SEVENTH SESSION.

SEVENTH SESSION.

The Congress convened in the Murat Theater, on the morning of October 3, 1912, and was called to order by President White, at 9:45 o’clock a. m.

President White—We are a little late in gathering this morning. The meetings last night were rather strenuous. There were meetings in two different places, and the one I attended had seventeen or eighteen hundred in the audience, so we know we have a large attendance. The idea of having sectional meetings is a good one, because it enables discussions at greater length upon special subjects that concern different people interested. Day before yesterday, we had three meetings going on at the same time. Then we have an illustration of what is needed in the way of civic reform and good government over at the State House, and none of us should miss this. It is going on all the time. It appeals to the eye, and we can see at a glance so much that is needed in this battle for reform.

Reading of Telegrams

I have some announcements to make before I call upon the first speaker. I have a telegram from Mrs. G. H. Robertson of Jackson, Tenn., and one from Anna Caroline Benning of Columbus, Ga. These telegrams contain greetings, and also suggestions as to the next meeting place of the Congress. We are glad to have suggestions as to the next meeting place, but under the Constitution the Executive Committee takes up this matter for consideration, and they have three or four months to do it in.

Jackson, Tenn., October 2, 1912.

President National Conservation Congress, Claypool Hotel, Indianapolis.

Mothers and teachers of Tennessee interested in conservation of childhood beg the National Conservation Congress to hold its next meeting in Knoxville. This will mean much to Tennessee. We hope you will see that Knoxville is, all things considered, the place of all others for you.

From President Congress of Mothers,

Mrs. G. H. Robertson.

Columbus, Ga., October 2, 1912.

Mr. J. B. White, President Fourth National Conservation Congress, Indianapolis, Indiana.

Please greet the officers and members of the Fourth National Conservation Congress for me and tell them that illness prevents my attendance, and say for me the disappointment is great, for my heart is in the work.

Anna Caroline Benning.

President White—We also have a report from Col. M. H. Crump of Bowling Green, Ky., which will now be read:

Report from Col. M. H. Crump

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON ESTABLISHMENT OF A NATIONAL PARK TO INCLUDE MAMMOTH CAVE.

Immediately on notification of appointment by President J. B. White, the committee (Dr. Henry S. Drinker, Hon. William P. Borland, Mr. Gifford Pinchot and Col. M. H. Crump, with Dr. W. J. McGee as Chairman) organized by correspondence and proceeded to work through both individual and collective action. Largely at the instance of Col. Crump, Hon. Robert Y. Thomas, Jr., a Representative from Kentucky, introduced a bill (H. R. 1666) providing for the establishment of a National Park to include Mammoth Cave, and this was duly referred to the House Committee on Military Affairs. Before this body your committee appeared at formal hearings on February 1, February 5 and May 3. Early in February a similar bill was introduced in the Senate by Hon. William O. Bradley and referred to the Senate Committee on Public Lands; before this body also your committee (through Col. Crump and the Chairman) appeared at a formal hearing on February 6. Both before and after these hearings members of the committee personally presented the matter before members of both branches of the Federal Congress; Dr. Drinker by correspondence, since he was out of the country until too late to attend the early hearings.

Your committee have to report, with regret, that while the requisite early steps looking toward the desired legislation were taken, the bills have not yet been reported from the Congressional Committees and probably will not be during the present session. Accordingly, we recommend that this be considered a report of progress; that the National Conservation Congress be requested through its Resolutions Committee to once more urge on the Federal Congress the eminent desirability of creating a National Park to include the Mammoth Cave, and that an appropriate committee be created through the National Conservation Congress of 1912 to continue action in the premises.

Respectfully submitted,

W. J. Mcgee, Chairman.

Malcolm H. Crump.

President White—This report will be turned over to the new President.

It is now my pleasure to introduce to this audience a gentleman from the Pacific Coast who has long been an active worker in the cause of Conservation, especially in the conservation of forests. He is well known to all on the Pacific Coast and to every man in the Central and Eastern States. He is President of the National Lumber Manufacturers’ Association, and he will treat the subject of Conservation from “The Lumberman’s Viewpoint.” Major E. G. Griggs, of Tacoma, Washington. (Applause.)

Address, “The Lumberman’s Viewpoint”

Major Griggs—Gentlemen, Members of the Convention: I want to voice the sentiment of the lumbermen of the country particularly in approving the action taken by this Congress in allowing us to have our own conferences in reference to the interests in which we are vitally concerned, together with the general meeting. I think that has been one of the best features of this Congress.

The objects of the National Conservation Congress are so clearly exploited in the Second Article of our Constitution that I believe a repetition of them is clearly in order that we may keep them uppermost in our minds:

“(1) To provide a forum for discussion of the resources of the United States as the foundation for the prosperity of the people, (2) to furnish definite information concerning the resources and their utilization, and (3) to afford an agency through which the people of the country may frame policies and principles affecting the wise and practical development, conservation and utilization of the resources to be put into effect by their representatives in State and Federal government.”

I have attended all of these Congresses and have been wonderfully impressed with the zeal and interest manifested in these proceedings. The vital questions considered are touching the popular chord and its effect is vibrating the length and breadth of the land.

Some are drawn here by one interest and some by another, but all recognize the wisdom and need of arousing our people to a consideration of the resources of our country and their proper utilization. In the cauldron of our national development, mix a little philanthropy, patriotism and politics and you can stir up the most phlegmatic of our citizens.

To my mind, the great results we wish to secure in this Conservation effort can only be realized by directing the attention of the millions who do not attend these annual meetings to the importance in our State and national life of the subject-matter we have under consideration.

The vast majority of the American people wish to see general prosperity and proper utilization of the resources of the country, regardless of the political ambitions of any individual or party. Conservation will only be realized when it takes such a strong hold of the people that any man or set of men will sink to political oblivion if they do not promote its cause.

Three years ago we were somewhat startled by the announcement, I think from the originators of this movement, that the electric companies had combined to control the water powers of the country. Today I come from a State where a stupendous amalgamation of capital has recently combined the hydro-electric plants of the Puget Sound basin. Not that this is detrimental to our development, but that the acquiring of these perpetual rights and control of natural resources should be well considered by the people and subject forever to their supervision.

The cupidity of capital will only be curbed by the assurance to the long-time investor that the Government is behind the investment and the people will not forever back the investment unless they are in on the deal.

Our country is comparatively new and we need to encourage capital and labor in every way to develop the latent resources, but we want to make better trades than we have made in the past if we wish to hold the respect of either.

The old saying that “Uncle Sam is rich enough to give us all a farm” sounded siren-like to all, and was necessary to encourage the settler, but there is a limit to even Uncle Sam’s patrimony—and irrigation costs money. No doubt the State of Washington, which I represent, has profited as much as any other by the liberal policy of the Government, but there forest reserves have been declared and in lieu of worthless timber tracts scrip has been issued to bona fide settlers or original grantees, and for this same scrip some of the choice timber lands of the country have been exchanged. I conclude that “David Harum” is discounted in a trade.

The lumber manufacturers of the country have in recent years been in the limelight of trust investigators, and to what purpose? If to foster the political ambitions of some demagogue, I am sure it will fail. There may be organizations back of labor and capital which come under the ban of the law, but when such general conclusions are drawn, as in the Missouri Ouster Case, that the National Lumber Manufacturers’ Association is an unlawful combination in restraint of trade, as President of that association I “deny the allegation and defy the allegator.”

There is too much of loose talk in censuring the efforts of associations generally. The very theories you as Conservationists are advancing are uppermost in the minds of association workers. And the greatest development in forest Conservation and fire protection has its origin and support from these associations. We have something to conserve and are not mere theorists. With rising values of timber and utilization of lower grades of lumber, the product of the entire tree will be saved.

This is where the shoe pinches. It is going to cost more money to conserve. The low grades of lumber, slabs, and waste from a mill must bring enough money when sold to pay for the labor expended in saving them. Then, and then only, will they be saved.

Trees can only be reproduced on soil suitable for that purpose and for no other. The timber crop is the process of years of growth, and annual taxes, perpetual fire risk and the desire to use the land for more frequent crops are the deterrent features of reforestation. We only need to look abroad, where common lumber brings the price of mahogany in this country, to realize that an article to be saved and reproduced must have commercial value.

Your great centers of population in the East and Middle West are today beginning to realize that happiness, health and long life of the people will be your greatest commercial asset. The country is becoming aroused to the needs of forest, lake, stream and fresh air to build up American citizenship. We in the West, like the pioneers who have worked their way across the American continent, do not appreciate our own resources until we realize the vast sums being appropriated in your dense centers of population to reinstate in a measure the surroundings in which we revel.

Population, transportation and ability to pay are all determining factors in our national development. It takes something more than philanthropy to meet a payroll or pay the grocer, and too little heed is given the trials and privations of our pioneer life in some of our theories.

We lumbermen of the West Coast, where transportation charge alone equals more than the original cost of our lumber to you, are sometimes rebuffed in our efforts to conserve, where of necessity the waste is large.

