Document jgGbkbV5q2NbQz6rEoD3ybew9

402 T'ccntx-third.lnnual Safety Congress--National Safely Council Struck or Run Over--Not At Public Crossings By D. G. PHILLIPS Superintendent of Safety, Wabash Hallway, St. Louis, Mo. The s]*cnkcr said in jart: Last year, out of 500 employees killed on the railroads of the United States. 101 were killed Itccausc of being struck and run over, not at jrahlic crossing---almost one-fifth of the total number. Nearly all fatalities and injuries due to Iicing struck and run over can be clas sified under three heads: first, stepped on the railroad track without first looking in liolh directions: second, stood or walked on the railroad track when he could have walked some place else: third, walked t*i close to the end of a car in a live yard. All railnad employees and other icrsons know, without anybody telling them, lliat those three things arc dangerous and unsafe. They know they shouldn't do them and they don't want to get hurt or killed. Then why is it. when all of them agree on those things, that 101 railroad employees were killed m tliat way last war? Tliat is the answer that yon and 1 must find ont. The answer ts. in an offltand war. supervision. But you have said nothing, you liave solved no problem wltcn you say, "suiierrision." When you say "supervision" you must include that course ^! conduct on the part of supervisors that secures the coo|ieratiiai of the men. There are a good many tilings that are dune in tin* exercise of supervision. In <ie of our shot* not Umgago, the shop su]erin1cndenl found a man without goggles dtting what is known as "g*gglc work.'* He promptly susjicndcd him for five `lays and sent him home. That is sujicrvision-one kind of supervision, or. rather, a part mi supervision. It had a wndcriul effect, especially on tlie other fellows. A few days later, this shop superintendent heard that the man's family was in very- destitute circumstances. We were only working almut (\ days a month at that time, and he lost five 1ays of the six on account of not wearing his goggles. Tlie shp superintendent went out to tliat man's Itousc. He had five little children, two of them under five years of age. and the only food of any kind in tliat house was one-half loaf of hrc.uk This was in the winter time and all they had was one stove, a cook stove. Tlie superintendent was so moved that lie came hack to the shop and took up a collection of alxrat S20 and presented it to this man's wife. A short time afterward, when the man came liack to work, he tliankcd me with tears m hts eyes for the money we had given him. I told him that we had not given the money to him. hui tliat we had given it to his wife. "Well." lie said. "I will tell you one thing. Phillips: you will never find me guilty again of doing tliat kind of work without my goggles on." And the cfticsti<n with me. gentlemen, is which had the strongest influence cm that man's action, the five days' time which he lost, or the lictp tliat was given his family in a time of need? Here is some more supervision. Air. Cole told me this story the other day. He went down to his shop nnmd-hnusc. and found a man who was not wearing goggles when he should have lcen wearing them. He called him down o(T the engine where he was at work. He knew the man's circumstances, that he was josl altout ready to get his Immc paid tor. I don't rememlicr what tlie fellow's name is. Imt Cole said. "George, yon liave violated the goggle rule" George knew it He said "George, yon liave a little girl in your home, eleven years old. who lias never. l*ccausc of infantile paralysis, liecn able to pm her feel to the floor. You liave a wife who is already worn out with the care of that invalid child. George, it someone wmild go to vour home and tell your wife tliat you have hecn Winded in Imth eyes, how would you feck knowing tliat von were no longer aide to help care for that little invalid and to help her mother in the struggle to keep things going?" George had stood with his head down while Mr. Cole was talking to him. He looked up with tears in his eyes. He said, "Mr. Cole. 1 have never been talked to about safety in that way before. I liave always thought there was a lot of hooey Safety Section. .4R.4--Steam Railroad Section. NSC 403 in this safety movement. But I now realize what it means to me, and vou cau rest assured that never again will 1 do that kind ot work without my goggles on." Tliat is some more supervision. Notice the results. 1 >on't think fur a moment that I am deprecating punishment for nuu-cniorccmcnt of rules. Safety rules should be adopted and they should lie rigidly enforced hv whatever methods are necessary to cause tlie employee to comply with them. Jhit enforcement is only a part ot supervision. Here is some more supervision that brought good results. On the Wabash Kailway this year we laid 00 miles of new 110-pound steel. We had a gang of 115 or 120 section men engaged in that work. About the time they started this work we happened to liave a division safety meeting within four or five miles ot where this camp was. The supervisor, a Mr. Watkins by name, loaded his fellows up ami bruught them in to the safely meeting. I was there and I told them just how to do their job without anyltody getting hurt. About three months later, they completed tliat job, and not a single man had liven injured. WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 3, 1934 Interesting Employees in Looking After Their Own Safety By J. CLYDE MIXON Chief Clerk to General Superintendent. Northern Division, Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company, Savannah, Ga. The speaker said in part: One of our South Carolina philosophers, Boh tjuillan, once said: "If we would pray more often for common sense, we would not lave to pray for rain." Expand that thought for Yourselves. Safety is common sense in action. "interesting employees in looking after their own safety" is Imt another way of saying, "Sell the idea of safety to vour men." Before otic can sell anything to someone else one must sell oneself. You may lie sure tliat hi a section where there is a poor safety recurd it is primarily the result of tlie indifference of a sii|cmsory officer, or the result of his inability to sell the idea to Ills men ami keep them sold on it. We must keep everlastingly at this proposition of 'safety. A wise man who lived in the Orient once said: "Nothing is ever definitely finished among men, for each thing stops only to begin again." We can put tliat down as a law oi nature. It has been said that "eternal vigilance is the price of safety", and tliat is quite true. We must constantly drive home the doctrine of safety mimleducss. If the supervisor is indifferent, there isn't anything to do aliout it hut "decapitate" him, and the schuict the better, liccausc it is au indication not only of narrowness but of his unworthiness to be a leader of men and a representative of enlightened management. It should not be difficult to get men interested in locking after tltcir own safely. The first law of nature, the law of the jungle, the law oi self-preservation, is or should he invoked liv every worker. It requires some time, however, for men to be sold on this idea--tliat they must look after themselves. There is also, of course, the appeal to a man's higher nature, the duty he owes to his family, then to his fellow workers and the tmldic whom he serves. But I want to ajiproach this subject largely from tlie angle of responsibility and tlie opportunity oi the superrising officer. It thrills me sometimes when I think of the opportunities tlie supervising officers--the foreman, the master mechanic the trainmaster, the sujicriiUcndent--have if they exert themselves as the leaders of the men working under their supervision. What an opportunity tills man has to aecom-