The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-01-26
WHAT THE
 WIDOWS GET.

Values Placed on Lives of Worlmen
 Killed; Sums Paid at Big Disasters
 How the Family Fares in Ordinary
 Accidents.
 (Exclusive Service The Survey Press
 Bureau.)
 An ambulance backed up to No. 17 Bond street, Chicago. Abe Miller was in the ambulance. His wife now had to face the world unaided for Abe, who was worker in steel mill, and while handling hot metal had burned and died from the injur- ies. A three line notice in a list of accidents in one newspaper was all the world at large ever heard of his death. The company settled for $500 and promised permanent employment to Abe's wife. She went to work and her inadequate earnings were supplemented by charitable relief.
 The circumstances of Abe's misfor- tune are fairly typical of fifty other fatal accidents of which information was obtained through charitable or ganizations in ten of the largest cit ies of the country.
 one of the most dramatic mine disas- ters in industrial history. Andrew Dovin and 257 of his fellow workmen lost their lives. For weeks the press of the country pulsed with stor- ies of thrilling rescues by a heroic an act of supreme sacrifice: Twen- ty-one men buried alive for eight days were saved. Ministers made the disaster the text for sermons that stirred profoundly the imagination and sympathy of the public. This 11i% kDI xrv;k ,n11 fr1~ upon the employing company, the generous public, city councils and the state legislature.
 Andrew Dovin's family received $1,S00 from the company that em- ployed him and nearly as much again from public contributions, miners unions and tho legislature Fate. de- creed that Abe Miller should die all alone from a violent accident and as a consequence his widow received less than one-seventh the sum she would have enjoyed had herl hus- band chanced to be in the mine at Cherry. But her need as widow would have been unchanged by the fact that her husband was one of 25S to be killed. Luck was simply
 Fortune is almost always against the widows of husbands who are killed one at time in industrial ac- cidents. Abe Miller's widow fared better than very many. The fami- lies of the fifty men referred to who suffered obscure deaths, received in compensation $S.749 or s1S7 apiece. from the company $90,000-$1, 800 apiece.
 In the case of Cherry, on account of the publicity and activity of the Red Cross, the press and business as- sociations. fifty families received in
 4-S1, II, l from unions ss7,OOo in addition, mak- ling total of $177,000. The other fifty families received besides the sS,- 749 an indefinite amount in relief and pensions from charity societies and still more indeterminable sum from institutions, nurseries, hospitals, etc.
 In 115 cases of married men killed by industrial accidents in Erie Coun- ty New York, the families received nothing in 38 cases and the compen- sation in nine was $100 or less. Thirty-four families got. from $1o1 to $500 and fourteeen from 501 to s2,0o0. In only eight cases was ov-. CT s2,00o given to the families.
 Subsequently similar figures were shown by an Investigation in Pitts burg where out of 235 cases of mar the compensation was either nothing ses was the award over sa.o0o.
 A car inspector lost his life in crib fire at Chicago. He left a wife and three children. aged seven. four year. The employer offered $1,5o0y in settlement. This offer was not ac- cepted and suit was begun and was still pending after two years and three months.
 Had the laws of the following countries been in operation in Hin, ois the family would have received aid in the form of annual pensions in the total amounts given below: Austria until youngest child
 is fifteen. s4,2es 2s
 is fifteen, 5,1s2 50 Germany until youngest
 child is fifteen, 5,os2 50 Great Britain, three times annual wages, 2,250 % Hungary until youngest
 child is sixteen, 5,615,06 Italy purchase of annuities
 until eighteen, 3,750 co
 is fifteen, 4,26s 2s Russia until youngest child
 is fifteen, $500 %
 The compensation to the victim of fifty fatal accidents which were con- trasted with the fifty cases at Cher ry ranged from $3,000 to nothing. In two cases $27.000 each was awarded, but they were appealed from court to court and the victim finally got nothing. The uncertainty and delay had a most demoralizing effect These people set their expectations on sums of money that would make them in- dependent, huge fortunes in their eyes, and after living in this antici- patton, adopting a scale of living ac- cordingly. so far as they could, they were finally disappointed and got nothing.
 Some Of these excessive awards were an injustice to the employer, but when they were reversed and nothing was received, it certainly was an injustice to, the employe. This engenders bad feeling between em- oloyer and employe.
 The manufacturing and business concerns of this country have in the ast five years paid to casualty com oanies in premiums $95, 100000. Less han 45,000,000 has gone in settle nent of damages, and less than half )f this 45,0O0,000 has reached injur- ed persons. After lawyers fees, court costs and other expenses were net not more than 20 or 30 per cent. ,f the whole sum actually reached he families of those killed and in- ured.
 ''It is estimated that one accident ,lIt of eleveD is nrOSecuted in the