THE WORK OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF SAFETY IN THE PREVENTION OF INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS AND DISEASES.

By MR. ARTHUR H. YOUNG, Director of The American Museum of Safety, New York City.

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: I wish to thank you on be half of the Trustees of The American Museum of Safety for the opportunity of taking part in this very timely and important confer

ence.

I think we are agreed that the day of conservation is coming into its own. We listened to the appeal for the conservation of the morals of our young men and helped the Y. M. C. A. to raise, not a three milion dollar fund, but a fifty million dollar fund; and we heard the cry for the conservation of our wounded soldiers and backed the Red Cross to the extent of one hundred million dollars. We have not cried the conservation of mankind from industrial accidents in &. countrywide compaign, with parades, with drums beating and flags flying, but I want to stop for just a moment, in view of the remarks made by the previous speaker as to the part Uncle Sam is doing in his own field of safety, to speak, not as Director of The American Museum of Safety, but as Chief Safety Expert of the United States Employes' Compensation Commission--a position which I consider the greatest honor that could come to me, at a salary of one dollar a year.

No flags were flown when Uncle Sam started in on his accident prevention campaign. That was probably because your own Lew Palmer had something to do with the starting of it. It was his indomit able energy which led him to call to the attention of Mr. Little, Chairman of the United States Compensation Commission, the very great necessity of protecting employes of the Federal industrial establishments. It is a horrible paradox that we have to go to such lengths to safeguard the individual worker, so that he may more efficiently make the munitions which will kill hundreds of thousands of our fellow human beings across the water; nevertheless, it is necessary.

As a result of the combined activities of Mr. Little and Mr. Palmer, a survey of all of the Government arsenals and navy yards was conducted by the National Safety Council. They called on their membership for volunteers. When the survey was completed-and we blush to admit that it showed the Government establishments far be hind private establishments in safeguarding dangerous machines

the first recommendation made was that permanent safety engineers be appointed, as the survey would serve no purpose if the recommendations for safety were simply pigeonholed. The recommendation for safety engineers went to the head of the War Department, to the Chief of the Ordnance Department and to Assistant Secretary Roosevelt of the Navy Department. Gentlemen, it took not over five minutes' consideration by each of those gentlemen to get their entire acceptance of the plan, and, forthwith, the Civil Service Commission. was asked to secure the best safety engineers available for our navy yards and arsenals. These positions have been filled with safety experts, not all graduate engineers, but all of them practical men. Some of them gave up much more remunerative positions in industrial lines to do their "bit" during the war.

Every recommendation, practically, made as a result of the initial . survey was accepted by the Governmental Departments, the estimates made, the money appropriated; and the safety work is now going on just as fast as it can be carried out. Already, in those yards where we have reliable statistics for comparison, we have shown a forty per cent. decrease in the accidents. You have not read about it in the newspapers. I am sorry I cannot discuss in detail what these recommendations were, but I hope that a Congressional investigation may soon make this possible. I want to comment on this for a minute, because, only yesterday, I read in the Philadelphia papers something that made me rather indignant as an American citizen-namely, the perversion of these safety recommendations for political purposes connected with an official establishment located not far from Philadelphia.

But to proceed to The American Museum of Safety: The function of our Museum, broadly speaking, is that of visualization. It is visualization, concretely placed before you, of the problems and the progress of the safety movement. This requires two correlating activities: First, an investigation and research department, including the library, which may tell us intelligently what we should visualize. In the Museum's library are all of the books published in the English and foreign languages, with which we can come in contact, that have to do with the safety movement; in it are copies of the papers presented at such conferences as this; the bulletins, employes' magazines and similar plant publications; statistics gathered from every available source, photographs, and lantern slides. Supplementing the library we have what we would like to call the laboratory. It is just a little shop, at the present time, where we can work out the solution of problems presented, as for instance, remote control apparatus. It is for little things like that that the laboratory is necessary.

Now, because of the research work, the attending of such congresses as this, the inspections, the conferences which are held with safety engineers and experts all over the country, many interesting exhibits have been gathered in the Museum. I regret very much that it is necessary for me to tell you what The American Museum of Safety is and what we have there. There is something wrong with The American Museum of Safety, or something wrong with the safety experts and others interested in safety movements in this country if your first knowledge of The American Museum of Safety comes through my telling you of our resources and activities.

I know how important it is to finish my talk on time, so I will endeavor to give you a telescopic view of the Museum. Probably the first exhibit to strike the eye of the average visitor is an elaborate collection of photographs, drawings and descriptive text giving a very practical and complete exposition of the hazards of the felt hat industry and, related to that, a similar presentation of the subject of dust and fume control. The original investigations on which this exhibit is based, were made by Mr. John Roach collaborating with Miss Lillian Erskine under the direction of Colonel Lewis T. Bryant, of the New Jersey Department of Labor. No one whose work requires dust and fume control could well afford to make an installation of apparatus without consulting Mr. Roach's department or the Museum's exhibit. It does not cost anything more than the trouble to visit the Museum, and Mr. Roach and the Department of Labor of New Jersey will co-operate by giving blue prints and copies of any photograph requested.

