CHAPTER X

Chapter 384,283 wordsPublic domain

PART OF THEIR WAGES

In considering the earnings, as distinguished from the rates of wages, of the manual labour classes, we have found it necessary to make an allowance for time lost through sickness and accidents. Let us now examine the available records of the industrial accidents and diseases of occupations which are part of the wages of the working classes, and at the price of which the comforts of the well-to-do are purchased.

As to persons employed in factories and workshops, we have the reports made to the inspectors under the Factory and Workshop Act of 1901. By Section 19 of the Act it is provided that where there occurs an accident which either

(_a_) Causes loss of life to a person employed in a factory or workshop; or

(_b_) Causes to a person employed in a factory or workshop such bodily injury as to prevent him on any one of the three working days next after the occurrence of the accident from being employed for five hours on his ordinary work, written notice shall forthwith be sent to the factory inspector for the district.

If the accident arises from special causes defined as machinery moved by power, boiler explosions, escape of gas or steam, or use of hot liquid or molten metal, the casualty has to be reported to a Certifying Surgeon as well as to the Inspector.

It is also provided that if any notice required by Section 19 as to an accident in a factory or workshop is not sent to the local inspector, the occupier of the factory or workshop shall be liable to a fine not exceeding £5.

Thus, under the Factory and Workshop Act, an accident is not always a reportable accident. One worker may meet with a trivial accident which, though he is able to continue work, prevents him from doing his ordinary work for, say, the next six hours only after the accident. This would be a reportable accident. A second worker may meet with an accident which, though it does not prevent him from continuing his ordinary work for five hours on "any one of the three working days next after the occurrence of the accident," may afterwards develop into a permanent partial disablement, so that for weeks, or even months, he may be unable to do any work. This accident would not be "reportable" under the Factory Act.

But there is a more important reason why the official records of accidents are incomplete. It lies in the fact that the administration of the Factory and Workshop Act by the Home Office is lax, and the staff of men and women inspectors ridiculously inadequate. The number of factories and workshops under inspection in 1908 was as follows:

FACTORIES, WORKSHOPS, ETC., UNDER INSPECTION, 1908

Class of Works. Number of Works. Factories 110,691 Workshops 149,398 ------- 260,089 =======

The staff of inspectors and assistant inspectors in 1908 was stated officially to be of an authorized strength of 200. This is an improvement upon the 152 recorded in "Riches and Poverty," edition 1905, p. 115, but it cannot be termed adequate. If we imagine the 260,000 registered workplaces divided equally amongst the staff we see that each inspector has to deal, on the average, with 1,300 workplaces. If, then, each registered workplace were inspected only once in each year, each inspector would need to inspect 32 factories or workshops per week. As this is a physical impossibility, it is clear that each registered workplace is not called upon even once in each year.

Whether an employer does or does not report a reportable accident largely depends upon the vigilance of the local inspector, and as it is physically impossible for a few inspectors to be vigilant in regard to many employers there can be no question that an exceedingly large number of accidents go unreported. No reflection is made here upon the inspectors themselves; it is simply pointed out that, however devoted they may be, they cannot properly carry out the work which needs to be done.

The Factory Report for 1908 (Cd. 4664) enables us to make the following comparison with the 1903 figures given in "Riches and Poverty" (1905 edition).

CASUALTIES IN FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS, 1903-8

Fatal Non-Fatal Accidents. Accidents. 1903 1,047 92,600 1908 1,042 121,112

The fatal accidents have remained stationary; the non-fatal accidents have curiously increased. The explanation is largely that the additional staff of inspectors has led to better reporting of accidents. Probably many still go unreported.

However, merely to take the list of "reported" accidents as it stands, we get the gruesome total of 1,042 persons killed and 121,000 wounded in factories and workshops in a single year.

A considerable number of the non-fatal accidents are of a serious character, as may be judged from the following details showing the cases reported to certifying surgeons as arising from the "special causes" already referred to:

FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS: ACCIDENTS REPORTED TO CERTIFYING SURGEONS, 1908

Degree of Injury. Number.

Fatal 1,042 Loss of hand or arm 126 Loss of part of hand 3,303 Loss of part of leg or foot 78 Fractures 1,680 Loss of sight 44 Injuries to head or face 5,109 Burns and scalds 5,617 Other injuries 24,902 ------ 41,901 ======

The number of reports to the Certifying Surgeons in 1903 was 30,509 ("Riches and Poverty," edition 1905, p. 117).

