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metal mines generally are fairly representative of the copper mining industry, and they may be briefly referred to in connection with the present discussion. During the ten years ending with 1906 the fatal accident rate in Montana metal mines was 3.48 per 1,000, having been as high as.5.29 in 1897 and as low as 2.75 in 1903. The nonfatal accident liability was 2.91 per 1,000 during the ten-year period, having been as high as 3.80 in 1904 and as low as 1.79 in 1899. It is apparent, however, from the returns that the more serious accidents only are required to be reported. The details of accident frequency in metal mining in Montana are given in the appendix.

ACCIDENTS IN GOLD AND SILVER MINING.

For gold and silver mines no statistical data are available, except the returns for the metalliferous mines and smelters of Colorado. The gold and silver mines constitute nearly the whole of metal mining in Colorado, and the returns may, therefore, be accepted as representative of the gold and silver mining industry in that State. The fatality rate in Colorado metal mines during the ten years ending with 1906 was 2.85 per 1,000, the rate having been as high as 3.77 per 1,000 in 1897 and as low as 2.08 in 1903. The nonfatal accident rate was 12.96 per 1,000 during the ten-year period, having been as high as 16.99 in 1901 and as low as 5.78 in 1897. Evidently nonfatal accidents in Colorado include minor injuries, which apparently are not reported in Montana. During 1906 the fatal accident rate in the gold mines of New South Wales was 0.45 per 1,000, of Queensland 1.52, of Western Australia 2.35, and in the Transvaal 5.40. In 1905 the rate for the Transvaal was 5.36 per 1,000. The details of accident frequency in the metal mining industry of Colorado are given in the table below:

NUMBER OF FATAL AND OF NONFATAL ACCIDENTS AND RATE PER 1,000 EMPLOYEES IN GOLD, SILVER, AND LEAD MINES OF COLORADO, BY YEARS, 1897 TO 1906.

[From the Biennial Reports of the State Bureau of Mines of Colorado.]

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ELECTRICAL RISK IN MINING.

It is evident that the risk to life and the liability to injury in all branches of mining in the United States is very serious, and apparently the tendency is toward an increase in the risk. One of the most important factors of recent years contributing toward an increase in the accident liability is the increasing use of electricity in mines, chiefly for the operation of coal-cutting machinery. There is a brief discussion of this subject in a special report of the Bureau of the Census, (a) on mines and quarries, while a more extended consideration is presented in the Report of the Departmental Committee on the Use of Electricity in Mines, published as a British parliamentary document in 1904. The subject is also referred to officially and at length, with extensive statistical illustrations, in the various reports of the mine inspectors of the different States. It requires no very extended investigation to make it clear that the mining industry at the present time is subject to a much higher accident liability than appears necessary in the light of recent and thoroughly scientific investigations into the causes of such accidents and the conditions responsible for their occurrence. On the other hand, a part of the increase in the risk is the result of the increasing depth of mines and the increasing employment of a low grade of foreign, non-English-speaking labor. (1)

ACCIDENTS IN SMELTING AND REFINING.

The frequency of industrial accidents in the recovery of precious metals by the cyanide and other processes, as well as the risk of employment in smelting and refining generally, is a separate subject for the discussion of which there are not as yet any very trustworthy statistical data for the United States, although some useful information is available for certain foreign countries. The most serious risk is the liability to lead and other forms of industrial metallic poisoning, but these are generally classified as industrial or occupation diseases rather than as industrial accidents. Regarding the risk of industrial poisoning the works of Arlidge and Oliver should be consulted, but it would appear to be fairly well established that lead and other forms of industrial poisoning are not as common in the United States as in England and on the Continent.

ACCIDENTS IN THE MINERAL OIL INDUSTRY.

Another branch of the mining industry is the prospecting and drilling for petroleum and the operation of oil wells and pipe lines, including refineries, for which as yet there are no very satisfactory a Special Report on Mines and Quarries, Bureau of the Census, 1905, p. 145. For a further discussion of accidents in metal mining by the writer, see the issues of the Engineering and Mining Journal for January 14 and 21, 1904.

statistics. From such information, however, as is available the accident risk would appear to be much greater in the Louisiana-Texas oil fields and in those of southern California than in the oil fields of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, or Indiana. The accident risk in connection with oil well drilling and operating is briefly indicated in the following quotation from a report on the oil fields of the Louisiana-Texas Gulf Coastal Plain, published by the United States Geological Survey in 1903:

Considerable danger accompanies the flowing and closing of a new well on account of the poisonous nature of the gas accompanying the oil flow. This gas contains a large proportion of hydrogen sulphide, and its poisonous qualities are intensified by its being saturated with petroleum vapor. Petroleum vapor has the effect of rendering persons inhaling it unconscious, and if one remains under its influence for any length of time death ensues. The combination of the hydrogen sulphide and petroleum vapor issuing from the wells is such as to render death almost instantaneous. (")

The petroleum industry is constantly increasing in importance, and in 1902 there were 118,671 wells, giving employment to 17,552 wageearners. () The principal risk appears to be in connection with derrick construction, where there is a serious liability to falls, but the statistical data regarding this occupation are fragmentary and inconclusive.

