producers are withdrawn temporarily from an occupation, and 500 more permanently, as a result of industrial accidents in Allegheny County, a number of other possible wealth producers are thus permanently occupied, non-productively, in the business of patching up, repairing, putting in order, those who are injured. Most of the hospitals of Pittsburg charge $1.00 a day for ward patients, none more than $1.50 a day. It is well known that this charge does not meet the cost of a surgical case. It is intended to cover bed and board, supplies and the simplest service. Accident cases, requiring surgical care, frequent dressing etc, cost the hospital much more than $7.00 or even $10 a week. Moreover this $80,000 does not include the cost of doctor services and medical expenses after these 2,000 injured men were discharged from the hospitals. Whether these expenses were met by. the employer, or by the public, or by the injured man's family, they are a social cost. By such a method of estimate the net economic loss to society from one year's work-accidents in Allegheny County would be as follows: LOSS 10 SOCIETY FROM ONE YEAR'S WORK-ACCIDENT IN ALLEGHENY COUNTY. From death From disablements Social Loss. $3.828.070 80.003 $5.228,726 This estimate takes no account, it should be noted, of the loss involved in the continuous succession of small injuries not serious enough to be taken to a hospital, nor of injuries more serious, but occurring too far away from a hospital to make the trip advisable, nor of injuries, often very serious in the matter of disablements, but not of a nature to require hospital care. APPENDIX Ic. DATA AS TO RAILROAD ACCIDENTS (UNITED STATES INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION.) NUMBER OF TRAINMEN EMPLOYED, WITH NUMBER KILLED AND INJURED COUPLING CARS FOR THE YEARS ENDING JUNE 30. The accompanying figures and chart prepared by the Interstate Commerce Commission indicate the vast benefit which the safety appliance law has been to railroad employes. If the accidents due to coupling and uncoupling cars had increased in the same ratio as the number of men employed has increased since 1893, in the year 1907 there would have been 548 men killed and 15,485 injured, instead of 272 killed and 4,062 injured; or a total killed and injured of 16,033 men as against 4,334 actually killed and injured in 1907 in this hazardous occupation. DEATHS AND INJURIES OF TRAINMEN FOR FIFTEEN YEARS. 1893, 1894, 1895, 1896, 1897, 1898, 1899, 1900, 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906, 1907. Trainmen employed '179,636, 160,033, $157,731, 162,876, 161,397 $170,708, 178,851, 191,199, 209,043, "225,442, "253,660, 253,834, 1265,175, 1285,556, 18317,808. APPENDIX Id. RECORD SYSTEM EMPLOYED. In general it may be said that in devising a method for accumulating and registering work-accident data for the Pittsburg Survey, the case record system employed by charity organization societies was used. Especially suggestive were papers by Sherman C. Kingsley, superintendent of the Chicago Relief and Aid Association, presented to the National Conference of Charities and Corrections in Minneapolis in the spring of 1907, which gave the facts about a small group of families, pensioners of that society, who had been brought into destitution through industrial accidents. Equally suggestive was a paper by Francis H. McLean, then superintendent of the Brooklyn Bureau of Charities, presented to the New York State Conference of Charities and Correction in the fall of 1907, giving the facts as to 365 cases cared for by the charitable societies in New York and Brooklyn. With these suggestions in hand, rough blanks were blocked out and submitted for criticism to Mr. McLean, Mr. Kingsley, Prof John R. Commons, University of Wisconsin, Mr. Frederick Hoffman, Statistician of the Prudential Insurance Company, Professor Charles R. Henderson, a member of the Illinois State Industrial Commission which had made the first public report on this subject in this country, Miss Lillian Brandt, statistician of the New York Charity Organization Society, Miss Kate Holladay Claghorn, statistician of the New York Tenement House Department, Mrs. Florence Kelley, formerly State Factory Inspector of Illinois, and others. The blanks, revised in the line with these suggestions, were tried out on a month's cases and the results resubmitted for criticisms before they were adopted in their final form. Upon adjoining pages are published: (A.) Coroner's record blank. (B.) Family Record blank, fatalities, providing for economic facts. The first step was to fill out Blank A insofar as the inquest files supplied data as to the men killed from July 1, 1906 to June 30, 1907; the second, to visit their homes. The industrial towns in Allegheny county are spread over a wide area. Railway and street car connections are not of the best. Tenants are constantly shifting, and a year had elapsed in some cases since the death of the man. Families of deceased foreigners go back to the old country. Half a dozen races and tongues were represented. It was no easy matter to get the information called for, but this was done in a majority of cases. The third step was twofold; first, to secure from the employer his statement of the accident; and second, to check over our facts as to the wages, payments, etc., with the records of the claim agents and legal departments. Here we were only partially successful. The items were furnished by a number of large concerns; they were refused by others. The final step came in analyzing statistically the data thus gathered, and interpreting them with illustrative instances from the case records. A similar plan was employed with respect to hospital cases. Through the interest of Mr. Francis J. Torrence, President of the Pennsylvania State Board of Charities, we were able to secure access to the registers of the public hospitals of Allegheny county and transcribe the hospital records for three months' injury cases. A card similar to Card A was used for this purpose, and a special family record card (Blank C) was devised for recording the further facts secured from the injured men or their families. The staff included Miss Crystal Eastman, responsible investigator; and as visitors, Mrs. D. Lucile Field Woodward, Cornell, A. B., later investigator for the Federal Immigration Commission; Alexis Sokoloff, civil and mining engineer: Alois B. Koukol, secretary, National Slavonic Society; and Joseph Stella, artist. Herbert S. Brown, electrical engineer, was called in consultation with respect to some of the technical problems. Acknowledgment is due to Mr. John Koren, United States Census Expert, and Miss Lillian Brandt, for criticisms and suggestions in regard to statistics. 1. Name... 2. Address.. 3. Died... No...... 19.... 4. Sex.... 5. Age.... 6. S... M... W... D... 7. Country of birth. Race. 8. How long in U. S.... 10. Employer. 9. Occupation.. 13. Hour.... (A. M.) (P. M.) Day.. Month.. 19.. 11. Nature of Accident. 12. Place of Accident.... 14. Hospital.. 16. Witness for identification.. Address. 17. Witness at Coroner's inquest. Supt.... Foreman.... Fellow-workman.. Official Inspector.... 18. Character of Coroner's Record...... Verdict.... No...... Term.. 19.... INDICATIONS WITH REGARD TO CAUSE AND RESPONSIBILITY. 19. Any evidence of intoxication? Recklessness? Disobedience of orders? Violations of rules? Failure to report defects? On part of Deceased. 20. Any evidence of intoxication? Recklessness? Incompetence? Disobedience of orders? Violation of rules? Failure to properly instruct? Failure to remedy known defects?..... 21. Any evidence of extreme heat? On part of supt., foreman, fellowworkman. Poor light? Unprotected machinery? Structural defects? Crowded place to work? Defective appliances?.. 22. No indications? 23. How many hours had deceased been at work? 24. Length of regular working day?..... 25. How long had he been in this occupation? 26. How long in this particular position?. 27. How long with this employer?.. A-Coroner's Record Blank. 2. Expenses due to Accident (other than hospital charges) $..... How met?..... 3. How long totally disabled?. 4. How long partially disabled?. 5. During latter period what decrease in wages per week? $. 6. Total financial loss so far sustained? $.. 7. Any permanent Injury?... 8. Nature of it.... 9. Aid Public Relief. Church Other Sources Private Relief.. 10. What other injuries suffered by this man in course of work?. 11. How long totally disabled?. 12. Partially? |