Document ZBeop2Q49qMZdjp6LwRvkk8nO

wjc game witnout icar or favor. 1 want to say that the least I could say--the roost appropriate, I know you will say--is that he is a square fellow. 1 want to give you Mr. Boylan, your permanent chairman." W H. CAMERON, Managing Director.National Safety Council, Inc., expressed the feeling of the conference when he said: "To day safety men everywhere know that they can definitely and suc cessfully solve their accident problems. "The First Line of Defense" about which he spoke, he considered to be the problem of producing equipment for soldiers and sailors and of protecting all of the many other persons whose activities are essen tial -to the defense of the country. Ho oaid that these persons, the workers, can reach the ideal of maximum productivity only when they are working with complete efficiency and complete safety. Paragraphs from Mr. Cameron's talk are as follows: "I am well aware that many of our industries have used their special safety knowledge to build up excellent accident prevention records. Nobody odmires these gwil safety records more than I do. It is creditable indeed that the 4,700 plants reporting to the National Safety Council, in the period since 1926, have reduced the average frequency of accidents by 69 per ceul ami the average severity of accidents by 50 per cent. "But wc must take account of two significant facts. First, we must emphasise that these are "average" rates. All of the plants are trying to reduce accident losses, it is true, but these rates include both the plants that have perfected a high degree of safety organization nnH also <huse plants where salety organization is not so good. COUNCIL RECORDS ACCIDENT FACTS "In the second place, only some 4,700 selected plants are included in the group reporting regularly to the Council. Outside of this group there is a vast number of industrial establishments whose accident experience is not covered by these records. Some of these plants, douh> less, are doing some safety work; but we know that the great majori:y of them particularly the smaller shops and work-places--have very little idea of what organized safety work is. "These are the essential reasons why fatal accidents in all industry last year took 15,500 lives. And this is why the crippling and other disabling injuries among our country's workers ran to a total o: 1,250,000. "We have a right to be encouraged because the losses were smaller than in each of the two-years before. Fatalities in 1939 were reduced by 500 over the total in 1938, and by 3.500 as compared with itvrr Injuries also were considerably fewer. "But more than 90 per cent of all industrial establishments in country have fewer than 100 employes each. In most of these the: no real understanding of the menace of accidents. A serious acci' at may happen rarely. Records are seldom kept of those which c: merely a temporary injury, or the loss of equipment or tools. Too often it i3 believed that the insurance premium covers all the accident hazard, and there is no comprehension of the "hidden" or indirect costs. "Yet these smaller plant* of our country, despite their relatively :Vw employes compared to the great industries, arc charged with about 10 per cent of all industrial accident losses. The measurable money costs to them last year were some S240,000,000; the similar measurable costs of accidents to all industry were $600,000,000. SIX MEASURES IMPORTANT TO MANAGEMENT "Above all, there must be a definite and comprehensive accident pre vention program, which has hpen laid out, corutiniacd and approved in Mail by the highest management. A very important part of it will Mil with those personal causes of accidents, which, management result in from 75 per cent to 80 per cent of all disabling injuries. 'There arc at least six important measures that management em ploys in the elimination of personal accident causes. I will sketch them -rally: ` "1. Proper placement of men. "2. Job training. '*. Supervision. 'I. Discipline. General safety education. "'5. Safety contests, rewards, etc. NEW RECOGNITION OF ACCIDENTS "OFF-THE-JOB" "Guec industrial management paid little heed to what happened workmen after they left the plant. ` But a workman killed or dis-:,.M is a definite loss, both to his employer and his country, no matter :;':re he may be struck down. Studies show that in some plant? the rum o: `off-the-job' accidents to those occurring in the course of y*'\k ;s as high as two to one. Last year in all plants while work `uients took ton lives, sixteen others were killed in nff-tho*jU "Industry is rightly the chief support of our community safety "[inoL Industrial executives arc alert to promote the passage of /Vcr5 license laws, to improve the local regulations for the control traffic hazards, to encourage better administration of the safety and to show their forceful support of conscientious public officials A-'io cooperate in the State and National safety program. The first five years--or even ten years--arc the easiest, not the ...irocst. In starting an imhi,-tri:i! cnfvLy proerntn, ;my plant--large or ?.nal---should be able to lay out a plan, u>c the standard methods J ;a,.ct>' organization, and cut it? accident Ins.-o.s 50 per cent in the \rs Iear or Uut nil old safety men know that the farlhcr wo go a ong the safety road, the harder it is to increase tin: safety gain?." J1