Document Dvob6QgMpJoV6w589yRa9vNDo

THE INDUSTRIAL SAFETY MOVEMENT Fig. 1-4. 1912 photo in o woolen mill shows guarded gears, but drive belts from line shafts are left unguarded. First law in U S. compelling guarding of dangerous machinery was possed In Massachusetts in 1877. Inspection force with authority behind it was also created. booming ahead into new fields and into new and unimagmed production The factories were almost unbelievably superior produc tive instruments as compared to the small handicraft shops which had preceded them. But they were often inferior to their pred ecessors in terms of human values--content ment, health, and safety. These deficiencies were not the result of management villainy. They were probably inevitable The tools of mass production had to be invented and applied before anyone could begin to imagine the problems they would create, and the problems had to be known before corrective measures could be considered, tested, and proved In the meantime, public opinion, manage ment thinking, and the law all reflected con ditions of the past when the worker was an independent craftsman, or else worked al most as a member of the family of the owner of a small shop In large industrial centers, the ugly re sults of industrial accidents and poor indus trial health conditions became more and more obvious Voices of protest were raised Though there were employers who hid their heads in the sand and denied the existence of the problem, wiser management men be gan to try to meet specific aspects of it. As early as 1867, Massachusetts had begun to use factory inspectors, and ten years later that state had a law requiring the guarding of dangerous machinery. From 1898 on, there were various efforts to make the employer financially liable for accidents In 1911, the first effective work men's compensation act was passed in Wis consin0--to be followed by a rush of similar laws m many other states There had also been progress on the tech nical side of the problem The railroads, which, perhaps, had suffered the most ad verse publicity from accidents, adopted the air brake and the automatic coupler well before the turn of the century. Some prog ress was also made in such matters as guard ing and fire prevention `Authorities differ as to the first legally ac ceptable compensation law, some giving this credit to New Jersey. 1-4