The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1909-11-20
INpUsTRY's STRIPE MORE
FATAL THAN WORLD WARS
!. Continued from Pase /.

C00Gl0u0O 1fOm X3$0 -.
railroads every year, IL we include
employees, passengers and trespassers.
than the entire losses of the Boer
war on both sides In, three years.
THE risk Of the passenger Is one
in million; but. the man a little
further ahead in the mail car Is g
1-to-20 shot. The man at the throtUe
injured, and one in 100 Of being
killed: The risk !. among the yard I'd
men Is quite as great. Last year
5000 of these, were sacrificed alone.
- THE casualties of the industrial
army are, without doubt, SO Ia per
cent greater every year: than the
3S3,786.. casualties of the Russian;
Japanese war. : -. . l.. E#
Equal to Destruction OF Cities. m.
"Without any increase In the an
nual rate reported by the government
in 1900, there will be $4,000 killed
In accidents of every character every
jured. This is like massacring every
inhabitant in three cities the size Of
ST. Paul, Minneapolis and Duluth.
every ten years, and at the same time
manning and mangling every man,
woman and child in the states of.
Washington, California, Nevada, Utah
New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Wy
oming, Idaho, Montana and Oklaho-
ma, and doing it every ten years. !
<. lis it not high time to take some
active measure to stop it?
: ".Al Europe is doing that very:
thing now. In ten years the indus
trial accidents of every nation on the
other side of the Atlantic have de-
creased so per cent.
Large Percentage Av6idable.,
"A study of 1890 accidents show
ed that SO per. cent were avoidable.
Accidents are twice as frequent in
this country as they are in Germany.
I'm letter just received this past
week from the president of one Of
the largest casualty insurance COM
panies In the United States he ex-
pressed the conviction that so per
cent Of American Industrial accidents
could be avoided.
rigid laws regulating all places
where workingmen and women are
employed, and a careful and honest
factory and mine inspection, free
from political patronage and influ-
ence, would materially reduce the
number of Industrial accidents In this
state. g. -'-'
II hold that it is as much the duty
of industry to care and provide for
| the support Of its human wreckage
! as it is to care for the wear and tear
of the machinery.
Only II Per cent Recompensed.
But II per cent of the men who
are injured in industry receive any
compensation whatever. The other
| 80 per cent must rely upon their own
savings, the little insurance they can
afford to carry from their meager
wages, or the charity of the public.
ITO prove his employers negli-
gence the injured man must depend
upon the testimony of his fellow en-
ployes whose jobs are in. Jeopardy If
they take sides against the employer
| Thus, the present system breeds per-
jury, and puts it-at a premium in our
civil courts where personal injury
cases are tried. -% -
1.-THE present system, besides being
fnhuman lis wasteful. The $3,60D,000
spent by the taxpayers Of New Yorh
city to maintain courts to try per-
| sonal injury cases resulted In putting
only 100000 of compensation into
the hands of the injured persons.
Cost $4,000 to Avoid Verdict.
IAN attorney for d large railroad
corporation admitted in the State
| Capitol last winter that in one case
tried in Minneapolis it cost his client
$4,000 for expert testimony to heat
off'a $4,000 verdict. Scarcely SO pei
cent of the money paid by the United
States Steel Corporation in Northern
Minnesota in settlement of claims
growing out of personal injuries
reaches the men who were injured.
:'Too many men who haven't bee1
hit with bricks, or ground in thu
wheels Of industry are getting alto
gether too much, and the injured lab
orers are getting altogether too little
of the money paid by employers OF
account of accidents.
AT the present time our nation /
greatly aroused over the question o
N conserving our natural resources
But what natural resources are of a
!
health, happiness and intelligence o
3 its citizens?
1t Is Society's Problem.
r. Just and adequate. compensate
to workingmen for injury done t.
health or body by industry is no
purely an industrial question. It !
society's problem, for, beyond tn,
misery and suffering of labor and la
boris family, the real burden fall
upon society L., :5" s..- -.
4 mo one can study this question
fairly, honestly and Intelligent
without being impressed with tn.
simple fact that the present systen
9Eof> employers liability based upol
negligence, has outlived it's useful
ness.
"Twenty-three foreign countri<
have adopted systems more or less /
conformity with the idea Of chang
ing the basis from that of neglieenc
or fault to that of rightful .compensa
ton or insurable risk as an incider
T Of the business as in fire insurarlc