, 207

"Conmiittee on Prevention
"
United States Steel Corporation,

III
Compensation for work-accidents
Attitude of employers,
153, ISS,
156, 158,
160-162,
163; desirabiUty
of remedial legislation for, 216, 217,
218, 219, 220; European legislation,
210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215; insur-
ance against, 184, 192, 193, 194, igs,
196, 199,
200; law governing,
169,
188; legislation in Austria, Belgium,
Deimiark, England, Finland, France,
Germany, Holland, Hungary, Swe-
den, 210; legislation suggested, 207-
220; provisions relating to, in Eng-
land, France and Germany, 210, 211,
212, 213, 214, 215
Compensation paid by employers
American Steel and Wire Com-

pany, (Table)
154, 155, 158, 267-268;
Carnegie Steel Company, 160-161;
336
during temporary disability,
144, 145,
146; for loss of arm, (Table) 126; for
loss of eye, (Table) 126; for loss of
leg, (Table) 126; for loss of two fin-
gers, (Table) 126; for partial disa-
bility,
147, 148, 149,
ISO, 151;
for
total disability,
147, 148, 149;
Jones
and Laughlin,
155,
(Table)
156;
McClintic Marshall Construction
Company, 158,
(Table)
159;
Mc-
intosh HemphiU Company,
158,
(Table)
159;
miscellaneous compa-
nies, (Table) 156; National Tube
Company,
155,
(Table)
156; New
York and Cleveland Gas Coal Com-
pany,
158,
(Table)
159;
Pittsburgh
and Lake Erie R. R.,
153,
(Table)
IS4, 155, 158;
Pittsburgh Coai Com-
pany,
158,
(Table)
159;
Pressed Steel
Car Company,
155,
(Table)
156;
pro-
portion of injured men receiving no
compensation, (Diagram)
124,
(Ta-
ble) 124; through relief associations,
157, 158; to dependents of married
employes killed in course of work,
(Table) 121, (Diagram) 122; to de-
pendents of single employes killed
in course of work, (Table)
123,
(Dia-
gram) 123; to dependents of victim,
(Table)
154,

156; to men partially
disabled, (Table)
125,
(Diagram)
125;
to men totally disabled, (Table)
124,
(Diagram)
130; United Coal Com-
pany,
157;
(Table)
159;
Westing-
house Machine Company,
158,
(Ta-
ble)
159.
Compensation from Carnegie Relief
Fund. See Carnegie Reli^ Fund
Conclusion of Parts I and II,
165,
166
Contract of release
Dues and benefits from relief as-

sociations founded on, 313. See also
Release
of
liability
Contributory negligence
Court decisions cited, 182; -de-

fense attacked, 208; law governing,
169, 170, 182, 183, 187
Cooling plates
Removing, from blast furnaces,

53
Coroner's inquests
In Allegheny County, 112, 113, 114

INDEX
Coroner's records of work-acci-
dents,
6, 85
Court decisions
Concerning non-resident alien de-

pendents of deceased,
185; concern-
ing release of liability,
184; defining
contributory negligence,
182; de-
fining employers' liability,
178,
179,
180; defining negligence of fellow-
workmen,
173,
_
174,
17s,
176, 177,
178, 181; defining risks of the trade,
171, 172; in employers' liability
cases, 121
Cranes
Description of, 61; accidents due

to, 61-68
Crucible Steel Company of America,
SI, 62, 149, ISO
Damage suits. See Court decisions
Damages for work-accidents. See
Compensation
Denmark

Dependents of deceased
Court decisions cited,

i8s
Dillworth and Porter,
9s
Distribution of burden of income
loss, 119-131
Duquesne, Pa.
Unprotected grade crossings,

