Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-08-09
ACCIDENT RATIO
PAGES EFFICIENCY
Nation Paying Too Dearly for
Increased Output, Factory
Men Believe.

Special Dispatch to The Star.

NEW YORK, August 9.-The Ma
ton has paid too high a price in
deaths and accidents among it's work
ers for its increases in industrial pro-
ductivity. This is the conclusion
reached by national leaders among
employers and employees now gathered
in Asheville, n. c., for the eighth an
nual conference on human relations
in industry They are unanimous IN
saying that If American industry Is
to progress it must decrease accidents
to a minimum, for economic as well
as moral reasons.
The conference has had presented
to it startling figures on the tremen-
dOuS loss of life and time i'll industry
due to preventable accidents. These
show an economic loss from accidents
resulting in injury or loss of life in
the last year totaling $1,000 900, 900.
Statisticians declared that % per cent
of these happenings were due to pre-
ventable causes. The figures We're
sponsored by L. p. Afford of New
York, member of the Hoover Com
mission on Safety and Production,
and are based on survey OF 13,OOO
manufacturing plants.
Accident Danger Rises.
The survey shows that production
has increased SO per cent since 1899
for the individual worker and that the
danger of accident has risen at APP
Droximately the same rate. Some OF
the increase in accidents, according
to members OF the conference, is due
to the fact that Americans are nat
ural-born daredevils and always prone
to take chance"
The tide of opinion, however, is rap
idly turning against such practices.
since both employers and employees
are commencing to realize that acct
dent prevention pays big dividends in
preventing economic losses and rails
ing moral.
Necessity for further improvement
is shown by figures from some of the
main manufacturing concerns, which
show that $4,000 workers lost their
lives and 100000 lost time and wages
from accidents in the last year. Dan
ger is particularly noticeable in the
textile, copper and brass industries.
Delegates declared that more effective
| workmen's compensation laws are nee
essary in some States.
The conference Is united in the be-
lief that effective remedy lies in plac-
ing a real value on human life and in
conducting an educational campaign
which will reach not only the worker
but the public.
Training i'm First Aid.
| Special stress is laid on training
| employees of every sort in elementary
| first aid measures. This kind of train
| ing, according to officials of the Stand
ard Oil Co. of California, has been re-
| sponsible for saving many lives and
relieving untold suffering. They say
| there is more to safety first" than a
couple of words. They have one man
| at the head of their mo Time Los"
| honor roll who has worked 26R years
without all accident that cost loss of
time, and he worked in the power de-
! partment of an oil refinery where ac-
| cidents were likely.
| There is no evidence in industrial
circles today of a shortage of labor,
| but there is also little evidence of
much of surplus. This makes sta
| bility and low turnover and is giving
| employers an opportunity to train
workers against accidents. Wage lev
els are at what is virtually the peak
of peace-time levels. Factory pay
rolls are a trif1e higher than a year
ago. Turnover is small. So far this
year the voluntary quits" hav been
only 81 per cent as great as in 1920,
while last year they were 35 per cent
| of the 1920 rate.