Having formed an idea, if an inadequate one, of the deaths, mutilations and injuries which occur in our factories and workshops in a single year, let us pass to the question of diseases of occupations. The particulars on page 129 are taken from the Factory Reports.

DISEASES OF OCCUPATIONS IN FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS (Cases reported under the Factory and Workshop Act)

--------------------------------------------------+-----------+----------- | CASES. | DEATHS. +-----------+----------- |Year ended |Year ended Disease and Industry. | December. | December. +-----+-----+-----+----- |1908.|1903.|1908.|1903. --------------------------------------------------+-----+-----+-----+----- LEAD POISONING— | | | | Smelting of Metals | 70 | 37 | 2 | 2 Brass Works | 6 | 15 | | Sheet Lead and Lead Piping | 14 | 11 | | Plumbing and Soldering | 27 | 26 | | Printing | 30 | 13 | 2 | 2 File Cutting | 9 | 24 | 2 | 2 Tinning and Enamelling of Iron Hollow-ware | 10 | 14 | 0 | White Lead Works | 79 | 109 | 3 | 2 Red and Yellow Lead Works | 12 | 6 | 0 | China and Earthenware | 117 | 97 | 12 | 3 Litho-transfer Works | 2 | 3 | 0 | Glass Cutting and Polishing | 3 | 4 | 1 | Enamelling of Iron Plates | 7 | 4 | 0 | Electrical Accumulator Works | 25 | 28 | 1 | Paint and Colour Works | 25 | 39 | 0 | 1 Coach Making | 70 | 74 | 3 | 5 Shipbuilding | 15 | 24 | | 1 Paint used in other Industries | 47 | 46 | 1 | 1 Other Industries | 78 | 40 | 5 | +-----+-----+-----+----- Total Lead Poisoning | 646 | 614 | 32 | 19 +-----+-----+-----+----- MERCURIAL POISONING | 10 | 8 | | +-----+-----+-----+----- PHOSPHORUS POISONING | 1 | | | +-----+-----+-----+----- ARSENIC POISONING | 23 | 5 | 1 | +-----+-----+-----+----- ANTHRAX | 47 | 47 | 7 | 11 +-----+-----+-----+----- TOTAL FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS | 727 | 674 | 40 | 30 +-----+-----+-----+----- LEAD POISONING AMONGST HOUSE PAINTERS AND PLUMBERS| 239 | 201 | 44 | 39 +-----+-----+-----+----- Grand Total | 966 | 875 | 84 | 69

The greater part of the table, it will be seen, refers to factories and workshops, but a line is added to show the cases of lead poisoning amongst house painters.

Thus, in 1908, 84 workpeople, and in 1903, 69 workpeople, succumbed to poisoning or anthrax, while about 966 non-fatal cases were reported in the later year. Hundreds more, of course, go unreported, but the figures as they stand, representing only part of the terrible truth, make one shudder.

Most of the lead poisoning cases under china and earthenware refer to women and young girls, and it should be noted that the figures for 1903 are very much better than those of previous years. Prior to 1899 one in every fifteen of the persons employed in lead processes was reported as suffering from plumbism! Stringent new rules were made in 1898, a monthly medical examination being provided for, and in 1899 the reported cases fell from 457 to 249. Now they have fallen, as our table shows, to about 100 per annum. That is bad enough, for only some 6,000 pottery workers are employed in the lead processes. The improvement, however, shows how much can be done to protect the factory worker. Pity it is that such steps were not taken before the people of the Potteries were stunted by their deadly employment.

The horrible disease, anthrax, is responsible for about ten deaths per annum, and as its bacillus lurks in wool, hair, hides and skins imported from many countries for many industries, a large number of workers, from warehousemen to woolcombers, regularly run the risk of contagion.

Turning to mining, the public is reminded at intervals, by a large scale disaster, of the work of the coal-miner. Momentarily, we think of the perilous nature of the industry upon which our wealth is built, and then the tide of events sweeps on—and we forget.

