Document 4vnnRqmoKKb8ey19eoo95ZXdG

40 Sletcls industry Basically, we might say that all employee safety activity is designed to prevent. To prevent the kinds of things that arise out nj" and are a pan of every industrial injury -- human suffering and loss of life and limit. believes it strongly ciiouglt, what right haanyone to say he won't walk out of tha: hospital someday? The biggest thing ilia: has happened to liirn in Ills entire life wa* his conquering the paralysis in his right anr. Take human suffering. J don't necessarily mean the physical suffering that accompanies You sltould see the look of satisfaction on Bennie's (ace when he struggles with ail hi- the loss of a land or a fractured hip. I mean the mental suffering that every* in jured person cxjiericnces when he comes to a full realization of total blindness or com plete paralysis of his limbs. It is prthablv ralhcr difficult tor us. who have never ex perienced a seriously disabling injury, to realize tlc extent of mental suffering asso ciated with injuries of this nature. might to raise it just enough to shake t-our liand. Tin's is the end of my story abou: Bennie, but ) am sure you will agree with me dial it is not the end of die fight tha: lays ahead for him. Loss of life and Jrntf--Do you know man who has lost both liands? It you do. then you pro!abIy appreciate the icmhhsignificaace of such an injury. If you don': Tlie story of Bennie may help a little in happen to know anyone who has suffered this respect. Bennie i< a man about 50 vears old. a fellow just alcrui like you and me. He diis horrible experience. 1 will tell you abou: a fellow I know. You see. he lost both o: is married and his tamily is grown up and than in a punch press He was reaching in. are making out for themselves. S** Bennie just has his wife and a darn good one at tint. I don't know exactly wliat kinds of things Bennie thinks afout. but 1 suspect you know what / mean, no tongs.* Oh. i know tongs were provided for the job. bu: they were found crammed into a crevice in the ram. It sort of appears that my friend iliat they are just afout the same things that really hadn't been impressed with the im you and I think al^mt: working. sleeping, going fishing, retirement smeday maybe, portance of using them. Anyway, he is in pretty tough shape today, what widi trying and a host of other enjoyable things that to dress and shave himself and make a liv are ours as free Americans. Pretty won derful, if this were the end of the story. ing to boot. You see lie doesn't have a family so he is pretry much on his own. He But tliis isn't the end of Bennie's story. One will get bv all right--though; you see. he day last March he came into work feeling as liale and hearty as you ;md me. While he has his compensation coming in--but wait! That will run out someday and maybe he was going alout his duties, bothering no will-be too old to work by then. Kind of a one. and with one thought in mind of get rough road ahead, don't you think ? ting the job done, like a bolt out of the blue came a crane weighing 150 pounds. It struck Bennie on the head, fracturing his skull and spine resulting in permanent dam age to the spinal cord, completely and per manently paralyzing him Wow the waist. Now. who are these people we arc talking about? Are they strangers to all of us? People who work tor some outfit across town? Let's take a little closer look at them. They are employees who work for you and me. Yes sir! They arc die men who come Bennie is in hard shape today. He cannot in to work every morning and say to us even answer die call of nature, h has to he taken from him. The doctor says he will "Mr. Industrial Foreman, what's tnv assign* mem for today?". never walk again. So what 'Jo you think is going through his mind as he sits there in a wheel chair, almost completely heipless. Seven months ago he was a man in perfect health, full of dreams and ambitions, and today he is a hopeless cripple liaving to be waited on hand and foot. You see that's the kind of human suffering 1 am talking about Someone has said tliat. "It can happen here." It is happening here and in other industrial plants all over die country. Fif teen thousand of them lost their lives while at work last year and it is highly likely that an equal number will lose their lives this year. The thing y and I have to decide right here and now is what contribution we will have to make to this appalling figure ft is true that the doctor lias said he will when the record books are closed for 1953. never walk again but you don't know Ben nie. He says he will walk again and it' he W e have been dwelling on the human side of this business of employee safety. Let's There Is a Mon tn Ihc House 41 take a look at a little different phase of industrial accidents. I spoke of Bennie a litde earlier. Do you kr.