CHAPTER II

THE INDUSTRIAL SCRAP-HEAP

The prospects of living to old age are becoming increasingly better as methods of sanitation and public health are improved. According to the United States Life Tables, the American vital statistics in 1910 showed that out of every 100 persons at the age of 20, 64 will reach the age of 60; 54, the age of 65; and 42, the age of 70. Of 100 persons alive at the age of 30, 53 will reach the age of 65, and 48 will not die before 70. In other words, of all men alive at the age of 30, more than one-half will reach 65. A person who has reached the age of 65 may still expect to live 11 more years, and the person who has reached the age of 70 may still hope to have nine more years of life. In 1880, according to the U. S. Census, the number of persons 65 years of age and over in the entire population constituted 3.5 per cent. This aged population increased to 3.9 per cent. in 1890, to 4.2 per cent. in 1900, and to 4.3 per cent. in 1910. Of males 15 years of age and over, the number of those 65 and over increased from 54 per thousand in 1880 to 60 in 1890 and 63 in 1910. It is thus clear that the proportion of older persons in the United States has been constantly increasing.

In 1900 there were in the United States 3,083,995 persons 65 years of age and over, constituting 4.2 per cent. of the total population. In 1910 this number increased to 3,949,524 and constituted 4.3 per cent. of the population. Of the nearly four million persons 65 and over in 1910, 1,679,503, or 42.5 per cent., were between the ages of 65 and 69. The magnitude of the old age problem is more easily appreciated when one reflects that this aged group outnumbers the entire population of the United States during the time of the Revolution—the first Census of 1790 giving the total population of the United States as 3,929,214. No State in the Union, save the States of New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Ohio, has a greater population; and the aged population in 1910 was greater than the combined populations of the states of Arizona, Delaware, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Wyoming, the District of Columbia, and Alaska.

According to the United States Census of 1910 there were in the United States at that time 38,167,336 persons 10 years of age and over engaged in gainful occupations. These constituted 53.5 per cent. of the entire population of that age, an increase of 3.1 per cent. over those reported gainfully employed for the same ages in 1900, and an increase of 6 per cent. in the population of the same age as compared with the proportion gainfully employed in 1880. In the case of the male population 10 years of age and over, 81.3 per cent. were recorded as gainfully employed in the United States in 1910 as compared with 80.0 per cent. reported in 1900, and 78.7 in 1880. Of the female population 23.4 per cent. of those 10 years of age and over were reported gainfully employed in 1910 as compared with 18.8 per cent. employed in 1900, and 14.7 per cent. in 1880.

That few wage-earners are able to continue at work until the end of their lives is known to all. While the percentage of the entire population which must secure its livelihood through gainful work has steadily increased in the United States, it is significant to note that the same Census figures show that after middle age the percentages of those engaged in industry and trades have been continuously diminishing. Out of every 100 males in gainful occupations in the United States in 1890, thirteen and one-half were between the ages of 45 and 54; eight between the ages of 55 and 64, and five and three-tenths were 65 years of age and over. In the same year, ninety-six and six-tenths out of every 100 males between the ages of 45 and 54 were found gainfully employed. Of those between the ages of 55 to 64, 92.9 per cent. were still found occupied, while of those 65 years of age and over, 73.8 were still recorded as engaged in gainful occupations. Ten years later, in 1900, the percentage of males employed between the ages of 45 and 54 was 95.5; of those between 55 and 64, 90 per cent., and the percentage of those over 65 who were still occupied dropped to 68.4, a decrease of 5.4 per cent. in 10 years. The 1900 Census figures also show that of all the males 55 years of age and over, 85 per cent. were found gainfully employed in 1890, but only 80.7 of the same were employed in 1900, a decline of 4.3 per cent. in 10 years.

The 1910 Census gives no age classification over 45. The information available shows, however, that while in 1900, 87.9 per cent. of all males over 45 were gainfully employed, the percentage declined to 85.9 in 1910. Assuming that the same rate of decrease of the gainfully employed males 55 years of age and over held true in the period between 1900 and 1910 as that which took place between the decade of 1890 and 1900, there would be only 76.8 per cent. of males 55 and over, in the United States employed in 1910, as compared with 80.7 in 1900, and 85 in 1890. Similarly, in regard to those 65 and over, 63 per cent. of the males in the United States would have been employed in 1910 as compared with 68.4 in 1900 and 73.8 in 1890. Thus it may be assumed that of the 4,660,379 males 55 years of age and over in 1910, 1,081,208 were already eliminated from the gainfully employed class.

