The Washington herald., 1912-06-23

tancs Of further protecting their
rorksrs. Every one knowsi Il Il SImpoAbls to
naIly compensate victims ana their auaiies
for the suffering and possible fatal results
Of accidsnts, 20 the logical thing to DO il to
take every possible preeGution In prGerting
accidents
Some Of The largest plants In the. country
have aIready given considerable Gttsnt1on
TO this subject. and the publicity. given their
plans VIII be beneficial to other employers.
The adoption OF more adequate methods Of
preventing accidents means . rednction IN
the rate Of liability insurance.
In one large eastern plant where the sys-
tenn has been ADOPTED. the rate oC accidents
Per empboye was reduced ons-half in q year.
This was accomplished By the employment
Of q safety engineer. whose sole duty y 20
devise means OF safeguarding enpIOyes-
Previous to that time the number oc ampu-
tatonS necessary as theresult Of thsoldsys-
TEN was 81 per month. while under the new
system the number waSreduced toSsixampu-
tations during the entire year. and all OF
these Wsr amputations OF fingers.
In addition TO a reduction In the,nmber
Of accidents, there was a saving to the plants
relief fund Of approximately 5000 as COM
pared with previous years The nature OF
the accidents was also much less serious.
While these results were toa certain extent
due to the use Of safety appliances, much
more was accomplished by training the en-
pIoyes To work with safety under conditions
that might become dangerous II the worker
were inexperienced The men were also
trained to look out for each, ,othermore than
they had formerly done.
This was accomplished by separating tha
workmen into classes according to the rapid
fly with which they thought and acted. The
places Of greatest danger were given to the
quick and alert, while work which involved
less risk was assigned to slow moving and
slow thinking men When Il was found that
an empIoye was so slow as'to be beyond hope
Of Improvement. he was let go. This was
done on the theory that It would be unfair
to himself his fellow workers, and his en-
ployers TO keep him in position for which
he was not fitted. II allowed to remain,
there would always be the danger OF injury
either to himself or 10 others, and It was
deemed better to force such employees to find
safe work.
The Illinois law provides,that the employer
must safeguard workers at machines by
adopting all known safety appliances and
complying with every requirement ofths fac
tory inspection Law. The penalty for not
doing so Is withdrawal Of the common law
defenses. and II he is in the class that op-
crates under the compensation law the limit
Of liability provided BY that law Is removed.
It has been the experience OF all modern
manufacturing plants that It pays to DO
everything possible TO prevent accidents.
Most accidents are the result OF unexpected
dangers. Probably broken ladders and i'm
properly placed ladders cause mOrsaccidents
than anything else. 1t Is easy to remedy
such evils. This can be done by destroying
all ladders that are weak or worn and by
providing every ladder in the plant with
safety prongs to prevent slipping.
Prevention Of accidents is even more tnpor-
tant than compensation for injuries, because
the latter viii then be unnecessary.