The Price of a Lost Limb
A teenager files suit after a gruesome factory accident left him permanently disabled while working on machinery.
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.
Grover D. Ashcroft, through his guardian, Fannie Robinson, has brought suit against the Carman Manufacturing Company for injuries received last December. The complaint alleges that while at work in the establishment of the Carman Manufacturing Company, Grover Ashcroft, a 16-year-old boy, attempted to couple up a piece of machinery he had been directed to operate. To do so, it was necessary to put a belt on a pulley in close proximity to a rapidly revolving set-screw, over which the boy had to reach. His sleeve was caught by the set-screw and his body was hurled against the floor above, crushing his foot, breaking his ankle and leg, nearly tearing his arm from his body, and rupturing the blood vessels in his eyes. Since the accident, the foot and part of the leg have been amputated. As a result, the boy will be a cripple for life. Damages are claimed in the sum of $35,000. Governor Teats is attorney for the complainant.
“His sleeve was caught by the set-screw and his body was hurled against the floor above.”
Child labor and workplace safety were brutal realities in early 20th-century Tacoma mills and factories. Today’s labor regulations provide far more protections, yet the legal battle between injured workers and corporate liability remains a constant in industrial and trade labor disputes.
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