17
Duquesne Steel Works,
ss
Eastman, Crystal
"The Temper of the Workers under

Trial," 221-237
Economic cost of work-accidents,
1 19-164; adjustment of, demanded,
I
S3;
conclusion as to distribution of,
165; duty of society to share,
1S2;
injustice in distribution of, 131; leg-
islation suggested for distribution of,
207-220; of fatal work-accidents,
120, 121, 122, 123, 127, 128, 129,
130, 131; of non-fatal work-acci-
dents; 122-131; result of injustice
in distribution of,
152;
social loss
occasioned by imjust distribution of,
166
Economic responsibilities of persons
killed in work-accidents, (Table) 120
Economic welfare a matter of pub-
lic concern, 132
Edgar Thomson Works, under-
ground tunnel,
58
Effect of industrial fatalities upon
the home, 132-143
Employers
Attitude of,
25, 29, 40, 44, 45, 46,
64,
6s,
68,
69, 72, 73, 74, 79, 84, 97,
99,
100, 102, 103; duties of, in law,
179, 180, 181, 187;
policy of, 153-
164. See also Causes
of work-acci-
dents; Prevention 0} work-accidents;
Economic cost; Compensation
for
work-accidents
Employes' Legal Security Corpor-
ation, 191-192
"Employers' liability," 169-220; by-
products of, 190-206; law governing,
169-189, 220; legislation affecting,
suggested, 207-220
Employers' Liability Commission,
New York State-
Quotations from report of, 269-
29s
Employers' liability insurance,
192,
193, 194, 195.
See also Relief asso-
ciations
Employers' liability law,
178, 185,
186, 220; burden of proof on plain-
tiff under, 170, 186, 187; conclusions
concerning, 188, 189; court decisions
cited, 178, 179, 180; encourages dis-
honesty,
19s;
expensive to defend-
ant, 192; inadequate protection to
plaintiff, 190, 191; influence of, on
employer and employe,
19s;
re-
vision of, needed, 188; summary of
results of operation of, 206; uncer-
tainty of operation of,
190, 192,
193;
unfairness of, 186, 187, 188. See also
'/
Federal Employers' Liability Act
Ai a[ u^^'
//<
337
INDEX
Employers' records of work-acci-
dents,
7,
8s
England
Workingmen's compensation act,

provisions relating to work-accidents,
2IO, 212, 213
English Departmental Report, 209
Explosions
'
Recommendations for prevention
of,
47,
48. See also Soft-coal miners
Explosives, "permissible,"
47,
48
European legislation
Governing compensation for work-

accidents, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214,
215
Factory inspection
Present status, 107, 108, 109,

in,
112
Factory inspector's report, discrep-
ancy in. III
Factory law in Pennsylvania,
11, 78,
80, 92,
100; non-enforcement of, 11,
78, 79,
80; violation of,
54,
loi
Federal Employers' Liability Act,
184;
abolishes and limits certain de-
fences, 208
Federal Safety Appliance Act,
23,
25,
107
"Fellow-servant rule,"
170, 172,
173, 174,
17s,
176, 178, 181, 207, 208
Finishing mill, description of, 242,
243
Finland

Fitch, John Andrews
"The Process of Making Steel,"

240-243
France

tion for work-accidents, 210; soft-
coal miners killed in course of work,
47;
use of explosives in mines re-
stricted,
46;
workingmen's compen-
sation act, 214, 215; workingmen's
accident insurance, 210
Frankel, Dr. Lee K.
"Workingmen's Insurance in Eu-
rope," no, 210
Freund, Ernest
"Police Power,"
209
"
German Workingmen's Insur-
ance
"
K. Hartman, 129
German workingmen's insurance
law, 2 10-2 1
1
Germany

tion for work-accidents, 210; use of
explosives in mines restricted,
46
Grade crossings. See Railroads
Great Britain
Soft-coal miners killed in course of
work,
47;
use of explosives in mines,
46
Hard, William
"Pensioners of Peace," 212
Harmarsville
Deer Creek Bridge,

31, 32
Hartman, K.
"
German Workingmen's Insur-
ance," 129
Heedlessness defined,
90,
95
Hoffman, F. L.
"Physical and Medical Aspects of
Labor and Industry," 18
Holland-
Homestead, 88, 142; blast furnace ex-
plosion,
491
unprotected grade-cross-
ings,
17
"Homestead: The Households of
a Milltown
"
By Margaret F. Byington, 129

