The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-26
GENERAL BUSINESS
 IS IN GOOD SHAPE Wall Street at Last Learns
 Situation RAILROAD ACCIDENTS Aeroplanes Becoming Factor in Inter- national Commerce-Wall Street Has Learned Not to Value
 Small Things
RAILROAD ACCIDENTS
By PRESTON c. ADAMS

| legitimate business is all right and that while the people are either too busy or too wise to gamble reclslessly even in stocks; that they are making a. comfort able living, as rule, and are hopeful of the future.
 That is about the real reason for the change.
 When orders are placed for 100000 tons of steel in a Single week, when railroad gross earnings show an average increase of nearly per cent, and when from all sections of the country comes the same store of a good steady business, even Wall street can't take pessimistic view of the situation. And that is just what has happened.
 There is a larger volume of general business movil. than most people imagine. It is still of the hand to mouth character but in the long run it bulxs large. The fact is the country has econ omzed so long that buying has become imperative. Stocks continue small. This is proven by the reduced call for accom- modation. It is the smallness of the given orders at one time that causes the idea of depression.
 There is a better sentiment in the tex tile trade by reason of the enormous crop of the staple Cotton can now be man. ufactured into finished goods at a profit. Tn the iron and steel trade low prices are increasing the demand. The steel mills have benefited considerably from the re- cent orders for equipment placed by the railroads.
 There is an improved tone in copper. Today consumption is in excess of produ,.- tion and sellers are inclined to advance their price, The woolen trade continues active. Some boot and shoe manufao- turers report business at F to 20 per cent ahead of a year ago and profits are more satisfactory.
 Our foreign trade continues good. Ex- ports of manufactured articles are so large as to make for comment. There is also a steady outflow of raw products With these conditions & spirit of optim- ism is justified
 How popular the corporate form has become in the manufacturing business is suggested by the fact that corporations now produce 70.05 per cent of our total output of manufactures, as compared with 59. 46 per cent ten years ago.
 Total output for the year 1909, $20, ,672, ,052,- 000 corporation output s16,341, ,117, GOO. Per cent crop 79 .05. 1904, total output, $l4,79S,- O3,OO0; corporation output, s10,94o, ,069, GOO per cent 73.79. 1900, total output $13,000, ,149. 159; corporation output, $I729,- 520,549. Per cent 59. 46
 In view of the spread of the corporate form of ownership, and the ineffectiveness of the principle of competition, the ques- ton as to how profits and prices are to be regulated must remain in the .limelight until solution is found.
 The returns furnished by 2o0 railroads to the federal commission on employers li- ability and Workmen's compensation are justly considered of very great interest in throwing light upon the probable cost of the system which is now proposed by the commission. As is well known, the commission did not engage the actual services which were offered to it. nor did it undertake elaborate computations of any kind. It did, however, send out 6. series of inquiry blanks to every railroad, in which these roads were asked to state what the actual cost of accidents had been to them during three specified years 19OS 1909 and 1910. The figures furnished by the 250 railroads reporting have just
 
 will be possible for the commission to form at least a rough estimate of the amount of burden which the legislation it proposes will throw upon the roads. At the same time the figures furnish some ap- proximate test of the extent to whicn the roads doing their duty by em- ployes today.
 Considering the figures for deaths as compiled for the commission, it is seen hat ;,. 3022 accidents, or an average of $l15O In TO cases where judgments were obtained there was paid $357.51 or an average of s2103. Taking the settlements and judg- ments together makes e total of 3192 deaths, including both those where de- pendents were left by the deceased and where dependents were not left involving a total payment of $3S33,979, or an aver age of s1201. This simply means that the average death on a railroad during the past three years cost the road about $1200 In cases of permanent disability it appears that 159 cases in which judgments were obtained or settlements were made cost the roads $668, 709, an average of $i205. Disabling man completely for life, then, coast road about $42O0, or three and one-haf times what it cost to kill him. The figures for permanent par tial disability covering 1868 cases at a total cost of $1,943S39 shows that to cripple a man for life cost a road on the avera ge | of $1421 These returns show the ex- | treme variation in the value of life. and when they are analysed into their con- | stituent elements this variation appears | much greater. Taking up the different l classes of employees by salary, for ex- l ample, it appears that the value of q mans life was only s6O7 where he was re- ceiving less than $50 month before he was killed. If he was receiving $125 or over his life was worth on the average $263l. From one-toone and seven-eighths | years salary or less. then, was inc amount paid by road for forfeiting a mans life. It paid a little more when he was permanently disabled. A curious | feature about the disabled individuals. however, is that the average amount paid for permanent total disability to men 1 in the lower ranges of salary ran higher than the amount paid to the men getting larger salaries.
 Aeroplanes are becoming a factor in in- | ternational commerce. The records of the bureau of statistics, department of com merce and labor, show that more than $50,000 worth of aeroplanes were import | ed into and exported from the United | States in the months of July, August and l September of the current year. The bu- reau of statistics only began the main- tainance of separate record of this com paratively new article of commerce with the opening of the current fiscal year. | Wall street has learned not to despise 1 small things There is almost as much | interest taken in the volume of odd lot or ders as in those placed by multi-million- aires And it is easier to obtain correct l information concerning the small opera