The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1911-10-08

-HE foremos; national economic
issue that bears directly on the
labor market. as we have seen In
l. our last article. is Immigration
However, the most urgent. prac-
teal measure TO provide by legislation
for the protection OF wage -carners
against the want and suffering resulting
from njsfortunes TO which they are pc
culiarly liable. IS compensation"
In this one word compensation are
comprised the possible methods not only
ot compensatlns wage workers or their
families I'm case OF indus,ria! accidents
but OF preventing such accidents. Where
compensation has been established, pre-
venrion has followed Also, wherever
enforced, the two measures together have
brought about n marked decrease in the
fatalities and other casualties proper
t!onate 20 the number OF persons al
work
Statistical statements as TO the indus
trial accidents occurring in America
seem Incredible 10 the casual reader VINO
glspces at the subject superficialy. Sig
nIacance OF the extent or the social Inn
port OF the facts behind their tabular
presentment usually falls 10 settle itself
clearly in such persons mind. lie
hos never stopped mentally 10 digest
TIE proportions or the relations OF the
facts or the suggested conditions or i'm
piled consequences, embodied IN the ns
ures. just, as 10 his mind. falling from
sure death. and from the top of the wall
Of the Yosemite. with It's 5000 teet III
no more, the horror OF 300 or 5000 deaths
Is TO his feelings much me same. a
single fatal accident occurring under his
eve 10 more shocking TO him than read
ing q sketchy account In a newspaper
of a thousand violent deaths in the Anti
nodes Large ngures standing for In
definite Ideas fail 10 stir his emouons
deeply
~, pf thousands
sre killed in the course OF year, a
reader of this description may dimly
doubt that IL is wholly true. or re2d
with the Impression that a year Is a
long span of measurement. or, In his
skimmlng OF points not touching himself
and his concentration on points regard
mental state OF recepiivity as TO the en-
tire subject. Industrial risks may be
far from his personal experiences The
enormous Indictment OF society cor
-al-ed IN the abstract statistics passing
before his perhaps Inattentvie eyes es-
cape his discernn1eni
But le, us look for nomen, al
this 6eplorsble matter of death and
.,r ming IN our Industries In light apart
from It's everyday presentation in un-
risthodIcal print, as most OF us <ee II.
Let us suppose that in the course ~
the las, twelve months. by a marvellous
mastery of certain forces OF nature
through new mechanical devices, indus
trial production mas received teh-Iotd
stimulus. Imagine. then. how the world
would stand aghast II tomorrow morning
the daily papers were to he taken m, as
they would be To the extent of pages an
nsges with an account OF a frishful sc-
rident In New York CITY b. which more
than .. 900 workinGmen had lost their lives
ard more than 90 000 had been badly in
Jured-the occurrence due 10 the concen-
trs;tnu OF large force operating the new
L. invented machinery 10 its enormous
pover. and TO the absence OF protection
10 the workers against its complicated
parts The calamity would, indeed, stag
ger hunanity.
For 2 month. Al least. narrowing par.
ticuers-as to tho causes OF the acc
dent it's aocial effects, the cxpcrienc>
of the wounded. the sad pligh; OF tn
families Of tho 6illed-would in word n
picture continue 10 pack The columns
the press. But. imagine now th" intcns'
horror the woe. the cons'ernatic"
throughout ,he country, and indeed