The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1910-06-12
ACCIDENTS TO WORKERS
Effort to Place Responsibility for Deaths Of and Injuries TO
Employees in Mills

for the first time q part of swift ana
mighty processes. In p cases the VIC
tim was green" Thirteen of those %
the list were not mep, but boys. Many
kinds OF carelessness which We should
heartily condemn in a grown man must
be expected in a boy. Then there were
twelve deaths due TO a condition on the
part OF the man over which he had no
immediate control-sudden vertigo. cpl
lepSy, &c.
IN eight cases there is evidence that
intoxication OF the victim was the cause
Of his death In two of these the evil
| dence is very slight In the others il
/ is convincing. There is nothing TO be
said about such cases, except that they
are rare-less than 2 per cent OF The
| total
We have now covered Il of the 1S3 "a
taIties which would be put down by the
average employer as due 10 careless
ness Of the workman. In twenty-five
/ cases the carelessness is found 10 be
/ ignorance: in thirteen cases extreme
youth; in four. physical weakness; in
| eight. drunkenness. Efghty-five cases are
| left in which there Is indication. strictly
/ speaking, OF ''carelessness" in one or
/ another Of its many dictionary meanings
/ We may subdivide these careless ones
/ into the needless" the "inattentive" and
/ the rash
/ For the needless no defense is made
( For the inattentive we maintain that hu-
man powers OF attention, universally
/ limited, are in their cases further limited
/ by the conditions under which their work
/ is dOne-lOng hours. heat, noise, intense
/ speed. For the reckless ones we main
| tain that natural inclination is in theiI
/ case encouraged and inevitably Increased
/ by an occupation involving constant risk
! that recklessness Is part Of the trade
(, Not all accidents due TO ina:tention and
recklessness can be thus defended. but
speaking generally, these two kinds OF
carelessness cannot fairly be called fault:
Of the workmen. SO long as dangerou:
! trades are carried on as they are to-day
| a majority of such accidents must bt
| eIassed as unavoidable
Thus. instead OF % per cent. we find
only 50 per cent of the fatal accidents al
tributable. in some measure. TO the care
| lessness OF the victim.
In the careIessness Of feilow-workmeI
enter the same elements that enter fntC
! the carelessness OF the workman re
spOnsible for his own death-and In abou
the same proportion. Yet when the dealt
of another results il is hard to look upoI
| any OF these without unreasoning con
! demnation.
Probably in modern industry NOR
actual responsibility for safety rests upol
the foremen and under superintendent
than upon anyone else. There are al
kinds OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT so coward,
that they will send men into DANCE
where they would not go themselves. an
foremen so brave that they wf1l order III
men to stand back while they go In them
selves More common. however, is III
foreman who. through hurry, indifference
or forgetfulness. sends green" men int
positions that mean danger to them, O
stands by and allows incompetents Z
try to accomplish hazardous task /
Is not TO be forgotten that the forema
is human. His recklessness is largely tn
results of his environment; his powers o
attention are often taxed beyond thei
endurance, by the tension of work, b
noise and heat, and by WEAKNESS. More
over, he Is always under the greatest in
eentive to increase output.
There Is some indication of employer
responsibility in III cases. Here agai
we do not mean that each accident wa
caused by personal, conscious failur
on the part of the employer; but rattle
that the accident can be traced in Who'll
J or In part, 10 an inadequacy in that PAL
Of the producing machinery which III
: employer furnished, and for which he.
any one Is responsible. Among the fa
talites resulting from such defects ther
were a few where the defect was pei
: fectly plain. and few where the az
cident was necessary to reveal IT, 81
most Of them can be laid to imperfe,
2 inspection. Twenty-Five men were kille
{ because something overhead gave way
Z commonly crane chain.
The second group OF failures in atth