Page 12 - Petrosphere - Loss Control Management (LCM) Training Manual V 1.0

11 Module 1: History and Philosophy of Loss Control Loss Control Management (LCM)

Pittsburgh Survey (1909-1914)

In 1907, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, celebrated as the
hub of nation’s steel industry, became the center of the nation’s
leading survey of industrial life. Pittsburgh Survey was a
pioneering sociological examination of the City of Pittsburgh
funded by Russel Sage Foundation of New York in 1907 with
the help of dozens of investigators including young lawyer
Crystal Eastman, artist Joseph Stella, and photographer Lewis
Hine. The goal of this survey is to research, interview and

depict the industrial and social conditions of Pittsburgh. The
Pittsburg Survey contributed to the creation of social survey
movement and to the passage of new worker’s compensation
law.

The Volume I of the survey, entitled Stogie of Factory
Women, headed by Elizabeth Beardsley Butler, examined the
livelihood of Pittsburgh’s women workers. A 1905 graduate of
Barnard College, Butler became a sociologist focusing on women and child laborers. In this volume of
the study, she analyzed the working women, and her analysis pointed to the horrible living conditions at
home and in the workplace. Ironically, while on this survey, Butler contracted tuberculosis, of which she
died in 1911.

The Volume II of the survey, entitled Work Accidents and the Law, headed by Crystal Eastman, is
related to the work injuries and the legal recompense that workers were offered. A New York University
educated lawyer, suffragist, and future founder of the American Civil Liberties Union, Eastman charted
and illustrated a rise in work injuries in the steel industry. Also, the survey pointed out that workers had
little form of compensation for their injuries, especially in the steel manufactory. Her work also sponsored

the first workers’ compensation law in the nation.

The Volume III, entitled The Steel Workers, arguably the most comprehensive volume of the
series, focused on the steel workers of Pittsburgh. The compiler, John A. Fitch, a University of Wisconsin
graduate student, followed professor John R. Commons when the latter was invited to help with the
survey. Fitch interviewed numbers of steel workers about their lives and work. Photographer Lewis Hines

and artist Joseph Stella complimented his work with images of these individuals, some of the best
depictions of life in the industry available.

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