increase the rate to 1.2 per 1,000 per annum. The details of accidents in this employment are set forth in the following table:

NUMBER OF FATAL ACCIDENTS AND OF DEATHS FROM ALL CAUSES AND RATE PER 1,000 EMPLOYEES IN THE UNITED STATES LIFE-SAVING SERVICE, BY YEARS, 1897 TO 1906.

"List of

[Compiled from the reports of the Life-Saving Service and the supplementary Persons who have died in the Life-Saving Service, as shown by the records of the Treasury Department."]

It has been necessary to omit any extended discussion of the causes of accidents and rational methods of their prevention as not strictly within the scope of this article. The analysis of industrial accidents in New York State, covering the years 1901 to 1906, brings out the fact that more than half the casualties and accidents in industry are the immediate result of machinery in motion. Of 864 fatal accidents, 475, or 55.0 per cent, were caused by machinery. Most of the fatal accidents in this group were caused by gearing, belts, shafting, pulleys, elevators, hoists, and cranes. Of the fatal accidents not caused by machinery, the majority were caused by hot liquids, acids, steam, explosives, collapse of buildings, falling objects, fall of persons, vehicles, and animals. Of the nonfatal accidents, 54.6 per cent were caused by machinery and 45.4 per cent were due to other causes. The analysis by industries is exceptionally interesting, and it is a matter of regret that this classification of accidents by causes and industries should have been discontinued. (a) The details of the analysis are given in the table below:

a The bureau of factory inspection has recently decided to resume the compilation of industrial accident statistics by industries, and the annual report for 1908 will again contain the statistics discontinued in 1905.

NUMBER AND PER CENT OF FATAL AND OF NONFATAL ACCIDENTS IN THE INDUSTRIES OF NEW YORK STATE, BY CAUSES, FOR THE PERIOD 1901 TO

1905.

[Compiled from the annual reports of the New York Bureau of Factory Inspection, 1901 to 1905.]

THE PROBLEM OF ACCIDENT PREVENTION. The present state of American industrial accident statistics does not warrant final conclusions regarding the true rate of the risk in different employments nor of the approximate determination of the occupation hazard, by degree of injury, for the more important industrial employments. Most of the present information is limited to the facts of accidental death or injuries generally, and while such data have their value they require to be made more specific to throw light upon the larger problem of accident prevention and workingmen's compensation for industrial casualties. The importance of such information has been clearly brought out in an address on “Valuation, in Actions for Damages for Negligence, of Human Life, Destroyed or Impaired," by Miles M. Dawson, before the International Actuarial Congress in 1903. (a) For insurance and other purposes, however, the data presented in this article will prove useful and emphasize the more dangerous trades and the present tendency toward an increase or decrease in the risk of accidental injury in the more important dangerous occupations. (') To the workingman himself there is no more important problem than the most effective

"Proceedings Fourth International Congress of Actuaries, 1904, Vol. I, p. 929. A useful and suggestive work on the prevention of accidents in industry has been published by the German Association of Trade Unions entitled: Unfallverhuetungsvorschriften, herausgegeben vom Verbande Deutscher Berufsgenossenschaften, Berlin, 1900. Mention may also be made of a valuable treatise on definition of invalidity under the title: Der Begriff der Erwerbsunfaehigkeit auf dem Gebiete des Versicherungswesens, by H. Siefart, Berlin, 1906.

protection of his life and health against the accident risk inherent in, or incidental to, the occupation in which he is employed. Much that could be done for his protection is still neglected, though many important and far-reaching improvements have been introduced in factory practice during the last decade. Accurate statistics alone can furnish a reasonable basis for reform. The possibilities for successful accident prevention have been clearly demonstrated in the experience of foreign countries and the exhibition of safety devices of the American Institute for Social Service.

SOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE ACCIDENT PROBLEM.

The facts presented in this article warrant the conclusion that the casualty risk in American industries is a most serious one, toward the reduction of which every effort should be made. At least a more earnest effort should be made to profit by the industrial methods of European countries. Granting that the underlying conditions are often quite different, and that many of our industrial accidents are the result of ignorance, reckless indifference, or carelessness, the fact remains that an immense amount of human life is wasted and a vast amount of injury is done to health and strength, with resulting physical impairment, which has a very considerable economic value to the nation as a whole. If, for illustration, the accident liability of employees in coal mines in the United States were reduced from 3.10 per 1,000, which was the average annual rate for the period 1897-1906, (°) to 1.29 per 1,000, the average rate in the United Kingdom for the same period, (b) the annual saving in human life would be 915. If the rate of casualties of railway employees in this country were reduced from 2.50 per 1,000, which was the average annual rate for 1897-1906, (c) to 0.98 per 1,000, the average for the German Empire for the same period, (4) the annual saving would be 1,735 valuable human lives. As stated at the outset, upon a conservative estimate, the total mortality from accidents in the United States among adult male wage-earners is between 30,000 and 35,000, of which it should not be impossible to save at least one-third and perhaps one-half by intelligent and rational methods of factory inspection, legislation, and control. In addition there were approximately not much less than two million nonfatal accidents, that not only involve a vast amount of human suffering and sorrow, but materially curtail the normal longevity among those exposed to the often needless risk of industrial casualties.

a Computed from the mine inspectors' reports of the various States.

b Computed from statistics included in the annual reports of the Home Office entitled "Mines and Quarries: General Reports and Statistics, London."

c Computed from statistics shown in the Report of the Interstate Commerce Commission, Statistics of Railways, 1906, pp. 42, 109.

d Computed from Statistisches Jahrbuch für das Deutsche, Reich, 1908, pp. 85 88.

APPENDIX.

TABLE 1.-NUMBER AND PER CENT OF ACCIDENTS IN THE METAL SMELTING AND REFINING INDUSTRIES IN NEW YORK STATE, BY DEGREE OF INJURY, FOR THE PERIOD 1901 TO 1905.

[Compiled from the annual reports of the New York Bureau of Factory Inspection, 1901 to 1905.]

TABLE II.-NUMBER AND PER CENT OF ACCIDENTS IN ROLLING MILLS AND TIN PLATE INDUSTRIES IN NEW YORK STATE, BY DEGREE OF INJURY, FOR THE PERIOD 1901 TO 1905.

[Compiled from the annual reports of the New York Bureau of Factory Inspection, 1901 to 1905.]

TABLE III.-NUMBER AND PER CENT OF ACCIDENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STEAM ENGINES, BOILERS, PUMPS, ETC., IN NEW YORK STATE, BY DEGREE OF INJURY, FOR THE PERIOD 1901 TO 1905.

[Compiled from the annual reports of the New York Bureau of Factory Inspection, 1901 to 1905.]

TABLE IV.-NUMBER AND PER CENT OF ACCIDENTS IN OTHER METAL INDUSTRIES IN NEW YORK STATE, BY DEGREE OF INJURY, FOR THE PERIOD 1901 TO 1905. [Compiled from the annual reports of the New York Bureau of Factory Inspection, 1901 to 1905.]