Montana labor news., 1938-04-21
III.

What + we going to do about it
in u nation where we have such
an excess of life that we can afford
such fancy things as dying by mi
crons? In the Witwatersraand it
took a man about IA years to become
totally disabled. In the lead mines of
Australia and the coal mines of Eng
land before rigid anti-dust legislation
in those countries, the time for total
disability was Is and 10 years re-
spectively. Suppose we say Is years
for the United States: a young tough
miner comes out of the mines after
is years permanently disabled, or
dead. Isn't that an absurdly high
price to pay for the privilege of
working? In many instances the
time required is much shorter. Some
of the California mother Lode and
Nevada gold camps have earned the
handle Of widow makers because
they get their man in from two to
four years.
Everybody knows that U. S. in
dustry is not notably humanitarian,
but if you stop to think about it
you might logically assume it would
do something about this dramatic
slow suicide being committed by
handbook miners, if only in the in
terests of self-preservation. Be-
cause the higher courts of the land
have ruled silicosis no ordinary &C.
cupational hazard, but definitely
compensationable. And what a
headache that is to mining COM
panies, for whom such headlines as
the following are the advance no
tees Of bankruptcy:
% SILICOSIS VICTIMS ASK
lDAMAGE-TOTAL $982,00O.
LIME EMPLOYEE WINS $26,500
IsILICOSIS SUIT. $5,OOO,OOO IN
SUITS NOW PENDING.
CALIFORNIA STATE INSUR-
ANCE STRUCTURE NOW IN
PERIL SINCE JUDGES HOLD
SILICOSIS SUITS FOR BENEFITS
MAY BE FILED AFTER SIX
MONTH PERIOD.
In the United States, declares a
reputable source, over $350,000,0O0
worth of damage suits IRE pending
nowl And the crest of the damage
suit wave is still well in the future.
The great mining West is just be-
ginning to taste its enthusiasm for
the idea.
Yet the mining industry, facing
possible stagnation and ruin by I'M
favorable publicity and damage
suits, bashfully in a few instances
suggests pensioning the disabled
as though that solved anything. No
matter how generous the pensions
or the court awards, they cannot
rebuild broken bodies. But life is
cheap in the United States, and we
are not likely to embrace far-sight-
edness until we are forced to. Most
major countries have adopted pre-
ventive legislative closely patterned
in some form after the pioneering
South African laws. Canada and
Mexico have already been men
toned; and even such minor nations
as Guatemala, Salvador, and Costa
RIGA have moved to stop this need
less waste.
No miracles in lung surgery are
going to loom suddenly on the hori-
zon to relieve the menace Of sill
COSTS. It would be no thorough
going solution if they did; for the
problem of socializing medicine is a
long way from being solved here.
We may as well resign ourselves to
a painstaking program of proven
ton. We can hope that U. S. labor,
when it hits a less awkward stride,
will place the silicosis problem high
on its agenda of matters for attack.
Proper legislation and strict en-
forcement of it can cut this disease
year after year, and finally stamp
it out altogether.
My friend, the mining engineer,
can be pardoned for a little cyni-
cism. '"The least posterity can ex-
pect of us" he says, 'is to limit the
bag in a sportsmanlike manner to
so many men per mine or plant
each season."