Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1921-05-13
INDUSTRY
KILLS MORE
THAN WAR

nsaths in industry exceed those in
,,sr and this condition will continue
os long as the workers accept the en-
Movers theory that life is cheap.
The number of American soldiers
killed in battle is placed at 5o.15l, and
6arinr the same period the number OF
American workers killed in their line
of duty was 126.664.
IN the battle front men laid down
their lives on the altar of patriotism
and gladly sacrificed themselves for an
IDEAL. In the mines and mills. on the
railroads, wherever industry turns the
wheels of progress. men. women and
little children lay their lives on the al
tar Of necessity, and die in striving
for the wage that means shelter and
food. and clothing for themselves and
for those dependent upon them.
The mutilations of modern warfare
are not TO be compared with the mutt
lations of highaspeed industrial endea-
vor. For every man blown to pieces by
gun fire we find two or more have been
blown TO pieces in our mines and quar-
ries by premature blasts or the deadly
mine gas.
Human life is said by some to be
cheap Ii will be held cheap by the
employer just SO long as the workers
accept his valuation of il. There is
one factor that is doing more TO en-
hance the valuation of life and limb
than any other, and that is the trade
union. This power for good is contin-
uously on the job, forcing the better
ment of conditions under which we
work and live.
The unions have for years fought
unsafe sand unsanitary conditions in
the mines, shop, and everywhere union
men and women are employed. Thru
constant endeayor human life has been
prolonged many years. Factory inspec-
tion laws and safety devices have been
secured by the unions, and there Is
scarcely law or contriyance calculat-
ed TO benefit the worker that has not
been secured by the unions after bitter
fights by their opposing lobbyists, the
cheaplife employer. Other employers
with a humane nature have greatly
aided in making life safer for the work
er, and to them much credit is due.
Not alone in decreasing the percent.
dkst vi uNtitttIt4t a0E4 ti4c aA404E tAtE 0AAf
ions been successful, but In proiongfiig
life through shorter hours and more
sanitary conditions, they have scored
great success The printers. for In
stance have since the organization OF
their union, added 25 years to their
lives at the cost of hard struggles at
different intervals. They are nearing
their goal-the average life-and
through their present strike. expect to
gain four or five of the nine years of
life now coming to them.
The union man and woman may
properly be given credit for every adj
vantage now enjoyed by the working
classes. Through his efforts hours have
been reduced from the old standard of
twelve hours a day; safety appliances
have been installed; sanitary condi-
tions are enforced; life conserved and
made more bearable. The non-union
man, while he has not contributed time
and money, enjoys much of these BEN
efits along with the union man. The
scab enjoys them also; he accepts them
and is glad enough to profit at the ex-
pense of the striking unionists, al
though he is fighting just as hard to
undo the work of the unionists as the
unionist is lighting for better condi-.
tions.