New-York tribune., 1908-01-26
Accidents in Factories

Accidents in Factories
MANUFACTURING accidents must he est'mated
A'A rather than stated iatly. for data are wanting
Terrible they they have never attracted
much attention. because 1t IS nobodys business to
collect and publish the figures. So far only one
State has made serious effort to secure figures
of factory accidents It was in 500 that the New
York Bureau of Labor strovc to get returns OF
industrial accidents for three months among one
half the States factory workers.
Confesscdy incomplete returns for this period
showed thousand eight hundred and twenty
two serious accidents. On this basis all New Norks
factories would show fourteen thousand SIN nun
drcd accidents in the year; but even these hgUTcS
are known to be far below the real facts. Many
trades not very dangerous reported forty-our cases
the thousand workers, and there was cvcryW here
disposition to conceal casualties. But even forty
four to the thousand gives two hundred and thirty
TWO thousand factory employees killed and injured
annually in this one division OF our industrial
army And remember, all OF them are men in early
middle life,-traIned and experienced hands such
as least be spared. 1t has been estimated that
industrial casualties of this kind cost the nation at
least twice its annual fire loss which now stands
at about hundred and seventy -four million
dollars Thus man IS worth far more than the
article he mines or makes
his of course, IS regarding the question purely on
It's economic side and with reference to moral
sponsibhty at all. Every year thousands of wage
carners-men, women, and Children-are caught in
the machinery of our record breaking production and
turned out hopeless crippleS Thousands more has
been shown are killed outright. But even so,
too busy to count the dead, to consider the injured
No Time for Safeguards
CERTAIN it is that few efforts made in the
- hurly burly of output to safeguard the workers.
Out of SIX hundred and twelve caught in the
machine cases, forty per cent. could have been pre-
vented by screening of the moving parts. Only the
other day arrested in New York for beg
Eng. lis hands and fingers partly cut off by
harvesting machine in Chicago. But then he
only poor ignorant Armenian, and was easily
passed off by the manufacturer for support on the
community at large. Again, simply because the
pany would not provide him with rubber gloves, an
exceedingly careful painter on New York elevated
railroad was recently paralyzed through contact
with the third rail.
But here is d specially deplorabe case showing
how treat those who fall under the wheels of
Americas luggernaut a mechanic employed
by great traffic corporation struck by a live
wire. His heart was affected, his neck twisted, his
eyes all but destroyed He indeed a pitiable
wreck and yet the day he injured his pay
cut because he had not put IN full day. When the
victim had partially recovered he employed
Watchman and approached to sign a release of
his claim for ten dollars. He refused, and dis
charged. Next the unfortunate man brought suit
and awarded two thousand dollars, of which
one thousand went to the lawyers. In the end all
the afflicted got four hundred dollars,
and a result he charge charity.
Young girls lose and hands in mangleS in
laundries. Scores are injured in the jute mills about
New York city. and tOundrIeS, machine shops,
steel mills iron moldng shops, blast furnaces, car
shops, locomotive works, with rolling and wire
mills,-all leave their trail of dead and injured.
Joseph u. Armstrong, coroner for Allegheny
County, Penns ylvania, is shocked at the havoc in
the blast furnaces of rolling mills. The number
of deaths of foreigners in the mills of Pittsburgh
and its vicinity, he said, has to be appall-
ing; and am convinced that great many due
to lack OF proper precautions The lives of these
considered of less than those of horses
mules"
Hungarians disappear from the tops of blast