The Elevator Constructor Volume 13-14 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1916 Excerpt: ...of trains in 1915. These figures are stated roughly because the reports of the Interstate Commerce Commission do not show clearly what accidents were accidents to train crews and what accidents were to other employes engaged in train operation. Hut the fact of the business is that in 1915 a man engaged in the operation of trains had one chance in about 250 to be killed and one chance in about ten to be injured during the year. There are other dangerous places on the railroads. In 1914, the last year for which comparative figures are available, there were 385,524 men at work in the railroad shops. Of these men, 101 were killed and 53,051 were injured. The rate of death is much less than on the trains--1 in 4(100; but the accident rate is higher--13 per thousand, one injury for each eight men employed. These figures cover only one year..Multiply them by ten--to cover ten years of service. The operating crews have one chance in twenty-five to be killed and one chance in one to be injured. The shopmen have one chance in one to be injured. The shopmen have one chance in 400 to be killed and five chances in four to be injured. How vivid Kipling made these facts in his famous lines--"They finger death at their glove's end When they piece and repiece the living wire; He rears against the gates they tend; They feed him hungry beside their fires. At break of day, ere men see clear, They stumble into his terrible stall. And hale him forth like a haltered steer. And goad him and turn him till evenfall." Men who risk life and limb daily in the service of their fellows are entitled to the best that the world has to give. Their wages should be high. Their hours should be short. Their working conditions should be as safe as human ingenuity can make them, and they...