We are not slow in the West and South in developing the use of wooden block paving, in establishing creosote plants to prolong the life of our product, but in our recent attempts to get the consumer to use odd and short lengths to prevent a waste in our mills of 2 per cent. of our planing mill product, we are balked in our efforts and forced to the burners with a lot of trimmings.

I have just read the following from an address delivered by Joseph B. Knapp, assistant district forester in the United States Service, which bears out my contention:

“Coast lumbermen a few years ago unitedly endeavored to introduce the use of flooring, ceiling, finish and other planing mill products in multiples of one foot from three feet upward. At this time the United States Forest Service made an investigation of the waste due to manufacturing planing mill products in multiples of two feet. We found this waste to be over two per cent. of the material run through planing mills in Oregon and Washington, or the equivalent of the yearly growth of wood on approximately 30,000 acres of good timberland. The consuming trade refused to accept odd lengths and after a conscientious attempt on the part of lumber manufacturers, it was found necessary to discontinue the manufacture of odd lengths over ten feet. It is therefore seen that the useless waste in the manufacture of lumber can not always be attributed to the lack of a desire on the part of the lumber manufacturer to introduce economical practices. It remains for the ultimate consumer of our timber products to determine in what form these products shall be supplied to him, and therefore conservative lumbering and close manufacture are dependent as much upon the layman as upon the manufacturer.”

Our British Columbia neighbors are keenly alive to their timber interests and their forest service is alive to the situation. Mr. Benedict, assistant forester of British Columbia, in a recent address stated that in British Columbia, on a very conservative estimate, after eliminating waste land, rocky mountain slopes and peaks, they had 65,000,000 acres capable of producing merchantable timber and valueless for any other purpose.

“The productiveness of this land in timber will vary from 1,000 hard feet per acre per year in particularly favorable localities on the coast to 25 or 50 board feet per acre per year on the mountains of the interior,” he says, “but I am confident that the average yield will amount to 100 board feet at least. This gives an annual production of 6,500,000,000 feet.

“Allowing for a temporary overproduction of lumber brought on by the desire of the holders of timber limits to realize on their investment as quickly as possible, it will be seen that the stand of mature timber will last from fifty to seventy-five years. At the end of seventy-five years, when this mature timber is cut, the present stand of second growth timber will have matured so that the annual production can be maintained perpetually at 6,500,000,000 feet. All this provided the present stand of mature timber is preserved from destruction by fire and likewise that the second growth is able to escape fire and grow to maturity.

“The stake then for which the forest protection force is working is an annual crop of 6,500,000,000 feet of timber, worth to the Government, say, $6,000,000, and to the community $100,000,000. To win the stake fire must be kept out of the area of 100,000,000 acres, or a block of forest 400 miles square. The problem, both on account of the immense area, the variety of causes of fire, the absence of means of transportation and communication, and the present sparseness of population, is a most difficult one to solve. The safe harvesting of the annual yield will require, besides the expenditure of large sums of money, the good will of every citizen in the Province. However, everything favors the satisfactory working out of the problem.”

I quote the above to prove that we are not alone in our efforts to conserve and provide for the future of our country.

Our associated efforts are being extended continually along the lines of economy in manufacture, in the matter of standard grades and sizes, inspection and insurance. Where is the commodity that can be intelligently transported and marketed without a thorough knowledge of both production and consumption? I now claim, and always have claimed, that associated efforts to disseminate this information and collectively endorse projects financially and otherwise to promote the study of forestry and lumbering are the highest types of Conservation of the Nation’s resources.

In the great State of Washington, which is now furnishing more lumber than any other State in the Union, and where the lumber production is the chief industry of the State, we are vitally concerned in our legislative work, and concerning our Workman’s Compensation Act I wish to bring to this particular Congress a special message. I believe this act emphasizes the benefits of co-operative effort in conserving human life and in protecting the breadwinner, upon whom depends the life and happiness of so large a population.

With an industry affecting throughout the United States over 45,000 sawmills and 800,000 employes, regardless of families dependent on them, you will agree with me that we are all vitally interested in workmen’s compensation.

In a recent Bulletin of the National Lumber Manufacturers’ Association, Mr. Bronson wrote as follows:

“Thirteen States have adopted workmen’s compensation acts, and all have become effective since September 1, 1910. All but one of these laws are optional, the exception being the Washington law, which is compulsory, and which, according to the brief experience had, seems to be the most satisfactory both to employers and employes, saving the employer all expense for industrial insurance, and saving both employer and employe all court costs and giving to the employe the full compensation provided by the law without any deduction for lawyers or fees.

“The thirteen States which have adopted compensation acts are California, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin. In all of these States the common-law defenses are in whole or part wiped out where the employer does not come under the compensation act.”

The law in the State of Washington has now been in operation one year. To those of us who have operated under it, it has already proved what its advocates claimed the most advanced piece of legislation enacted—and we have woman’s suffrage, too.

It is surprising what an effect it has had in clearing the court docket of damage suits and in paying to the injured at a time when the money is needed all the award without the intervention of a third party. With a carefully selected commission of three, responsible to the Governor, and non-partisan in character, we have launched a statute that, regardless of any improvements which may be determined or defects disclosed, has improved the industrial atmosphere both for employe and employer.

The State appropriates a fund of $150,000 to administer the act for two years. The risks are classified and rates assessed, and quarterly payments called for as required.

The statistical records being made and knowledge gained by the Commission in administering this act will be invaluable and it has already brought to the attention of loggers, lumbermen and all manufacturers the loss of life and limb incidental to the business, the benefits of factory inspection as a further prevention and the fixing of responsibility as to accidents.

I secured from the Commission the attached reports, which I shall not read in detail, but which show detailed comparisons and some interesting figures. (See reports, A, B and C, appended to this paper.)

Our commissioners have been called on many times to address conventions and congresses regarding the law, and I can best state their views by quoting from an address of Commissioner Pratt at our recent Logging Congress, and from a statement issued by Commissioner Wallace. Commissioner Pratt says in part:

“The Workman’s Compensation Act has been in operation now for nine months, and those of you who are actively in business in the State of Washington are more or less familiar with its results.

“In the first place, it is compulsory alike on the employer and employe. The employer has to pay into the accident fund a sum of money based upon a percentage of his payrolls, and the employe must accept the awards of the Commission allowed for work accidents in lieu of his right to sue at common law, subject, of course, to a right of appeal on the amount awarded.

“All the extra hazardous industries of the State are divided into forty-seven classes, each class with a fund of its own, and the accidents arising in that class shall be a drain only upon that fund. As the payments for work accidents deplete the fund in each class it provides for monthly assessments to be made to recoup each class. The payments out of these funds are only for work accidents, all the cost of the administration of the law being paid out of the general taxes of the State. For the first twenty-two months of its operation an appropriation of $150,000 was made.

“It is unlawful for the employer to deduct any portion of the premium paid into the accident fund out of the wages of the employe. It provides for penalizing any establishment which from poor or careless management is unduly hazardous by raising its rate. If an employer, besides employing men in extra hazardous employment, employs men in non-hazardous employment, the premium shall be paid only the payrolls of the extra hazardous work, but the employer and the non-hazardous employe may elect to come under the act and both shall receive the benefits of the act.

“As each class must pay for only such accidents arising in that class, and as assessments are made only as the funds of that class are depleted, there are but two things that govern the cost of this insurance: the amount of the awards and the number and seriousness of the accidents.

“As I have said, the classes that the loggers and lumbermen are most interested in are seven, ten and twenty-nine.

“The rate for class seven is 5 per cent.; for classes ten, 2½ per cent., and twenty-nine is 2½ per cent. All operations in which those present are interested in these last two classes take the same rate. Class ten is by far the largest class we have, and as it covers several distinct operations it has been divided into four different subdivisions or groups.

“10.1 covers logging and logging operations of all kinds.

“10.2 covers sawmills and lumber yards, etc.

“10.3 covers shingle mills and operations connected with a shingle plant.

“10.4 covers mast and spar manufacture, stump pulling, land clearing, etc.

“We have had the following table compiled of comparative risks of wood-working industries:

Workday Number of Dismem- Deaths

Av. Number Number of Number of Lost per Dismem- berment Number per

Class of Men Time Workdays 1,000 berment Awards per of 1,000

Number. Employed. Awards. Lost. Men. Awards. 1,000 Men. Deaths. Men.

7 4,120 172 5,862 1,402 17 4.1 7 1.69

10.1 12,801 440 14,926 1,166 35 2.7 22 1.72

10.2 17,770 763 14,941 841 51 2.9 7 0.39

10.3 5,565 221 5,766 1,036 56 10.1 0 0.00

10.4 381 50 1,144 3,003 5 13.1 1 2.60

29 3,787 156 3,368 888 24 6.3 0 0.00

———— ———— ———— ———— ——— ——— —— ———

44,424 1,802 46,007 1,035 188 4.2 37 0.83

“This table is not as nice a one as I should have liked to show this Congress of Loggers. It shows where the great harm is being done in class ten and it shows which is the greater risk and what part of the class should be charged a higher rate than the other part. Furthermore, not only are we keeping a strict account with each class, and division of a class, but we are keeping a strict account with each individual operator and in the end will publish an account of just how many accidents each firm or corporation has had, just how much has been paid out for them in awards or pensions, for injuries to their workingmen.

