New Britain herald., 1923-10-13
THE OBSER YER Makes Random Observations
 On the City and Its People

leampaisH. te he conducted pT th'
 school authorities ia association sitl
 the Eyesight Conservation eeunei
 Of America on October IS and ls
 has the active support Of leaders n
 Amsfiesn education. industry and
 civic life as well as ia Inc service ei
 state and nation.
 The council, whese purpose is edu,
 eatienai. was formed to direct efgaH'
 ised conservation eI sislaa in the
 United States, The necessity for ef-
 fort of this kind was faresd upon
 thouEhlful men during the postwar
 period. when the lessons of the con- fliet began to De clearly evident, The council Is degoung its efforts largely
 to ee-eperatien with school antheri. ties. so that in every sehoolheuse in the land the vital importance. so- eialiy, economically and morally. of sound eyesight may receive thorough recognition,
 Eye conservation In its social. eeo- homie and moral aspects is rapidly becoming a national problem Of first importance. The war gave an i'm. petus to science and the scientific method. notably in chemistry and engineering. and this broadened point Of view is profoundly affecting both education and industry.
 Under the leadership Of, Herbert Hoover. the Federated American En- gineering Societies undertook AS ono of group of postwar activities in the public service the investigation Of industrial waste. This investigation. or assay" as it was styled by Mir. Hoover, mining engineer by pro- fession. revealed many millions of annual loss to the nation through wasteful methods employed both by capital and labor.
 Significant findings were made by the investigators in the field Of eye conservation. in which they worked in cooperation with the Eyesight Con- servation Council. Industrial acci- dents, inferior workmanship. re- stricted output and impaired health were some of the consequences at- tributed to defective vision.
 Fourteen per cent Of all accidents, 1t has been disclosed. result in in- jurics to the eye, and of the totally blind persons in the United States 16Aa per cent owe their disability to accident. It has been shown conclu- sively that eye protection is para mount element in all hazardous occu- pations. The mining industry for ex- ample, recognizes this and is now de- the use of goggles by the, In one year there were l,527 eye injuries reported in Maine, resulting in a loss by 324 workmen of 2,146 working days, and in a money loss of $32,523. One manu- plant in Pennsylvania was during similar period by 13,000 accidents of which A per cent involved the eyes.
 , Safety programs, including the adoption of codes, have been set in motion by industry, and, paralleling this effort, systematic eye conserve ton work is under way in schools and colleges. Columbia and New York | University are among the first of the higher institutions of learning to rec ognize this type of instruction as a ,urricular activity.
 It is in the public schools. how. ever, that the sharpest recognition exists, for surveys in leading centers have shown alarming conditions of vision to prevail. Retardation, it is low held, is due measurably to poor ,yesight. Eye conservation is spread