The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-01-06
Hot Air.
The Secretary of Labor Davis and His
Safety Talk"
BY GRACE NJ. BURNHAM
Labor Research Association.

(Speu6lHg ut one OF Weekty rdutO harnesses
of the National Safety Council, an employers
organization fighting against compulsory
safety regulation in industry, Secretary of
Labor Davis delivered a bombastic speech
IN which he attempted to hide the high rate
of deaths and accidents 1ohich continue to
increase an the United States each gear. At
the same time. he WhitetOashed the employers
and put the chief blame for industrial ac-
cidents on the 1corkers themselves. This
is the second instalEment of Comrade Burn
hant's drticle.-Editor.)
A closer analysis of the secretarys speeck
reveals certain facts which cannot be denied,
although these are coaked in phrases de-
signed to throw his audience off the track,
at is probable" states Davis, "that $4,000 OF
more fatalities occurred in industry in 1928
through accidents which might have been pre-
vented if all the industries in the United
States had pursued safety work in keeping
with the councils plans"
This is the crux Of the whole matter. The
employers are not going to spend money
guarding machinery, substituting non poison
Gus for poisonous substances, and using safer,
slower methods where faster, unsafe methods
of work get more production-unles they are
compelled to do SO.
In the same issue of the National Safety
News, the assistant statistician of the Ma
tional Safety Council discusses why accident
rates go up well down, even in the
plants operated by members of the National
Safety Council. although" he writes, "about
200 establishments lowered their frequency
rates between so. and 100 per cent in 1928,
125 others reported increases of more than
100 per cent. The severity rates of $50 plants
dropped between so and 100 per cent but over
100 establishments had severity increases of
100 per cent or more" Speaking Of the in
creases in accidents in the construction in
dustry which have mounted. to such terrific
rates that it is estimated that no less than
so building trades workers are killed each
working day, the employers blame the Gin
herent" hazards of construction programs and
the necessity for using inexperienced men on
these jobs. The inherent hazards of con-
struction can be substantially reduced by safe
ty regulations, which are VIGOROUSLY lacking
in this industry throughout the entire country.
On the other hand, the necessity" for using
inexperienced men on the jobs is the self
imposed necessity" of the open shop employ
ers who constitute the majority of Safety
Council members to smash the unions at all
COSTS How necessary" it is to use only in
fact that the building trades unions recorded
an estimated 20 per cent unemployment among
their members during the last two years.
More frank is the statement of w. r.
Richards, Director of Accident Prevention of
the Associated General Contractors of Amer
ica, the organization that for ten years sue
cessfully blocked the completion of standard
safety code for the construction industry. He
says: "Our association takes the stand that it
is impossible to formulate rules and regua-
tions for the construction industry. : /.
When we consider that 80 to 90 per cent of
accidents are caused by the human element,
while only 10 to Is per cent are traceable to
mechanical sources, one major solution seems
feasible. That is INSTRUMENTATION for the
employee, for the contractor and for the
public. Accident prevention in construc-
tion, we maintain, is matter for cooperative,
voluntary, educational effort, consisting large
ly of teaching men to think, and prevailing
upon them to acquire the safety instinct
something which cannot be governed by legs-
lation."
1t is significant that when safety code for
the construction industry was prepared by =
committee of trade unionistss and architects,
and when the secretary of labor was asked
by the Building Trades Department of the A.
F. of l.. to call conference of trade union
lists, employers and government officials to
consider accident prevention in the construc-
ton industry, he would do nothing until this
Associated General Contractors Association
had given him the word. The secretary knows
his masters voice, Needless to say no confer
ence has been called.