for improved conditions. Voluntary systems of prevention and relief have been inaugurated by numerous American employers which compare favourably with those of the best European conditions, but on the whole the United States and Canada are far behind other civilized nations in questions concerning injured workers' compensation, employers' liability and accident prevention. Employers are no more to blame for this than any other class of people, but the day has come when unless we employers take the initiative and settle these problems in a human, constructive and efficient manner, they will be settled for us by the demagogue and agitator. This, at least was the thought of the officers of the National Association of Manufacturers two years ago. Members of the National Association of Manufacturers located in every State and City of the Union have during many years manifested practical interest in the prevention and relief of industrial accidents. Some have established their own plants' private systems of relief and prevention which have attracted national attention.

Impressed with the continually increasing importance of this subject its appeals to justice and humanity and its relation to widely proposed changes in the nature of employers' liability laws, a special committee was appointed to investigate the whole question from the viewpoint of the progressive employers. I have had the honour to serve as chairman of this committee from its beginning.

Our first step was to make a thorough inquiry among 25,000 employers of the United States, with the result of 15,000 replies. 99% of these replies demonstrated that the employers are not satisfied with the workings of our old liability laws on the ground of their being unsatisfactory. wasteful, slow in operation and antagonistic to harmonious relations between employers and wage workers. Practically all employers addressed are in favour of equitable indemnity systems, providing automatic relief for victims of industrial accidents or their dependents and especially in favour of a systematic, strenuous accident prevention campaign. The greatest difficulty in the way of immediate results is the lack of experience on the part of almost every body of how to go about the general inauguration of prevention and compensation systems.

I am well aware that your various Canadian provinces, as well as many of our States in the Union, have collected some

statistics bearing upon accidents in such occupations, but these statistical data are not sufficiently broad, accurate and of long enough duration to serve as a basis for intelligent consideration-legislative or voluntary. You would not build a house or a machine without complete plans, and a nation cannot cover a subject of such importance as this without plans, records and fundamental principles upon which to build.

So-called reformers do not always appreciate this. A short time ago I addressed the Governor and Legislature of one of our middle western states. The Governor, a man of many fine qualities, asked me during the progress of our arguments: "Now, Mr. Schwedtman, why have you gathered all this mass of facts and figures from European sources? I do not care how England or France or Germany settle this problem-we can surely settle it better than they can." asked him how he would settle it without statistical figures as basis. Said he, "Mr. Schwedtman we need no figures-all we need is the right kind of a gizzard" (which means the right heart). Of course, there is no sense in arguing He misunderstands the issue.

with such a man.

American wage workers do not need and do not want charity. They want justice, and the employers of Canada and the United States are as anxious to be just, fair and progressive in dealing with their wage workers as they are in every other avenue of endeavour. Let me then in a general way outline for you the cardinal principles and conclusions which the organization which I have the honour to represent has adopted and the modes of procedure which it is pursuing. This I will follow up with facts and figures which serve as our basis for action and for a better general understanding, I shall illustrate my arguments by charts, diagrams and illustrations.

If, by magic, we could do away with all future work accidents we would have no need of dealing with any other phase of the problem. Every accident cannot be prevented but experts agree that one-third or even one-half of all work accidents and their accompanying ills can be eliminated by careful and systematic endeavour. Consequently, prevention of accidents is of prime importance, but for practical reasons I shall discuss several other phases of the subject ahead of prevention.

VOL. XXXI. C.L.T.-57

Suppose we get into the proper spirit for considering various cardinal principles and explanations adopted by the National Association of Manufacturers by reflecting upon the importance of the problem which we are trying to solve. Authorities tell us that in comparison of the vital and physical assets of a nation, as measured by earning power, the former are from three to five times as valuable as the latter. These authorities assert that there is as great room for improvement is our vital resources as in our lands, waters, minerals and forests, and that this improvement is possible in respect both to the length of life and to freedom from disease and accidental injury during life.

