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The article focuses on the essay entitled "Bitter Wages," by Joseph A. Page and Mary-Win O'Brien. According to the author this essay is a dramatic, well-written indictment of American industry and of the administrations of the former U.S. Presidents Lyndon Baines Johnson and Richard Nixon, for their failure to protect adequately the health and safety of the American Industrial worker. Historically, labor leaders have approached the problem of occupational safety with two closely related objectives in mind. First, the incidence of accidents and industrial diseases had to be reduced, and second, the disabled worker had to be compensated for lost income. The workers in occupations in which most of the accidents could not be attributed to employer negligence, convinced the representatives of groups of workers, who stood to gain more from suing their employers for accident damages, that the welfare of the less fortunate workers should not be sacrificed for the benefit of the favored workers.