ACCIDENTS IN QUARRIES.

Quarrying is a very dangerous industry, which, according to the Census of 1902, gives employment to 71,156 wage-earners. (c) The accident liability varies somewhat, but in general quarrying the risk is about the same, whether it be the quarrying of limestone, granite, marble, sandstone, etc. The accident liability varies also, according to the character of the strata and the depth of the quarries as well as the methods used in quarrying, which, of course, includes the extensive handling and use of explosives. The only conclusive available data regarding the fatal accident liability of quarrymen in the United States are derived from the mortality experience of the industrial insurance company previously referred to, and which includes the ten years ending with 1906. In this experience there occurred 198 deaths, of which 52, or 26.3 per cent, were due to accident. The proportionate mortality varied considerably according to age, having been 77.8 per cent at ages 15 to 24, 45.5 per cent at ages

a Bulletin 212, U. S. Geological Survey, 1903, p. 170.

Special Report of the Bureau of the Census on Mines and Quarries, 1902, p. 721.

Special Report of the Bureau of the Census on Mines and Quarries, 1902, p. 785.

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25 to 34, 32.4 per cent at ages 35 to 44, 28.6 per cent at ages 45 to 54, 18.6 per cent at ages 55 to 64, and 12.5 per cent at ages 65 to 75. The details of this mortality experience are set forth in the following table, which shows by periods of life the proportionate mortality from accidents in the mortality from all causes:

NUMBER OF DEATHS FROM ACCIDENTS COMPARED WITH NUMBER OF DEATHS FROM ALL CAUSES AMONG QUARRYMEN, BY AGE GROUPS, FOR THE PERIOD 1897 TO 1906.

[From mortality experience of an industrial insurance company.]

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The subject of accidents to quarrymen is discussed in some detail in Dangerous Trades, by Oliver, who very fully considers the varieties of quarries, the methods of working, the character of accidents and their causes, including the liability to injuries to the eyes, which are often of serious consequence. (") In England the working of quarries is under strict supervision and controlled by legal enactments, which are fully set forth in the different quarries acts of 1887, 1894, and other years. The general fatal accident rate in the quarries of the United Kingdom in 1906 was 1.06 per 1,000. (") In France, during 1906, the fatality rate in quarries was 0.92, in Germany 1.47, and in Italy 1.05 per 1,000. The accident liability in this occupation is further emphasized by English mortality statistics, according to which, out of 2,839 deaths during the three years ending with 1902, 259, or 9.12 per cent, were from accidents.

ACCIDENTS IN TRANSPORTATION BY RAIL.

The accident liability in the railway service constitutes in the aggregate a most serious risk to the life, health, and well-being of both employees and passengers. Out of 658,105 deaths from all causes reported in the registration area of the United States during 1906, rail

a Dangerous Trades, pp. 560, 561.

For additional statistics of accidents in quarries in the United Kingdom, see Tables X and XI of the appendix.

road accidents and injuries caused 7,090 deaths, while in addition there were 1,488 deaths caused by street car accidents. The corresponding number of accidental deaths, more or less the result of industrial activity, were 1,523 deaths resulting from injuries in mines and quarries, 565 deaths resulting from injuries by machinery, 1,524 deaths resulting from injuries by vehicles and horses, and 183 deaths resulting from automobile accidents. (a) According to the returns for 1906 of the Interstate Commerce Commission, 3,929 railroad employees were killed as the result of railroad accidents and 76,701 were injured. (')

ACCIDENT LIABILITY OF RAILWAY TRAINMEN.

The most important group of railway employees is trainmen, which during 1906, numbered nearly 300,000. Among this number there occurred 2,310 deaths caused by railroad casualties, or 8.09 per 1,000, while, in addition, there occurred 34,989 injuries, or at the rate of 122.53 per 1,000. The fatality rate during the last five years was 7.91, against 6.81 per 1,000 during the preceding quinquennial period. The rate of injuries other than fatal was 110.07 per 1,000 during the last five years, against 88.22 during the preceding five-year period.

The details of accident frequency by single years are given in the following table derived from the statistical reports of the Interstate Commerce Commission.

NUMBER OF FATAL AND OF NONFATAL ACCIDENTS AND RATE PER 1,000 EMPLOYEES AMONG RAILWAY TRAINMEN IN THE UNITED STATES, BY YEARS, 1897 TO 1906.

[Compiled from annual reports of the Interstate Commerce Commission on Statistics of Railways in the United States.]

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a Mortality Statistics, 1906, United States Bureau of the Census, p. 86. Statistics of Railways in the United States, Interstate Commerce Commis

sion, 1906, p. 109.

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