Who remembers the last Rhondda holocaust? Was it in 1904 or in 1906? How many men perished? What was the cause? Few could answer these questions. Perhaps the 1910 disaster at Whitehaven will be more easily remembered because of its picturesque horror; because the sea washes over the miners' tomb; because reluctant hands were compelled to build a wall between the dead and the living. But these things are but the scenery of tragedy. It is the deaths that matter, and Whitehaven, awful as it is, accounts for but about one-ninth or one-tenth of the deaths in or about coal-mines of which the year 1910 will take toll.[31]

There will be the usual inquiry in the matter of this disaster, and I assume that the gravest consideration will be given to the circumstances. It appears to have been forgotten that on November 26th, 1907, five men were killed and seven injured at this same Whitehaven Colliery under circumstances which involved breaches of the Coal-Mines Regulation Act, and that on that occasion nearly 200 miners were imperilled. The cause was careless shot-firing, the same cause which destroyed 120 miners in the Rhondda in 1905—and in his official report Mr R. A. S. Redmayne said:—

"Had the flame reached the haulage road, the loss of life would have been very great, as probably all the morning shift, amounting to 180 persons ... would have lost their lives."

Thus there was very grave and recent warning as to the need for care in this fiery mine underneath the sea.

That in passing. My immediate purpose is to point out that such disasters as that of 1905 or 1910, destroying over 100 lives at a single blow, barely disturb the average loss of life in coal-mines, so great is the yearly loss.

DEATHS FROM ACCIDENTS AND EXPLOSIONS IN COAL-MINES, 1851-1908

1851 to 1900 54,322 1901 1,131 1902 1,053 1903 1,097 1904 1,049 1905 945 1906 1,040 1907 1,136 1908 1,116 ------ Total, 58 years 62,889 ------ Average per annum 1,083 ------

Loss of life in getting coal is not a spasmodic thing for occasional tears; it is a day by day matter. The public at large is stricken with horror by such a disaster as Whitehaven. Miners' widows are made every day by trifling accidents of which the public never hears. It is bad that 133 men have been buried and burned off the coast of Cumberland in 1910; it is worse that from 1,000 to 1,500 men will have perished in our coal-mines between January 1 and December 31, 1910.

And what of the maimings? Under the Mines Acts, notification of accidents in mines and quarries is also compulsory. Three classes of accidents are distinguished under the Acts: (1) Fatal accidents; (2) injuries from special causes, viz. explosions of gas, accidents in the use of explosives, and boiler explosions; (3) other injuries not of a "serious" character, no definition being given of serious personal injury. When death occurs from a case already reported as an injury, a further notification is required.

In 1908, the casualties in British mines and quarries were as follows:

MINES AND QUARRIES, 1908

Injured. (Cases of Disablement Killed. for more than 7 days).

Coal and Metalliferous Mines— 1. Underground Accidents: (_a_) Explosions 128 139 (_b_) Falls of ground 603 52,579 (_c_) Shaft accidents 90 1,010 (_d_) Miscellaneous 373 78,489 2. Surface accidents 151 11,041 ----- ------- 1,345 143,258 Quarries 92 4,809 ----- ------- 1,347 148,067 ===== =======

(The above table gives fuller particulars than that on page 120 of "Riches and Poverty," edition 1905; the latter gave particulars of "serious" accidents only.)

One miner in about 600 is killed, and one miner in six is more or less seriously injured in the course of a year. The incapacity of the injured included in these figures and proportions ranges from one week to life-long disablement.

In the slate quarries of North Wales, one man in every three is injured in the course of a year. The wages paid are very low.

Returning now to the figures of the table on p. 132, it will be observed that the deaths in recent years are almost precisely the same in number as the average of the fifty-eight years examined. That, of course, points to great improvement, because the number of miners at work and the quantity of coal got has rapidly increased in the period. With regard to explosions alone, the saving of life under the Coal-Mines Acts has been very great. In his valuable paper on the effect of British labour laws upon industrial occupations, read to the Royal Statistical Society in 1905, Mr Leonard Ward, H.M. Inspector of Factories told us:

"The total number of deaths from explosions which occurred during the five years 1856-60 was 1,286, and if the number of persons employed and the death-rate from that cause had remained constant, the total deaths for fifty years would be 12,860; allowing for increase in numbers employed, the total deaths during that period would probably have exceeded 25,000, instead of which the actual total is about 15,000 less than that, hence it would seem that by the prevention of explosions alone, no less than 15,000 lives have been saved during the last fifty years by the operation of the statutes which regulate the hygienic conditions of employment in coal-mines."

That is to say, legislative insistence on ventilation of coal-mines saved some 15,000 lives in fifty years.