338
INDEX
Homestead Steel Works,
148, 149
Hungary

Inattention defined,
91, 95
Income loss
Distribution of burden of,

11
9-131
Industrial accidents. See Work-
accidents
Ingot making
Description of, 241, 242

Injuries
Non-fatal character of, 11; effect

on social welfare,
13; estimated
number of, annually, 12; extent of,
(Table) 12; number of, 11. See also
Work-accidents, non-fatal
Inspection of factories
Present status, 107, 108, 109, in,

112
Insurance. See Relief Associations;
Employes' Legal Security Corpora-
tion; Employers' liability insurance
International Harvester Company,
relief plan of,
304
Iowa
Law governing release of liability,

184
John Eichley,
Jr.,
Company, 100
Jones & Laughlin Company,
49, 51,
52, s8,
62, 86, 100, loi,
137, 139,
14s,
146, 148, iss, 156
Kelley, Mrs. Florence
Report on factory inspection,

107,
108, 109
Kennedy, Julian
"Some Modifications in Blast Fur-

nace Construction,"
50
Law
Affecting hours of labor on rail-

roads,
33;
affecting miscellaneous
employments,
78, 79,
80; affecting
operation of railroads,
23, 25, 27;
affecting operation of soft-coal mines,
36, 37, 41, 42, 46, 47,
48;
affecting
operation of steel mills,
54;
duties
of employers under the,
179,
180,
181,
187;
governing compensation
for work-accidents, 169-188; gov-
erning contributory negligence,
169,
170, 182, 183, 187;
governing em-
ployers' liability, 169-189; see also
Employers' Liability Act, Casey Act,
Federal Employers' Liability Act;
governing neghgence of fellow-work-
men, 170, 172, 176, 177, 178, 181,
187;
governing non-resident aUen
dependents,
65, 185;
governing
risks of trade,
170, 171, 178, 181,
187;
governing release of liability,
183, 187;
governing right of de-
pendents to sue, 185
Legislation
Affecting employers' liability, 207-

220; enacted, 207; ends desired in
remedial, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220;
requirements to make effective, 220;
suggested as remedy,
47, 48, 73,
106,
107, no, 112, 114, ns, IS7, 165,
166, 188, 189, 207, 208, 209,
220
Legislative interference justified,
165, 166, 207
Liability of employers. See Em-
ployers' liability
Looping mill^
Description of,
SS
McClintic Marshall Construction
Co., 158
Mcintosh Hemphill Company,
145,
158
McKeesport, Pa.
Unprotected grade crossings,

1
7
McKeesport Connecting Railroad
of National Tube Company,
58
Milan-
Employers' organization for pre-
vention of work-accidents, no
Mines. See Soft-coal mines
339
INDEX
Mining law in Pennsylvania,
36, 37,
41,42
Miscellaneous employments
Fatalities classified, (Table)

76;
laws affecting,
78, 79,
80;
occupa-
tional risk,
76, 77, 78, 79,
80, 81, 82,
83;
safeguards against accidents in,
78, 79,
80, 81; work-accidents in,
76-83
Miscellaneous work-accidents
Due to construction work,

76, 81;
due to electric shock,
78, 82; due to
excavation work,
76, 81, 82; due to
lack of signalling system,
77, 80;
due to operation of cranes,
77;
due
to operation of elevators,
76, 80, 81;
due to operation of trains, 78;
due
to unguarded machinery,
78, 79;
in construction plants, electrical
plants, machine shops, foimdries,
factories, etc.,
76, 77, 78, 79;
in
electric lighting, telephone and tele-
graph companies,
76,
82; in gas
works,
76, 82; in river work,
76, 83;
in teaming, 76, 83;
on street rail-
ways, 76, 83;
typical cases cited,
77,
79,
80, 81, 82
Monongahela Connecting Railroad
of Jones & Laughlin Company,
58
Monongahela River Consolidated
Coal & Coke Company, 148
Montana