“Now, what are we going to do to prevent this loss of life and limb? In the first place, there has been a Labor Commission since 1905 and the mills and factories have been subject to inspection and have been forced to put on safeguards. The loggers have steadfastly refused to allow any inspection laws covering logging to be put on the statute book of the State. Logging is a hazardous life at the very best and calls for strong, dare-devil men, and men who are willing to take chances. Danger is always present and men become so used to it that they get careless. This, however, is no excuse for needless loss of life and limb.

“Once more I want to urge upon the lumbermen of all classes the necessity of more rigid inspection; to have some one about the plant whose sole duty is to see to it that every machine is safeguarded the best that possibly can be, and that safeguards are kept in place. It will be money in your pockets if you want to put it on such a mercenary level as that.

“Also I want to urge that a movement be put on foot that our colleges and universities establish chairs of logging and safeguarding engineering, so that our young men, just fresh from school, shall have a better knowledge to start with on these subjects than did their fathers. Many and many a man-killing machine is used just because some one has not invented a better one.

“The report of the expense of the Commission shows that the total amount expended to July 1 out of an appropriation of $150,000 was $87,062.14, and that the proportion of expenses to the amount of business done is 11 per cent., a showing so much below what it costs casualty companies merely to solicit their business as to be notable.

“The president of one of the casualty companies, while I was in New York, showed me their experience, which showed that the cost to them for the last year was 51 per cent. of the premium. As you see, our cost is about 11 per cent. Of course, we do not have to solicit, nor do we have so large a force in the field for adjustment.

“The Commission, is keeping well inside of its appropriation, as the allowable average expenses for twenty-two months would be $6,818.18, while the actual average has been $6,620.16.

“Other details of the financial report are as follows:

Total receipts, accident fund $699,508 72

Total expense 86,062 14

——————

Total fund $785,570 86

Cash in fund, 36 per cent. $281,993 32

Reserve fund, 20.5 per cent. 161,154 49

Claims paid, 32.5 per cent. 256,360 91

Expense, 11 per cent. 86,062 14

—— ——————

100 per cent. $785,570 86

“We are executing the law, backed by the State of Washington, and there is less quibble in settlements made by our Commission than there would be by an adjustment made by a casualty company. Neither do we have to pay any attorney’s fees, as the Attorney-General’s office has to attend to all this part of the work for us.

“Since the first of October, there has not been a case filed in any court in the State for damages done to any workman who came under this act.

“This has been a great relief to our courts, and in time will be felt in reduced taxes. The cheapening of our court costs and the removal of all personal liability suits should work a reduction of costs to the general taxpayer.

“One of the features of the old common-law system was the ambulance-chasing lawyer, whom we all know. This gentleman is practically out of business as a result of the Workman’s Compensation Act, but is undertaking to find some activity in the industry of appeals. Out of over 6,000 claims passed upon, only twelve appeals have been filed, one of them from the Imperial Powder Company, to interpret the law, one to determine the scope of the interstate commerce law, one filed by an insane claimant, and several that are in the process of adjustment and dissolution.

“One appealed case has been tried in court and the court sustained the Commissioner’s finding as far as temporary total disability was concerned, but found the claimant entitled to compensation for permanent partial disability, remanding the case to the Commission for additional compensation, which was promptly awarded. Had the Commissioner been in possession of the facts, the award for permanent partial disability would have been made without appeal.”

Commissioner Wallace makes the following pertinent statement:

“The Washington State insurance system has succeeded beyond the best hopes of its friends and sponsors. In this act, one of the youngest States is giving the older commonwealths another example of a wise and progressive law. The State’s control over public utility corporations, giving the suffrage to women, eight-hour laws for underground miners and women wage-earners, full crew law for railways, and other laws enacted during the past four years in the interest of labor deserve full praise and should not be forgotten in the triumph of our compensation act.

“The compensation act has thus ushered in an era of publicity regarding the appalling maiming, dismembering and killing of workmen in the mines, mills and workshops of our State. The great question just now becomes not what we can give to pay for pain and suffering and even death, but how can we best safeguard those who toil. This will be real progress; compensation must ever be mere apology.

“Concerned as we have been as to how the little home flock could be kept together when the breadwinner was stricken down in his endeavor to make an honest living, and thinking in terms of dollars and cents how much it will take to keep the wolf from the door during these times of industrial disaster, we may have overlooked the fact (or was it because we were not familiar with it?) that, according to the best authorities who have made accident prevention a scientific study for a number of years, 75 to 90 per cent. of the accidents that occur are preventable.

“Our law has been widely commended and is in reality the best compensation law in the United States today. It has been rarely condemned, save by those who profited by the old legal system. It has shown the great waste of human energy, manhood and womanhood—wastes which reflect discredit upon this young and virile commonwealth—and as these things begin to be understood by the people they will insistently ask, what can we do, not only to preserve the mineral, the timber, and the water-power resources of our State, but what can we do to conserve our greatest asset—human life?”

I am confident this Congress will endorse the sentiments expressed and I only wish to add the employer and employe, State official and private citizen, voice the same sentiments and desire to give them widest publicity.

REPORT A.

INDUSTRIAL INSURANCE COMMISSION OF WASHINGTON.

Statement of Condition of Accident Fund, September 1, 1912.

Estimated Deaths

Total Amount Claims. Reserve on Balance Requiring.

Approved in Fund. No

Class. Paid In. Paid. Claims. Pension. Pension. Occupation.

1 $19,350 71 $6,400 60 $12,950 11 6 Sewers.

2 17,839 53 3,860 85 $3,481 60 10,497 08 1 Bridge and tower.

3 6,343 73 1,653 90 4,689 83 Pile driving.

4 1,996 85 463 80 1,533 05 House wrecking.

5 70,194 23 18,207 10 20,008 25 31,978 88 6 2 General construction.

6 52,990 61 9,178 86 2,063 95 41,747 80 3 5 Power line installation.

7 84,249 20 28,886 99 17,863 22 37,498 99 8 4 Railroads.

8 30,745 73 7,982 15 1,180 07 21,583 51 1 2 Street grading.

9 6,340 35 2,173 30 4,167 05 Ship building.

10 266,461 72 167,741 35 95,777 56 2,942 81 33 29 Lumbering, milling, etc.

12 6,432 63 1,642 25 4,790 38 Dredging.

13 16,371 87 2,775 43 7,574 72 6,021 72 4 Electric systems.

14 26,817 34 8,120 36 1,266 00 19,430 98 1 1 Street railway.

15 4,275 45 1,284 21 754 52 2,236 72 1 Telephone and telegraph.

16 82,110 27 33,794 11 28,020 37 20,295 79 11 6 Coal mining.

17 14,800 60 4,786 55 2,352 55 7,661 50 1 3 Quarries.

18 6,368 70 4,808 75 1,559 95 Smelters.

19 7,098 59 717 36 2,903 83 3,477 40 1 Gas works.

20 1,202 20 405 00 797 20 Steam boats.

21 8,319 89 4,576 43 3,743 46 Grain elevators.

22 7,656 94 2,370 60 5,286 34 Laundries.

23 4,152 43 543 40 2,805 92 803 11 2 Water works.

24 8,084 75 5,826 45 2,258 30 1 Paper mills.

25 1,489 06 402 65 1,086 41 Garbage works.

29 27,134 69 16,760 72 10,373 97 Wood working.

30 789 83 789 83 Asphalt manufacturing.

31 7,051 68 1,580 73 842 08 4,628 87 1 1 Cement manufacturing.

33 11,289 16 1,536 30 9,752 86 Fish canneries.

34 28,349 76 15,404 90 3,156 32 9,788 54 1 Steel manufacturing, foundries.

35 6,216 34 1,395 05 4,821 29 1 Brick manufacturing.

37 9,857 48 1,828 73 3,295 17 4,733 58 1 1 Breweries.

38 3,812 52 1,114 95 2,697 57 Textile manufacturing.

39 2,627 55 415 49 2,212 06 Food stuffs.

40 2,149 77 203 55 1,946 22 Creameries.

41 6,516 49 1,297 80 5,218 69 Printing.

42 9,885 96 5,485 86 3,888 34 511 76 1 Longshoring.

43 4,584 50 2,494 25 2,090 25 Packing houses.

44 1,412 96 680 25 732 71 Ice manufacturing.

45 445 14 445 14 Theatre stage employes.

46 463 27 1,908 95 1,445 68 7 1 Powder works.

47 632.44 39 75 592 69 Creosoting works.

48 1,000 16 83 95 916 21 Non-hazardous elective.

$875,913 08 $368,833 68 $197,234 47 $309,844 93 84 63

F. W. HINSDALE, Chief Auditor.

REPORT B.

INDUSTRIAL INSURANCE COMMISSION OF WASHINGTON.

Statement of Expense Account for the Month of August, 1912.

