TABLE 1.-SCOPE OF THE INVESTIGATION: NUMBER OF ESTABLISHMENTS, AVERAGE NUMBER OF PERSONS INSURED, NUMBER OF FULL-TIME WORKERS INSURED, AND NUMBER OF INJURED PERSONS COMPENSATED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 1907 AND 1897-Concluded. SEX AND AGE OF THE INJURED PERSONS. The accident rate in the various industries, with the injured, etc., persons classed according to age and sex, is shown in Table 2. Where the number of injured, etc., persons was large enough to compute rates for the separate industries in each group of industries, the subgroups are given. The average accident rate for all insured persons in 1907 was 9.44 per 1,000 full-time workers-in other words, approximately 1 per cent of the persons covered by the industrial insurance system received injuries during the year. The fact of greatest interest in the report is the relative standing of the various industries as disclosed by the accident rates. The industry group which in 1907 had the greatest proportion of injured employees was that designated "livery, drayage, cartage, etc." (association 59), which had a rate of 26.61; the group with the next highest rate is that of flour milling (association 35), with an accident rate of 16.06 per 1,000 full-time workers. The groups of mining (association 1) and quarrying (association 2) had each a rate of over 15 per 1,000 full-time workers. Following these come woodworking (associations 31-34) with 13.28, brewing and malting (association 39) with 13.05, engineering, excavating, etc. (association 64), with 12.95, inland navigation (associations 60-62) with 11.82, iron and steel (associations 4-11) with 11.62, express and storage (association 58), with. 11.34, and the building trades (associations 43-54) with 11.22 per 1,000 full-time workers. All of the other groups of industries had a rate of less than 10 per 1,000 full-time workers. There are seven groups with rates of less than 5 per 1,000 fulltime workers; the tobacco group (association 40) has the lowest rate of any of those in the table, with only 0.49 per 1,000 full-time workers; this is followed by clothing (association 41) with 2.81, textiles (associations 20-27) with 3.00, printing and publishing (association 55) with 3.02, pottery (association 16) with 3.39, paper products (association 29) with 3.81, and glass (association 15) with 4.46 per 1,000 full-time workers. There are 17 groups with rates over 5 and less than 10 per 1,000. The part of the table giving the accident rates for the subdivisions shows that in a number of the subgroups of industries the accident rate is unusually high; in the case of tenders of motors, etc., engaged in the building trades (associations 43-54), 55.04 per 1,000 full-time workers received injuries requiring compensation; five other subgroups of industries had such rates in excess of 25 per 1,000 full-time workers, namely, hauling of goods, etc. (association 59), shops engaged in iron work, structural work, etc. (associations 4-11), miscellaneous work of commercial establishments (association 58), express workers, furniture movers, etc. (association 58), boiler workers, etc. (associations 4-11). For female adults the subgroups of industries show a number of high accident rates, though these rates are to be accepted with caution because of the small number of persons engaged in the occupation. In the subgroup blacksmithing, farriers, etc. (association 66), there is a rate of 80 per 1,000 full-time workers (women); in the subgroup hauling of goods, etc. (association 59), there is a rate of 43.33 (women); in group coal and wood dealers (association 58) the rate is 35.78 (women); in two subgroups of the building trades, namely, tinsmiths and carpenters (associations 43-54), the rates are respectively 22.22 and 21.28 per 1,000 full-time workers (women). None of the other subgroups or groups of industries has a rate for female adults in excess of 15 per 1,000 full-time workers (women). In the case of young persons there are also a number of high accident rates, but here also it is probable that such rates have been unduly influenced by the fact that the number of persons exposed to the risk is small and inadequate for the computation of rates. In the subgroup tenders of motors, etc. (associations 43-54), boys under 16 years had a rate of 139.07 per 1,000 full-time workers (boys); the subgroup hauling of goods, etc. (association 59), had a rate for boys under 16 of 34.90 per 1,000 full-time workers (boys); subgroup flour mills, etc. .(association 35), had a rate of 22.01 per 1,000 full-time workers (boys). None of the other subgroups had a rate in excess of 20 per 1,000 full-time workers (boys). In the case of girls under 16 the same caution as to the adequacy of the number of cases for forming a rate must be observed; the subgroup construction of railways, etc. (association 64), the rate for girls under 16 was 68.97 per 1,000 full-time workers (girls). In the storage and transportation of beers and wines, etc. (association 58), the rate for girls under 16 was 45.45 per 1,000 full-time workers (girls). Aside from these two rates, none of the other subgroups showed rates in excess of 12 per 1,000 full-time workers. In general the accident rates for male adults are higher than the rates for female adults; it may be assumed that the heavier and the more dangerous work is performed by men and the accident rates naturally reflect this state of affairs. There are four cases (associations 55, 59, 64, and 66) in which the accident rates of the industry groups for female adults are higher than the rates for men; three of these-namely, livery, drayage, cartage, etc. (59); engineering, excavating, etc. (64), and blacksmithing, etc. (66)—are groups in which the number of women employed is small and the accident rates are therefore subject to greater fluctuations than would be the case if the numbers were larger. It is also obvious that these industries contain occupations not adapted for the weaker physique of women, and two of them (livery, drayage, etc., and engineering, excavating, etc.) show accident rates for men which are among the highest rates given in the table. The group printing and publishing (association 55) has an accident rate for men of 2.60 and for women of 3.93 per 1,000 fulltime workers of the same sex and age group. The experience of the Leipzig Sick Fund (Twenty-fourth Annual Report of the Commis sioner of Labor, Vol. I, pp. 1321 and 1323) shows that for all accidents (industrial and nonindustrial) the males engaged in printing and publishing had a rate of 50.4 per 1,000 members, while for females the rate was 36.1; the rate of the accident association for the accidents resulting in death or in disability of more than 13 weeks seems to indicate that accidents in the printing industries are more serious in the case of women than in the case of men. The data as to the relative hazard of the various industries may be summed up by stating that establishments in which a high accident rate was to have been expected, such as underground work (e. g., mining, quarrying, etc.), operations especially exposed to the dangers of the elements (e. g., navigation), as a matter of fact do show a high rate of injuries. The rates for these industries are exceeded by those industries using mechanical apparatus of various kinds, such as the haulage, drayage, etc., the milling industries, etc. Likewise the establishments which use a large amount and variety of machinery, such as the iron and steel, the woodworking, etc., industries, also show high accident rates, though in these establishments the hazard of the machinery is reduced by careful and continuous supervision, training of the workers, use of safety appliances, etc. TABLE 2. SEX AND AGE OF INJURED PERSONS: NUMBER OF ESTABLISHMENTS AND FULL-TIME WORKERS, AND NUMBER PER 1,000 FULL-TIME WORKERS OF PERSONS KILLED OR INJURED, BY INDUSTRIES AND SEX, 1907. [Source: Amtliche Nachrichten des Reichs-Versicherungsamts, 1910. I Beiheft, I Teil. Gewerbe-Unfallstatistik für das Jahr 1907, pp. 1 to 293.] |