184; Accident Insurance Act of,
296
Moon Run Branch,
30
National Croatian Society,
145
National Tube Company,
51, 58, 60,
62, 66, 97,
III,
140, 150, 155,
(Table)
156,
161
Nebraska

Negligence
Defence of contributory, attacked,

208; violation of statute not proof
of, 180
Negligence of fellow-workmen. See
"Fellow-servant rule"
Nevada

184
New York and Cleveland Gas Coal
Company, 158
New York State Employers' Lia-
bility Commission
Quotations from report of, 269-295

Non-resident alien dependents
Court decisions cited, 185; law

governing compensation to,
65, 185
North Dakota

184
Oakdale mine,
97
Occupational risk
Assumed in contract of hire,

170,
171, 178, 181, 187; of brakemen, 18,
19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25;
court de-
cisions cited, 171, 172; defence
limited by Federal Employers' Lia-
bility Act, 208; law governing,
170,
171, 178, 181, 187, 207, 208; in mis-
cellaneous employments,
76, 77, 78,
79,
80, 81, 82, 83;
of railroaders, 18,
ig, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28,
29> 3; 31, 32;
of soft-coal miners,
34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 4, 41, 42, 43, 44,
46;
of steel workers,
49, 52, 53, 54,
SS, 56, 57, 58, 59,
60, 61, 63, 64, 65,
66, 67, 68,
69, 70, 71, 72, 75
Ohio-
Law affecting railroads in,
25, 27;
law governing occupational risk, 207
Oregon
Law governing occupational risk,

208
Ormsby Benefit Society,
145
P. F. Hornell Coal Company, 142
Painters' and Decorators' Union,
I4S
340
INDEX
Penn Salt Company, 148
Pennsylvania & Lake Erie R. R., 22
Pennsylvania factory law,
11, 78, 80,
92,
100; non-enforcement of,
11, 78,
79, 80;
prosecutions for violation of,
108, 109;
violation of,
54,
loi
Pennsylvania mining law,
36, 37, 41,
42
Pennsylvania Railroad,
19, 22,
23,
30. 31. 137, 140,
14s,
151. 197, 199,
201, 202, 205
Pennsylvania Railroad Voluntary
Relief Department, 196, 202, 203;
benefits paid, (Table)
197, 198, 205;
compared with other insurance com-
panies,
199,
201; contributions from
employers,
197, 198, 204;
contribu-
tions from members,
197,
igS
Pennsylvania State Department of
Factory Inspection
1907,
report of, log, in, 112
"Pensioners of Peace
"
By William Hard, 212

Personal factor in causes of work-
accidents, 84-104
Pitcairn shops, 28
Pittsburgh
Industrial output of, 16

Pittsburgh & Lake Erie R. R., 28,
IS3,
(Table)
154, iSS. iS6, 158, 161,
164
Pittsburgh Brewing Company, 102
Pittsburgh Coal Company, 41, loi,
141, 158
Pittsburgh Railway Company, 150
Pittsburgh Steel Company,
56
Pittsburgh Survey
Accident investigation, basis of,

6;
district covered by,
7;
period cov-
ered by,
6;
purpose of,
5, 7;
ques-
tions considered in,
5;
record system
employed in, 320;
sources of data
for, 6
Pittsburgh's yearly loss in killed
and injured, 11-15
"
Police Power
"
By Ernest Freund, 209

