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February, 1914 ers and the universal verdict has been that never before was there such co-operation among the crews as was noted last season. This co-operation made for safety, for if accidents are to be prevented both the chief officers of: the ship and the men must work together for the welfare of all. "It is not sufficient then to simply declare that a certain thing should not be done because it endangers others as well as the careless individual himself, but there must be con- stant effort on the part of the owners and officers of the ships to keep before the men all the time the thought that a little care and a momentary stop may mean the saving of a life. The National Council for Industrial Safety says in a circular issued in advance of the meeting, referring to a convention since held that it is hard to realize, based on statistics, that during the four days' session of the conven- tion 22,272 workmen will have been killed or seriously injured, in this country. Statistics show that there are in the United States 30,000 non-fatal accidents each day from commonplace causes in all lines of in- dustry. It is probably safe to say that forethought and care on the part of some one would have prevented 75 per cent of these accidents. Safety lies in little re- forms. Each man on our ships, no matter how humble his position, may constitute himself a committee of one on Safety. This habit can easily be established among the men if the owners will require the officers of his ships to systematically study the subject and then persistently insist on the men following out their suggestions and' the rules of the industrial committee. As an instance of what may be accomplished in this direction may be noted in the statement of the Chicago & North Western: railway, that last year they brought to the attention of their employes 4,382 different preventable ac- cidents. To. be - sure == most of them were small ones, but it must be remembered that it is the small preventable accidents that bring about the large major- ity of the accidents. It is not my purpose to here reiterate some of the things that should be done: or should not be done in the way of minimizing personal injury in the operating of our. ships, for it is the province of the industrial com- mittee to supply the details, but I want to try and impress upon the owners that it is an obligated duty that they shall take every pains, through imperative orders and systematic reports, to = that every avenue for preventable accidents shall be closed. Mr. Sheadle presented a tabulation of personal injuries aboard ship during 1913 which was the first year that any such record was kept and it is, of course, a question wheth- er all the boats were faithful in reporting. The report says: "However, there is a total of 325 slight, painful, and se- rious injuries reported from 171 different boats, or an aver- age of about two per vessel; 211 were injured of the for- ward crews, 112 of the after crews, and 2 of outside labor. This total subdivided shows 215 injured through their own carelessness, 77 of which were slight injuries, and 138 pain- ful or serious; 93 injuries which could have been avoided, HARVEY D. GOULDER, General Counsel THE MARINE REVIEW | 67 28 of which were slight, and 65 painful and serious. Seven- teen were injured in an unavoidable way, six slight and eleven painful and serious. The greatest percentage of in- juries occurred in the handling and working around machin- ery. If the men were more careful a great many of these injuries would be avoided. Sixty-seven per cent of the total of these injuries were due to carelessness on the part of the injured men themselves. "In the handling of lines the next greatest number were injured. About 70 per cent were injured through their own carelessness and 30 per cent were injured through the fault of a co-worker. Among the kind of injuries received in this particular class were men getting their fingers pinched, get- ting their hands caught between cable and spile, not leaving go the line quick enough, and broken wires running into their hands, also men at the winch taking up the slack before the line was properly put on the spile. Handling hatches is third on the list in number of injuries, 77 per cent being due to carelessness, 15 per cent which may have been avoided, and 6 per cent unavoidable, In the handling . of: steel ~ hatches (we fad that the men at the machine will start up the engine unexpectedly and the men around the hatches will get hurt in various ways. There should be some warn- ing given by the man at the winch before the engine is started, so that those in the vicinity of the hatches can keep clear. Injuries received by falling into the hold, handling hatches, and through other causes, are avoidable in most cases, that 1S ta: say, most of these accidents oc- curred through the negligence of the men aboard ship, and not the injured man _ himself. Hatches are left uncovered need- lessly, and things are allowed to remain around the deck, causing the men to stumble and fall into the hold. Of the total number of accidents 66 per cent are due to carelessness on. the part of the men, 29 per cent which may be charged to avoidable accidents, and 5 per cent through unavoid- able means." There were thirty-five fatal ac- cidents during the year of which seventeen were held to be avoidable. "My purpose in presenting these figures," said Mr. Sheadle, "is to emphasize, in a measure, the importance of this ques- tion. It is to be hoped that vessel managers the coming year will be particularly careful to obtain reports of per- sonal injury accidents in the fullest detail, so that intelligent analysis can be made at the end of the season. A great many industrial works now have posted about their plants warning or reminding signs bearing on the subject of per- sonal injury. Some boats have already adopted this plan to very good purpose. I have seen signs such as 'Safety First', 'Responsibility Rests With You', etc. I wish that the di- rectors or executive committee might authorize the securing of such signs to be furnished at cost to the individual boats. Every owner I am sure is earnestly and seriously interested