Then we have an immense machinery platform, the gift of one of the large insurance companies, really, a museum in itself. On it are installed, not models, but wood and metal working machines, actually in operation and guarded by standard safety appliances. Its purpose is to show that safety standards do not interfere with the productive operation of the machines. Your practical mechanic, your pattern maker or carpenter can come to the Museum and use the planer not only with absolute safety, but working better and more quickly than he can with the unguarded type. There are punch presses installed there, lathes, grinding wheels, and an oiler's platform, safe and yet efficient. There are proprietary devices such as belt shifters, clutches, and shaft hangers, all selected with the idea of getting that which is safest.

There are also on exhibit in the Museum ladders and scaffolds made by practical men, as well as machines innumerable, of model and operating sizes and conditions. We have some four thousand lantern slides, not filed away in cupboards, but set up on illuminated racks with an illuminated description accompanying each slide. The na

tional safety Council's Safe Practices Leaflet on rope slings and hitches is visually reproduced by knots, slings and hitches tied on ropes.

As many of the exhibits as practicable are portable. This is because the related activity of visualizing safety is the dissemination of information. Some of these portable exhibits are in use now; one is in the Province of Manitoba in Canada; one in Chicago; one on its way to Indianapolis; another is being prepared for the New York State Safety Congress at Syracuse. These exhibits are loaned without any expense other than that of shipment.

Those of you who are attending this meeting as inspectors of State Departments, consider it a part of your duty, I presume, to assist in holding foremen's meetings and community rallies. Don't you think it would be worth your while to look over The American Museum of Safety and see if it does not visualize something you need to know? If it is first aid, if it is welfare work, dust and fume control, committee organization, almost any subject related to safety, we can surely give you help at the Museum. We can also lend you lantern slides and give safety talks, if desirable. The Museum does not ask you to become a member, for it is partly supported by philanthropic individuals, none of whom would regret that we had gone beyond our limit in helping the country at large. We do not need to blush for what the Museum has done in that respect. We are proud of it, because all our members and the institution itself have done all that we have been able to do. I am only sorry that the Museum has not been financially able to do more in this great movement.

We try to accomplish by means of graphical charts the dissemination of statistical information. It is useless to talk of one million six hundred thousand accidents in industrial plants in a year, or twenty-two thousand lives lost in industrial plants in a year; but if a chart can be shown that indicates the bodies of these men laid shoulder to shoulder, side to side, it concretely brings the matter home to us. The compilation of statistical information and the preparation of such charts has been made possible through the generosity of another large insurance company which is about to put into the Museum a twenty thousand dollar installation of charts, the copies of which will be loaned. Dr. Hoffman, who talked to you this morning, believes very much in this visualization of figures by lines and blocks and other graphic features. One of the charts shows the progress of the reduction of mortality on the Panama Canal. Now we all know that very little attention was given to accident prevention when the Panama Canal was built, but you would realize, more than one could tell you in a full evening's lecture, just how horribly safety was neglected there if you could glance for a moment at Dr. Hoffman's charts. For each of four years the mortality rate is indicated by a line made up of sec

tions of different colors, each color representing the cause of mortality. There are industrial accidents, typhoid fever, cholera, malaria, criminal assaults, fights and so on, and the whole line decreases in length over the four years excepting for industrial accidents which is charted in yellow. It is the second section of the line and it is constant all the way down. It shows the accidents remain. Now, the visualization of statistics in that manner is valuable when speaking to workers.

I wish I had time, as one of our friends suggests, to "take another shot in my arm" and tell you what we hope the American Museum of Safety will be. Not merely a collection of accident prevention devices, but a great industrial museum, portraying the different lines of industry and showing safety incidentally, as for instance, in the mining industry, actual working models of anthracite mines, iron ore, copper and other mines, and the various machines and processes therein equipped and standardized for safety. We believe that it would be more instructive for the visitors to have the Museum visualize safety as incidental to manufacturing processes, rather than to group the various safety devices; but, of course, this plan is not feasible until we have progressed far beyond where we now are.

It will be of value to the American Museum of Safety if the discussion which is to follow my talk will be very frank. If you will tell us where we are falling short of our function I pledge you on behalf of the Trustees that we will do our best to meet the situation. I just want to leave this thought with you: That the American Museum of Safety is not the New York City Museum of Safety; it is not the New York Museum of Safety, nor the Eastern States Museum of Safety. It is The American Museum of Safety for all the states; it is for the entire nation.

CHAIRMAN EMERSON: The next speaker will be Mr. Elmer Spahr, of York, Pa., President of the Pennsylvania State Conference, Bricklayers', Masons', and Plasterers' International Union, who will lead the discussion on the subjects presented this afternoon.

I take great pleasure introducing Mr. Spahr to you.

MR. SPAHR: Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, it is almost a question' in my mind as to how well I am qualified to discuss the preceding papers, excepting those which deal particularly with how organized labor can aid in preventing industrial accidents. I have attended numerous conferences and meetings centering about the vital topic of safety and have listened, or rather patiently waited, for some speaker to discuss safety in the field of endeavor occupied by the craftsmen I represent. I refer to the contracting and building industry in Pennsylvania. The organization I represent is the Pennsylvania State Conference of the International Union of Bricklayers, Masons, and Plasterers. Obviously, my principal concern is for safety in the wide field of building and contracting. All the discussions on safety at this conference have been excellent and much that has been said, from the standpoint of employers and from the standpoint of labor representatives, is of general value for the cause of safety. However, I feel that