equally true of tuberculosis caused or complicated by industrial dust, which very often assumes the true character of fibroid phthisis or industrial lung disease, requiring to be specifically reported as such and separate and distinct from general tuberculosis of the lungs. The annual reports of boards of health should contain a brief statement of the facts concerning industrial diseases, so that the local experience in particular trades may be utilized in the further development of the science and art of industrial hygiene.

But what is needed most urgently is the establishment of a national institute of industrial hygiene on a broad foundation, corresponding in character and extent to the research funds established by far-seeing philanthropy in behalf of other causes. Surely there can be no better investment of five or ten million dollars than in the establishment of a national institute adequately equipped for research work, including the treatment of the more severe and obscure forms of trade diseases in special clinics similar to the far-famed institution at Milan. Such an institute could carry out the work proposed for a national commission on industrial diseases, and by publishing the results of qualified research work would contribute immeasurably to the improvement of the conditions under which the industrial activity of the nation is carried on. Surely there can be no branch of scientific research in geology, botany, astronomy, physics, chemistry, etc., of more urgent necessity and of greater practical utility than research work to determine the causes, the methods of prevention, and the cure of industrial diseases. There is little enough material reward in the pursuit of industrial medicine as a distinct profession, but a national institute for the study of industrial diseases would give the required encouragement and place the whole subject upon a broad and permanent national foundation.

In addition to the foregoing there is need of a national welfare institute for the improvement of labor conditions, including a national museum of safety devices, of which the New York institution is the nucleus, and of which the Berlin institution is the ideal. Surely a national museum of specimens, of zoology, or of relics of antiquity can not compare in importance or utility with a museum of safety devices, whereby the calamities of industrial life are lessened and the ravages of industrial diseases are diminished. Surely what the generosity of the German government and

German philanthropy have brought about is equally possible of attainment in the United States.

In conclusion, then, the plea is-first, for the appointment of a national commission to investigate and report upon the whole subject of industrial diseases; second, for the foundation of a national institute of industrial diseases upon the broadest plane of a liberal philanthropy, corresponding to the great foundations of generous minded givers in other fields; third, for the establishment of a national institute for the improvement of labor conditions, including a thoroughly equipped museum of safety devices. It would perhaps be difficult to comprehend a more ambitious program in a few words, but where the issue at stake is the well-being of the wage-earning masses, who by their toil contribute so largely to the sum and substance of our national wealth, the object to be attained is well worth the required effort, and it is to be hoped that through persistent agitation on the part of the American Association for Labor Legislation these hopes and plans will be realized at a not far distant day.

COMPULSORY COMPENSATION FOR INJURED WORK

MEN

DANIEL L. CEASE

I will not attempt to consider the legal aspects of compulsory compensation other than to assert that the liability laws leave the burden of accident and death just where it falls, that administration of the law has been in the direction of strengthening the defenses of the employer and in the protection of property rights as against personal rights. Our liability laws are obsolete, judge made, unfair, and demand a drastic change that will give a modern and humane application to the law of the killed and wounded.

It is customary to aver that compensation for injury or death will go a long way to reduce casualties, meaning that employers will install safety devices and exercise greater care in the operation of dangerous machinery, but I feel certain that even with assured compensation and the most perfect safety devices there will always be a terrible loss of life and limb. We have reached that stage in industry of which it can be said we have gone "output mad.” Every scientific means, every mechanical device, has been employed as an aid to production, and with it the man has been shifted to the high speed which reduces the efficiency of safety devices for it places the entire question of safety automatically upon the device. The man cannot spare the time strictly to obey the rules laid down for his protection, but despite that fact when he is injured he usually is charged with negligence.

I almost wish that my paper had been confined exclusively to the specific rules for safety that are supposed to be in operation on certain of our railways. These rules are for the legal protection of the companies, and it is not intended the employees will observe them literally. They really are forced on the employee as a condition of employment for the purpose of taking away his defenses in case of injury, the federal law to the contrary notwithstanding, also to lead the public to believe that the railway employee is careless and indifferent of his personal safety; and they run counter to the insistent demand from the railway companies to have yards clear and trains moved regardless of the safety of the employees. These rules are used as common law defenses against liability.

