The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-04-23

Safety in factories, which 8 few years ago was just a new theory,
 Is today a reality and bureaus of inspection of the various states and
 insurance companies are keeping pace with the modern educational trend," Labor Commissioner Joseph Tone declared yesterday in talk
 before the factory inspectors or Connecticut at meeting held in the state Capitol.
 "In the old days visit by fac tory inspector to a factory meant trouble. around the plant" contin-
 ued Commissioner Tone. "The factory inspector armed with the authority of the law, pad and pen ell, and wearing a badge, came in- to the plant, not as an advisor or
 friend, but rather as one to be feared. When he finished his in-
 spection of machinery he had a
 long list of recommendations of
 changes to be made, all of which
 were supposed to be completed
 within 30 days or, as the order
 read, the plant would be closed down.
 "He was an unwelcome guest.
 but now I can very plainly see that the attitude of both the inspector and the superintendent were
 wrong. However, there are still
 some inclined to follow the old method"
 Arthur Mcdonald of this city, a
 member of Commissioner Tones inspection staff, was among the off,
 ficials present at the meeting. He
 declared today that Commissioner
 Tone's talk was very enlighten-
 ing one.
 Continuing, Mir Tone said: "In the early days we did not appre- ciate the value of education along
 safety lines. We did not think that
 safety included the study of turn
 over; that contentment, that ab-
 sence of worry had anything. to do with the attitude of the worker or might be the cause of an accident: Good health, good lighting, good housekeeping, sanitation, sa1e
 clothing and bright and cheerful
 surroundings all enter into the sup-
 ject of accident prevention and the wide-awake executives are paying . a great deal of attention 10 th's phase of the work.
 However, the difficulty that has existed for years is the fact that inspectors are political footballs and many good men lose their jobs because they do not happen to pc of the same political faith as the reigning power. The department of labor. and industry occupies a very important part in the state government and I do not tninK that politics should enter into tnis dor,a rtr rlant
 livery effort should be made by the heads of the department or labor as we'll as by the insurance companies to build up a competent corps of inspectors. The appoint ment of a man or the assignment of a man who might have been a silk weaver or a shoemaker to in- spect a plant like Bethlehem Steel. Westinghouse or any Cement com pany: to do the job which he IS expected to do> and tell the. trained engineers and operators who have been working in these plants TOT years how to operate their milis and how to safeguard their ma chinery Is a poor policy. |. I've appreciate the fact that II takes years to train inspectors ana build upta competent corps. Per haps the ideal inspector would ne the fellow who has had a techni- cal training and after a few years | of experience in industry could pc brought into the inspection de- partment to study the labor ana com pensation laws, the safety codes and their interpretations. "He should know the routine or tho department and the handling of accident reports, studying the causes of accidents and the vari. usstypes of industry. "The factory inspector exercises |a wide influence In q small plant employing from b 10 % and such |a small plant e very often without