Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1907-08-10

I States government and other re-
| sponsible authorities to show that at
least 800 men are annually killed or
| injured in anthracite mining alone,
and 425,00 in factory and building op-
i erations, making the grand total ap-
! proximately 525, 900.
Total Death Roll Greater.
These estimates are conservative.
If the exact number of accidents was
known this total would be greatly in
| creased.
In converting facts into figures Mr..
! Clarence Marx, who, with other re-
| sponsible Investigators, has given sew
eral years of study to the relation of
crippled and unemployed persons to
| industry, presents a startling array.
| OF the $685. 900 workers mentioned is
| per cent, or $4,000 to struggle
per cent. only are killed, leaving So
against their handicaps. Estimating
| that at least so per cent. or 222, 700 of
| these are able to earn 1928 each an
nually, which is so per cent. of the
annual average earnings of able
bodied artisans. we have a total of
| $40, $4,000. This is the loss in earn
| ing power.
/ Safely assuming that these persons
| they earn we would have a loss in
| production of approximately $780,
| 000,0 900 annually.
But this is only half the truth. II
| these 222, 900 wage earners are not re-
established they must sooner or later
be supported by the state. It is also
evident that the other 222, 900 who are
totally disabled will also become a
burden on the taxDaverS
Poor relief statistics show that it
costs $4,000 to support a pauper dur
ing his natural life time. To be con-
sentative again, let US estimate this
cost at $4,000, to make allowance for
those who may be supported by rela-
tiyes and friends, or who may become
partially self-Supporting. Since under
our present system the partially dis
abled are not reestablished, the total
number, minus a small percentage,
must be supported at public expense.
To do this costs approximately two
and one-ha1f billion dollars In other
words, we contract each year to meet
a debt of two and a half billion dol
lars within the lifetime of the persons
thus injured.
Figures That Stagger.
These are staggering figures, but
they are only forecast of what we
may expect if this wasteful destruc-
ton of life and limb continues.
In New York state, according to the
estimate of the state labor commits
sioner in 1906, A workers in every
1000 are incapacitated in the course
of the years work That means, for
instance, that at least 10000 purely in
dustrial accidents occur in New York
,if oil No -
injured and uninjured is not as high
in some other parts of the country, or
the total number of accidents in the
United States would be over 500, 900
annually.
In one section of New York city,
the Borough of Manhattan, there were
last year 2, $50 deaths by violence; as
tonishing as it may seem nearly one
third of these deaths, or 6S4, were
caused by falls, explosions, cavirg in
of earth, premature blasts and falling
rock The river tunnels were con-
structed at the cost of IS lives, 43 in
the Pennsylvania terminal works, 20
in the Belmont tunnel, two in the sub
way borings and three in the Hudson
companies terminal
In the huge, smoky workshop called
Pittsburg, one human life is sacrificed
for every $4,000 tons of coal that are
shipped out of the city For each
1000 tons of steel products one of the
Ilanipulators, somewhere in the pro-
cess of manufacture, lays down his
life. and for each 10000 tons of steel
rails another laborer makes the last
sacrifice.
OF the 2660 deaths reported in
Pittsburg in 1906, e19 were due to &C
cidents il mills mines and on rail-
roads. The number of accidents was
not computed, but it was undoubtedly
in the thousands.
Causes of Fatalities.
How does it all happen, you ask? If
a huge 1adle of white hot steel is up-
set, the molten stream burns alive its
writhing victim It may be that
man or woman is whirled to a horrible
death in mill machinery; or a miner
is blown to eternity in an explosion
of damp in a mine Il
Publicity is given to accidents on
railroads. but little is heard of the
thousands annually killed and MANNED
in manufacturing and building and In