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“On the Dump Heap”: Employee Medical Screening in the Tri-State Zinc-Lead Industry, 1924–1932

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

Alan Derickson
Alan Derickson
Affiliation:
Alan Derickson is assistant professor of history atPennsylvania State University.
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Abstract

In the following article, Professor Derickson examines the motivation for and the results of employee medical screening of workers in a midwestern mining community. He argues that, contrary to the goals of the associative state as envisioned by Herbert Hoover and others, government and mine operator efforts to determine the extent of respiratory disease among mine workers in the Tri-State were neither impelled by a concern for workers' welfare nor conducive to the amelioration of their problems.

Type
Articles
Information
Business History Review , Volume 62 , Special Issue 4: Resource-Based Industries , Winter 1988 , pp. 656 - 677
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1988

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References

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15 Mills, “Joplin Zinc,” 657.

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18 Harrington, et al., “Dust-Ventilation Investigation,” 21.

19 Ibid., 8–28.

20 Ibid., 28 (quotation), 29–30.

21 Ibid., 30.

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25 “Foreword,” iii; William A. Sawyer [Eastman Kodak], “The Medical Department in Industry,” 18–19; C. H. Watson [American Telephone & Telegraph], “Physical Examinations: A Resume,” 22–26, all in National Industrial Conference Board, ed., The Physician in Industry: A Symposium, Special Report 22 (New York, 1922)Google Scholar; National Industrial Conference Board, Medical Care of Industrial Workers (New York, 1926), 25–38, 65–69Google ScholarPubMed; U.S. Public Health Service, Studies of the Medical and Surgical Care of Industrial Workers, by Selby, C. D., Bulletin 99 (Washington, D.C., 1919)Google Scholar, passim; Nugent, Angela, “Fit for Work: The Introduction of Physical Examinations in Industry,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 57 (Winter 1983): 578–95Google Scholar.

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28 [OPA], “Analysis of Mine Safety Rules”; BOM, Silicosis and Tuberculosis—I, 30.

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30 BOM, Production in Tri-State, 15; Cassidy, “Tri-State Region,” 241–42; M. D. Harbaugh, “Labor Relations in the Tri-State Mining District,” Mining Congress Journal, June 1936, 21; Bernstein, Irving, The Lean Years: A History of the American Worker, 1920–1933 ([1960]; Baltimore, Md., 1966), 3–4, 127–28Google Scholar.

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35 Dublin, Family of Thirty Million, 176–77, 425, 433; Richard Jenkins, “Report of Welfare Department, Year Ending September 30, 1930,” OPA Records, envelope: “Annual Meetings of Association,” folder: “Annual Meeting—October 22, 1930”; R. R. Sayers to L. R. Thompson, 16 March 1933, National Institute of Health Records, RG 443, Records Relating to NIH Divisions, 1930–48, box 182, folder: “Div[ision of] Ind[ustrial] Hyg[iene], 1932–1936,” National Archives; BOM, Silicosis and Tuberculosis—I, 2; Department of Commerce and Tri-State Zinc and Lead Ore Producers Association, “Cooperative Agreement,” 24 June 1927, Picher Clinic Records, box 1, file 022.

36 BOM, Silicosis and Tuberculosis—I, 2; Richard V. Ageton to Arthur L. Murray, 9 April 1927, OPA Records, unnamed box, folder: “United States Department of Commerce (Bureau of Mines) Misc. Correspondence”; Department of Commerce and OPA, “Cooperative Agreement.”

37 F. V. Meriwether to R. R. Sayers, 4 Oct. 1927, Picher Clinic Records, box 5, file 094; BOM, Silicosis and Tuberculosis—I, 4; Bureau of Mines Clinic, “Individual History [Form],” n.d., OPA Records, box: “Weekly, Monthly and Yearly Production, etc., Reports, 1923–1939,” folder: “Clinic—General, July 1, 1930 to July 1, 1931.”

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39 BOM, Silicosis and Tuberculosis—I, 4 (quotation), 26–27; BOM, Siliceous Dust in Joplin, 70.

