STATISTICS OF ACCIDENTS. ACCIDENTS IN MANUFACTURING ESTABLISHMENTS. The statistics of industrial accidents in Russia are available for only a few years. Reports of industrial accidents were made obligatory on July 1, 1895. According to the rule promulgated by the Ministry of Finance, reports were to be made of all accidents, whether to workmen, other employees, or strange persons, provided the injury sustained caused disability to work for three days or more. The results of this order were so meager that for five years the Bureau of Industry, which collected these data, did not find them worthy of compilation and presentation. There was an improvement evidenced by the rapid increase in the number of accidents reported, and in 1901 the bureau felt justified in beginning the compilation and publication of the data. The total number of accidents reported to the factory inspectors, as stated in the annual factory inspection reports, is shown in the following table to have increased from 27,135 in 1901 to 76,409 in 1908, or has nearly trebled. The increase came mainly in 1904, after the introduction of the compensation law, and as the increase since has been slight the data for the later years appear to be fairly reliable. NUMBER OF FATAL AND NONFATAL ACCIDENTS IN MANUFACTURING ESTABLISHMENTS REPORTED TO FACTORY INSPECTORS, 1901 TO 1908. [Source: Ministerstvo Torgovli i Promyshlennosti. Otdiel Promyshlennosti. Svod otchotov fabrichnykh inspectorov, 1900-1908.] In the preparation of the special statistical reports, a number of cases have been excluded, for many reasons, to make the data comparable with the statistics of persons employed. Since 1904 the accident reports are adjusted so as to cover only accidents as defined in the law. In the following table is given the number of accidents compared with the number of persons employed. The proportion appears to have increased from 14.6 per 1,000 employees in 1901 to 36.3 per 1,000 employees in 1906; even this proportion, however, is very small as compared with that in other industrial countries. ESTABLISHMENTS SUBJECT TO FACTORY INSPECTION AND ESTABLISHMENTS REPORTING ACCIDENTS, WITH NUMBER OF WORKMEN EMPLOYED, AND NUMBER OF ACCIDENTS REPORTED, 1901 TO 1906. [Source: Ministerstvo Torgovli i Promyshlennosti. Otdiel Promyshlennosti. Statistika neschastnykh sluchaev s rabochimi v promyshlennykh zavedeniakh, podchinionnykh nadsoru fabrichnoi inspektzii, 1901-1906.] a The reduction in the number of establishments is explained by actual suspension of some, but mainly by exclusion of establishments from the jurisdiction of factory inspection. In both cases the smaller establishments were mainly affected, as indicated by the uniformity in the number of workmen employed. b Not reported. Only 16.6 per cent of all establishments reported accidents in 1901, but by 1906 the proportion of establishments reporting increased to 27.8 per cent. The number of workmen in establishments reporting accidents in 1902 was 60.2 per cent of the total number of workmen subject to factory inspection, while in 1906 the proportion increased to 78 per cent. The increase both in the number of establishments reporting and of the workmen employed in these establishments was greatest in 1904, when the accident compensation law first went into effect, thus indicating direct dependence of accident statistics upon the accident compensation law. But while the number of establishments reporting increased from 3,165 in 1903 to 3,593 in 1906, or 13.5 per cent, and that of workmen in the establishments reporting increased from 1,071,290 to 1,234,766, or 15.3 per cent, the number of accidents increased from 31,319 to 60,142, or nearly doubled. It would appear that the serious omissions in the statistics of accidents before 1904 were not due so much to establishments failing to report, altogether, as to reports from the larger establishments being incomplete. For a proper application of the data presented in the tables which follow these facts must be considered: (1) While accidents to strangers were reported, they were excluded from the compilation; (2) accidents to office employees subject to the law of 1903 were reported, but excluded because the total number of employees not being known, their inclusion would be a disturbing factor; (3) in the reports of 1901 to 1903 accidents causing disability of not more than two days were excluded, and in the report of 1904 all accidents causing disability for not more than three days. This limits the comparative value of the reports for different years. In the vast majority of accidents the injuries are of slight duration; in 1904 out of 40,505 cases of temporary disability 12,441 cases, or 30.7 per cent, lasted four to seven days; the number of cases lasting three days, not reported in 1904 though reported in earlier years, must have been considerable. (4) The data of industrial accidents collected by the factory inspectors refer only to those industries, establishments, and localities which are subject to factory inspection. Therefore the so-called "artisans' shops" are excluded-i. e., the smaller industrial establishments having less than 20 and in some cases less than 15 employees, and not employing mechanical power; also mines and metallurgical establishments, for which separate accident statistics and a separate system of inspection exist, all state factories and mills, and all industrial establishments under the jurisdiction of the Ministries of War, Navy, and Ways of Communication. While these data refer mainly to the manufacturing industry, another important limitation is found in the circumstance that factory inspection has as yet been introduced only in the 60 Provinces of European Russia and in some parts of Caucasus-namely, the Provinces of Baku, Tiflis, Kutais, Chernomorsk, and Batum. Accidents in the industrial establishments of the remaining Caucasian Provinces in Siberia and central Asia are also required to be reported by the act of 1903, but because the reports were insufficient and statistics of the number of workmen were lacking, these have not been included. ACCIDENTS, BY INDUSTRY, SEX, AND AGE.-In the tables following are shown the number of workers employed in each industrial group, the number of accidents, and the number of accidents per 1,000 workers from 1904 to 1906. The data are given for all workers and separately for male and female workers; and also for adults (17 years and over), young persons (15 and under 17 years), and children (12 and under 15 years). The number of reported accidents per 1,000 workers has increased from 28.6 in 1904 to 36.3 in 1906. For the male workers the number of accidents per 1,000 in 1906 was 45.9 and for the female workers only 13.1. This is partly due to the fact that women are mainly employed in those industries where accidents are less frequent, namely, the manufacture of textiles and food products, these two industrial groups employing in 1906 82 per cent of all female wage-workers and only 52 per cent of the male workers. But a difference in the frequency of accidents to males and to females is noticed in each industrial group, indicating that the men are preferred for the more dangerous kinds of work, requiring close contact with power-generating engines and complicated machinery. A comparison by the main age groups indicates that in 1906 the average number of accidents per 1,000 adults was 38.2, per 1,000 young persons 20.3, and per 1,000 children 15.3. No such concentration of the workers below 17 years of age exists as was found in the case of women, and the difference in the proportionate number of accidents seems to be mainly due to the nature of work intrusted to the younger employees. The comparative frequency of accidents in various branches of industry is also shown in these tables. In the following statement the industries are arranged in order of the accident frequency during 1906: ACCIDENT RATE PER 1,000 EMPLOYEES, IN MANUFACTURING ESTABLISHMENTS, BY INDUSTRIES AND SEX, 1906. [Source: Ministerstvo Torgovli i Promyshlennosti. Otdiel Promyshlennosti. Statistika neschastnykh sluchaev s rabochimi, 1906.] Thus accidents are shown to be most frequent in the machinery and iron and steel industries, being, respectively, 140.2 and 136.6 per 1,000 employees. In the cotton-goods industry, which is the most important in Russia, the rate is 24.1 accidents per 1,000, and in the other branches of textile industry much lower. The differences in the frequency of accidents in the various branches of the textile industries may be explained by the larger size of the cotton mills where machinery and mechanical power are used extensively, while in the woolen and silk industries hand looms are still the rule. Thus in 1906 the average number of employees per establishment in the cotton industry was 614, in the woolen industry 139, and in the silk industry 129. In the table following the accidents and accident rates are shown by industries and sex for the years 1904 to 1906. |