Mileage—

Commissioners $50 00

Auditors 98 23

Railroad Fare—

Commissioners 20 35

Auditors 195 88

Hotel—

Commissioners 97 10

Auditors 447 90

Incidental Expenses—

Auditors 9 15

Salaries—

Commissioners 900 00

Auditors 2,260 29

Physicians 406 50

Office 2,067 06

Miscellaneous—

Stationery 256 81

Postage 322 61

Telephone 66 30

Telegraph 8 24

Office supplies 208 97

General expense 60 20

Rent 110 00

—————

Total $7,585 59

F. W. HINSDALE, Chief Auditor.

REPORT C.

Olympia, Washington, August 31, 1912.

Industrial Insurance Commission, Olympia, Washington.

Gentlemen—Herewith statement of claims handled by this Department during the month of August, 1912. Also, the number handled during the period from October 1, 1911 to August 31, 1912.

Claims Received.

Month of August. Total to Date.

Accidents reported 1,374 10,586

Files incomplete 1,471

———— ———— 9,115

Files complete 1,455

Monthly payments continued 262 1,972

Claims reopened 8 129

———— ———— 2,101

1,725 ————

11,216

Claims Disposed of.

Month of August. Total to Date.

Finals 1,097 5,255

Monthly 262 1,972

Fatal 36 214

Total permanent disability 2

Rejections 78 324

Suspensions 46 281

No. claims 198 1,420

Total disposed of ———— ———— 9,468

1,717

Claims in the work 1,748

————

Total 11,216

Respectfully submitted,

J. F. GILLIES (Signed),

Claim Agent.

President White—This is certainly a very important paper. I want to say here that tomorrow, in Kansas City, Mo., a committee from the organized labor interests, and a committee from the manufacturers will meet to discuss a proposition to prepare a bill for presentation to the next Missouri Legislature that shall be fair alike to employer and employe, in regard to compensation for injuries. It has worked well in Washington, it is humane, and it does shut off the dishonest, shyster lawyer who means to get three-fourths or more of the award for the injury, and gives it all to the person who is injured, without any attorney’s fees. (Applause.)

I will take just a moment at this time to appoint the Nominating Committee:

Nominating Committee

George E. Condra, Chairman; E. T. Allen, H. A. Barker, Mrs. Marion A. Crocker, E. G. Griggs, Mrs. Elmer E. Kendall, Henry Wallace, and N. P. Wheeler.

This committee has the duty of considering and nominating the officers for the next Congress. They will have a couple of days for the work.

At the first day’s session, there was a report on the program from the National Congress of Mothers, which was to have been presented by Mrs. Orville T. Bright, of Chicago. Through an unfortunate misunderstanding, which was not the fault of Mrs. Bright, she was not here on the first day. We are glad to have the report at this time. I now take great pleasure in introducing Mrs. Bright. (Applause.)

Report, Mrs. Orville T. Bright

Mrs. Bright—The one object for the conservation of all the material resources of a Nation is for the use, comfort and benefit of the homes of the people.

It would be of little importance what became of forests, lands, waters, minerals or food were there no men, women and children to use and enjoy them.

Therefore, at the very heart of this Conservation work should be the two departments covering homes and child life.

It has been a source of encouragement to see that men who are leaders in many great developments of our land, have given definite place to the study of the conservation of the home.

There is need for it if America is to be the greatest of all the nations, for with its wonderful natural resources it can only be as great as the quality and character of its people.

Great minds are needed to think and plan with wisdom and unselfishness for the America that is to be, for the protection of homes that are to shelter and nurture the men and women who a few years hence will take our places.

The United States has its Departments of State and War and Navy. It has not yet seen that the greatest questions it has to meet are the protection and care of the American people and American homes.

The U. S. Department of Agriculture is educating the farmer to make the most out of his land. It gives him information concerning the soils, the rotation of crops, the protection against the many enemies of plant life, the care and feeding of stock and poultry. It protects the forests and the fisheries. All these things for the service of man have received the guardianship of the Government.

Homes are just as important as farms, and there is just as great need of proper consideration for their elevation and protection as there is that of farms and stock and forests.

The protection of infant life is of more value, even in a pecuniary way, than the protection of the cotton crop, yet three hundred thousand babies die annually whose lives might be saved if the United States gave the same careful, intelligent information to the mothers as it does to the farmers.

The annual sacrifice of three hundred thousand American citizens from preventable causes is a waste far too great not to receive governmental consideration. Time need not be wasted on compiling statistics. There is need for prompt and decisive action to prevent this needless sacrifice; it means that each year the possibility for at least one hundred thousand homes of American citizens is cut off. That means a serious loss to this Nation and one for which immigration can not compensate.

The wonderful advance in agriculture can be paralleled in human culture if the same methods are used. The trains that go through the country for agricultural demonstrations should carry instruction to both men and women on home-making and child nurture. The list of valuable educational pamphlets published and sent free of postage should include instruction in child hygiene and sanitation.

There is today a need for a Home Department in the National and State Governments that is equipped to study the home problems of America and meet them as only can be done by thorough study and knowledge of conditions, their causes and remedies. The sacrifice of infant life is a small part of the waste that undermines the homes.

Juvenile crime, its causes and treatment are of more vital moment than the boll weevil or the chestnut blight, for the possible good citizen transformed into one who is a menace and expense to society is a great waste.

There are countless organizations which give material and charitable relief. There are few which give the help that will enable the average home properly to guide and train the boys and girls who are wayward, or will help parents to learn efficient methods of child nurture. The home has the greatest power over human life and human character. Too long has it been left to chance and ignorant experiment to make it efficient in its work, stable and permanent.

The home is founded by the marriage of a man and a woman. It is a matter of grave concern to the Nation when divorce breaks up one in every twelve homes, and leaves the children bereft, not only of a normal home but deprived of a true conception of what marriage and parenthood should be. The conservation of the home requires that serious study and work be done to change this condition in America. It can not be done by legislation alone, though one of the greatest needs today for the protection of the home is Federal law governing marriage, divorce and polygamy.

It is a serious menace to the home when forty-four States may make as many different laws as they choose on a subject which is the foundation of the Nation’s future.

That a man may be legally married in one State, and that such marriage is illegal in a State adjoining, that divorce is easy in some States and difficult in others, that polygamy is permitted to continue in some States, and that freedom to spread the cult is allowed, have all been undermining influences in the God-given standards of marriage, home and parenthood.

The Government has found it necessary to assume jurisdiction over interstate commerce, railroads and express companies. It is of even more vital importance that it should have jurisdiction over marriage, divorce and their violations. In addition to this, there is need for definite plain teaching of youth in regard to the true high ideal of marriage, of parenthood, and the making of a home. This would prevent a large proportion of the divorces. A standard should be set in regard to the home, and boys and girls should get that as part of their education.

Ignorance of hygiene is responsible for the drawbacks and failures of many homes. It is inexcusable that any boy or girl should be permitted to reach manhood and womanhood without a clear knowledge of personal hygiene, sanitation, and food values. This knowledge is essential to good home-making and good parenthood, and is equally necessary for men and women.

Congestion in cities should not be permitted. In the seaport cities many immigrants from other lands have not the means to go farther, and if they had the means, do not know enough about the country to place themselves where their qualifications would fit best. The cry against immigration is one with which I can not sympathize. The Americanizing of the immigrant should be placed in other hands than the politician’s, who uses him en masse for a manipulated vote.

The special education of immigrant men and women would be an important service to good home-making and the ability to train the children to be useful citizens.

The proper distribution of immigrants by careful information as to opportunities for work and the earning of a home is greatly needed. The proper assimilation of our immigrant population is still in its infancy, but is of vital moment, for they also are the future citizens of America.

The city home of the American citizen should not be left to the will of builders whose only thought is to build houses for sale. Many apartments are built today without the amount of light, sun or ventilation necessary to health. Some cities and towns are realizing the need for regulating this.

The Conservation of the home demands that every State should have requirements as to building homes. The problem of a comfortable home for the family with a moderate income is a serious one today. Few cities or towns are giving the thought necessary to make a city of good homes for the average family at prices possible for them to pay.

The country home is equally in need of study and help. The opportunities for social life and educational advantages equal to those given to the city home should be supplied. That means larger appropriations for schools, the employment of the best teachers, the consolidated school, the use of the schools and churches as centers of educational and social life, the making of good roads between home and school and church and market place.

The Government Department of the Home should take all these things into consideration. It should bring to the overworked farmer’s wife better household facilities and more help. The greatest drawback to country life today is the overworked wife, who can not get needed help and who goes beyond her strength in cooking and doing housework for farm help as well as her own family.

No one who knows of the terrible results of hook worm in the South resulting from the unsanitary, poverty-stricken hovels, where physical weakness had for years sapped the vitality and energy of men, women and children, can gainsay the fact that Government study of the causes and the remedy has done a service of inestimable value to thousands of homes. Seven years’ life among those people proved that many of them were in quality equal to the best American stock, but that disease had brought upon them the unjust stigma of laziness with resulting poverty.

The Government could study and publish the results of its investigation, but Dr. Stiles had to get contributions from individuals to do the educational and medical work necessary to uproot this disease. That is not as it should be. The power to help should go with the power to investigate, for the condition was of much wider interest than to the individuals directly affected.

The National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations have made the subject of the home, of parental education and of child welfare its special study and work for seventeen years. It has worked steadily to build up a united system of parent-teacher associations in connection with every school, to bring about the co-operation of home and school in child nurture.

