The Human Cost of Industry
Reflecting on four months of Washington’s landmark workmen’s compensation law, the Journal argues that safety, not just payout, must be the priority.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The workmen's compensation law has been in effect for four months. For the first time in the history of this state we are able to glimpse something of the toll we are paying to industry in the shape of human life, maimed bodies, widowed wives, orphaned children and broken homes. Claims for compensation for injuries received while in the course of employment have been received by the commission at the rate of six hundred a month. Nearly one in ten men in industrial employment are injured during the year. This is a percentage far too large for any commonwealth to call itself civilized. We are inclined to believe that what we call 'carelessness' is rather a nervous tension induced by the strain of machinery-driven occupations. Statistics tell us that the majority of accidents occur between the hours of 10 and 12 a.m. and 4 and 6 p.m. There is a deal of significance in that statement. The law recognizes at least that industry does owe an obligation to the dependents of one who loses his life in industry. It is not 'compensation for accidents' but 'prevention of accidents' that forms the deep, underlying principle of such legislation. If it costs more to kill or cripple men than it does to safeguard machinery, every precaution that can be taken to lessen hazard will be taken.
“If men must be bruised and broken on the industrial wheel, industry itself must pay the bill.”
Everett’s industrial history was defined by the danger of its mills; this editorial from 1912 perfectly captures the transition from 'worker negligence' to the concept of industrial liability. Today, the debate over worker safety and corporate responsibility continues to define the labor movement in the Pacific Northwest.
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