The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-06-03
WHAT A PULLMAN ST0CKHOLDERe DID Made Managers Look Out For Mems Heath-Five Doctors Now Instead of One--neW Methods
 to Insure Safety

| By Alice Hamilton, Medical Officer Illinois Commission on Occupatfonal Diseases.
 l Exclusive Service The Survey Press Bureau.)
 Many men and women are begin ming to feel more or less vague mis- givings as to the lot of the thousands of workers upon whose toll their in- come depends. Loose as is the tie which. binds the men employed by a large corporation to it's stockholders, many of the latter sincerely wish to give expression to their sense of re- sponsibility. DisqMeting stories of over-lonx hours. of excessive accident and death rates, of tuberculosis and pneumonia caused by irritating dust, arouse in conscientious stockholders real desire to do something to cor rect these evils. But since the stock holders are scattered they usually feel that there is no way to make pro- test to the executive managers effec- tive.
 want to tell the story of one stock holder who attacked this problem with unhesitating directness. She found that the difficulties were not insur- mountable and that the corporation was made up of very reasonable and humane men. About a year ago
 went to Mrs Joseph F. Bowen to talk with her about the conditions in the great Pullman works, because knew she was large stakeholder.
 In the course of an investigation carried on for the Occupational Dis eases Commission of Illinois, we had become convinced that there was a needless amount of industrial disease exposed to poisonous or irritating dust and fumes. For instance the paint IOr lHc iutciiO VI IHc Siccpiu6 CoA 2 was very rich in white lead and was used in such a way that the painter could hardly escape lead poisoning. The paint had to be rubbed down with sand-paper which produces a great deal of dust As this was done inside the small enclosure Of the dressing rooms, the air became full with white lead dust Work of this kind is recog- nized as the worst painter can do and skilled painters will not under take it if they can possibly find any thing else to do., There were other places in which men were exposed to poisonous substances, such as the glass etching department where hydro fluoric acid is used. The fumes of this acid are excessively irritating causing inflammation of the eyes, nose and throat, bronchitis and bron- cho-pneumonia.
 The Illinois commission was not supposed to go into the problem of non-poisonous dust. but as a matter of curiosity, we did examine that de- partment which was admitted to be the most dangerous, the sand blast ing. Sand blasting consists of driv- ing the very finest possible sand against a. sheet of steel twiths such force that the grains dent it and it becomes roughened all over with mill lions of tiny dents so that the paints will adhere to the surface. This work in winter it was done inside build- ing and the fine sand was excessively bad for the workmen's throats and lungs. As we. conversed with the workmen we. gained very definite impression that the company was not giving the best care to it's injured men and it failed to meet the increas- ed number of accidents caused by the introduction of steel construction with a corresponding increase in it's surei- cal force
 These were the facts that were brought to Mrs. Bowen's attention and that made her decide to take up the whole question of accidents and in- dustrial disease among the employees of this company, of which she is a stockholder. At first she sent an agent to Pullman to investigate the accident situation. His report showed that with an average of 200 accidents a month, the company was employing but one surgeon for part of his time, that he was not given the services of a nurse or an assistant and that there was no company hospital, so that patients that could not pay and for whom the company was not legally liable, had to be sent home or to. the county hospital some twelve miles away. In many cases there would be no objection to sending a wounded man home but in the case of immi- grant men living in lodgings, hospital