This fact should, in the first place, give pause to those who have no faith in legislation, and in the second place it should give encouragement to those who believe that further great improvements can be effected. The law prevented 15,000 deaths in fifty years; it permitted 10,000 to occur. It is impossible to read such an official report as that upon the Whitehaven explosion of 1907 without being impressed by the great carelessness which still obtains in dangerous mining operations. The last great Rhondda accident occurred through wanton carelessness. I do not know the cause of the Whitehaven disaster, but, speaking of fiery mines generally, it does appear that there is a strong case for the total prohibition of shot-firing. One may hedge round this labour-saving process with what restrictions one will; if it is done under any conditions serious accident or disaster must come sooner or later. Can there be any justification for labour saving of such character?

That is to speak of but one factor in the production of mining accidents. Other considerations, and serious ones, arise in connexion with such a case as that of Whitehaven where workings extend for miles under the sea and where yet there is no attempt made to provide egress to an emergency shaft. The men went down at Whitehaven and out to their work under the sea. They had either to return the way they came or to return not at all. It may be that the provision of a return passage to an emergency shaft would have burdened the undertaking with such a capital expenditure as to prevent the economic working of the mine. If that is so, a nation which owes its industrial greatness to coal should consider whether it is desirable to work this under-sea coal or not, for it would appear obvious that a mine as fiery as the 1907 inquiry proved the Whitehaven colliery to be, must sooner or later be the scene of serious disaster under the given conditions. To pass to another point, a large proportion of mining accidents occur in the shafts. It would be interesting to know the ages of many of the cages and of much of the winding machinery which are employed in our coal-mines. From reading official reports on mining accidents I have come to the uncomfortable conclusion that far too many of the appliances are fit for the scrap heap.

In the figures relating to mining casualties, many young children are included. In the ten years 1895 to 1904, 414 children between the ages of 12 and 16 years were reported as killed underground, under the heads "haulage," "machinery" and "sundries."[32]

It is quite unknown to the general public how many women, girls and boys are employed in and about mines. The figures of the 1901 Census show that in the coal-mines of England and Wales only, 134,422 boys and 1,458 girls under 20 years of age are employed. Of the boys as many as 31,587 are between the ages of 10 and 15 years! I dwell upon these facts because I once had brought home to my mind in a very striking way the necessity of making them known. Speaking to an audience at the National Liberal Club, I mentioned incidentally that a very large number of children were employed in our mines. To my astonishment, I was loudly interrupted by a certain Liberal candidate for Parliamentary honours, who openly scoffed at the idea that children were so employed, while the audience clearly did not know which of us was in error.

With railway accidents the public is more familiar, although it is questionable whether many people realize that, in an average week, 10 railway servants are killed and 250 are wounded.

By a Board of Trade order, made under the Regulation of Railways Act of 1871, accidents on railways are compulsorily reported. Fatal accidents must be notified to the Board of Trade within 24 hours after the occurrence of the accident. Non-fatal accidents must be reported whenever they prevent the injured servant on any one of the three days following the accident from working for five hours. The "special causes" distinguished in the cases of Factories and Mines are not referred to.

Legislation has done a little to protect the railway worker. While the number of railway employees has increased considerably in the last 20 years—from 350,000 to 579,000—the number of accidents has remained about the same. Nevertheless, the death roll is still heavy and the number of wounded very great. In 1903 there were 497 killed and 14,356 injured. In 1908 there were 432 killed and 24,181 injured. Of course the risk varies considerably as between one kind of railway employment and another. Railway mechanics have an accident death-rate of 1 in 4,524 and an injury rate of 1 in 147. Shunters, on the other hand, are killed at the rate of 1 in 264 per annum, while 1 in every 17 is injured! Goods guards, who are not brought into contact with the public as are their more fortunate and safer colleagues the passenger guards, suffer almost as badly as shunters—1 in 374 being killed and 1 in 18 injured per annum. Facts such as these show how great is still the risk of railway work and what a debt we are under to those who do it. As to the manner of repayment of the debt it may be again remarked that, in 1908, the 27 leading railway companies, employing something like 90 per cent. of the railway employees of the country, paid an average wage of only 25s. per week. There are probably 100,000 railway employees who receive less than 20s. per week.