^w how much the legal liability amounts :o in his case? Right now it stands in the neighborhood of $76,000. Bennie will get a!out S2L500 of this and the remainder reprr-ents the hospital and medical bill. \Wto pays all these bills that arise out : industrial accidents? The companies of -arse. Who else? Or do they? Let's take a litde closer look and see if we can find . :.-t who really pays the bill. The loss oi a leg in our state runs into real money. Right now it is something like jtt.OCW. Of this amount the injured on;-'<-yee will get about $7,100 in Workmen's r.mr<nsarion. The remainder is tor the :.-*spital bill and a`new artificial leg. A l`*t : money you say? You are so right, csjvcially when you consider that it took ex- two seconds to sjend it. How do you :::ink this fellow feels alout it. Is $7,100 ,t-ry imjonant to him right now? Do you -.:pp -se he is thinking afout the $55.00 he will get each week for the next 215 week*? 1 don't know what he liked to do fost. Ma\1e it was fowling or perhaps hunting r.nJ fishing. What do you suppose lie will for fun and entertainment from here on ::i? Pretty glum situation isn't it? Money jets to 1< prem insignificant when you look at it from that standpoint. One of the very common injuric- in in dustry is to the eyes. The loss of one of them would probably run into a cost of afout S7.100. The injured employee would jc-t afoul $6,100 of this in comiensation. i if course, it" the eye lias to fo removed, it .eaves a pretty horrible mess or, at least, dial's the way it used to fo. If you are wor ried alout how you would look with one i them gone, quit worrying !*ecnuse we can repr'Kiuce a perfect replica in plastic. It will match your one good eye n perfectly hat it will defy detection. I am told that over $5 per cent of all we know i learned through these two windows of ours. Now I am not faring that, it we lull the shade on one of them that we will only know half as much, but I will guaran tee that there wall be a lot going cn in this old world of ours that you will never know anything alout. Our Great Creator was good to us poor, human creatures. He gave us two ox everything tliat he thought we would need two of. so when you get down to one you're getting awfully close to none. One ot the most serious of all industrial accidents is total blindness. Workmen's Com{ensation and safety folks call it permanent and total disability. A case like this can run into real money. Something like a maximum of $50,000 for Workmen's Compensation alone. But what about this fellow here ? Hard to measure his loss m dollars and cents isn't it? The most serious of all industrial injuries i. of course, the loss of life. The compen sation payments to this widow will run into a total of about thirteen or fourteen thou sand dollars. Lots ot money, of course, but wliat about these two little fellows who will never again know the pleasure of meeting dad at the door when he comes home from work? What alout the leadership of a iather that is so important to them in devel opment a* good American citizens r Or what afout their right to have someone to l*<ik up to. to love and worship a- Jttst plain dad. So. when you actually get right down to it. the price of industrial accidents cannot really be measured in any other terms than their effect on people. A young man just out of high school, looking for a job for the summer, warns to earn a little money so that he can start college in the fall. We just finished hir ing him at the employment office and rent him over to fill that requisition turned in tor a punch press operator. His dad works over in the die room. Been with u* i*ver twenty-five years. Pam good die maker u*-,. Ijkes it here and tell* everylwnly what a g<vJ place it is to work. Got t* telling his fov here about our place and so. when he was looking for a job for the summer, he just naturally came to our -bop. First real job lie ever ltad. you sec. afout the . thing be ever did bciore was work as a stock foy in a grocery store. He doesn't know very much afout machinery and fac tories and manufacturing and tilings, which accounts for his bewilderment. This foy needs guidance ami leadership. Your leadership and mine. He needs help and instruction, all that we can give him. He is sort of depending on us to give it to him and, when you get right down to ir. we