I beg your indulgence for a moment to quote a paragraph from an official railway bulletin, of the protection to the employee kind, and to quote from a letter issued by a superintendent to his employees which told them exactly what was expected from them regardless of the safety bulletin. I quote from the bulletin:

...... Employees before they attempt to make couplings or to uncouple will examine and see that the cars or engines to be coupled or uncoupled, couplers, drawheads, and other appliances connected. therewith, ties, rails, tracks, and roadbed are in good safe condition. ...They must exercise great care in coupling and uncoupling cars. In all cases sufficient time must be taken to avoid accident or personal injury."

......

This rule is for the legal defense of the company; now note the rule for the men:

"Entirely too much time is being lost, especially on local trains, due to train and enginemen not taking advantage of conditions in order to gain time doing work, switching, and loading and unloading freight. Neither must you wait until train stops to get men in position. It is also of the utmost importance that enginemen be alive, prompt to take signals, and make quick moves. In this respect it is only necessary to call your attention to the old adge, which is a true one, that when train or enginemen do not make good on local trains it thoroughly demonstrates those men are detrimental to the service as well as to their own personal interests, and such men instead of being assigned to other runs should be dispensed with. I am calling your attention to these matters with a view of invigorating energy and ambition, in order that your families who are dependent on you to make a success shall not some day point the finger of scorn at you, and that the public may not be able to say that you lost your position due to lack of energy and interest in your own personal welfare for which you can consistently place the responsibility on no one but yourself."

Compare the bulletin with the letter and note the difference. If other evidence were missing this would be sufficient to substantiate the statements that safety rules are made for the legal protection of the company, while the opposing rules for dispatching work jeopardize the safety of the employees. I say to you now that if railway employees observed the companies' rules for safety the railway lines of the United States would be within twelve hours as hopelessly congested as they possibly could be if a general strike had been in successful operation for a week.

Here then is the application of the usual safety rule intended

for the defense of the company and public information, and with it the personal admonition to the employee to take the risks of the business as they come to him, not to lose time, not to sacrifice speed and efficiency for safety, and urging him to remember that if he does not make good he will lose his job and be humiliated by the "finger of scorn" pointed at him by a starving family. He takes the chance, the finger of scorn does not humiliate him, but he pays the price.

Fortunately for this argument we have statistics of railway casualties, and, taking the past year, for which a report has been made, we find that nine men were killed each twenty-four hours and that one was injured or killed every seven minutes. To be specific as to casualties as they occur in the engine, train, and yard service, is to say that one man was killed for each two hundred and five employed and one was injured for every nine employed. The records of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen show 16.4 claims paid per thousand insured; the Order of Railway Conductors pays twelve claims per thousand insured, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers pays eight claims per thousand insured, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen pays seven claims per thousand insured and the Switchmen's Union pays at the rate of 15.5 claims per thousand of insured. And two thirds of these claims are for accidents. The working life of a brakeman is estimated at only seven years.

What do the railways pay? No one knows, but it is reasonable to say that 10 per cent of injuries and deaths for which compensation is paid is the answer and the average amount paid is low.

The same rules for the defense of the employer are in operation in every industry.

The miners claim that four men are killed in America to one in Europe, and it is admitted that mining ordinarily and normally ought to be accompanied with less danger here than abroad.

Structural iron and steel workers and electrical workers stand a heavy loss in death and disability only to be guessed at in the total, for we lack full statistics covering these occupations.

It has been estimated that annually 4000 Pennsylvania miners are killed or injured and the records of Allegheny County, in which the great iron and steel industries of the Pittsburg District are located, showed 10,000 casualties a year, a large proportion of which were deaths or total disablements and 80 per cent of which were inflicted upon men under forty years of age.