ACCIDENT PREVENTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19028, 27 May 1925, Page 13

ACCIDENT PREVENTION.

SAFEGUARDING WORKMEN. UNITED STATES MEASURES. Somo idea of the large (oil exacted on lifo in the industrial activities of the United States was given by Mr. Will J. French, when dealing with accidents and their prevention in an address at the Leys Institute last evening. Mr. French was for several years chairman of tho Industrial Accident Commission of the State of California and is fully conversant with measures taken to safeguard workmen. He said it. was estimated that a worker was killed each 15 minutes day and night in the United States and that an industrial accident occurred every sixteen seconds. Tho tragic outcome of this was a life loss of more than 30.000 yearly and the injured exceeded 2.000,000. In California over a period of a dozen years, about 8000 were killed, 16,000 were permanently disabled and there were a million temporary accidents. Wonderful progress had been made in tho United States during tho last decade in the matter of accident prevention. Machinery was now guarded as a matter of course and manufacturers competed with each other to build the safest machines and many measures were adopted to comply with the law requiring employers to make working places safe. Shop committees of workers to supervise safe!activities had proved very advantageous, thus giving those subject to death or injury a direct and decidedly personal interest in their own welfare. Publications, bulletins, slogans, moving pictures, lantern slides and safety museums had also rendered invaluable service to tho life-saving crusade. The National Safety Council, with headquarters at Chicago, was a non-profit organisation of 4000 industrial concerns, Government departments, insurance companies, schools and individuals and was the clearing house for the organised safety movement in tho North American continent. The annual congress of this organisation, local councils and the National Safety New&, a monthly publication, were powerful factors in keeping the sentiment at its height. . The speaker dealt with the subject ot workmen's compensation and showed how it was being applied in the United States. Ho mentioned that in several of the States compensation insurance was made a tax, under State auspices, on each industry, thus preventing any person or company from making a profit out of the unfortunate sufferers. At, the same timo there was no possibility of failuio to meet tho medical and surgical benefits and tho compensation payments. Industrial diseases, Mr. French said, wore being tackled in a determined mannor by the citizens of the United StatesGood "lighting. pure water and sanitary surroundings wcro now looked upon as business assets.