The chief factory inspector, in an interview with a special agent of the Bureau, stated that fatal accidents are promptly reported, but that there was some difficulty in securing reports of other accidents. However, as the State is small and as the newspapers enable him to trace accidents that may not be officially reported, he believes that few, if any, accidents are not brought to his attention. He maintained that Rhode Island has fewer serious accidents in proportion to the number of employees than any other State. This favorable condition he attributed to four causes: (1) The proper arrangement of factories; (2) the careful guarding of machinery; (3) an intelligent class of employees; and (4) the attention paid to the matter by the inspectors.

The following table shows the number of accidents reported to the State factory-inspection department for the years 1905, 1906, 1907, and 1908, as presented in the annual reports of that department for those years.

In the reports fatal accidents are separately classified, and also serious accidents are distinguished from those of a minor nature. No formal definition or explanation is given of the word "serious" as thus used, but from the accidents listed as serious it would appear that the word is interpreted with considerable strictness.

NUMBER OF INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS REPORTED TO THE FACTORY-INSPECTION DEPARTMENT OF RHODE ISLAND, 1905 TO 1908.

[Compiled from Annual Reports of Factory Inspection, Rhode Island: 1905, pp. 14-16; 1906, pp. 14-16; 1907, pp. 14-18; 1908, pp. 15-17.]

The industries in which these accidents occurred are not stated in the printed reports except for those accidents which are classified as fatal or serious. For them the following classification has been made:

NUMBER OF FATAL AND SERIOUS INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS REPORTED TO THE FACTORY-INSPECTION DEPARTMENT OF RHODE ISLAND, BY INDUSTRIES, 1905

TO 1908.

[Compiled from Annual Reports of Factory Inspection, Rhode Island: 1905, pp. 14-16; 1906, pp. 14-16; 1907, pp. 14-18; 1908, pp. 15-17.]

In 14 of the 27 establishments visited accidents resulting in injuries to employees were recorded as having occurred during the preceding year, the number of such accidents being 62. In 9 of these 14 establishments none of the injuries received had caused incapacitation from work for as much as two weeks' time. In the remaining 5 establishments accidents causing at least two weeks' loss of time had occurred and, under the law, required reporting to the State factory-inspection department. Such reporting had been done by 4 establishments and had not been done by 1.

CONNECTICUT.

At the time of the field work of this investigation there was no law in Connecticut regarding the reporting of accidents."

The law here referred to is as in force at the time of the investigation, February, 1909. The text of the laws in force Jan. 1, 1912, is given in the appendixes at the end of this volume.

2

By an act passed shortly subsequent to this investigation, however, accident reporting was required. Acts of 1909, ch. 150. (Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, No. 85, p. 525.) The important features of this law are as follows: Manufacturing and mercantile establishments to report to the State factory inspection department, within 15 days, all accidents causing death or loss of 1 week's time. Report to state name of injured, time of accident, nature of injury, and, if a machine accident, location and character of machine. Reports to be confidential and inspectors not to be witnesses in cases resulting from such accidents unless they are present at the time of the accident. Penalty for not reporting after having received forms for such reports is a fine of not more than $20.

CONDITIONS FOUND.

Accidents resulting in injury to employees and occurring during the preceding year were recorded by 19 of the 35 establishments visited. The total number of such accidents was 718.

NEW YORK.

SUMMARY OF LEGISLATION.1

The New York law regarding accident reporting is as follows: * The person in charge of any factory 3 shall report in writing to the commissioner of labor all deaths, accidents, or injuries sustained by any person therein or on the premises, within 48 hours after the time of the accident, death, or injury, stating as fully as possible the cause of the death or the extent and cause of the injury, and the place where the injured person has been sent, with such other or further information relative thereto as may be required by the said commissioner. who may investigate the causes thereof and require such precautions to be taken as will prevent the recurrence of similar happenings. No statement contained in any such report shall be admissible in evidence in any action arising out of the death or accident therein reported.

Penalty. First offense, $20 to $50; second offense, $50 to $200, or imprisonment not more than 30 days, or both; third offense, not less than $250, or imprisonment not more than 60 days, or both. This law, it may be observed, is very strict in its requirements. All accidents are to be reported; reports must be made within 48 hours; and all persons in the factory premises, whether employees or not, are to be considered as coming within the scope of the law. The commissioner of labor has modified the strictness of the first requirement-that all accidents be reported by an administrative order, under which accidents causing less than 5 hours' loss of time need not be reported.

The final provision of the law as quoted-that statements contained in reports of accidents shall not be admissible as evidence in damage suits-was added to the statute in 1907, a number of years after the adoption of the original statute. Its purpose was to increase the fullness and accuracy of accident reports by freeing the employer of the fear that his signed reports might be used against him in suits

The law here referred to is as in force at the time of the investigation, December, 1908, and January, 1909. The text of the laws in force Jan. 1, 1912, is given in the appendixes at the end of this volume.

2 Rev. Stat., 3d ed., 1901, p. 2102, sec. 87 (as amended by ch. 216, Acts of 1906), and p. 2120, sec. 209 (as amended by ch. 506, Acts of 1907). (22d An. Rept. Com. of Labor, p. 914.)

3 The term "factory" as used in the New York law includes "also any mill, workshop, or other manufacturing or business establishment where one or more persons are employed at labor." Rev. Stat., 3d ed., 1901, p. 2089, sec. 2 (as amended by ch. 550, Acts of 1904).

arising out of the accident. The amendment apparently has been very successful in attaining its object.

The following table shows the number and severity of the accidents occurring in New York State during each of the years 1905, 1906, 1907, and 1908, as reported to the State department of labor. The data of the table are taken from the annual reports of that department for the years mentioned. As the New York law requires accidents to be reported within 48 hours of their occurrence, it is evident that in some cases the person reporting is unable to state with certainty whether a given injury will result ultimately in death or permanent disability, or whether it will be entirely recovered from. Therefore, the division of injuries into those of a temporary character and those of a permanent character is necessarily subject to some degree of error. To meet this difficulty in part the system of classification used in the reports, beginning with that for 1907, introduces an intermediate class of accidents--to include those injuries which are of such a serious nature as to lead to the presumption that they will be permanent in their effects. The table here presented follows the classification used by the reports referred to, but arranges the data in somewhat different form in order to make comparison more convenient.

NUMBER OF INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS REPORTED TO THE NEW YORK DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, BY NATURE OF INJURIES, 1905 TO 1908.

[Compiled from Reports of the Bureau of Factory Inspection, New York: 1905, pp. II.12, II.13; 1906, pp. II.216 to II.219; 1907, pp. 11.70 to II.73; 1908, pp. 102 to 105.]

Not reported separately.

Not reported separately. Included, probably, under "Other permanent injuries."

Since 1905 the published reports of the New York Bureau of Factory Inspection do not classify by industries the accidents reported except in the case of fatal accidents. The classification as made for fatal accidents in 1908 is presented below:

NUMBER OF PERSONS OF SPECIFIED AGE AND MARITAL CONDITION FATALLY INJURED BY INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS, BY INDUSTRIES, 1908-NEW YORK. [From Report of Bureau of Factory Inspection, New York, 1908, pp. 120, 121..

The next table shows the accidents reported for the year 1908, classified according to the cause and severity of each. The table is slightly condensed from a similar table in the report of the State bureau of factory inspection.