The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1925-02-13

benefits up to the same coIIlpdIdClV0
evel they obtained in 1913, the r
naximum compensation payment t
would now have to be S16.67 per week. b
Ia other words, an injured workman P
IL his dependent family can now BUY Q
with S16.67 only as many OF the ne l
cessities of life as they could pur- S
chase in 1915 for $1,000.
The bill now under consideration is
designed to amend the present law SO
as to increase the benefits sufficiently
to match the decreased purchasing ]
power of the dollar and to bring
them into line with the average OF
the benefits In our surrounding states.
It is also designed to include voca-
tional disease for these compensation
benefits. The proposed bill embodles
10 changes With your permission, l
want to disckss each of these pro-
posed changes rather briefly.
VOCATIONAL
DISEASE =
EDUCATIONAL disease may be defined
as anv disease that results from the
employment in which a workman is
engaged. Necessarily, each vocation
al disease is attributable to some one
specific industry and develops only
i through constant employment IN that
i industry. In some sections OF the
United States, particularly where
there are tanneries and extensive
manufacturing concerns, IN which
worlunen are exposed to chemicals
and the fumes from these, there are
MANY kinds of occupational diseases.
In Montana. so far as l know, there
are only three or four Occupational
diseases. -.
Goal miners are subject to sill
COSTS, or coal miners consumption, 70
some extent, but it very rarely at
tains sufficient severity to render a
man unfit for work or to hasten his
death. 1t is due to the constant
I breathing of coal dust. In the cement
plants at Trident and near LewistoWn,
l there is a rare case of cement poison
ing. do not believe that there have
been many of these or that they have
4 been very severe in the past. The
u smelters. where WOrlmen are exposed
> to the fumes of lead and arsenic tur-
1 nish an occasional case CT either leaC
Z poisoning or arsenical poisoning line
II one serious disease with which The
D. state is affected is miners consCmp
ton, or silicosis, developed In tn
ID deep hard rock mines.
"Silicosis, CIR miners consumption
results from the more or less con
slant breathing of very fine, shaTl
q particles of quartz dust, created eth
y er by dry drilling or by the shovel
g ing and handling of ore. These FIN
v PARTICLES are taken into the cavitie
IL of a workman's lungs. They lodg
u there and irTitate the delicate mem
II branes. Nature seeks to remedy thi
We irritation, so it seals the particles c
N dust in scar tissue. This, of course
IL takes UP little of the air space In tn
u lung cavity. Other particles of dus
~ are then deposited, other scare tistu
sG is formed and the process is cor
.u stantly repeated, until the lung cav
III ties are entirely filled with quart
ol dust embedded in scar tissue. As
~ result, the workman gradually, bl
ne surely, has the air capacity in n
X lungs cut down until a point is reacl
ny ed where his general physical cOnd
ilg ton becomes weakened and he
~ then an almost certain victim
Seu quick consumption, pneumonia, bnol
nc chial trouble or some more rapid
d developing disease that ends his lif
d. Once in a while, a workman dra}
along for a number of years and fiji
II allv dies as a result of the silicos
itself. Usually, his death Is due
some other disease brought on
hastened by his silicosis.
NO DEFINITE
RECORDS -
"The extent of siicos in Montal
has not vet been definitely determi
=a ed. / presume that the doctors
Butte have a fairly comprehend
idea as to its prevalence. So far
= know, no records show definitely
extent or the mortality that result
therefrcrn are obtainable. The di
ease is preventable by the simple e
pedient of eliminating dust. II
NAV be done by using only wat
drills and by a sufficient sprinlkling
ore so that dust is not created in
handling. Bad air is not dire
cause of silicosis. 1t does, howev'
aggravate the disease once 1t
started, because bad air lowers t
vitality of the men. AS a part
preventative, bad air should also
eliminated.
Something over a year ago, l h
occasion to visit the home OF one
the parish priests in Butte. VIII
there, he told me that there were
that time four hundred seventy-thl
miners families in his parish. /
Hundred one of these were headed
widows, the father either havi
been the victim eff accident or havi
died as the result of silicosis G.
tracted in the Butte mines. The
of death from silicosis is, undoCbt
", much larger than the toll of de;
resultant from accident.
THE PARISH
BOOK
"While at the priests home,
ticed a book of burial records on
table and with his permission chez
up these records from January
1919, to April 1, 1928. These shoN
that Isl males over the age Of
years had died during the per
Seventy-eight, or 81 per cent OF
number, had suffered death as
suit of some form Of lung disease
a. 90