Illinois Steel Company Employment Office

This interior view of the employment offices at Illinois Steel Company from the early 20th shows job applicants as well as mill employees and plant security. The multiple languages on the sign reflect the variety of non-English speaking immigrants who applied to work in the mills. The theme of the message, written in English, Hungarian, Polish, German, Slovak, and Croatian, is that the mill wants to hire workers who are safety conscious. The early steel mills were dangerous places to work. In 1907, a muck-racking article by journalist William Hard revealed that 45 workers had died at South Works and an estimated 598 were seriously injured in the year 1906 alone. The public outcry put pressure on the steel companies to increase safety procedures. The South Works Committee of Safety encouraged a variety of measures to address safety issues, including posting safety signs in various languages.