The various safety appliances could not be here described; suffice it to say that their effectiveness is conclusively proved by statistics published in 1913 by the Department of Labor in a report entitled 'Accidents and Accident Prevention in the Iron and Steel Industry.' The report covered 155 plants, employing 158, 604 workers, the accident rate for all plants, per thousand, being 1.86 fatal accidents, 2.72 permanent disabilities and 240.6 temporary dis abilities. In those plants where the best sys tems of accident prevention were installed, the accident rate was 167.1 per thousand, while the rate in the most poorly equipped plants was 507.9 per thousand. The United States Steel Corporation annually spends nearly a million dollars to maintain its safety system, but by so doing has reduced its fatal and disability accidents by about 45 per cent, and its less serious accidents by a still greater percentage. Safety engineering has now become an accepted branch of the science of engineering. One of the motives impelling employers to install or increase their safety appliances has been the differential insurance rates put into vogue by those who issue employers' liability policies.
An International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions has been formed "to bring into closer relation with one another the various boards and commissions administering compensation laws of the United States and to effect so far as possible unanimity• in the administration of such laws and to encourage and give effect to all measures look ing toward the prevention of accidents and the safeguarding of plants and machinery!' At a convention of the National Safety Council at Philadelphia in October 1915, much time was devoted to the discussion of means for safe guarding machinery; the connection between the consumption of liquor and the number and seriousness of accidents; the necessity of more drastic legislation; the value of physical ex amination and of other methods of excluding the subnormal and the unfit; and the financial advantages accruing from the use of safety devices.
Railway Accidents and Legislation Re garding.-- The result of the installation and application of safety devices appears nowhere more strikingly than in railway statistics. In 1914 there were a total of 192,662 persons in jured on steam railways and 10,302 killed, while in 1915 the total was 8,621 persons killed and 162,040 injured. This showed a remarkable reduction over any year since 1900, despite the fact that the number of persons carried one mile in 1915 was 106 per cent greater than in 1900 and the number of tons of freight hauled one mile was about 92 per cent greater. On 31 Dec. 1915 the Railway Age Gazette reported that 97,809 miles of railway in the United States were operated under the block signal system, which may account for the increased safety of passengers. Many casualties are due to carelessness of motorists at crossings, though in many cases these are inadequately guarded.
In order to promote safety in railway opera tion many States have railway commissions that investigate and report accidents them selves while other States require the railways to render their own reports. In general these commissions are empowered to inspect railway property and operation (roadway, bridges, tracks, equipment) periodically or at discretion, to recommend and require repairs and improve ments and to report to the governor or the legislature their recommendations and any neg lect of them. They are authorized also to require the proper guards at crossings; to regulate the heating and lighting and the carry ing of tools in passenger cars; to regulate the speed of trains in cities and near grade cross ings and the transportation of explosives and inflammables; to regulate the weight and quality of rails and the style of interlocking devices; to. prescribe the number of brakemen
and the qualifications and hours of labor of various employees; to impose penalties upon railway employees who become intoxicated while on duty or for neglect of duty which would endanger life or safety.
A number of Federal safety appliance, acci dent and compensation laws have been passed. The act of 3 March 1901 was superseded by another 6 May 1910 requiring monthly reports of all accidents injuring persons or railway property and authorizing the Interstate Com merce Commission to investigate serious acci dents. On 11 June 1906 an act was passed which was later declared unconstitutional and was superseded by the acts of 22 April 1908 and 5 April 1910. These constitute the Federal Employers' Liability Act and hold common •carriers liable for injury or death resulting in whole or in part from the negligence of any of the officers, agents or employees of such carrier, or by reason of any defect or insuffi ciency due to its negligence, in its cars, en gines, appliances, machinery, track, roadbed, works, boats, wharves or other equipment. Workmen's compensation acts are not appli cable to cases of employees injured while en gaged in interstate commerce traffic and no recovery may be had under them. Other acts are designed to prevent casualties. The orig inal safety appliance act was passed 2 March 1893 but was amended 1 April 1896, 28 June 1902 and 2 March 1903, with the result that now all freight cars must be equipped with automatic couplers and grab-irons, and in each train at least half the cars must be provided with brakes operated from the locomotive. On 6 June 1910 the Interstate Commerce Com mission ordered that on all trains operated with power or train brakes at least 85 per cent of the cars should have their brakes operated from the locomotive. By the act of 14 April 1910, as amended 4 March 1911, the Commis sion is required to regulate hand-holds or grab irons, hand-brakes, running-boards, sill-steps and ladders on freight cars. Under the joint resolution of 30 June 1906 the Commission is required to investigate the block signal systems and appliances for automatic train control. The railways are required 'by the act of 30 May 1908 to equip locomotives with ash pans that can be cleaned without an employee going under the locomotive. The use of unsafe boil ers and other appurtenances on locomotives and tenders is forbidden by the act of 17 Feb. 1911 (as amended 4 March 1915) and provision was made for the inspection of boilers and. their appurtenances by the railways and by inspectors under the Commission's supervision. The transportation of explosives for a time was regulated by the act of 4 March 1909 which superseded the act of 30 May 1908. On 1 Jan. 1910 the law was again amended and the present regulations which have been the result of occasional amendment went into effect 1 Oct. 1914. There is a for the Safe Transportation of Explosives and Other Dan gerous Articles" which was first instituted in June 1907 and was conducted -under the aus pices of the American Railway Association, but which now also works in conjunction with and under the authority of the Interstate Com merce Commission. On 4 March 1907 an act became law providing that, save in cases of great emergency, trainmen must have 10 hours off duty after 16 hours of continuous service, and eight hours off after 16 hours of service in any one day. The work of operators, dis patchers and others must be limited to nine hours per day in posts operated continuously, and to 13 hours in other posts.