Another article from 1911.
This explores the societal burden of industrial accidents. The writer sounds pretty disgusted by the state of play in the US compared to Europe.
This dude was like a poet – remarking about the progress of mighty industrial engines bringing with it “fresh human sacrifices”.
Some extracts:
· “Whether he work upon the sea, upon the earth, or in the mines underneath the earth, the laborer constantly faces imminent death; and his danger increases with the progress of the age”
· “With each new invention the number of killed and injured rises. Each new speeding up of the mechanisms of industrial life, each increase in the number and size of our mighty engines, brings with it fresh human sacrifices”
· “It is a strange commentary upon our boasted American civilization that in the United States nearly three times as many persons, in proportion to the number employed, are killed or injured in the course of their employment, as in any other country in the world”
· “There is nothing sensational or dramatic in the killing of a workman here and workman there, hence the public is not startled and shocked as it would be if 500,000 men were killed or wounded in some great war” or natural disaster
· “when we observe the number and ratio of workmen killed and injured in the industries of the United States, as compared to the number and ratio of workmen killed and injured in the industries of other nations, we are led to the inevitable conclusion that if it cost more to kill a workman in America than to protect him, as it does in Europe, the American workman would not be killed”
· That is, “for each 10,000 men employed in the mining industries of European countries, 14 are killed annually, while for each 10,000 employed in the mining industry of the United States, 34 are killed annually”
· “In order that we may extricate ourselves from the humiliating and degrading position we now occupy in respect to this question, it is imperative that the factory and mining laws of all our states .. should be greatly extended and should be enforced with the utmost vigor”
· “Employers should be required, under severe penalty, to equip machinery and working places with every practical safety device it is possible to secure”
· He observes how more safety inspectors are needed, and “in the City of New York, the statement was made that there were fifty per cent more game wardens than factory inspectors employed by the State of New York”
· So while he recognises the importance of game wardens, “I do mean to suggest that there should be more inspectors to protect human life than to protect the birds and the fishes”
Ref: Mitchell, J. (1911). Burden of industrial accidents. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 38(1), 76-82.
Study link: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/000271621103800111
SafetyInsights.org 