last visit. The data thus obtained, recognized as very incomplete, are published in the annual reports of the bureau of labor and industrial statistics. CONDITIONS FOUND. Accidents causing injuries to employees, and occurring during the year preceding, were recorded by 12 of the 19 visited establishments. The total of accidents so recorded was 97. None of these accidents was fatal, but at least 1 was of a very serious character. This occurred in a confectionery establishment. A girl, stooping to pick up paper from the floor, had her hair caught in the rod of an enrobing machine and a part of her scalp was torn off. WISCONSIN. SUMMARY OF LEGISLATION.1 The State of Wisconsin has the following legal provisions regarding accident reporting:2 It shall be the duty of all physicians and surgeons practicing in this State to report within 30 days to the local registrar of vital statistics of the district, any accident to any person whom they are called upon to care for professionally when such person is thereby incapacitated from pursuing his usual vocation for a period of 2 weeks or more, using such form of certificate as may be provided by the State bureau of vital statistics. Penalty. Not specified. The system of accident reporting provided for by this law is, it will be noted, peculiar to Wisconsin among the States covered by this investigation. Its distinguishing points are three: First, accidents. are to be reported by physicians and surgeons, not by employers; second, reports are to be made to public health officials, not to the bureau in charge of labor and factory inspection matters; and, third, physicians and surgeons are to report all accidents arising in the course of their respective practices and not merely such accidents as are specifically of an industrial character. Although, as has been noted, the State bureau of labor and industrial statistics has nothing to do with the collection of accident statistics, it tabulates the returns made under the law above quoted and publishes the results of such tabulation as part of its regular duties. In these published reports the accident data is presented in very considerable detail. The accuracy of the original data, however, is seriously questioned by the State bureau. The criticism concerns the system of accident reporting by physicians and surgeons. 1 The law here referred to is as in force at the time of the investigation, March, 1909. The text of the laws in force Jan. 1, 1912, is given in the appendixes at the end of this volume. 2 Ann. Stat. of 1898, Supp. of 1906, Acts of 1907, secs. 1022-1053 (22d An. Rept. Com. of Labor, p. 1409). In the report of the bureau for 1907-8 it is said: 1 1 It is very probable that these records are far from complete. In order to throw some light upon this matter all the physicians whose names appear on the accidents certificates for Milwaukee County for one year were counted. All of the accidents were reported by 162 physicians, which is about 40 per cent of the total number of the physicians in that county. It is improbable that the other 60 per cent could have been without accident cases. The same conclusion is indicated by examining a list of the establishments in Milwaukee County from which the accidents were reported, and also a list of the more prominent concerns from which no accidents were reported. This incompleteness, however, probably does not exist for the fatal accidents in Milwaukee County, because the coroner was active in reporting these when a physician did not do so. On the whole, we may say that the Wisconsin method of reporting accidents, although it yields a useful body of statistics, has not resulted in a complete enumeration of accidents and will not do so until considerable effort has been expended in educating the physicians of the State. It is one argument in favor of a system of compensation for all accidents tɔ workingmen while employed that it would result in an automatic reporting of accidents. But, still, the reports by physicians have the advantage that they tell us something about all classes of accidents. The nonindustrial accidents are not far from being as numerous as the industrial accidents. Accidents present a broad social problem and not merely one phase of the relation between master and servant. And again in the report for 1909-10:2 That the physicians do not report nearly all of the accidents was pointed out in the previous report. As further evidence on this point, we may compare the physicians' returns of railroad accidents with the reports to the Wisconsin Railroad Commission. The railroad companies apparently report only the accidents from the operation of trains, and not those happening to employees in shops. The physicians report both kinds, as they are supposed to report all accidents that happen. If we eliminate from the physicians' returns of railroad accidents those happening to machinists, carpenters, etc., in shops, so as to make them compare with the railroad commission's figures, we find that in the same months (October 1, 1907, to October 1, 1908) the railroad commission received reports of 1,528 accidents as against 765 reported by physicians, that is, the physicians reported one-half as many. If this same incompleteness exists for all classes of accidents, the total number of accidents to employees while at work in Wisconsin was about 10,000 in 1907-8. A further evidence of the incompleteness of physicians' reports is shown by the fact that at least 50 fatal cases were noted in a Milwaukee newspaper in one year which were not reported by physicians. 'Thirteenth Biennial Report of the Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics, Wisconsin, 1907-8, pp. 10, 11. 2 Fourteenth Biennial Report of the Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics, Wisconsin, 1909 -10, Pt. II, Industrial Accidents in Wisconsin, pp. 72, 73. The legal provision regarding accident reporting, as above described, went into effect in 1905. Data regarding accident reports made under this provision are available for the years 1906, 1907, and 1908 (year ending October 1 in each case). The following table shows, for each of these three years, the total number of accidents reported, and for 1907 and 1908 the number of such accidents which were of an industrial character. For 1906 the latter information is not given in the published reports. ACCIDENTS REPORTED TO PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICIALS BY PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS, 1906 TO 1908-WISCONSIN. [Compiled from Biennial Reports of Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics, Wisconsin: 1907-1908, pp. 6, 7; 1909-1910, Pt. II, p. 71.] The next table classifies the industrial accidents reported according as the resulting injury caused death, permanent disability, or temporary disability. The distinction between the two latter classes represents in each case simply the prognosis of the physician made at the time the report was sent in. INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS REPORTED TO PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICIALS BY PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS, BY RESULT OF INJURY, 1907 AND 1908-WISCONSIN. [Compiled from Biennial Reports of the Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics, Wisconsin: 1907–1908, p. 15; 1909-1910, Pt. II, p. 75.] The distribution of the 5,003 industrial accidents reported for the year ending October 1, 1908, by the industries in which they occurred is shown in the succeeding table. INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS REPORTED TO PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICIALS BY PHYSICIANS CONDITIONS FOUND. Accidents causing injury to employees and happening during the preceding year were recorded by 6 of the 19 establishments visited, the total number of such accidents being 157. MARYLAND. The law of Maryland, at the time of this investigation (January, 1909),1 made no requirement for the reporting of accidents to the State bureau of statistics and information or to any other State official. The chief of the bureau stated that he was in favor of such a law and was recommending it in his present report. CONDITIONS FOUND. In 12 of the 28 establishments visited accidents causing injury to employees were recorded as having occurred during the previous year, the total number of accidents so recorded being 109. In 14 establishments no accidents have been recorded; and from the remaining 2 no information was secured on this point. NORTH CAROLINA. There was, at the time of this investigation (March, 1909),1 no law requiring the reporting of accidents to the State. CONDITIONS FOUND. Accidents causing injury to employees and occurring during the preceding year were recorded by 17 of the 28 establishments visited, the total number of such accidents being 205. GEORGIA. There was, at the time of this investigation (March, 1909), no legal requirement that accidents be reported to the State.1 CONDITIONS FOUND. Accidents causing injury to employees and occurring during the preceding year were recorded by 15 of the 27 establishments visited. The total number of accidents so recorded was 69. FLORIDA. There was, at the time of this investigation (March, 1909),1 no law requiring the reporting of accidents to the State. 'The text of the laws in force Jan. 1, 1912, is given in the appendixes at the end of this volume. |