Table 1, summary of fatal and non-fatal accidents, causes, occupations, etc., with percentages.... INTRODUCTORY. The seventh annual report of Industrial Accidents for the State of Illinois, is compiled from accidents reported under three different laws. Part I of this report comprises accidents which occurred between January 1, and June 30, 1913, which were reported to this Bureau by employers who were operating under an Act entitled, "An Act to promote the general welfare of the people of this State, by providing compensation for accidental injuries or death suffered in the course of employment," in force May 1, 1912; repealed June 30, 1913, known as the Workmen's Compensation Act. Section 19 of this Act provided as follows: "It shall be the duty of every employer within the provisions of this Act to send to the secretary of the State Bureau of Labor Statistics in writing an immediate report of all accidents or injuries arising out of or in the course of the employment and resulting in death; it shall also be the duty of every such employer to report between the 15th and the 25th of each month to the secretary of the State Bureau of Labor Statistics all accidents or injuries for which compensation has been paid under this Act, which accidents or injuries entail a loss to the employee of more than one week's time, and in case the injury results in permanent disability, such report shall be made as soon as it is determined that such permanent disability has resulted or will result from such injury. All such reports shall state the date of the injury, including the time of day or night, the nature of the employer's business, the age, sex, conjugal condition of the injured person, the specific occupation of the injured person, the direct cause of the injury and the nature of the accident, the nature of the injury, the length of disability, and in case of death, the length of disability before death, the wages of the injured person, whether compensation has been paid to the injured person, or to his legal representatives or his heirs or next of kin, the amount of compensation paid, the amount paid for physicians, surgeons, and hospital bills, and by whom paid, and the amount paid for funeral or burial expenses, if known. The making of reports as provided herein shall release the employer covered by the provisions of this Act from making such reports to any other officer of the State. Under this law there was reported for the six months, 186 fatal and 7,909 non-fatal accidents. Of the 186 employees killed, settlement was made in 88 cases, the heirs of these deceased employees receiving as compensation for their death $201,379.64 or an average of $2,288.40. This shows that the families of 47.31 per cent of the men killed, received what might be considered a good settlement without the trouble and expense of a law suit, not to mention the long wait they probably would have had while these cases were in litigation. In addition to compensation there was also paid out $2,196.68 for medical services in 49 cases where the employees were not instantly killed. The 186 employees who met with fatal accidents while in the course of their employment left 115 widows and 252 children, while the total number of persons depending on them for support were 374. The average weekly wages of the workmen killed was $16.05 and the average age is shown to be 37 years. Of the 7,909 employees who met with non-fatal accidents 7,492 received as compensation the aggregate sum of $284,079.53 or an average of $37.92 each. In 3,367 cases $64,796.82 was paid out for medical services, this being an average of $19.24 each. In addition to this, there was a considerable amount paid for medical services by large employers of labor many of whom retain physicians by the year to look after their injured employees, such physicians being paid a regular salary, and of these we have no record. For both fatal and non-fatal accidents it is shown that the employers have paid out in the cases settled $552,452.67. This amount will probably be increased considerably by the time this report is in the hands of the public, as many of these cases are in course of arbitration and will probably be settled between the time of compiling this report and its publication. Part II of this report is comprised of accidents reported to the Bureau of Labor Statistics by employers under the general accident law of 1907, and also those reported to the Chief State Factory Inspector under the law for the Safety and Comfort of Employees in force January 1, 1910. These accident reports are sent to this office by the Chief Factory Inspector so they may be tabulated in our industrial accident report as the factory inspection department publishes no report concerning accidents to employees. The non-fatal accidents reported to this Bureau entail a loss of 30 or more days time to the injured employee, while those reported to the Chief Factory Inspector entail a loss of 15 or more days time. There were reported to the Bureau of Labor Statistics under the 1907 law, 317 fatal and 1,225 non-fatal accidents, and to the Chief Factory Inspector under the 1910 law, 23 fatal and 871 non-fatal accidents making a total of 340 fatal and 2,096 non-fatal accidents. These accidents are tabulated as Part II of the report. The employers of these 340 killed and 2,096 injured workmen rejected the Workmen's Compensation law. It is therefore impossible to show the amount of compensation the dependents of the killed workmen received, or the amount received by these injured employees. It is true the Workmen's Compensation law took away from the employer the three common-law defenses, thus giving a much better chance of recovering damages than formerly. The 317 fatally injured reported under the 1907 law to this Bureau left 516 dependents, and it will be seen that the 1,225 workmen injured had 2,228 dependents. This information is not shown in the cases of the |