Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-27
BOARD OF HEALTH REPORTS
More Than 1000 Said to Have Been
Killed in Gotham,
FIGURES ARE VERY INCOMPLETE
Grover Cleveland and Others Are In
terested in the Effort to Procure
Complete Reports.

NEW YORK, December 27.-Important
steps are soon to be taken in this city and
elsewhere to establish system of COM
pulsory and accurate records of the enor-
nous number Of persons who are annually
killed and injured In Americas vast army
of industrial workers. In New York city
alone the ger records obtainable are
startling. Considering the United States
a whole the death list from accidents
and violence is far in excess of any other
country in the world.
In 1904 there We're 4,162 persons killed in
New York city through accident and negli-
gence. shown by the report of the de-
partment of health, and these reports are
incomplete. They are made up from re-
ports of the coroners and are classified
under such general heads as falls we
hces," horses" wounds" fractures"
so that without tracing back to the actual
slips sent in from the coroner's office, II is
impossible to tell, in many cases. in what
manner these persons came to their deaths.
For two weeks, beginning on January ~,
an exposition will be held in the American
Museum of Natural History in this city,
under the auspices of the American Insti-
tute of Social Service, for the purpose of
studying and exhibiting safety devices for
dangerous machinery, methods Of Industrial
hygiene and to set In motion the move
ment to establish a more accurate record of
parts of the country. At present Wiscon-
sin is the only state in the union where
any effort Is made at official compilation of
these statistics.
Cleveland Interested In Movement
In Europe there are several permanent
museums of this character where experts
are constantly studying how to safeguard
Industrial employees, and as a result the
percentage of death and injury from acct
dents has been greatly reduced Former
President Grover Cleveland and many other
prominent and influential citizens are in
terested in this new movement.
DR.. Josiah Strong. president of the Amer
lean Institute of Social Science, makes
some astonishing statements concerning
the number of persons killed each year,
largely as a result of carelessness in our
industrial occupations.
'In these piping times of peace, said
he, 1--WE in the United States kill In four
years some eighty thousand persons, more
than fell in battle and died Of wounds dur
ing the four years of the civil war. We
are killing more than twice many every
year as persisted by violence in both the
French and English armies during the
three years of the Crimean war.
There are more killed and wounded on
our railroads every year than the entire
losses of the Beer war on both sides in
three years We have industrial casualties
enough every year to keep one conflict like
dred years or twelve such wars going Tor
one hundred years. Our peaceful vocations
cost more lives every two days than were
lost in battle during the entire Spanish
war. 4
Imperfect records kept for nine months
in New York city last year showed an
average of nine violent deaths day, or
800 for that period. In 1905 the railroads
of the United States killed 10.046 persons
and injured "a, 155 more. In 1899 the bureau
of labor of this state attempted to gain as
,,atN 10 ~ oil
dents for three months in the factories of
the state.
''Confessedly incomplete reports showed
1,S22 accidents. and on this basis all the
factories in the state would show Il, $40 ac-
cidents in the year, but this number is I'M
doubtedly far below the facts. Using this
also basis for wider computation it
would show 232, 600 employees killed or in
jured in the factories alone in the United
States each year.
Vast Army Under Death Sentence.
From the best statistics obtainabe. We
may say there are today $4,000 persons in
the United States under sentence of death
to be executed at an unknown moment dur
ing the next ten years., 100 next week and
the same number every week until the
CHASTITY work is complete. An intelligent
and earnest effort would procure the re-
prieve of multitude of these innocent
victims
Reports Of the department of health of
New York are not only incomplete in the
matter of showing the deaths by violence
and accident, but they are extremely slow
in reaching the public. For example, the
annual report for the year 1905 Is not yet
printed and the last quarter of the year
1906 will not be compiled for several weeks,
maybe months.
When they do appear they show some
singular figures as contrasted with other
relative facts. Although Coroner Shradys
investigation last June established to his
satisfaction that scores of men had been
killed in the river tunnels from the bends"
or caisson disease the reports of the board
of health show only five deaths from this
cause since 1902. Hundreds of the yio-
lence cases sent In by the coroners contain
no history that would give actual cause of
death, and those are put down In the re-
coroner" and mot specified by coroner"
each year in building operations, but 1t is
not possible to get an accurate list of these.
In the last year many have been killed and
injured by dynamite explosions but the
first three quarters of the 1906 report shows
only five deaths from that cause.
These reports covering the period from
January 1. 1906 to September 80. show some
of the following interesting features of
New York's lfe-destroying activity. The
railroads killed 400 persons: street vehicles.
235; automobiles, Al; the subway, IA: cleo
trio current, 172. There were killed by
falls. 705; horses killed, ID. and 439 were
drowned.