Relation of Workmen's Compensation to Accident Prevention

This impotence of statistics is freely admitted by the labor statisticians themselves. Aside from a few suggestive promises of what they might perhaps do in the future if given adequate appropriations for their work, they are as helpless as the man on the street. The result of the continuous financial pressure exerted by workmen's compensation laws cannot be measured in figures. It is impossible to separate the powerful stimulus of accident compensation from other influences working toward industrial safety. But in dealing with some questions daily observation and common sense are worth more than a five-pound book of statistical tables, and when tabulated figures are lacking, expert opinion is especially welcome and valuable. A brief survey of the development of the compensation movement and the closely following national movement for accident prevention is instructive. The first state workmen's compensation laws to go into effect and stay in effect were enacted in,1911. The very next year a group of employers and technical advisors held a meeting out of which later grew the great national organization of individuals and companies interested in the promotion of safety in industrial establishments. A familiar statement by employer speakers at their safety conferences runs like this: Our state passed a workmen's compensation bill in 19-, and we then realized that as a matter

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