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43 Sayres, Hayhurst, and Lanza, “Status of Silicosis,” 639–40; BOM, Silicosis and Tuberculosis—I, 4.

44 BOM, Silicosis and Tuberculosis—I, 14.

45 [Meriwether], “Annual Report for the Fiscal Year Ending [30 June] 1928 of the US Bureau of Mines Health Clinic[,] Picher, Oklahoma,” 9 (quotation), 6 (quotation), Picher Clinic Records, box 5, file 091; BOM, Silicosis and Tuberculosis—I, 14.

46 Meriwether, “Report for Fiscal 1928”; D. E. Robertson to Lanza, 7 Feb. 1928; Meriwether to Lanza, 22 March 1928, both Picher Clinic Records, box 1, file 02].

47 Meriwether to J. D. Conover, 20 Oct. 1928. Meriwether's concern focused on unorganized discontent: there was no stirring of unionism in the Tri-State in the late 1920s. Further, I have found no evidence that the clinic ferreted out or gave low medical ratings to union sympathizers. In contrast, Arizona copper firms used physical examinations to blacklist unionists. See Derickson, Workers' Health, Workers' Democracy, 207–8.

48 D. Harrington to Richard V. Agetón, 6 Aug. 1927, OPA Records, unnamed box, folder: “United States Department of Commerce (Bureau of Mines) Misc. Correspondence”; Meriwether to Sayers, 2 Feb. 1929, Picher Clinic Records, box 5, file 094; Oklahoma, Session Laws, 1929 (Oklahoma City, 1929), 47–48, 51Google ScholarPubMed; Harrington, et al., “Dust-Ventilation Investigation,” 12–19.

49 Meriwether to M. D. Harbaugh [Secretary, OPA], 7 Oct. 1929, OPA Records, envelope: “Annual Meetings of Association,” folder: “Annual Meeting, 1929”; BOM, Silicosis and Tuberculosis—II, 2; O. N. Wampler, “Safety and Industrial Relations at Eagle-Picher,” Mining Congress Journal, Nov. 1929, 894.

50 Meriwether to Sayers, 3 Jan. 1930, Picher Clinic Records, box 5, file 093; BOM, Production in Tri-State, 15–16; Cassidy, “Tri-State Region,” 18; M. D. Harbaugh, “The Tri-State Zinc and Lead Mining District in 1935,” Mining Congress Journal, Feb. 1936, 30.

51 M. D. Harbaugh, “Labor Relations in the Tri-State Mining District,” Mining Congress Journal, June 1936, 19–21; Meriwether to Sayers, 3 Feb. 1931, Pieher Clinic Records, box 5, file 093; Suggs, George G. Jr., Union Busting in the Tri-State: The Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri Metal Workers' Strike of 1935 (Norman, Okla., 1986), 22–24Google Scholar.

52 Meriwether to Sayers, 3 Jan. 1930; Meriwether to Sayers, 5 May, 4 Dec. 1930, Picher Clinic Records, box 5, file 093; Cassidy, “Tri-State Region,” 250–51.

53 A. C. Wallace, quoted in “Silicosis Expose Angers Tri-State Mining Interests,” CIO News—Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers Edition, 30 Oct. 1939, 8.

54 Meriwether to Sayers, 4 Dec. 1930; Meriwether to Sayers, 5 Jan. 1931, Picher Clinic Records, box 5, file 093; Campbell and Mabon, “Personnel and Safety,” 118–19.

55 Meriwether to Lanza, 10 April 1930, Picher Clinic Records, box 14, file 401.

56 Harbaugh, “Labor Relations,” 21 (quotation), 20–21; Meriwether to Harbaugh, 1 July 1930, Picher Clinic Records, box 14, file 401.

57 Meriwether to Sayers, 6 Aug. 1931, Picher Clinic Records, box 5, file 093.

58 Meriwether to Sayers, 4 Jan. 1932, ibid.; Cassidy, “Tri-State Region,” 266; Jenkins, “Report of Welfare Department, Year Ending Sept. 30, 1930,” 3–4.

