White Pine news weekly mining review. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1910-1920, 1914-02-15
BIG PLANTS FIRST.
IN SAFETY MOVE
ECONOMIC VALUE OF ACCIDENT
PREVENTION FIGURES IN BUS
MESS POLICY OF THE GREAT
INDUSTRIAL CORPORATIONS.

Whatever may have been the sins
of the great American trusts. a blind
and cruel disregard of the physical
welfare of their employees was not
one of them. To be sure, there have
been instances of long hours and
arduous labor; but the men who had
Imagination enough to create cor
porations capitalized at half a billion
dollars and more had also magma
ton enough TO see the business folly
of endangering life or of working a
man to the point of exhaustion, says
the Scientific American.
Taken as a whole, accident preven-
ton and welfare work have been
more developed by our great indus
trial companies than by small manu-
facturers. Indeed, were it not for the
s%alutary laws hal have been passed
in most states to check the frightfui
loss of life and limb that has hitherto
marked the course of our industrial
expansion, it is probable that those
merciful provisions which stand not
only for humanity, but also for good
business, would still be confined to
the trusts.
The history of the safety first
movement in America is in that re-
cranof a nnltpafA Of 4hn hicfnru of tho
movement abroad. Long before the
social democrats insisted upon the
passing of those stringent accident
prevention laws. for which Germany
is famous the world over, the larger
German manufacturing companies
had instituted accident prevention
and welfare systems that testified to
their humanitarian instincts and
their good business sense. Systemat-
ic accident prevention is at least
fifty years old in Germany; in the
United States hardly fifteen years
old. While we can hardly boast that
We have approached the high stand
ard set by Germany, still the record
which we have to show for our fifteen
years is creditable indeed.
But much more remains to be done
how much can be cleaned by ex-
aiming statistics. From a chart
which was exhibited by the Pruden-
tial Insurance company of America a.
the recent international Exposition
low that there are $4,000 fatal indus
trial accidents per annum in the
United States, and some 100000 in
juries. The mere possibility of being
able TO state in statistics the approx
mate number of our industrial cas-
ualities is a step in advance; for as
late as 1908 il was impossible to esti-
mate with any accuracy at all What
was the toll We paid in crushed limbs
and snufied out lives. Now at least
we know how vast is the problem to
be solved. how much needless suffer
ing we infict and how much We lose
in dollars and cents, because We have
hitherto failed to realize the neces-
sity of guarding men as well as ma
chimes.
Ii has been estimated that it cost
about $500 to train a skilled work.
man to perform a new task. and that
ultimately he represents an invest
ment OF about $4,000 to his employer.
Considering the subject of accident
prevention from this cold-blooded
standpoint, our business policy has
not been all too wise.
Now that there is an awakening of
employers to the duty which they
must exercise. now that employers
liability statutes nave done away
with the antiquated common law con-
ception of negligence, we may watch
for a very marked Improvement in
deaths and injuries.
As an example of the splendid
work which the large corporations
! are doing in the education of their
employees We may instance the
Pennsylvania and New York Central
railways and the United States Steel
corporation.
The work of the steel company is
particularly difficult because it is
dealing with employees who ONE
from a dozen different countries and
speak not n word of English. Rail-
road companies have their problems,
too, because they are dealing with
the most ponderous and at the same
time the most swiftly moving machin-
cry that We know.
1t would be hard to estimate with
any degree of accuracy how much
money is annually spent in driving