Policy of certain companies, 153-
164
Pressed Steel Car Company,
51, 62,
102, 139,
15s,
156,
161
Preventable conditions
Resulting in work-accidents,
107
Prevention of work-accidents
Citizens' safety committee help-

ful in, 114; employer prime factor
in, 106, no,
115; employers' motive
necessary in,
105, 106, no,
115;
employers' organization in Milan for,
no; legislation for, 106, 107, no,
115;
lessening of high speed requi-
site, 106, 107;
minimum require-
ments as to age, etc., in dangerous
trades,
106;
penalizing employers a
help in, 107, 114;
public opinion
factor in, 107, in, 114, 115;
public
records an aid in, 108, in, 112, 115;
shorter hours of labor possible, 106,
107, no; state inspection an aid in,
107, 109; steps taken by employers
for, in; suggestions for, 105-115
Problem of work-accidents
Statement of,
3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Problem stated. The, 3-7
Problems of the injured workman,
144-152
"Process of Making Steel, The"
By John Andrews Fitch, 240-243
Protected Home Circle,
199
Provisions for calamity. See Work-
accident fatalities
Prudential Life Insurance Com-
pany,
199
Public opinion
Concerning work-accidents,
84, 85;
factor in prevention of work-acci-
dents, 107, III, 114, 115
341
INDEX
Railroad accidents^
Data of U. S. Interstate Com-
merce Cormnission, 318
Railroaders
Fear of inexperienced,
93;
occupa-
tional risliis of, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23,
24,
2S,
26, 27, 28,
29, 30, 31, 32;
liilled in course of work, average age
and nature of accident, (Tables) 18,
19;
work-accidents of, 16-33
Railroads
Automatic couplers on,

23, 24;
freight traffic of, 16; function of,
17;
laws affecting liours of labor on,
33;
laws affecting, in Ohio,
25, 27;
laws affecting operation of,
23, 25,
27;
marvel of freight handling, 16;
passenger traffic of,
17;
safeguards
against work-accidents on,
23, 25,
27;
shifting, 20, 21, 22,
23;
switching and coupling,
23, 24, 25;
unprotected grade crossings,
17
Recklessness defined,
91, 92, 93, 94,
95
Record system
Employed in the Pittsburgh Sur-

vey, 320
Records of work-accidents
Coroner's, 6, 85;
employers',
7,
85;
incomplete, 107, iii, 112, 113
Release of liability
Abrogates claim for compensation,

183, 184, 185;
court decisions cited,
184; law governing, 183, 187
Relief associations,
145, 157, 158,
19s,
196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202,
203, 204, 205; founded on contract
of release, dues and benefits from,
313;
influence of, 205;
member-
ship in, compulsory, 183, 195,
200, 202, 203;
weaken organized
labor, 201, 202, 203; not the solu-
tion of the problem, 200, 201, 202,
205, 206; objections to, 200, 201,
202, 203, 204, 205, 206
Relief plans
Of International Harvester Com-

pany,
304;
of U. S. Steel Corpor-
ation, 300
Reports of work-accidents
Not required by state authorities,

107,
112
Responsibility for work-accidents
Typical cases cited, 86, 87, 88, 89,

90, 91, 92, 95, 96, 97,
98,
100, loi,
102
Right of action
Non-resident aliens excluded from,

Rolling mill
Description of,
53
Rosedale Manufacturing Company,
147
Safeguards against work-acci-
dents
In miscellaneous employments,
78,
79,
80, 81; in soft-coal mines,
36,
37, 41, 42, 45, 47,
48;
in steel mills,
S4, 55, S7, S8, 59.
60, 65, 69, 70, 71,
74, 75
; on railroads,
23, 25, 27. See
also Signals
Safety-
Enforcement of rules for,
97
"Safety Provisions in the United
States Steel Corporation"
By David S. Beyer, 244-268

Schedules employed in the Pitts-
burgh Survey
Facsimiles of, 322-324

Signals
For preventing work-accidents,

27,
28, 54,
60, 61, 66, 67, 68, lOT, 102
Skull cracker
Description of,
74, 75
Social interference
When justified,
5
Social investigation
When justified,
4
Social loss
Involved in one year's work-

accidents in Allegheny County,
315;
occasioned by unjust distribution
of economic cost, r66
342
INDEX
Social waste
Occasioned by preventable work-