DECLINE OF GAINFULLY OCCUPIED MIDDLE-AGED MALES Percentage of Gainfully Occupied Ages 1890 1900 1910 45–54 96.6 95.5 55–64 92.9 90.0 65 and over 73.8 68.4 63 (estimate) 55 and over 85.0 80.7 76.8 (estimate) 45 and over 87.9 85.9

The steady reduction in the percentages of those gainfully employed in the later years of life, as shown by the United States Census reports, is largely due to the decrease in the population of those ages engaged in industrial and manufacturing pursuits rather than agricultural and professions. This is obvious from the following: Of the total 38,167,336 gainfully employed persons in the United States in 1910, 12,567,925, or 32.8 per cent., were engaged in agricultural pursuits; 10,807,521, or 28.4 per cent., were engaged in manufacturing and mechanical occupations; 7,605,730, or 20 per cent., in trade and transportation; 5,361,033, or 14 per cent., were found employed in domestic and personal services, and 1,825,127, or 4.8 per cent., were engaged in various professional vocations. The tremendous expansion in the manufacturing and mechanical pursuits is apparent from the fact that the population engaged in these occupations in 1900 was only 7,085,309. There was an increase of more than three and one-half millions in 10 years. On the other hand, of the 1,065,000 men 65 years of age and over reported gainfully employed in 1900, approximately 50 per cent. were engaged in agriculture, a considerable number were engaged in the professions and business, and only about one-third of the number were employed as wage-earners. In 1900 the persons 55 years of age and over constituted 12.3 per cent. in all occupations. When this group is classified in accordance with the nature of its work, it is found that 15.1 per cent. of this group were engaged in agricultural pursuits; 15 per cent. in professional vocations; 10.5 per cent. in domestic and personal services; 10.5 per cent. in manufacturing and mechanical pursuits, and 9.5 per cent. in trade and transportation. Thus while the aged group of 55 and over constituted 12.3 per cent. in all occupations it is much higher than this average in the case of agricultural and professional pursuits, but is much below the average in the case of manufacturing and transportation occupations. This is practically the reverse of the proportions found among those gainfully employed in the various industries in the earlier age groups.

Further light upon this phase may be gleaned from the Twelfth Census. According to the 1900 Census enumeration, the percentage of the total number of workers in all occupations between the ages of 45 and 54 formed 25.8 per cent. of workers of all ages employed in all occupations. The percentage of those employed between 55 and 64 was 12.3, and that of those 64 and over, 4.4 per cent. These figures were obtained after the elimination of certain occupations which have a large proportion of boys as well as those in which the majority of workers were women. A comparison of the percentages for all occupations with the percentages of those engaged in the industries given in the table below reveals the fact that, while in the outdoor industries the percentage of those employed between 45 and 54 holds approximately true, it is considerably below in the case of the heavier industries, and much below the general proportion after the 55th birthday has been reached.

NUMBER AND PER CENT OF EMPLOYEES 45 AND OVER IN SELECTED INDUSTRIES IN THE UNITED STATES, 1900[7] 45 to 54 55 to 64 65 and over Occupation No. Percent No. Percent No. Percent All Occupations 6,187,927 25.8 2,925,122 12.2 1,065,275 4.4 Marble & Stone Cutters 14,339 26.3 5,264 9.6 1,498 2.7 Painters, Glaziers, Varnishers 69,681 25.2 28,406 9.9 7,759 2.8 Brewers and Maltsters 5,204 25.1 1,686 8.1 419 2.0 Steam Boilermakers 5,938 17.0 2,103 6.3 527 1.5 Iron and Steel Workers 47,042 16.3 15,789 5.4 3,783 1.3 Brass Workers 3,822 14.7 7,394 5.3 360 1.3 Potters 1,950 14.7 691 5.2 208 1.5 Glass Makers 5,575 11.7 1,737 3.6 392 0.8

The Thirteenth Census does not give the age classifications which would make a similar comparison possible. However, the Massachusetts Commission on Old Age Pensions, Annuities, and Insurance, found in 1910, in a study of 870 aged persons, that the average age at which the wage-earning power was completely lost was 68 years. The average age at which the earning power was partially impaired, in a study of 872 partially incapacitated persons, was 64. In 1918, the Ohio Commission on Health Insurance and Old Age Pensions found in six foundries employing 500 moulders only three men over 50 years of age engaged in heavy floor moulding. Ten men over 60 were engaged in light bench moulding.