59 Meriwether to Sayers, 5 May 1930.

60 Harbaugh to Sayers, 16 June 1931, OPA Records, box: “Weekly, Monthly, Yearly Production, etc., Reports, 1923–1939,” folder: “Clinic—General, July 1, 1930 to July 1, 1931.”

61 Meriwether to Harbaugh [Oct. 1930], Picher Clinic Records, box 5, file 091; Meriwether to Lanza, 23 May 1930, ibid., file 093; Andrews, John B., “Occupational Disease Compensation,” American Labor Legislation Review 19 (Sept. 1929): 237–40Google Scholar.

62 Meriwether to Sayers, 5 Jan., 3 Feb. 1931; Harbaugh, “Labor Relations,” 21.

63 Meriwether to Lanza, 23 May 1930; BOM, Silicosis and Tuberculosis—II, 2; Meriwether, “Annual Report for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1931,” 3, Picher Clinic Records, box 5, file 091; Meriwether to Sayers, 2 Oct 1931, ibid., file 093.

64 Meriwether, “Annual Report of Clinic Director,” 22 Oct. 1930, 3, 4, 6, OPA Records, envelope: “Annual Meetings of Association,” folder: “Annual Meeting—October 22, 1930.”

65 A. M. Hughes [Personnel Manager, Johns-Manville Corp.] to Meriwether, 17 May 1932; Hughes to Meriwether, 23 May 1932; Meriwether to Hughes, 1 June 1932; Bureau of Mines Cooperative Clinic, “Second Group X-rays for John-Mansville [sic] Co.,” 31 May 1932; BOM Cooperative Clinic, “Third Group, John-Mansville Co. X-rays,” 7 June 1932, all Picher Clinic Records, box 19, file 800.

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67 Meriwether to Sayers, 6 May 1932; Frances Murdock to Lanza, 2 July 1932, both Picher Clinic Records, box 19, file 800; Kansas, State Board of Health, Industrial Hygiene Section, Preliminary Industrial Hygiene Survey of the Kansas Zinc and Lead Mines (Lawrence, Kans., 1937), 7Google Scholar.

68 U.S., Division of Labor Standards, National Silicosis Conference Report on Medical Control, Bulletin 21, pt. 1 (Washington, D.C., 1938), 6Google Scholar; Harbaugh, “Labor Relations,” 21; Harbaugh, “Report of the Secretary,” 16 Oct. 1934, 7, OPA Records, envelope: “Annual Meetings of Association,” folder: “Annual Reports.” The OPA ran the Tri-State Industrial Examining Bureau until 1939, at which time it contracted with local hospitals to provide diagnostic services. See Evan Just, Statement, in U.S., Department of Labor, Conference on Health in Tri-State, 14.

69 Campbell and Mabon, “Personnel and Safety,” 120 (quotation), 119–20; Tri-State Survey Committee, A Preliminary Report on Living, Working and Health Conditions in the Tri-State Mining Area (New York, 1939), 69Google Scholar; Harbaugh, “Report of the Secretary,” 6 Nov. 1936, OPA Records, envelope: “Annual Meetings of Association,” folder: “Annual Reports.”

70 Nugent, “Fit for Work,” 590; Brodeur, Outrageous Misconduct, 157, 160, 167–68; Castleman, Asbestos, 133, 182; Occupational Safety and Health Administration, “Access to Employee Exposure and Medical Records,” 23 May 1980, in Office of the Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, Title 29, Fart 1910.20 (Washington, D.C., 1985), 85–91Google ScholarPubMed.

71 Cassidy, “Tri-State Region,” 169; BOM, Silicosis and Tuberculosis—I, 26; BOM, Silicosis and Tuberculosis—II, 6, 28; Tri-State Survey Committee, Preliminary Report, 71, 77–81; R. L. Hickman to Meriwether, 20 Oct. 1931, Picher Clinic Records, box 4, file 087; Harbaugh, “Report of the Secretary,” 6 Nov. 1936, 3–5.

72 In the autumn of 1933, the Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers initiated another militant organizing drive in the district. The medical screening policy of the OPA became a prominent issue in this campaign and in the violent strike in which it culminated. See Suggs, Union Busting in the Tri-State, 29ff.; Harbaugh, “Labor Relations,” 19–24.