The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-03-30
ACCIDENTS COST J. 5. INDSTRIES
 IMMENSE SUMS

The astonishing ignorance of the public, the employers, the workers, the legislators and officials who ad- minister the workmen's compensa- ton laws, of the cost of industrial accidents to the community was dis cussed by Dr. Royal Meeker, Com missioner of Labor Statistics of the United States Department of Labor, in an address delivered recently be- fore the Pennsylvania Safety Con- gress at Harrisburg, Pa.
 The aim of all employers employees, managers and engineers should be to prevent all pT>eventajble industrial ac- cidents. In order to do this they how accidents occur, the results of such accidents and the means by which they may be reduced or elini- mated The greatest need of the world today, he said, is for facts statistical facts. Every doRar spent for real statistics will save two dol lars which will otherwise be wasted in needless experimentation.
 To industrial accidents, as com- mop1y understood, Dr. Meeker adds unemployment, which, he says, aI- though it is not yet regarded as an in dustrdod accident is really the most important of aal and causes vastly more slowing down of production than all other industrial mishaps."
 Analysis of worHmen's comp pensa,- tion laws in the different States shows a surprising lack of uniformity as to industries and occupations cov- cred, waiting period, amount of money compensation and medical benefits provided. The extent of var iation in the coverage is shown by the estimated number of workers cov- cred by the acts. In New Jersey it is estimated that 9S Der cent. of all workers may benefit, in Alabama about 33 per cent, and for the coun- try as 9, whole probably less than 60 per cent. When account is taken of those excluded by failure to elect in the States having elective laws, and
 through ignorance of their rights, it is safe to say not more than 40 per
 cent. of wage earners in the compen-
 sation States really come under the
 protection of the workInen's compen-
 sation laws
 In r jurisdictions which have had workmens compensation long enough
 to get an experience, the amount paid for compensation of all kinds, linciud-
 ing medical benefits, in 191S was $16,- TSP, ,610, an average of $3-36 per em- ploye, for the approximately 5,00o, ,0e0 workers overed fby the laws. The ut ter uselessn ess of this average of av- erages is shown when contraSted with the average of $172 in New Jersey, $4.85 in Ohio and $4-39 in California It is very evident that this variation is not due to differences in the actual
 -ost of industrial accidents in them selves but to the differences in the provisions of the acts
 It would be impossible to calculate the cost of personal injury accidents in industry from the compensation payments made by the different states even if all the states compiled staIs- tics showing these amounts.
 Compensation payments are in
 creasing year by year. Some of this increase is due to the extension and greater GbcraIity of the laws, but l whether industrial accidents causing i personal injury are on the increase or
 the decrease is not known No ade- 1 quate statistics of accidents exist be- 1 cause the people have not asked for i them There is evidence of a reduc- | ton in both frequency and severity rates in some steel plants Whether | this encouraging experience applies to the steel industry as a whole is unknown
 Compensation laws do not show
 that compensation payments add a new cost to be borne by industry and
 the community but rather a readjust-
 ment of such burdens and also that industrial accjdenrs e1re not an inevit- able part of the workings of industry, but that when they are costly and l that they are to an unbelievable de gree prezentable-'
 Little as is known of physical in- 1 jury accidents, less is known about | the cost of unemployment Unem- plOyment may be differentiated into | out-of- work unemployment, which is
 seIf-explanatory, and unemployment l on-the-job, which is caused either by l deliberate expert 1oafing on the part ! of the workers or by inef1iciency in
 shop manage Although strikes at tract much attention, because more l dramatic, the actual losses because of | them are relatively insignificant as | compared with unemployment due to l other causes In this field. as in that | of accidents, statistics are few and show little uniformity. The only off, | c1a1 figures available in this country 1 at the present time are those pub Tshed in the Monthly Labor Re 1 view" which gives the number of l employees and the monthly wage bill | for a limited number of plants in cer- | tain industries, and strike statistics l which are published from time to | time
 In view of the dangers of industrial l catastrophe possible in the present
 unsettled condition of affairs, a prop
 erly adjusted system of unemploy- | ment insurance will not solve the problem of unemployment, but it will
 help to call attention to the cost of
 unemployment just (as workmen' s l compensation laws have called atten-
 ton to the costs of industrial acci-
 dents which result in physical maim-
 ings and deaths