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. |