New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-04-21
THE COST OF KILLING.
Ameicd Sacrifices Fifty Million
Dollars a Year This Way.
Nv Arthur 3. Reeve.


What IS the value Of human life? What. in
dollafs and cents. may be roughly fisures as
mans worth TO the community from which he de-
rives support?
The Eastern world the overcrowded world OF the
efser peoples. will shrug its shoulders and look
.askance through slanted. inscFutaba eyes and an
swer. Life is cheap in these lands. There are
many million lives and II has always been so.
Why should one care?' But how many OF US know
teat lrs this Western world Of human life.
u.der &C tain conditiors. is held as cheaply as in
India o. Chin? How many Of us realize that out
'of the soocs workers in these United States one
r. kiilss injured every minute of the day-.n
tther words. that every more than 100000 men.
women and children killed or crippled as
direct result OF the occupations IN which they are
ers2gedF
Every year we draw on Europe for one million
immigrants 10 work in Mines, build
houses "a dig tunnel.. TO keep the wheels of the
jugge -aaut ear OF industry grinding at the speed
that o. insist nust-be maic ;ained every year. as
egainststhis mission Of workers we XIII or inJure
If milllds
IN the six bis .unner construction Jobs in and
abst New York Son an average a man day
IS ktNds = cavern OF rock ma or sand en-
CULTS tie gars. bl-st OF dynamite blows them
10 pie o, or they are overcome by the bends"
the terrible disease duo to compressed air Toiling
e. erishly ir' three hour shifts under tremendous
an pressure OF tIae atmospheres. the sand hogs
deep dPwn und.r The rivers facva thousand dangers
in order tlst the pressing problems Of transporta-
tion may be- sved for the great metropolis. The
bends iS not always fatal. but it catches large
number oi the men and doubles them UP like Jack
knives. In the worst cases Il Kills with q horrible
death.
There ase over thirteen hundred thousand rail-
road men the trains and In the yards OF the
United States OF these, according to the Inter
state Commerce Commissions report for the last
complete year record. 69,lI We're killed and in
1uret IN one year Uuc-IIOTe tl1N one man IN
every twenty.
IN eighteen months fire damp alone was respon-
sibie for 4l5 deaths and many times that number
OF injuries Last Year In Fenasy lyania IL was LIB
killed and 900 injured total OF Stss. In the same
year. In the fifteen states alone that report mine
acStae4'S' 9SS int,yr ~ ,5 Sy W. 81 HeI Iu
may infer that reporting OF accidents in other
number We" Occurred IN Tbs one state In the ftee9
remaining states in which mining is an important
loss through death has been estimated about two
thousand ana through accident. if the proportion
-four thousand at The very least. 49,,
heaviest toll human lie recorded in the history
in the annual death roll of the Bridge ana Struc-
t,,r'i Ir,rIyl,rl,.rs, Union show the Increase in
total membership of 135S men in the union last
year I56 either lost their lives We're totally or
partially disabled Daring the year before twenty
six We're killed an equal number were SO injured
that they could not resume their trade. while the
number OF minor injuries totaled about eighty.
The most common typo OF factory accident Is
what the newspapers call being caught in the
clueTN.' Judged ON newspaper CllppluS rec
ord Of 6l2 accidents. 80 per cent OF factory aCCt
dents are of this nature Next most dreaded by
r, in factories being caught TN the leather belt
i'm. or being struck with IL when il snaps or comes
OF the shaft. In other eases high speed revolving
wheels hurst, suoweriuG the men with as deadly
n fre as ii "A she'll from a hidden enemy exploded
In New York city occur ten violent deaths a
dav - IA direct result of daily activities In chi
caco the number falls to- six d1N- Hut the storm
centre, of tho country - Allegheny County, Penn
si,pi9 I'M which the city Of Pittsburg is situated
C.omhinlnc steel iron ana coal industries. mills.
mines railroads and building operations over
seventeen thousand deaths and injuries a year III
an tndustrleS is the record Tor this single county
Xhaf Of The money value of these lost lives?
Many writer's have eSsayed the complex problem or
cI,rfssn.. flesh and blood in dollars and cents The
Ssfatistican Of Il great Industrial insurance com
many Is inclined place the net annual economic
III, of nm average worker at 500 At the prime
~ life this would make his estimated economic
Sst,,n so,nrthinc like $o.2s5 Not knowing the
nTorortion of killed or injured, or the number OF
49, ths injured were nC1paCttated for labor We
cannot apply the figures. but that the aPRI'c3tion
Womb he some Trims stupcUdouS glance VIII snow.
,rso yen only q per cent of the half million
iiiad or injured We're kiiled-tt Wouj mean that
l,,1r,ic nroductive power of SJe0tOWO year had
80 s,crinced. Every hodys Magazine