The table below shows succinctly that the strain of modern machine industry permits only a few wage-earners to remain at work after they have passed three score and five. It is further proof of the above figures pointing to the constant reduction of those 65 years of age and over engaged in mechanical and manufacturing pursuits. An examination of the table compiled in 1920, regarding the ages when actually pensioned as compared with the ages required by these large concerns for obtaining a pension, reveals the fact that in spite of the strict regulations provided, a number of these have actually been pensioned before the specified age. Thus more than one-half of those on the pension list of the United States Steel and Carnegie Pension Fund have retired before the age of 65, although the age for voluntary retirement is set at 65. In the case of the pensioners of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, while the compulsory age of retirement is set at 70, 44 per cent. had been placed on the pension list before they had reached the compulsory retirement age. Similar proportions are found in the case of most of the other industrial pensioners.

PENSIONABLE AGES PROVIDED AND AGES WHEN ACTUALLY PENSIONED BY LEADING INDUSTRIAL CONCERNS

Name of Pensionable Age Company Provided Actual Ages When Pensioned „ „ Under 50 50 to 60 60 to 65 „ „ No. Percent No. Percent No. Percent U. S. Steel Any age if & Carnegie permanently Pension incapacitated; Fund. 65 at request. 128 3.5 420 11.6 1,487 40.5 Penna. R. R. 70 compulsory, 65 to 69 at approval of Board. 1,209 13.0 Philadelphia 70 compulsory; and 65 to 69 if Reading R. incapacitated. R. 20 2.0 15 1.5 24 2.5 N. Y. 70 compulsory; Central any age if Railroad unfit for duty. 1,606 36.3 Philadelphia No compulsory Electric age; voluntary retirement, male 65, female 60. 13 6.5 35 16.5 54 25.5 Pittsburgh No compulsory Coal Co. age; any age if incapacitated after 10 years of service. 8 4.0 42 21.0 55 28.0 Westinghouse 70 compulsory; Air Brake by order of Board. 3 3.0 8 7.5 8 7.5 National Compulsory, male Transit 65, female 55; Co. voluntary, male 55, female 50. 4 6.1 23 35.5 Pittsburgh 70 compulsory; and Lake any age if Erie R. R. unfit for duty. 2 3.7 1 2.0 4 7.3

Name of Pensionable Age Company Provided Actual Ages When Pensioned „ „ 65 to 70 70 and over „ „ No. Percent No. Percent U. S. Steel Any age if & Carnegie permanently Pension incapacitated; Fund. 65 at request. 927 25.4 695 19.0 Penna. R. R. 70 compulsory, 65 to 69 at approval of Board. 2,796 31.0 5,124 56.0 Philadelphia 70 compulsory; and 65 to 69 if Reading R. incapacitated. R. 201 20.5 716 73.5 N. Y. 70 compulsory; Central any age if Railroad unfit for duty. 2,828 63.7 Philadelphia No compulsory Electric age; voluntary retirement, male 65, female 60. 87 41.5 21 10.0 Pittsburgh No compulsory Coal Co. age; any age if incapacitated after 10 years of service. 50 25.0 44 22.0 Westinghouse 70 compulsory; Air Brake by order of Board. 16 15.5 69 66.5 National Compulsory, male Transit 65, female 55; Co. voluntary, male 55, female 50. 21 32.2 17 26.2 Pittsburgh 70 compulsory; and Lake any age if Erie R. R. unfit for duty. 6 11.0 41 76.0

The extent of disability of wage-earners as they are affected by both age and occupations has been brought out in a comprehensive manner by Dr. Boris Emmet from studies recently made of the Workmen’s Sick and Death Benefit Fund of the United States, for the United States Bureau of Labour Statistics.[8] These investigations show conclusively that age and occupation are the two most important factors in determining the duration and extent of disability. The average number of days of disability per member was found to be 6.6 per annum. An examination of the age groups shows that up to the age of 45 the disabilities’ duration is below the average, but from that age on, it increases steadily until it averages 15.2 in the case of those who are 70 years of age and over. By the different age groups the percentages above (+) or below (−) the average are as follows:

Age Group Average No. of Disability Per Cent of Deviation from Days Average Under 20 years 5.2 −21.2 22 to 24 years 4.8. −27.3 25 to 29 years 5.0 −24.2 30 to 34 years 4.9 −25.8 35 to 39 years 5.6. −15.1 40 to 44 years 6.4 −3.0 45 to 49 years Same as average 50 to 54 years 7.4 +12.1 55 to 59 years 9.0 +36.4 60 to 64 years 12.0 +81.8 65 to 69 years 13.8 +109.1 70 years and over 15.2 +130.3 ———— All age groups 6.6 None

The occupational hazards of certain of our large industries are presented so clearly in the table below that no comment at length is necessary. While in the professions the average number of days of disability per year is 2.6, it progresses continuously until in the case of miners it reaches 9.7, almost four times as great.