It has required that these associations should be for child study so that parents might have guidance and help in their problems. It has instituted study courses and provided educational material for the parents. It has headquarters in Washington and has valuable co-operation from Government departments. It should be the Homes Department of the National Conservation Congress because its work is well established, covering every State and reaching to other Nations. It is the only national organization whose membership is composed of parents and teachers and whose educational leaders include the greatest specialists in child nurture and child welfare in home, school, church and state.

I would suggest to the National Conservation Congress that it make the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations the Homes Department, because in that way it will have consecutive work of high standard, and will bring a strength which could be secured in no other way. Co-operation without duplication brings results.

The National Congress of Mothers offers its co-operation in every phase of conservation for which the Conservation Congress was organized. It also asks co-operation of the Conservation Congress in its international work for home, parenthood and child nurture.

It invites this Congress to be always represented at its annual conferences and at the Third International Congress on Child Welfare in Washington, D. C., in May, 1914.

Life, health, character, all depend on the home and its efficiency. To equip every home for efficiency in its special work is the greatest need in Conservation.

President White—That is surely a fine paper, in a holy cause.

The topic of the next section of the program is “Conservation of Human Life.” The subject, “Saving Miners’ Lives,” will be discussed by Dr. Joseph A. Holmes, of Washington, D. C., Director of the National Bureau of Mines. (Applause.)

Address, “Saving the Miners’ Lives”

Dr. Holmes—Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: Those of you who have endeavored, even in part, during the past month to attend the Congresses in session in the United States, have found the time all too short to make that possible for you to do. These Congresses have covered all subjects. There is a feeling of unrest, a feeling that we have not done in the past the things which we ought to have done, and that it is high time we were trying to find out what are the best things to do. For some two hundred years in the development of this country we have allowed the individual very largely to take care of himself. We started out with the government theory that each man is entitled to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” and the individual was left to himself to accomplish the purpose he had in view. The country developed rapidly through that system, and we built up a great Nation, but we have in the meantime neglected the public welfare. We are in a state of unrest today in regard to the future, feeling that it is time we were doing what we are trying to do—look after the question of the public welfare.

We have had, furthermore, a period of most rapid progress. When you, Mr. President, and others of us here, go back today to the schools where we went years ago, we hardly know the place. Buildings have changed, new ones have been built, and the teachers of today are different from those we were accustomed to. We see the great system of transportation built by the railroad men of today; we see the means of communication, some fifteen million miles of telegraph and telephone lines, enabling the people to talk with one another. Yet even that is not speedy enough, so we are using the wireless. And so along all lines of industry, we have developed at a tremendous rate. But it has been a one-sided development, and now we have come to look particularly at the other side—the public welfare, and we are trying to find out what is best, from the experience of all countries, so that the American people may do the best that can be done for the welfare of this country.

It has therefore come about, in connection with this one-sided development, that we have lost sight of that great subject which we have for consideration today—the conservation of human life. We have been too busy to think about it. We have jumped on and off street cars and railway trains; we have slipped on our waxed floors; we have met with all sorts of serious accidents in our fast automobiles and flying machines; yet we ask, “Why are these miners so careless as to kill themselves, and these railroad employes?” And we are just as bad as they are. So let us not talk about careless railway employes, or careless miners, but stop to think what we can do to help the entire situation. Let us ask ourselves the question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” and there is but one answer, and that is in the affirmative.

I want to call attention to the fact that we have in this country two great foundations of industry. We have always considered agriculture as the great foundation industry of the country, but we have another—mining. The savage did not need any mines. He only wants a limited amount of material for clothing, and a large amount of material in the way of something to eat. He does not need the great modern appliances which we have today. When we drew up the Constitution of this country we did not think the mining industry of much importance, and it was not possible to anticipate the great complex social fabric which we have in the United States today. A man said to me the other day that he thought if Thomas Jefferson could see the things that we are asking of this great Federal Government, he would not know what to do. My own judgment is that he would advocate the doing by this Federal Government of all the things that this great American people demand that it do today. (Applause.) The trouble is that while we were making this tremendous progress, all of the people were not keeping pace, and perhaps it is well that this is true, because if there was nobody to hold back we would not only progress too rapidly, but progress in too many one-sided ways.

We recognize, furthermore, that while agriculture has made tremendous strides, and in large measure because of the investigations conducted under the Federal Government, other branches of industry have made rapid strides, but they have been forced to one-sided development in order to keep pace. It needs, then, the great co-operating influence of some great force like the Federal Government to help keep the industries from becoming one-sided.

The mining industry touches us on every hand, and today in a great hall like this, where you can find materials from every part of the world, you will find they came from the mine, or were manufactured through the agency of the products of the mine. We can not do anything on a large scale today without the aid of this great mining industry. During last March, the English people awakened to a realization of that fact. They did not consider mining as one of the great fundamental industries, but the stopping of the coal mines for four weeks stopped all the industries of the British, and they came to the conclusion that the very life of the nation was in danger by the cessation of coal mining.

Mining and Conservation should be linked very closely together. Men realize the fact that with agriculture, the resources increase year by year. We increase the fertility of the soil by taking the nitrogen from the air, and from that we get the crops, so that the wealth of the country based on agriculture is easily predicated. The mining industry is just the reverse. We started in this country with greater mineral resources than we will ever have again. Furthermore, in agriculture we have the healthiest vocation known, while mining is the most dangerous industry in the world.

Now, this mining industry has increased so rapidly that we have not been able to take care of many of the difficulties that have arisen, nor do we have a realization of how rapid that increase has been. We have increased in forty years from less than a ton to every man, woman and child, to, in the last year, six tons. Forty years ago a pound of iron, as compared with thirteen today for every man, woman and child. And so it has been with the great industries—they are increasing so much more rapidly than the population that it is hard to tell what has become of this increase, and one of the questions is, can this increase continue? Some of our great statesmen in Washington who have been fighting this Conservation movement, say it can not continue. The fact that the mining industry has nearly doubled every ten years, they say can not continue. But no man today would say that this country will not continue to grow, and as it grows this great mining industry will increase also. We are just entering upon our development. We are just beginning to export the products of our mines, so when we ask the question whether this great Nation will continue to grow, and this industry will increase, there is but one answer, and that is in the affirmative. We ask another question—are these resources inexhaustible? And there is but one answer, and that is in the negative, because we are now beginning to see the end of some of these resources. Shall we curtail the development of an industry like this and not supply the needs of the people? Our politicians ask this and expect us to answer in the affirmative, but no conservationist answers it that way. We say, no, the needs increase and we must meet the needs.

What can we do to perpetuate the welfare of the country? There are but two things we can do, and they are fairly easy to do. Use more and more efficiently all the resources, and prevent unnecessary waste. Now, in connection with this wasteful use of our resources, you say, after all, is there any great waste? What can we do to stop it? Only a few years ago the State of Indiana thought its natural gas was gone, so it passed laws forbidding the waste of natural gas; the Supreme Court of the United States confirmed such an act in regard to coal—after the coal was gone. One of the Supreme Judges said that a man who owns a coal mine had a legal right to destroy it if he wished to. But in the State of New York one of the associate justices overruled the Supreme Justice, and in every case the Supreme Court of the United States, as well as the Supreme Court of the several States, have shown a desire to keep pace with the progress of this country in interpreting the Constitution of the United States for the permanent future welfare of the people of this country. (Applause.) There are a good many signs of improvement, not only in what the Federal and State Governments are doing, but in what private individuals are doing.

Only yesterday, I went through the great plant at Gary, and I found the United States Steel Corporation was using two million horse-power developed from gases from its own operations, which only a few years ago was allowed to go to waste, and that power is not only operating all the machinery of that company, but is supplying the power for other industries in the immediate vicinity. I found that the slag coming from the furnaces, which in many great manufacturing sections of the country we see piled up in great, unsightly masses, is all being converted into cement, and that cement is being used by the people of this country. And so we find an interesting situation—that the steel being manufactured by that plant is likely soon to be a by-product, and not the main product for which the plant is operated.

And so it is when we watch the great industries of this country. Under this great spirit of Conservation individuals are meeting the Federal Government and State more than half way, and they are finding what is the greatest basis of permanent success—that it pays to conserve our resources. And when that great company does any mining for ore in the lake country, instead of burying the materials which they cannot use today, they are laying that material to one side, so that just as soon as it becomes useful it will be immediately available for preparation for that purpose.

Out of five hundred million tons of coal mined last year, we wasted, by leaving it underground, no less than two hundred million tons. Meanwhile, if we could have exported that coal to Central or South America and brought back from these countries raw materials which we could use in manufacture, it would be something worth doing; but to waste it entirely is nothing more than a discredit to this nation. But what are we going to do about it? The coal operator cannot change the situation, because he is doing the best he can at the price he gets; the miner cannot change the situation, because he is doing the best he can at the price he is paid. It is not simply a question for chemists and engineers—it is a problem for statesmen, and the statesman is the man who must remedy the economic conditions.