accidents, i66
Social welfare
Effect of non-fatal injuries on,

13
Society's duty
To share economic cost, 152

Soft-coal mine disasters in United
States
Study and recommendations by

foreign experts,
47, 48
Soft-coal miners
Accidents of, 34-48; comparative

statement, United States and foreign
countries,
47
; death-rate increasing in
United States,
47;
due to electric
shock,
43;
due to explosion of powder
in home,
44, 45;
due to fall of roof,
35,
36, 37, 38, 39,
46;
due to mine explo-
sions,
34;
due to operation of shaft
elevator,
44;
due to operation of
trains,
39, 40, 41, 42;
typical cases
cited,
39, 40, 42, 43, 44, 4S
Soft-coal miners
Occupational risk of,

34, 35,
36,
37, 39> 40, 41, 42, 43, 44,
46
Soft-coal mines
Laws affecting operation of,

36, 37,
41, 42, 46, 47,
48;
safeguards against
work-accidents in,
36, 37, 41, 42, 45
Soft-coal mining in United States
Natural conditions favorable for,

47
"
Some Modifications in Blast Fur-
nace Construction"
By Julian Kennedy,
50
South Carolina

184
South Dakota

184
Speed an element of danger,
73, 94,
98,
100
Steel making
Causes of asphjrxiation in,

52, 53;
cause of blast furnace explosions in.
50;
description of process, 240-243.
See also Bessemer process; Ingot
making; Looping mill; Rolling mill,
etc.
Steel mills
Laws affecting operation of,

S4i
safeguards against work-accidents in,
54, SS, 57, 58, 59,
60, 65, 69, 70,
71, 74, 75
Steel workers
Accidents of,
49-75;
due to as-
phyxiation by furnace gas,
51, 52,
53,
72;
due to electric shock,
51,
68,
69, 72;
due to falling from height
or into pit,
51, 68,
69, 70, 72; due
to hot metal explosions,
49, S,
5i,
52, 72;
due to lack of signaUing
system,
51, 54, 58, 60, 66,
67, 72;
due to loading and piKng,
51, 70, 71,
72;
due to long hours of labor,
55,
56, 74;
due to miscellaneous causes,
51, 72, 7s;
due to operation of
cranes,
51, 57,
61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66,
67, 68,
69, 72; due to operation of
raihoad,
51, 57, 58, 59,
60, 61, 72;
due to operation of roUs,
51, 53, 54,
55, 56, 72;
per cent of fatalities from
various causes, (Diagram)
73;
typi-
cal cases cited,
49, 54, 56, 58, 59,
60, 64, 66, 67, 69, 70, 71, 7S
Steel workers
Occupational risks of,

49, 52, 53,
54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59,
60, 61, 63, 64,
65, 66, 67, 68,
69, 70, 71, 72, 7S
Suggestions for prevention of work-
accidents, 105-115
Sweden

Technologic Branch of Geologic
Survey,
47
"
Temper of the Workers under
Trial
"
By Crystal Eastman,
223-239
Texas-
Law governing release of liabihty,
184
343
INDEX
Typical cases cited,
3, 4;
showing
effect of work-accident fatalities on
home,
132, 133, 134,
13s,
136, 137,
138? I39i I4i 141 1 142, 143;
show-
ing resulting hardship of non-fatal
work-accidents,
145, 146, 147, 148,
149, 150, 151; miscellaneous em-
ployments,
77, 79,
80, 81, 82, rail-
road, 22, 24, 27, 28, 30, 31;
respon-
sibility in, 86, 87, 88,
89, 90, 91, 92,
95) 96, 97, 98, 100, loi, 102; in soft-
coal mines,
39, 40, 42, 43, 44, 45;
in steel mill,
49, 54, 56, 58, 59,
60, 64,
66, 67, 69, 70, 71, 75
Union Railroad of Carnegie Steel
Company,
31, 58
Union Storage Company, roi
United Coal Company,
157
United States Interstate Commerce
Commission
Data as to railroad accidents,