ANNUAL DISABILITY DAYS FOR EACH OCCUPATION OCCUPATION AVERAGE ANNUAL DISABILITY DAYS PER YEAR Professional 2.6 Jewelers 3.6 Clothing Mfr. Employees 4.4 Textile Mfr. Employees 4.5 Trade and Clerical 4.7 Electrical Workers 4.8 Other Manufacturing Employees 5.1 Farmers, Gardeners, and Florists 5.3 Sheet Metal Workers 5.6 Plumbers 5.6 Plasterers 5.6 Unspecified Occupations 5.7 Molders 5.8 Leather Workers 5.8 Tanners 5.8 Auto, Carriage and Wagon Mfg. emp. 5.9 Barbers 5.9 Engineers and Firemen 6.0 Bartenders 6.0 Woodworkers 6.1 Printers and Engravers 6.1 Machinists 6.1 Food Employees 6.2 Cooks and Waiters 6.2 Dyers 6.4 Painters 6.4 Clay Products Mfg. emp. 6.6 Other Building Construction emp. 6.0 Carpenters 6.7 Tobacco and Cigars 6.8 Slaughtering and Meat Packing emp. 6.9 Blacksmiths 6.9 Labourers, not specified 6.9 Glass Workers 7.1 Bricklayers 7.1 Stone and Granite 7.5 Liquor Manufacturing emp. 7.9 Railway Employees 8.4 Drivers 8.6 Freight Handlers 9.6 Miners 9.7 Average of all Occupations 6.4

A valuable investigation in regard to this phase of the problem was made by the Pennsylvania Commission on Old Age Pensions, during 1918–19. This Commission interviewed over 4,500 people, 50 years of age and over in a house-to-house canvass in the cities of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Reading. It also made a study of the ages of partial and total impairment of workers in several industries. A case of partial impairment was assumed when the individual sustained a reduction in wages, either because of displacement or change in job as a result of sickness or old age. The Commission states that its studies revealed the following:[9]

(a) The earning power of many workers in Pennsylvania is impaired before they reach the age of 40. The percentages of partial impairment at the age of 40 were found to vary from 2.6 per cent. among indoor and sedentary trades, to 16.4 in the steel industry, and 57 per cent. in the case of railroad workers. Only in the steel industry, however, were there many who were totally incapacitated before the age of 50. In the building trades, 12.6 per cent. were partially impaired before the age of 50; while 6.3 per cent. were totally incapacitated before reaching the same age. On reaching the above age it was found that 55.3 per cent. were partially and 14.1 per cent. were totally impaired in the case of steel workers. Of those engaged in casual occupations 26.7 per cent. have had their earning power partly, and 8.4 per cent. wholly reduced before attaining 50 years of age. Of indoor and sedentary trades the percentage of partially impaired workers before the 50th birthday was 15.2, while 8.3 were wholly disqualified for service at that age. Nearly 27 per cent. among glass blowers had had their earning power reduced before reaching 50 years of age, and 20 per cent. were permanently incapacitated at the same age. Of skilled workmen in the various trades, 29 per cent. were impaired partially and less than three per cent. entirely, before attaining their 50th birthday. Among railroad workers, those whose incomes were affected before the age of 50, the percentages were 64.3 to a partial extent, and 6.2 entirely.

(b) At the age of 60, the proportion of workers, whose earning power had not yet been affected, according to the various trades, were as follows: In the building trades, 55.1 per cent. suffered no loss of income before reaching the age of 60. In the steel industry only 13.2 per cent. were earning the same amounts as in their earlier days at the above age. Thirty-six per cent. of workers, at 60 years of age, were still found to be engaged in casual occupations. Among workers in indoor and sedentary trades, 46.4 per cent. were found without reduction in their earning power at the age of 60. Only 26.9 per cent. of glass blowers were in their full capacity at the age of 70. The percentage of skilled mechanics found in good health at 60 was 25.5, while 28.2 per cent. of railroad workers were found to be in unimpaired health at the age of 60.