To come to the main subject of the Conservation of life, the greatest loss of life we have in mines is in the coal mining industry. I want to say in connection with this, that a careful study of the situation for the past several years has led me to believe that the coal operator in the United States is just as humane and just as anxious to conserve the life of his men as the coal operator in any other known country. (Applause.) Furthermore, that while it is true that of the miners, less than half read the English language and 75 per cent. are non-English speaking and know little or nothing about the laws regulating the principles and purposes of a great country like this, yet they are no more careless in mining because of that fact than are the miners from England and Wales who come here after long experience in mining and knowing perfectly our language and customs. These men are up against a condition that they cannot remedy, and while I do not say that they are doing the best they can under the circumstances, I think they are more and more coming to do the best they can, and I believe we will have more and more effort on the part of both miners and operators to do what is right. We have developed so rapidly in the past hundred years that we have not stopped to think of human life, and we cannot expect these reforms to take place without any effort on our part. There is recognition on the part of both miners and operators, that I am my brother’s keeper, and it is a most encouraging sign.

There are these two great reforms in connection with the mines of this country—safeguarding the lives of miners and improvement of conditions under which they labor, and the stopping of waste of our essential resources. The Federal Government is trying to get at the actual information, they are trying to conduct investigations in an impartial manner, and they want to bring about a condition acceptable to both miner and operator. We have suspicion on the part of the operator of the miner; and suspicion on the part of the miner of the operator; and suspicion on the part of other parties in reference to both. What we want to do is to have a condition in this country so that the miner and operator, co-operating with each other, can work together and bring about these great reforms that are needed.

This general welfare clause of the Constitution, which was regarded as an agreement with the devil, is today our great saving clause for getting things done by the Federal Government. The Federal Government, Mr. President, has waked up long ago to what it ought to do for agriculture, and in the next few years it will conduct investigations far more extensive than today—it will submit remedies brought together from the experience of all mining countries of the world, and it will lead in this great movement for a general improvement of conditions. But after all, what may be done by the Federal Government will depend upon what is done by the Federal Congress. There is where we must do our work, to make them appreciate the difficulties of a great industry like this, and the correctness of this clause.

I want to say a word in behalf of these miners. As I said before, more than half of them cannot read the English language. Under the rules and regulations we have permitted these men to come into the United States, and when they come it is interesting to see how they appreciate becoming an American citizen. I talked to a Lithuanian who had only been in this country a few months, and I said, “Are you not very lonely?” and he said, “Yes, but I am an American.” (Applause.)

These men are here, and we have done mighty little for them. We cannot wonder that they segregate in their rooms at night, after working in the mines all day, and read Socialistic literature which comes from their country. We do mighty little to encourage them to learn the English language; we do mighty little to encourage them to enter into the spirit of true America; we have neglected them all too long—and then we complain that they are not American citizens. I appeal to you as citizens of the United States and of the State of Indiana, to see that everything that is possible is done to make good citizens of these men. Get legislation under which they can work, and the safety problem will take care of itself. (Continued applause.)

President White—The next subject for consideration is “The Prevention of Railroad Accidents,” by Mr. Thomas H. Johnson, consulting engineer of the Pennsylvania Lines, West. I take pleasure in introducing Mr. Johnson. (Applause.)

Address, “The Prevention of Railrod Accidents”

Mr. Johnson—In approaching this subject it will be well to get our viewpoint adjusted to a true perspective and just proportion. Accidents on railways which result in death or injury to persons, are all reported to State and National officials, and when the statistics for the year are compiled and published the total figures are startling, and suggest that the transportation business of the country is conducted at a fearful sacrifice of life and limb. It should be remembered, however, that in no other line of the Nation’s activities are similar complete statistics available.

The only data at hand to show the relation between the numbers killed and injured on railways, and those occurring in other lines of action, are found in a pamphlet issued by the city of Chicago, entitled “Report of the General Superintendent of Police,” from which the following table is taken:

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

Accidents Reported by the Police Department, Year 1911.

Fatal. Non-fatal. Total.

Steam Railway Accidents 187 554 741

Street and Elevated Railway Accidents 106 3,646 3,752

Accidents Caused by Teams and Vehicles 135 2,812 2,947

Accidents Caused by Falling from Windows, Scaffolds, Porches, etc. 149 2,680 2,829

Bitten by Dogs 4 1,281 1,285

Injuries by Personal Violence 177 2,729 2,906

Overcome by Gas, Smoke or Heat 189 653 842

Scalded or Burned 81 216 297

Various Other Causes 193 1,945 2,138

——— ——— ———

Total 1,221 16,516 17,737

From this it will be noted that of 1,221 fatal accidents in 1911, only 187 occurred on steam railways, and of 16,516 nonfatal, only 554 are charged against them. Comparing the total accidents, it will be seen that five times as many persons were killed and injured on street railways as on steam railways, four times as many by teams and vehicles, four times as many by falls from windows, scaffolds, etc., and again four times as many by personal violence. Even the dogs come in for having done 73 per cent. more damage than the steam railways. Taking the last two items together, it appears that Chicago’s vicious dogs and more vicious men are nearly six times as destructive of life and limb as are the railways.

While the foregoing figures are for the city of Chicago only, they are indicative of the fact that throughout the country the number of accidents on railways is a mere fraction of those occurring elsewhere, and this fact has been recognized by the accident insurance companies when they issue policies calling for double compensation if the accident occurs while traveling in steam or trolley cars.

If the grand total of accidents on railways appears so startling when presented in concrete figures, what would it be if equally complete figures could be had for the other types of accidents classified in the Chicago report?

And now having cleared the atmosphere in that respect, we will proceed to consider the railway accidents on their own merits.

The Interstate Commerce Commission issues a series of quarterly bulletins of railway accidents. They also issue an annual report of general railway statistics, in which a summary of statistics of railway accidents was included prior to 1910, but which has since been admitted as an unnecessary duplication. The statistics of the annual report have been compiled on a somewhat different basis from those of the bulletins, and the two sets of figures cannot always be reconciled. In compiling the following tables the annual reports prior to 1910 have been followed as being the final word of the Commission.

It should be noted that the statistics of railway accidents are divided into two general classes:

First. Accidents due to the movement of trains, engines or cars, which may properly be called “transportation accidents.”

Second. Accidents not connected with train or car movements, such as happen to shopmen, warehousemen, trackmen handling material, etc., such as are equally occurring in other industries, and which are more properly classed as “industrial accidents.”

This discussion will be chiefly devoted to the first class, as being distinctively “railway accidents.”

PROGRESS IN THE PAST.

The loss of life from railway accidents began with the day of the opening of the first railway in England, in September, 1830, on which occasion a prominent citizen, a member of Parliament, was knocked down and fatally injured, sending a thrill of horror not only through the great throng of spectators, but also throughout the civilized world. That unfortunate accident was not due to any defect in track or equipment, nor to any fault in the operation of the train. It was due to the victim’s failure to appreciate the danger attending the then new and novel mode of transportation, and inadvertently putting himself in a position of danger. It was the forerunner and prototype of many thousands of others which have since occurred through carelessness and sheer recklessness of the victims, and which the railway companies are powerless to prevent.

But as railways multiplied other accidents occurred, which were due to defects of one kind or another in track and equipment, or to inadequate rules governing train movements, and the duties of the several employes. Each accident has been carefully studied as to its cause, and, so far as possible, remedies have been applied. Thus the immense system of transportation as it exists today has been a gradual development from crude beginnings. The light iron rails inadequately secured at the joints have been replaced with heavy steel rails with effective joint fastenings. Train movements have been safeguarded by a well-digested system of rules, uniform on all railroads; by standard forms of train orders with all ambiguities of language eliminated, and by block signals, interlocking and automatic couplers, air brakes and other safety devices. Stoves and oil lamps, with their menace of fire, have given way to steam heating and electric lighting. The inflammable wooden cars are being replaced with steel equipment. In fact, there has been a steady progress from the beginning in the effort to reduce the danger to life and limb.

But accidents continue to happen, partly because the rapid growth of traffic and the demand for greater speed are creating new conditions, partly because materials have hidden defects and the human machine is not infallible, and partly because discipline has been largely subverted through the attitude of the brotherhoods of employes.

In order to show in a general way what has been accomplished, the average figures for the five-year period from 1889 to 1893, inclusive, have been compared with the corresponding figures for the years 1907 to 1911, inclusive, with the following results:

Ratio of passengers carried to one killed has increased 35.5 per cent.

Ratio of employes to one killed has increased 54.7 per cent.

This shows a very decided gain in the twenty-two years covered by the record.

The number injured cannot be compared in the same way, for the reason that in the later years the reports include large numbers of minor injuries of a more or less trivial nature, which were not included in the earlier reports, but which the Interstate Commerce Commission now requires to be reported, thus swelling the number injured out of all proportion to the earlier reports. Under the present rules, if a passenger lets a window sash bruise his finger, and it is brought to the attention of any of the train crew, it must be reported, and enters into the final statistics with as much weight as the loss of an arm or a leg.

CAUSE AND PREVENTION.