318
United States Steel Corporation,
74;
"Committee on Prevention,"
hi; safety provisions in, 244-266;
voluntary accident relief plan, 300
Violation of statute
Not proof of negligence, 180

Wage-earners killed in work-acci-
dents
Age of,
13;
native land of,
13, 14;
occupation of,
13, 14; weekly earn-
ings of, (Table and Diagram)
14,
(Table and Diagram) 129
Westinghouse Air Brake Company,
lOI
Westinghouse Electric Manufac-
turing Company,
146
Westinghouse Machine Company,
90, rs8; Mutual Aid Society, 158
Work-accident fatalities
Age, income and provision for

calamity in certain cases, (Table)
133;
analysis of employers' responsibility,
8s,
86, 98, 99,
roo, loi, 102, 103, ro4;
analysis of fellow-workmen's respon-
sibility for,
8s,
86,
95, 96, 97, 98,
103, 104; analysis of victim's re-
sponsibility for,
85, 86, 87, 88,
89,
90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 103, 104;
classified by employment and re-
sponsibility, (Table) 86; classified
by responsibility, (Diagram)
103,
(Table) 104; coroner's inquest on,
112, 113, 114; data of cases of
married men killed,
325;
econo-
mic cost to dependents of victim,
120, 121, 122, r23, 127, 128, 129, 130,
131; economic cost to employer, 120,
121, 122, 123, 127, 128; economic
cost to public, 127, 128; effect upon
the home, 132-143; income and pro-
vision for calamity, 132, 133, 134,
(Table)
134;
responsibility for, ros,
106; typical cases cited, showing
effect on home, 132, 133, 134, 135,
136, 137, 138, 139. 140, 141, 142
143
Work-accident loss. See Economic
cost
Work-accidents
A cloud upon home life,

152;
ad-
justment of economic cost of, de-
manded,
153;
coroner's records of,
6, 85;
due to carelessness or con-
tributory negligence,
3, 19, 20, 23,
28, 29, 38, 42, 44, 45, 54, s6, s8.
70, 80, 81, 87, 88,
89, 90, 91, 92, 93,
9S) 95
; due to defective or danger-
ous equipment,
3, 19, 20, 22,
23,
25. 26, 3. 31, 32, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44,
49, 54, 56, 58, 63, 64, 65, 70, 71, 75,
78, 79,
80, 81, 82,
83, 98, 99,
100,
loi, 102, 103; due to negligence of
fellow-workman, 21, 22, 28, 30, 32,
38, 39, 54, 58, 60, 64, 65, 70, 77,
81,
95,96,97,98;
due to railroad wrecks,
29, 30, 31, 32;
duty of society to
share economic cost of, 152; eco-
nomic cost of, 119-164; economic
responsibilities of persons killed in,
(Table) 120; economic results of
certain fatal, (Diagram) 120; effect
on home life, 223-239; employer's
records of,
7, 85;
fatalities of chil-
dren in,
45, 79,
80, 83, 87, 88,
8g,
97,
102, 103; how they happen,
11-
83;
injustice in distribution of eco-
344
INDEX
nomic cost of,
131;
problems of the
injured workmen, 144-152; public
opinion concerning,
84, 85;
respon-
sibility for, 84-104; responsibility
in typical cases, 86, 87, 88,
89,
go,
91, 92, 95, 96, 97, 98, 100, loi, 102;
result of injustice in distribution of
economic cost of, 152;
safeguards
against,
23, 25, 27, 36, 37, 41, 42,
45, 47, 48, 54, 55, 57, 58, 59,
60, 65,
69, 70, 71, 74, 75, 78, 79,
80, 81; sig-
nals for preventing,
27, 28, 54, 60,
61, 66, 67, 68, loi, 102; social waste
occasioned by preventable, 166;
state records incomplete, 107,
iii,
112, 113; suggestions for prevention
of, 105-115; why they happen, 84-
104. See also. Causes; Compensa-
tion; Prevention; Miscellaneous work-
accidenls; Railroaders, work-acci-
dents
of;
Soft-coal miners, work-
accidents
of;
Steel workers, work-
accidents
of,
etc.
Work-accidents in Allegheny
County
Age of wage-earners killed in one

year,
13;
fatal, 11, 13, 14;
native
land of wage-earners killed in one
year, 13, 14;
non-fatal, 11, 12,
13;
occupation of wage-earners killed in
one year, 13, 14;
social loss involved
in,
315
weekly earnings of wage-
earners killed in one year, (Table)
14,
(Diagram)
14,
(Table) 129,
(Diagram) 129
Work-accidents, non-fatal
Economic cost to employer, 122,