The Commission concludes: “An examination of the total number of aged persons in all the three cities from whom the previous and present occupations were ascertained, shows that men past a certain age must quit even the skilled trades in which they have been engaged the greater part of their lives. Modern industry, apparently, has little use for the superannuated worker. A few men can continue working at the same occupation after they have reached a certain age. While 36 per cent. stated that they were skilled or semi-skilled mechanics in their earlier days, only 23.8 per cent. of men past 50 years of age were still engaged in the same occupation. The percentage of those doing unskilled or common labour or clerical labour, on the other hand, remained stable. It is also to be noticed that in their earlier days less than two per cent. were not working because of incapacity, but 26.6 per cent. were found not to be working among those 50 years of age and over. The fluctuations of the minor occupations are inconsiderable.”[10]

Similar studies of several hundred bituminous miners scattered through a dozen mining districts in Pennsylvania and of about two hundred steel workers were recently completed by the writer for the above Commission. The investigations disclose that of 368 miners, 50 years of age and over, 177 were still in fair or good health, while 191 or somewhat more than 50 per cent. of those investigated, were found to be either partially or totally incapacitated. Of the 112 reported as partially incapacitated, 79, or 70.5 per cent., became so before the age of 60; of the 79 reported as totally incapacitated 38, or 50 per cent., were thus disabled before the same age. While most of those reported as partially incapacitated were still engaged in some form of work or other, this was irregular and uncertain, as most of these persons were suffering either from chronic sickness or the consequences of serious accident.

In the case of 146 steel workers, 50 years of age and over, investigated in Homestead and Steelton, 90, or 62 per cent., were found to be either in part or completely impaired in respect to their health and earning power, the great majority of these becoming incapacitated before the age of 60. The causes of impairment assigned in more than three-fourths of the cases of both classes of labour were either sickness or accident. Old age, as such, was given only in a few instances as a direct cause of incapacity.

AGES OF INCAPACITY OF MINERS AND STEEL WORKERS MINERS STEEL WORKERS Ages of Incapacity Partial Total Partial Total Under 50 29 15 8 4 50 to 60 50 23 25 5 60 to 65 18 15 11 6 65 to 70 14 20 4 5 70 and over 1 6 12 10 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────── Total Incapacitated 112 79 60 30

The reports of the different State Industrial Accident Commissions and Compensation Bureaus corroborate further the evidence at hand that there are fewer persons past middle age engaged in industry than the proportion of the same group in the entire population. The Industrial Commission of Wisconsin reported in 1915 that of all persons injured at work in that state, 53 per cent. were under 30 years of age; 67 per cent. were under 40; 5 per cent. between 50 to 55, and only 5 per cent. more above that age. For the population 15 years of age and over as a whole, 7 per cent. were 50 to 55, and 16 per cent. were 55 and over.[11] The California Industrial Accident Commission reports that in 1918, of 2,100 permanent injury cases, 1,729, or 82.3 per cent., were under the age of 50; 257 were between 50 and 60, and 114 above that age.[12] Of 2,569 fatal accident cases which occurred in Pennsylvania in 1919, 1,932 or 75.2 per cent., were under 50 years of age; 262, or 10.2 per cent., were between the ages of 50 and 60, and only 136, or 5.2 per cent., were above that age. The ages of the rest were not ascertained.

Even more significant in this respect are the disclosures of an investigation of several trade union locals recently made by the writer. Printers are known to work much longer in life than do workers in many other crafts. In spite of this fact, it was found that of a membership of approximately 1,500, the Philadelphia Typographical Union No. 2 had on its lists only 145 persons, approximately 10 per cent., who were 60 years of age and over; and 47 of these were already on the pension roll of the International Typographical Union. Local No. 98, Philadelphia, of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers had no one 60 years of age or over on its membership roll of approximately 1,250. Workers in the building trades, it is frequently asserted, work until very late in life. An examination of the ages of 450 members of Carpenters’ Local No. 287 in Harrisburg showed only 25 persons 60 years of age and over. Bricklayers’ Local No. 71, in the same city, had only 14 members between the ages of 50 to 60 and a similar number 60 and over among 152 members. Carpenters’ Local No. 1073, Philadelphia, has been in existence since 1902 and has a membership of over 1,400. There were in this local only 60 men who were 50 years of age and over, and only seven of these were above 60. A canvass of over 600 miners’ locals with a membership of over 120,000 persons, made a few years ago by a Committee of the United Mine Workers of America, showed that there were in these locals a total of 6,283 persons 60 years of age and over, of whom only 2,084 were 65 years and upwards.

From the foregoing evidence it seems obvious that modern industry finds little use for the worn-out workers. It replaces and discards these aged wage-earners as it is in the habit of replacing and discarding the worn-out and inefficient machinery. Once economic old age has set in, the road to dependence is short. Says Mr. L. W. Squier: “After the age of sixty has been reached, the transition from non-dependence to dependence is an easy stage—property gone, friends passed away or removed, relatives become few, ambition collapsed, only a few short years left to live, with death a final and welcome end to it all—such conclusions inevitably sweep the wage-earners from the class of hopeful independent citizens into that of the helpless poor.”[13]