TABLE 281.-Hours of work in steel plant No. 1-Continued.

FREQUENCY AND METHODS OF WAGE PAYMENTS.

For the large majority of the employees semimonthly wage payments are the rule. In the smaller plants the biweekly and the weekly periods are about equally used.

With the exception of a small brewery, which issues its own bank checks to its employees, all payments are made in currency. No commissary checks are issued by the steel plant, which is the only concern maintaining in any sense what may be termed a company store or commissary, but credit is allowed the employees to a limited

extent.

REGULARITY OF EMPLOYMENT.

In all of the industries employing immigrants in this community the regularity of employment depends largely upon trade conditions. In every plant investigated, except one small brewery, there had been considerable curtailment in the total force employed on account of the industrial depression of 1907-8. This curtailment was greatest in steel plant No. 1, where it amounted to about 50 per cent of the normal in the summer of 1908. Here, as in other plants affected, the curtailment of the force was greatest among recent immigrant employees because of the tendency to retain the older immigrant, as well as the native-born, employees by keeping them on the pay rolls. Regularity of work is the general rule, with the exception of the construction work which is carried on by the local passenger railway company during only six months of the year.

The following table shows the months worked during the past year by males in the households studied who were 16 years of age or over, and who were employed away from home. The exhibit is by general nativity and race of individual:

TABLE 282.-Months worked during the past year by males 16 years of age or over employed away from home, by general nativity and race of individual.

(STUDY OF HOUSEHOLDS.)

[This table includes only races with 20 or more males reporting. The totals, however, are for all races.]

Of the total number of persons for whom the information is given, 24.9 per cent worked twelve months during the year preceding the investigation; 44.4 per cent worked nine months or over; 68.7 per cent six months or over; and 91.3 per cent, three months or over. In general, persons native-born of native father worked a longer period than did the foreign-born. Of the specified races, the Ruthenians have a relatively large percentage working each specified period. The South Italians have relatively large proportions as compared with the other races working twelve months, nine months or over, and six months or over, but they also have a relatively large proportion who have worked less than three months.

SANITARY CONDITIONS IN THE PLANTS.

As a general rule, precautions against disease are well carried out in all of the plants with the exception of the two breweries. In these plants there is evidenced a carelessness in keeping the premises clean and a lack of system in "cleaning up," but the comparatively insignificant number of employees in them has practically no effect upon general conditions. In all of the other plants the conditions are good. Lavatories are carefully attended to, ventilation in the machine rooms is well arranged, the heating systems are adequate, and special forces are employed for the maintenance of a fair standard of sanitation and cleanliness. Owing to the poor character of the city water system, the employees in all of the plants, except a brick works, where a special supply is afforded from a natural spring, are liable to disease during the dry season in summer, as explained in another section of this report, but in this matter the plants are in the same position as the whole community.

LIABILITY TO ACCIDENT OR DISEASE.

The liability to accident in the steel and mining industries is very great, especially in certain occupations. In view of the fact that Company 1 is the only plant in the community operating blastfurnace, bloom and billet mills, and mines to any extent, the liability there is greater than in any other plant. From careful inquiry into the conditions in the smaller plants, accidents are of rare occurrence. The liability to accident in the steel plant may best be stated in the following table, which has been compiled from the records of the company hospital for the first six months of the year 1908, and which shows the "in" and "out" patients according to the departments in which the injury was received.

TABLE 283.-Number of "in" and "out" patients of the company hospital as the result of injuries, January 1 to June 31, 1908, by department.

In proportion to the number of men employed it appears that the greatest number of injuries of all kinds occur in the steel foundry. The total injuries, in proportion to the number of men employed, in the other departments are as follows in the order of importance: Open hearth and blooming mill.

Billet and rolling mills and special steel department.

Coal mines.

Bessemer department.

Blast furnace.

Miscellaneous and general labor gangs, including the various shops, axle plant, structural department, erecting department, electric-light plant, brickyard, etc.

On the other hand, the number of serious accidents, as shown by the number of "in" patients in comparison with the "out" patients, occur in the various departments as follows in order of importance: Coal mines.

Blast furnace.

Open-hearth and blooming mills.

Bessemer department, steel foundry, billet and rolling mill, and the special steel department.

Miscellaneous labor gangs.

Southern and eastern European immigrants are employed in the miscellaneous labor gangs, the coal mines, the billet and rolling mills, and blast furnaces. It would seem, therefore, that their occupations are not more dangerous than those of other employees except in the case of the coal mines, where they are more subject to serious injury than in any manufacturing department. On the other hand, in the miscellaneous labor gangs (and where these immigrants constitute a large majority of the employees which compose the largest department in the entire plant) they are less subject to accident of any kind than in any other department. No deduction to the effect that these immigrants do the most dangerous work can thus be made if the record for the period indicated in the table may be taken as a criterion. In fact, it seems to be true that the skilled occupations are more dangerous than the unskilled.

More light on this phase of the matter is given in the company hospital records, of which the following tables are compilations:

Table 284.-Number of “in” patients, by race, August 1, 1904, to July 31, 1908.

TABLE 285.-Number of foreign “in” patients, by ailment.

At the present time the "out" patients average nearly 240 per month. Their injuries are almost all included under the first five ailments of the second table. This number is decidedly below the average number treated when the steel plant is running at its full capacity and with its full pay roll. During the year of 1907 "in" and "out" patients numbered over 6,000.

THE COMPANY-STORE SYSTEM.

Only one commissary store is maintained in the locality, and this store can scarcely be so classed if a strict definition be given to the term. This is a large department store, the largest and most complete in the city, and it is operated by a stock company whose stock is owned by the officials of the steel plant. No checks are issued by the company on this store, but employees may purchase and have their accounts sent to the paymaster's office, where the amounts are deducted from their semimonthly wages. A careful system of credit is maintained through a cooperation of the pay office and the store in order to avoid loss on the part of the latter. Should the amount of purchases on the part of any individual employee be equal to or more than the sum due him in wages at the time of any wage payment, his employer is nevertheless required by law to pay him a certain amount. It is claimed that there is no obligatory patronage, and there is no evidence of any requirement of such patronage. Other stores of all kinds are perfectly accessible. The prices are as a general rule on the same level in the company store as in other stores in the community. The store is largely patronized by nonemployees and is in direct competition with other establishments in all of its departments. The chief patronage among employees is among the natives, Irish, Germans, Welsh, Scotch, and English, who deal largely in all of the departments. Only in rare cases were southern European employees found to purchase their supplies at the store, and then only in the clothing and furniture departments. Small stores kept by immigrants or natives almost exclusively supply this class with food and other articles.

WELFARE WORK.

With the exception of occasional classes and lectures on technical subjects afforded by the steel companies, of the possible benefits of which few immigrants have ever availed themselves, and a general supervision over the public library, which is never patronized by recent immigrants, no welfare is attempted outside of medical and hospital service. Both medical and hospital attention are afforded gratis to those injured while at work by all of the companies investigated, with two exceptions. One of these pays a part of the cost in proportion to the earning ability of the injured, and the other defrays the expenses of the injured only when it is proven that the cause of injury was beyond the injured employee's control or when the employee is unable to pay for the necessary attention. Steel Company No. 1 maintains a well-equipped hospital with resident physicians and nurses. This and a large private hospital are also patronized by the other plants. No time limit on the attention to be paid to the injured employees is placed by the steel plant. In the case of sick employees free medical attention is allowed to their families also, as a part of the agreement under the rules of the benefit association to which reference is made elsewhere.