In the case of merchant seamen we have only the records of accidents resulting in death. Every illness or injury has to be recorded in the ship's log, but only death statistics are compiled. The fatalities from shipwreck and accident vary considerably in number from year to year, but appear to be falling.

It remains only to record the accidents in engineering works covered by the Notice of Accidents Act of 1894. This Act provides for the notification of accidents in the construction of railways and in the construction, working or repair of tramways, canals, bridges, tunnels, or other works authorized by any local or personal Act of Parliament. Also it covers the use of any traction engine or other machine worked by steam in the open air. Under this Act there have been reported, in recent years, about 60 deaths and 1,200 injuries per annum.

Collecting the figures we have reviewed, we are able to construct the table below, which shows, for all occupations, the number of persons reported as having been either killed or wounded in 1908.

REPORTED CASES OF INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT AND DISEASE, 1908 Number of Workpeople who suffered Death or Injury.

It should be distinctly understood that these figures refer to reported cases only and that they are far from complete. In the case of factories and workshops it is probable that the greater number of the serious accidents are reported, but thousands of minor cases escape record. The railway figures have been much more complete since 1896, in which year the number of accidents recorded jumped from 7,480 to 14,110 owing to a more stringent regulation as to reporting made by the Board of Trade. The figures as to accidents on ships and in engineering works are very incomplete.

Cases of industrial disease form the smallest part of the table, but if the whole truth could be expressed in statistics, the result would be appalling. All that we have reported under this head are cases of metallic poisoning and of anthrax. Terrible as these are, they affect so few people as to be of far less consequence to the nation than the high death-rate of Lancashire cotton operatives or Belfast linen workers. Phthisis does not appear in official statistics as a "disease of occupation," but thousands of textile workers die of phthisis resulting from work done in a humid atmosphere. Physical degeneracy is not an "accident," for it progresses with our knowledge and deliberate consent, but how much graver is the deterioration of the jute workers of Dundee than the figures relating to railway accidents. In 1899, Mr H. J. Wilson, H.M. Factory Inspector for Dundee, measured and weighed 169 boys and girls with a view to discovering the amount of degeneracy as compared with the recognized normal. Here is the melancholy result:

PHYSICAL DETERIORATION IN DUNDEE[33]

------------+---------------+--------------- | Height. | Weight. +-------+-------+-------+------- Age. |Dundee.|Normal.|Dundee.|Normal. ------------+-------+-------+-------+------- 11 to 12— |Inches.|Inches.| Lbs. | Lbs. Boys | 50.0 | 53.5 | 62.8 | 72.0 Girls | 51.5 | 53.0 | 63.0 | 68.1 | | | | 14 to 15— | | | | Boys | 54.0 | 59.0 | 70.5 | 92.0 Girls | 55.7 | 59.7 | 77.5 | 96.1 ------------+-------+-------+-------+-------

Speaking of the deaths from phthisis and diseases of the lungs in Belfast, Dr Whitaker, Medical Officer of Health for that city, says in his report for 1902: "Of the 2,911 deaths reported from these causes, 1,779 were attributed to diseases of the respiratory organs and 1,132 to phthisis. It is therefore evident that these diseases caused upwards of one-third of the mortality in our midst. This is not to be wondered at when we remember the nature of the occupations in which so many of our people are engaged and the unhealthy surroundings which environ them."[34]

The truth is that many thousands of the deaths which occur in the United Kingdom every year are really caused by "diseases of occupations," and that to the thousands of deaths must be added hundreds of thousands of cases of direct injury to health arising from work in unhealthy and insufficiently controlled factories and workshops.

Death, injury and disease have thus been administered to our industrial population for several generations. To-day, conditions are better than of old, but they are still so bad that to speak of improvement is to indict the past as black indeed. Against the fact that industrial hygiene has improved, must be set the grave consideration that it is in part an enfeebled people which is now provided with a slightly better environment. We have effectually degraded no small proportion of the race; the present measures of industrial control are not strong enough to restore it.

[Footnote 31: Since these pages went to press, another large scale disaster at Bolton has killed over 300 miners.]

[Footnote 32: See Mr Fenwick's Return "Mines (Fatal Accidents)," No. 140. 1905.]

[Footnote 33: Annual Report on Factories and Workshops, 1900, page 336.]

[Footnote 34: This and many other cognate facts were quoted by Mr Leonard Ward in his paper on Industrial Occupations read to the Royal Statistical Society on May 16th, 1905.]