Professor Irving Fisher estimates (In Bulletin No. 30 of the Committee of One Hundred on National Health) that $250,000,000,000 is a minimum estimate of the vital assets of the United States in 1907, and that of the estimated annual loss of three billion dollars, due to sickness, accident and death, one half or $1,500,000,000 is preventable.

The fire losses in the United States and Canada for the month of March as compiled by the Journal of Commerce (N.Y.) shew a startling increase over the customary sum chargeable in March, the total being $31,569,800 as against $18,465,550 for the same month in 1910, and $13,795,400 for March, 1909. The total loss by fire for the first three months of 1911 in the United States reaches to $69,907,250, a remarkable increase over 1910 when the total was only $49,130,300 and 1909, when it amounted to $52,661,400. During March this year there were no less than 354 fires where the loss in each instance reached or exceeded $10,000.

A special inquiry by the United States Geological Survey to determine the fire waste in the United States for 1907, included nearly five thousand cities, rural communities and villages. In comparison with European fire loss ours is from five to eight times greater. We are paying a preventable tax annually of 366 millions, enough to build one Panama Canal every year.

The buildings consumed in 1907, if placed on lots of 65 foot frontage, would line both sides of a street from Chicago to New York. A person journeying along this street of desolation would encounter at every thousand feet an injured person and at every three-quarters of a mile he would see the charred remains of a human being, and when burned out

at the end of the year, the fire would begin all over again on a street of even greater length.

A comparative summary extended over an average of five years shewing the number of men killed in mines, for each thousand employed in various countries is as follows: France, .91; Belgium, 1; Great Britain, 1.28; Prussia, 2.06; United States, 3.39. There has been a gradual increase in the mine casualties in this country, whereas in Europe there has been a steady decrease. One-half of the suffering and the human and the economic loss due to accidents is preventable.

I have some illustrations here drawn from American sources. You could find corresponding illustrations in the history of your country.

During the past ten years we have had two wars-the Spanish and the Philippine, and the aggregate loss of killed. and wounded in the two was less than six thousand men, while the number killed and wounded in our industrial army during the same period, according to lowest estimates, was more than 5,000,000, that is, for every man killed or wounded in war 66 victories of peace" have cost us 875 men

killed and wounded.

The six bloodiest battles of the Civil War were Gettysburg, Spottsylvania, Wilderness, Antietam, Chancellorsville and Chickamauga. The total number of killed, wounded and missing in these six battles aggregated less than 105,000 men, while the number killed and injured upon our railways during the year ending June 30th, 1906, was 108,324. (Tolman.)

Taking the last estimate of our industrial expense the total number of casualties suffered by our industrial army is sufficient to carry on perpetually two such wars at the same time as our Civil War ond the Russo-Japanese War. (Tolman.)

It would be misleading to leave this subject without comparing the fearful human losses due to work accidents with other causes of human loss.

Deaths caused by occupational accidents in Germany:

It is quite evident from this that compared with deaths from other sources work accidents are not as serious as might appear at first glance. I might go on producing additional facts and figures without limit, but these answer the question sufficiently. You will notice that many of my statements are made with particular reference to popular understanding in the United States. The facts and figures could easily be translated into Canadian comparisons for a popular education campaign in your great country. This I have not had the time to do.

To solve this problem, the same as any other great problem, we need to consider two programmes, one for the immediate future, which must necessarily be based more or less upon policy and upon the temporary hardships which stringent legislation in some of the provinces or States may place upon us. I have considered this question in a recent pamphlet entitled "What Can Employers Do?" and while this pamphlet is particularly drafted for the employers of the United States, I believe it holds good in many points with equal force for the employers of Canada. Time is too short to endeavour to analyze the temporary programme thoroughly, and for this reason I have brought along a number of these pamphlets which may be had from your offices.

The more important question is the permanent programme. It may take years of educational work among all classes of society to establish your permanent programme in all parts of the country and in all callings. The permanent programme must cover two phases, one covering legislative action, the other voluntary action. I shall endeavour to picture in your minds the basis for such a future permanent programme as the progressive employers of other countries and especially those of the United States