The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1907-07-26
REAP DEATH HARVEST
HEAVY SACRIFICE or HUMAN
LIVES IN PITTsBURe MILLS.
coroner's statiutlcs Show That City's
Industries Exact Awful Toll OF
Workers-Hslf Of Fatalities
Due to Violence.


Pittsburg. g.-"Human lives sacrificed
upon the altar of industry" might
well be the title Of the blotter in the
Office of the coroner of Allegheny
county, volume that mntely
proclaims upon its pages what it
costs besides money for Plttsburg and
its district of smoky mills and grid.
ironed territory to maintain It's pres
tige in the milling, mining and mer-
camille marts of the country and re.
tain its title of workshop of the
world"
This volume, an official record dc.
mandcd by the laws of the common.
wealth, shows that almost 80 per cent.
of the deaths are violent and are the
result directly and indirectly Of the
unceasing grind of the industries in
the Pittsburg district, that are con.
tinually driven, night and day, to
supply the demands Of the worlds
markets. Deaths from natural causes,
contagious diseases, suicides, murders
and accidents met in the ordinary
walks of life are not considered in
this percentage attributed to the "in.
dustrial juggernaut."
Last year $3.50 deaths were report
ed, of which S19 resulted from acci-
dents in mills, mines or on railroads,
the industries most essential to the
progress of Pittsburg Many rea.
sons are assigned to the reports of
Investigations of individual cases
Some of the victims were burned by
molten metal, a blast furance burst,
or a huge ladle was upset in the steel
mills; others were caught in the rolls
of a plate mill and some crushed in
| the machinery of the mills.
Many were killed in mines by fall
ing slate, some by gas explosions and
| others by falls from derricks, scaf.
| folds and like structures. Not few
met their death while working about
the numerous electric cranes, those
huge mechanical arms that with al
most human precision pick up mass.
| I've plSces OF Structural steel about
the plants and place them wherever
may be indicated, at the simple NOV
|
ing of a lever
While in the aggregate these fig.
| ures may seem abnormal they are re-
corded so regularly that their magni.
| tude is not realized. The average mum.
Der of deaths reported to the coroner
| is about $50 a month and there is lit.
tie variation from this from year to
year. For the first five months of the
| present year there were ,905 deaths,
344 of which may be classed as sac.
rifces." For the same period In
the preceding year there were LOIS
deaths, of which $50 may be put in
the same category.
Not all the violent deaths, how,
ever, can be casscd as accidents in
the workshop" The inordinate de
mand for labor necessarily attracts a
large percentage of the country's i'm
migrants. Six days in the week sup
plying the human force and muscular
power to the integral machinery
these aliens, surfeited with the free
dom of their newly adopted country
resort on their own holiday to the fes
tivities and customs of their former
homes. Weddings, christenings balls
and parties are held at which various
alcoholic beverages are used most co
piously. Quarrels result and frequent
ly knives and firearms are used ant
there are hospital cases to be cared
for. Deaths not infrequently result
from these sources, and so common
place are these reports that It /,
counted as SLOW night in loca
newspaper Offices If at least dozer
have not been reported by Sunday
midnight.
Comparing the loss of life by tn,
accidents with the tonnage and pro
duction of the Pittsburg district, on,
life has been snuffed out for ever,
$4,000 tons of coal that is shipped 7nC
the annual shipment of about $4,000
900 tons. For every $500 cars tina
carry freight out of or into Pittsburg
some soul has given up the ghost
This is exclusive of cars that are car
gying freight through to other points
Every 500 tons of the 7,000,00l
tons annual production of iron anC
steel has been put out at the cost o
the life of one of the manipulator'
somewhere in its manufacture; anC
of the 100000 tons annual output o
steel rails every $40 tons has been pu
upon the market only after some one
of its producers has laid down hii
life.
And these lives are given up while
the incessant rush and grind contin
ues, every day and every nigh
throughout the year, the sacrifcla
altars marked by black clouds o
smoke by day and the glare of mil
furnaces on the skies by night, where
the dust of the road to wealth is jaiC
by the red dew of human blood.
Replace King AIfred's Church Organ