Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1902-12-12

In the rush OF building In the down.
town districts of Chicago the element
of time in the construction is of vital
consequence when the question of
ground rents is considered; where a
man, firm, or corporation is paying
perhaps $4,000 a year for a ground
lease it is necessary that the building
shall not be any longer under way
than the greatest haste in building
makes unavoidable. But if in this
rush of building it should be brought
home to the builders that steel struc-
ture forced to completion in six
months instead of a necessary twelve
months should offer up a sacrifice of
one or more human lives for this priv
ilege of haste, there is no question that
Christian civilization would make
such protest that a six months build
ing would be made impossible.
For to this hurry in a contract the
builders of Chicago credit greater loss
of life than to all the other possibili-
ties in building combined. In this
sense haste is not the haste of the in
dividual in individual tasks; it is the
above another until perhaps dozen
gangs of men are working at a dozen
separate contracts, while between
these gangs Of men are floor after
floor, formed of loose planking through
which hammers, rivets, tongs, bricks,
stones, terra Gotta, and the thousand
and one tools and materials of build
ing may fall in spite of all precautions,
killing and manning as they fall.
"You may lay the largest per cent
of accidents on any building to this
haste that sets one set of of workmen
above another" said the superintend-
ent of one Of the large construction
companies. "You may say that 80 per
cent of the accidents on a building is
due to falling missiles, and just to the
extent that one gang of men is piled
upon another through structure, just
to that extent one may expect these
missiles in falling to find victims.
Many Trades Wor ing at Once.
"Haste, as it is ordinarily under
stood, is not accountable for undue ac-
cidents. AS a rule men working upon
d d L IL.
workers do, but they are the exception.
Haste in building means the beginning
of wiring, fireproofing. carpentering,
pIastering. br1cklaying, plumbing, and
perhaps certain lines of finishing, be-
fore the structural steel is up to the
level Of the sixth floor of a sixteen
story building In fact, on an ordi-
nary downtown building going up in
a rush twenty-five separate trades
have been at work through the struc-
ture at the same time.
"Ordinarily a person familiar with
the conditions under which craftsmen
work might look to the laws and the
city ordinances for protection of these
men. But the laws do not protect
There is an ordinance which requires
the builder to see that the floors in a
skeleton structure should be planked
over So they are, but with a dozen
gangs of men working at dozen lines
of work on dozen floors, you may see
where the element of chance plays. A
foreman going through a building may
see a board or two boards or three
boards in a floor out of place. He Or
ders that the hole be covered over
for the protection of everybody below
it, The order suits everybody below,
but the man who may have removed
the boards for wiring the building,
or for the conducting of pipes between
floors. throws down his tools and says
he will quit work if he is to be inter-
fered with in his work. What Is the
contractor to do? 1t is a rush job; he