123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 130;
economic
cost to victim, 122, 123, 124, 125,
126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131; hos-
pital charges not paid by employer,
148;
hospital charges paid by em-
ployer,
144, 145, 147, 148, 149, 150,
197;
problems of the injured,
144;
resulting hardships,
145, 146, 147,
148, 149, 150, 151, 152;
typical cases
cited, showing resulting hardship,
145, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151
"
Workingmen's Insurance in Eu-
rope
"
By Dr. Lee K. Frankel, no, 210

Workmen's accident insurance
In France and Germany, 210

"Workmen's Collective Policy,"
192, 193
"Workmen's Compensation Act,"
212, 213, 214, 215
Wrecks. See Causes
of
Work-acci-
dents, railroad wrecks
345
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ilHIIillUIUitlllfllitllllllllttiilllililUIIHiH

these are the great employment groups in Allegheny County; they

526 men were

500 such wrecks in all. Such is the

526 WAGE-EARNERS KILLED IN WORK-

526 WAGE-EARNERS KILLED IN WORK-ACCIDENTS CLASSI-

71 MEN KILLED IN MINING, CLASSIFIED BY PLACE WHERE

71 Men Killed in Mining, Classified by Nature of the

a weakness perfectly familiar to those who have done

these sentences declare the principle on which most mines are

"rolling" the red hot

because of a second's hitch in co-operationa pipe came through

"like a dog," as his fellow countrymen said. At

^fatalities due to "falls" and "electric shock."

Per Cent of Fatali- /

power-driven machinery, electricity, explosives, etc.,

and he goes on to relate the most telling incident he knows, to

^long hours, heat, noise, intense speed.

^with respect to accidents.

present at times of construction, present at times of

Compensation Paid by Employers to Dependents of Married

Compensation Paid by Employers to Dependents of Single

THE EFFECT OF INDUSTRIAL FATALITIES UPON THE HOME

Mrs. Joseph Gikovitch, widow of a Slavic miner who

a heavy iron weight which is al-

yet it represents the height to which

graphically called "ambu-

$15,000. The relief association

unsanitary dwellings, overcrowding, undue exposure, overwork,

poor people, not as the

but I know betther. He'll be a-comin' home dead soon. Ivery

it's thim, comin' to tell me Andy's kilt.' Andy, he jokes about

View in Nail Mill Showing Safety Hoods over Emery Grinders,

Mill Switch Board Showing Method of Marking Electrical

Protective Device for

Warning Sign to Attract

Guard for Frogs made of Steel Plate

These figures do not cover accidents of construction, ex-

Under "fatal," as used by the Public Service Commission, only deaths

1909. Chapter 67, Page 81.

2. AH corporations, partnerships, associations or persons engaged in the

6. Where a workman is entitled to monthly payments under this act, he

7. If any person or persons, company or corporation who is then paying

8. If the workman refuses to submit himself to such examination, or in

12. A manager, agent, foreman, accountant, person or persons who repre-

Causes of, in steel works,

Legislation concerning compensa-

Legislation concerning compensa-

"Safety Provisions in the United

Blast furnace explosion,

Duties of, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24;

"Homestead: The Households of

Fatalities to, in work-accidents,

Fellow-servant rule abolished, 207

United States Steel Corporation,

American Steel and Wire Com-

Dues and benefits from relief as-

Court decisions cited, 182; -de-

Removing, from blast furnaces,