River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1907-08-01
GREATER THAN DEATHS ON BATTLEFIELD
Over Half a Million Men and Women
Annually Are Killed or Injured in
the United States While Engaged
in Productive Labor--- Enormous
Sum Needed to Support Those IN
c0pacitated.

| In the same period in the United
States alone the great army of Ameri-
can labOrers engaged in manufacture
I ing and building operations suffered
loss of 425,000 killed and injured; o.
! 600 more lives were sacrificed to in
| dustrial progress in one year than DUR
ing the greatest conflict of recent
| times.
| Statistics of the interstate com
merce commission show that 84,115
! people were injured and 10,046 killed
on the railroads during the year end
ing June 80, 1904. Sufficient data has
! been accumulated by the United
| States government and other re-
| sponsible authorities to show that at
| least 800 men are annually killed or
injured in anthracite mining alone,
| and 425,0OO in factory and building op-
erations, making the grand total ap-
proximately 525,OOO
Total Death Roll Greater.
These estimates are conservative.
| Ii 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 startling array.
Of the $4,000 workers mentioned Is
per cent, or 445,OOO to struggle
iii
against their handicaps. Estimating
that at least so per cent. or $4,000 of
these are able to earn 1925 each an
nually, which is so per cent. of the
annual average earnings of able
bodied artisans, we have a total of
| $40, 950,000. This is the loss in earn
ing power.
Safely assuming that these persons
would create twice as much wealth as
they earn we would have a loss in
production of approximately $780,
| 100000 annually.
But this is only half the truth. If
these $4,000 wage earners are not re-
established they must sooner or later
be supported by the state. 1t is also
evident that the other $4,000 who are
| totally disabled will also become a
| burden on the taxpayers.
Poor relief statistics show that it
costs $4,000 to support 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-
! tives 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-half 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 a 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
city alone every year The ratio of
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 100000
annually.
In one section of New York city,
the Borough of Manhattan, there were
last year 2,160 deaths by violence; as
tonishing as it may seem nearly one
third of these deaths, or 6S4, were
caused by falls, explosions, caving 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.