STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM 5
zation has been carried is indicated by the fact stated above that from
1919 to 1925 there was an average increase in horse power per person
employed in the United States of over 33 per cent. (4) A better
understanding between labor and management. Labor and manage-
ment during the last few years have made marked progress in the
establishment of more sympathetic relations. This has been largely
due to a disposition on both sides to get down to fundamentals and has
been particularly due to the definite acceptance on the part of organized
labor of the principle that increased well-being can be had in general
only through increased production. The part that industrial safety
has played in this realignment will be referred to later.
Apparently the increased seriousness of accidents during the last
few years has been the direct result of the increased intensity of indus-
trial activity during that period. Increased activity requires the em-
ployment of new, inexperienced men and the shifting of old men to
new jobs. Periods of rising accident rates have, in general, cor-
responded to periods of heightened industrial activity. Conversely,
when industrial activity slackens the first men to be laid off are the
inexperienced, and those least suited to the job. It is known that such
persons are particularly likely to have accidents.
There are, however, forces inherent in mechanization itself and in
the consequent speeding up of industry which have a direct tendency
to increase the seriousness of accidents. Mechanization * undoubtedly
affects the accident situation in many ways (some of the effects, how-
ever, being distinctly favorable). A few examples will serve to
illustrate what has taken place.
I. The introduction of machinery has, in many cases, displaced
handwork that was comparatively safe. Even though the change may
have resulted in accomplishing the work in question with less sacrifice
of life and limb, the hazard per worker, because of the greatly de-
creased number of workers, is, in general, greater. Not only is the
number of machine accidents per worker greater, but the severity is
greater than under nonmechanized conditions.
2. The introduction of automatic machinery has, in general, had the
effect of displacing operators that were working under standardized
conditions at machines that could be thoroughly guarded. The man-
power that is needed on automatic machinery, on the other hand, is
largely for repair work. Such work is intrinsically dangerous and js
scarcely capable of being standardized.
3. Under mechanized conditions the speed with which material goes
. * This point of view has been developed more fully by Mr. L. L. Hall in an article
in the November, 1925, issue of the Proceedings of the Casualty Actuarial Society, to
whom I am indebted for some of the figures quoted herein,