In the Accident Bulletin for June, 1910, pages 10 and 11, there are given detailed statistics of twenty-six “prominent train accidents” with the causes of each. They embrace thirteen collisions and thirteen derailments, resulting in sixty-two killed, 306 injured, and a property loss of $261,584. The causes assigned may be grouped under fifteen heads, as follows:

Excessive speed, 5; ran by meeting point, 2; failed to flag, 5; disobeying orders, 1; misunderstanding orders, 1; failure to receive orders, 1; conflicting orders, 1; signal light out and engineman failed to stop, 1; broken rail, 2; explosion of boiler, 1; spreading of rails, 1; washout, 1; trestle failed, 1; insufficient ballast, 1; defective temporary junction of new and old rails, 1. Total, 26.

These fifteen assigned causes may be summarized thus:

Failure of persons, 18; failure of boiler, 1; failure of track and structures, 7. Total, 26.

Of the seven failures of track and structures, the two cases of “broken rails” and one “washout” may be considered unavoidable. The remaining four cases in that group, viz., “spreading of rails,” “trestle failed,” “insufficient ballast” and “defective temporary junction of old and new rails” were preventable, and could have occurred only from neglect of those charged with their care and maintenance.

The one case of “explosion of boiler” may have been due to defective material, or to negligence of the engineman.

We find, therefore, that in this group of accidents, twenty-two were preventable, three unavoidable and one doubtful.

Of the unavoidable, the “washout” may be dismissed as being beyond the control of human agencies, but the “broken rail” calls for further consideration.

Rail failures are generally due to chemical or physical defects, not entirely under control of the manufacturer, and not discoverable by inspection of the finished rails. Under the present practice the manufacture of rails is watched at the mill by the railway company’s inspectors. Specimens from each heat or melt are tested under a weight of 2,000 pounds falling fifteen feet to twenty feet. If the test piece breaks the steel is regarded as too brittle, and the rails from that heat are rejected. If it does not break, but the deflection exceeds the prescribed limit, the steel is too soft, and those rails are accepted as seconds, to be used only in yards and side tracks. All test pieces which do not break under the foregoing drop test are then broken and examined for internal defects. If defects are found, further tests are made, and the heat rejected in whole or in part, on the extent of unsoundness disclosed.

But herein lies a difficulty. Internal defects can only be found by breaking the rail. A rail broken is past usefulness. Hence that form of inspection cannot be applied to every rail; and as we can only test a limited portion of each heat, some defective rails must inevitably be passed and get into track. Complete statistics of all rail failures on a large proportion of the railways of the United States have been collected by the American Railway Engineering Association for several years past. These reports have been collected and classified as to the several causes, the results being printed in the publications of the Association. They show that the rails which fail annually are less than one eighth of one per cent. of the rails laid. This indicates fairly successful inspection, and would be quite satisfactory were it not that a single failure may result in such horrible consequences.

Five years ago (1907) as the result of several conferences between a committee of the American Railway Association and the rail manufacturers, a systematic study of the subject was undertaken, with a view to ascertaining the cause, and if possible, the prevention of rail failures. This research work was placed in charge of the Rail Committee of the American Railway Engineering Association, who engaged the services of a competent expert, who devotes his whole time to the work, furnishing freely of their materials and facilities at the mills. The line of investigation includes studies of the effects of variations in composition; in time in the bath; in time in the ladle; in manner and rate of pouring; in size of ingot; in rate of reduction at each pass; in temperature of the metal when rolled; in the effect of different alloys, etc. The field of investigation is broad and complicated. Much progress has been made, but much remains to be done. It is hoped, however, that success will ultimately be reached, and the rail failures in service be reduced to the lowest possible minimum. Certainly the railway engineers and the manufacturers are making every effort to accomplish that result.

Of late the adoption of some form of automatic stop has been suggested, and more or less urgently advocated. But let us consider: Referring again to the list of causes of the twenty-six accidents, such a device would have been called into play only in one case, that of running by a signal when the light was out. It could have had no influence on any one of the other twenty-five cases. Furthermore, it has been the experience the world over that emergency devices, resting in “innocuous desuetude” for long intervals of time, usually fail to work when the emergency arises. It may be said that it should be some one’s duty to see that the apparatus is kept in working order. Very true. But therein is a reversion to ultimate dependence on the human factor with its attendant weakness and frailties.

The foregoing list of accidents embrace only a few of the more prominent “collisions” and “derailments.” But there are other forms of accident, as shown in the following statistical tables copied from the Interstate Commerce Commission Annual Report for 1909:

ACCIDENTS RESULTING FROM THE MOVEMENT OF TRAINS, LOCOMOTIVES, OR CARS.

Interstate Commerce Commission Annual Report, 1909.

Employes.

Switch Tenders,

KIND OF ACCIDENT. Trainmen. Crossing Tenders Station Men. Shopmen.

and Watchmen.

Killed. Injured. Killed. Injured. Killed. Injured. Killed. Injured.

Coupling or uncoupling 137 2,271 4 35 2 2 1 17

Collision 205 1,973 1 10 1 1 23

Derailments 184 1,186 10 2 1 6

Parting of trains 7 233 2 1

Locomotives or cars breaking down 9 159 2 6

Falling from trains, locomotives, or cars 295 4,433 1 56 30 2 65

Jumping on or off trains, locomotives or cars 84 4,135 6 64 24 4 59

Struck by trains, locomotives or cars 243 577 72 79 21 25 41 89

Overhead obstructions 47 775 6 4

Other causes 133 13,376 9 243 2 121 14 465

Total 1,344 29,118 93 507 25 206 64 734

Employes (Continued).

KIND OF ACCIDENT. Trackmen. Telegraph Other Total.

Employes.

Killed. Injured. Killed. Injured. Killed. Injured. Killed. Injured.

Coupling or uncoupling 7 11 50 155 2,382

Collisions 18 132 7 27 163 252 2,309

Derailments 13 64 10 117 208 1,385

Parting of trains 1 2 1 12 9 250

Locomotives or cars breaking down 2 10 1 1 12 178

Falling from trains, locomotives, or cars 13 159 7 36 234 347 4,983

Jumping on or off trains, locomotives or cars 16 130 13 22 261 132 4,686

Struck by trains, locomotives or cars 353 412 8 12 187 345 925 1,539

Overhead obstructions 4 5 20 52 809

Other causes 25 882 34 83 1,340 266 16,461

Total 441 1,802 8 73 383 2,542 2,358 34,982

Other Persons.

KIND OF ACCIDENT. Passengers. Trespassing. Not Trespassing. Total.

Killed. Injured. Killed. Injured. Killed. Injured. Killed. Injured.

Collisions 69 2,379 13 49 25 447 38 496

Derailments 17 2,426 32 69 6 287 38 356

Parting of trains 47 3 3 13 3 16

Locomotives or cars breaking down 2 1 1 4 1 5

Falling from trains, locomotives or cars 37 425 413 732 13 72 426 804

Jumping on or off trains locomotives or cars 81 1,503 445 1,688 11 120 456 1,808

Struck by trains, locomotives or cars;

At highway crossings 2 3 112 211 621 1,619 733 1,830

At stations 30 67 365 334 66 183 431 517

At other points along track 1 12 3,371 2,037 79 143 3,450 2,180

Other causes 12 2,715 190 635 47 1,030 237 1,665

Total 249 9,579 4,944 5,759 869 3,918 5,813 9,677

Referring to the column of totals under the head of “Employes” you will note the large number of killed and injured in coupling or uncoupling cars; this in spite of the fact that all the equipment is fitted with automatic couplers, intended to prevent just those accidents.

The next two items, “Collisions” and “Derailments,” are also large, both as to employes, passengers and others, and we have already seen that in the former list eighteen out of twenty-six were due to “failure of persons.” Referring again to that list it will be further seen that sixteen of the eighteen were due to failure of the persons in charge of the trains, which justifies us in assuming that a similarly large proportion of these totals are due to like causes.

Please note also the large numbers, running through all these classes of persons, opposite the items “Falling from trains, locomotives or cars” and “Jumping on or off trains, locomotives or cars.” These may all be charged to the carelessness of the victims.

So, also, those “Struck by trains, locomotives or cars” nearly all of these are chargeable to the fault of the parties themselves.

“Other causes” are also prolific in casualties, but the data at hand does not disclose the extent to which they are chargeable to carelessness of victims or others, to preventable or to unavoidable causes.

Your attention is also directed to the very large numbers of killed and injured while “trespassing” on the railway property. Some of these belong to the great army of tramps infesting the country, but the largest part are people of the communities along the lines, who persist in using the tracks as a public thoroughfare. In most of the States there are laws on the statute books which are adequate to prevent this if duly enforced, but it seems impossible to get such enforcement. On the lines with which the writer is connected, efforts have been made in the past to break up this practice, but without success. Parties arrested by the railway company’s police and taken before the local magistrate have been released without punishment or only assessed a nominal sum to secure to the magistrate his fees. A rigid enforcement of these laws, and similar action as to jumping on or off locomotives and cars in motion (as is done in Europe) would eliminate approximately one-half the total killed and one-fourth the injured.

Here is a field in which the railways alone are helpless, but where much can be accomplished by legal enforcement, supported by strong popular approval. Without the latter, little aid can be expected from the average country justice or city magistrate.

INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS.

The first man to publicly call attention to the need of organized effort in this direction was Mr. R. C. Richards of the Chicago and Northwestern Railway, in his booklet “Railway Accidents, Their Cause and Prevention,” published in 1906. The seed thus sown has taken deep root, for at the present time nearly every leading railway in the country has an organized safety committee, whose duty it is to make regular periodic inspections to see that work places and tools are in safe condition; that yards, tracks, stations, buildings and grounds are clean and properly lighted; that shop machinery is protected by safeguards over gearing and other exposed moving parts, and that men are taking proper precautions for the protection of themselves and others. They report upon conditions which they feel can be improved, investigate accidents with a view to preventing repetition, and recommend improved methods of work to reduce risk of accident.

The Northwestern, after the first sixteen months, showed a decrease of 23.7 per cent. in deaths, and 29.8 per cent. in injuries, compared with the previous period of the same length. On the Pennsylvania Railroad the result of the first eleven months was a decrease of 63 per cent. in the combined number of deaths and serious injuries. These results are most gratifying, and demonstrate the usefulness of such close inspection and watchfulness.

IN CONCLUSION.

Accidents due to washouts, and to hidden defects in material are in the main unavoidable, though the former may sometimes be avoided by increased care and watchfulness during and after storms, and it is hoped that the latter may be materially reduced through the investigations now in progress in steel making.

Accidents due to imperfectly maintained track can be avoided by better maintenance, or by reducing speed to correspond to the conditions of the track. Speed and track conditions are inter-dependent factors.

Accidents due to jumping on or off trains in motion, and to trespassing, can be and should be eliminated by a rigid enforcement of existing laws, or the passage of new ones, if those on the statute books are found to be inadequate. As already stated, this would save one-half the annual deaths and a large proportion of the injured.

Substantially all of the casualties in coupling and uncoupling cars are due to carelessness of the men themselves, and the same may be said of most of those due to falling from or being struck by trains, locomotives or cars. It is difficult to suggest a remedy for this, or to formulate a course of procedure to reform the men in this respect. Recent and prospective legislation affecting the employers’ liability will not be conducive to increased carefulness, but will rather tend to foster carelessness.

Train accidents due to error, negligence or incompetence should be corrected by proper discipline. But the administration of discipline is restrained and obstructed by the brotherhoods, whose officers claim the right to be present at all investigations, and the discipline ordered must meet their approval. They contest suspension and dismissals by appeals to higher officers who have no personal knowledge of the men, and use every means at their command, even to threatening a strike, to prevent the order from being carried out, often with success, all of which is subversive of discipline.

It is not a comforting thought that, when you, here assembled, disperse to your homes, some of you may place your lives in the hands of a man who is retained in the service through intimidation, rather than fitness and merit.

There can be no remedy for this while unprincipled demagogues and politicians, catering for votes, continue to appeal to class prejudice, and while the sympathies of the people, public officials and arbitrators seem to be arrayed against the railways.

President White—We have now something else very interesting, and the next speaker will only keep you fifteen minutes. I now take pleasure in introducing Mr. A. B. Farquhar, of York, Pa., who will speak on “Vital Statistics and the Conservation of Human Life a National Concern.” He knows his subject; he knows it by experience; he has been through it; and he has met the classes, met the conditions he speaks of. He has a message to give you that is well worth hearing.

Address, “Vital Statistics and the Conservation of Human Life”

Mr. Farquhar—Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: Yes, I have been interested in this subject for perhaps seventy years of the seventy-five years of my life. I am very much interested in the work done in Pennsylvania. I shall refer to that, as is proper in a man sent as a delegate to this Congress by the Governor, and I believe it is a good example to other communities.

Vital statistics are usually assumed to cover only the number of births and deaths occurring in a given territory within a given time, a subject not attractive to the general reader, but this address will be devoted more particularly to the objects for which and the agencies by which such statistics are assembled, which is far more important and interesting, especially as it includes the social questions they resolve for us. “It is sometimes said figures rule the world; but this at least is true, that they show how it is ruled.” To this saying of a wise man may be added that they also show how it might be or should be ruled; they best illustrate “philosophy teaching by example,” because most precise and definite in form of presentation. They are of most use when applied to the most important interests of mankind, and have no higher function than in bearing their part in safeguarding the nation’s health.

For its vital statistics the Federal Census Bureau has always had to depend on data collected by local agencies, and of the imperfection of those agencies, and especially the large territory for which there were none—no attempt to keep the official record of births and deaths, it has loudly complained. Notwithstanding the commendable efforts that have been made throughout the country to supply deficiencies by State legislation, so much remains yet to be done that a census report, as late as 1907, showed less than half the population of the country, and only a third of the States in number, within the registration area. But the movement has been forward, and it is gratifying to note that the most significant step in advance was made by Pennsylvania, in a law creating a state department of health and fixing its duties in 1905. Until then that commonwealth was said to have “the poorest registration of any of the Eastern States,” though its first law for the purpose had been passed fifty-four years earlier; but “it had in 1906, the first year of the operation of the new law, an effective registration of births and deaths practically as complete as that of any registration State in the country, and far superior to the majority.” The best point about the law of 1905, and its most significant difference from that of 1851, is that it is executed. Obedience is no longer optional, but compulsory. Authority under it is centralized in the hands of the Governor, Attorney-General and Commissioner of Health, and practically for most purposes in those of the Commissioner.

The total appropriations for work under this department since 1905 have been $9,286,080. The number employed by its various divisions is 3,625. Of this number there are 1,170, nearly one-third of the total force, who are local registrars in the vital statistics service.

With what is so large a force to occupy itself? The 1,170 registrars receive all birth and death certificates and issue all burial permits (to which registration is a prerequisite), and the bureau has also charge of marriage certificates, filed with it by the clerks of county courts. The medical inspection division establish quarantine under direction of the county inspectors, see to placarding houses and disinfecting them after cases of communicable disease, guard against the sale of milk from premises where any such diseases are found, and represent the department in co-operation with local health boards. Supervision of the medical inspection of schools forms also an important part of the duty of these officers, some 300,000 children having been examined during the past school year. At the free tuberculosis dispensaries, with which the department has provided the large centers of population, the indigent receive free medical advice and necessary supplies. The commissioner has supervision, by the act creating the health department, of all systems of public water supply and of public or private sewage disposal. Detailed plans must be filed with the department, and no new construction can be done until the Governor, the Attorney-General and the Commissioner have approved the plans. The biological products division distributes, through 656 stations in all parts of the commonwealth, free antitoxin to the poor. The stations are located as impartially as practicable.

What has been accomplished by all this equipment, discharging all these functions, cannot be completely told; a few figures may be given, with a result here and there, and the rest left to estimate of probability. For example, the statement that 6,724 patients were admitted to the Mont Alto Sanatorium in the four years 1907–1911 certainly indicates the magnitude of the problem, and the importance of giving it the best attention we can. It is perhaps a little more significant that 58,004 patients have been treated in the department’s tuberculosis dispensaries since they were organized. The activity of the sanitary engineering division is clearly shown in its recorded count that up to June, 1912, 40,447 private sources of stream pollution had been abated on notice from the department. One hundred and eleven modern sewage-disposal plants have been built or are in process of building, 306 municipal and private sewer systems are under construction in accordance with plans approved by the health department. Ninety-seven modern water filtration plants have been or soon will be constructed under State approval. It is worth while to connect with this fact another even more gratifying: the death rate from typhoid fever in Pennsylvania, which was, in 1906, 565 per million inhabitants, had fallen to 206 per million in 1911. As a final instance, the death rate from diphtheria, a little over 42 per cent. in untreated cases, has been reduced in the average of the 35,111 cases treated with antitoxin between 1905 and December, 1911, to 8.07 per cent., or less than one-fifth. Further, a certain district having been set apart for the trial of 5,000 units, instead of the usual 3,000, as an initial dose of diphtheria antitoxin, the death rate in that district has now shown a reduction to 4.22 per cent.

This story is not told for the mere satisfaction of praising our Keystone State or its faithful and capable public officers, though for that, too, it affords opportunity. Its function is to point a moral, to indicate a course of treatment of the subjects of vital statistics and public health, which, as Pennsylvania’s experience leads me to believe, may well be applied to a wider field than Pennsylvania. It is not by accident that the association of statistics of births and deaths and marriages, with a State office for the promotion of public health, has come into favor at the same time in so many parts of the country. The force of example is something, to be sure, as is also the circumstance that a physician is usually at hand, when a birth or death occurs, that he is apt to know what there is to tell about the occurrence, that he is apt to know how to report, and that the State health office is one to which a physician might naturally address himself. But more important than these considerations is the value of birth and death records in the conservation of the people’s health. From the greater or lesser number they show the favorable or adverse effects of accompanying conditions can be judged, and a conclusion reached as to how such conditions should be regulated. Nor could any condition be more important to regulate than those affecting health. The people’s health is its most precious asset. Dr. Wiley says he “would rather be a strong, vigorous man without a dollar than a sickly millionaire,” and thus indicates the pecuniary value of health to an individual. Multiplying that value by the number of the population, the amount becomes fairly appalling.