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Show Accidents and Sickness as Industrial Waste T'rging the prevention of death. Injury and loss from accident and illness whether at work, at home or In pubMc, Cecil G. Rice brought the following fol-lowing facta and figures to the attention of the industrial Waste Sess'on, Pennrylvanla Industrial Indus-trial Relations Conference. WASTE from accident and sickness amounts to not less than $3. 50. 000, 000 yearly, or .35 for each of the 100.000,000 Inhabitants of the I'nlted State-. For each million of population the rate of accidental death Is 8C0. Compared to this are It eland with ".f5. Japan with 416, England Eng-land with 153 and Franco with 477, We also stand high in the national rating as to sickness, mortality and loss. What Is the waste from accidents? Statistics determine and estimate the cost of fatal and non-fatl accidents, direct and indirect, at $ 1. 500.000, 000 annually. The estimated cost of sickness ami death Is another 51,."00,000,000, or a total yearly waste of $3,000,000,000. My own estimate es-timate Is in excess of these figures. This is but the dollars and cents waste Other elements are not reducible to such a basis and arc not replaceable re-placeable Pennsylvania has a population of 8,000,000. Assuming As-suming that her share in this waste is equal to the conservative average rate of $35 per individual, indi-vidual, the great people of this grand State pay in various and unrecognizable wavs the staggering stagger-ing sum of $300,000,000 yearly. Assuming that one-third of our people are engaged in some form of gainful occupation, then they are burdened with an unnecessary individual expenditure of SI 05. National averages show about 65 per cent, or 35,900 fatal accidents to be of a public nature, and 10 pei cent, or 8,600 to be the result of home aci idents. And of this number 20.000 arc children of school age. To this total of fatal accidents may he added about 2.000,000 Injuries more or less serious Fire causes a national losa of $500,000,000 annually an-nually and the death of 13.000 persons and the Injury of 20.000 others. 82 per cent, of whom are women and children. In the I'nlted States :on homes burn every working day. The value of new buildings I $900.000 000 The value of dsetroyed buildings Is $242.000.000 by cost one of each four: 65 per cent, of these fires occur In homes - There are more than 9.200 000 automobiles 1n the United States (this Includes the 1,000.000 Fords made last year). In 1914 there were hut 1,700,000. The Increase last year was equal to the entire number In 1912 That I? one auto for ach fourteen Inhabitants or forty-two for each 100 native white male voters (not including those who may vote more than once). Deaths resulting from their operation have Increased from 232 when there were 400.000 to 12.000 with the present number Pennsylvania has over 600,000 automo-'hiles automo-'hiles This is six for each mile of highway. This State. I am told, collects some $8,000,000 deglK-t deglK-t ration fees. But while this is a uuable sum and ranks high with other States, yet It docs not equal the injury and damage done Its victims: 1,300 fatalities valued at $4:000 each equals $5,200,000; 20.000 non-fatal accidents valued at $200 each equals $4,000,000. A total of $9,200,000 This leaes nothing for destruction of roadways. What about sickness? Fatalities due to accidents acci-dents are but 5 per cent, of the total deaths, as 1.500 000 person? die from other causes, 600.000 of whom are workers Three milllou sick beds are filled constantly Each worker loses an average av-erage of nine days annually. Out of a numerical group of seventy-one, one dies, there are two bedfast. bed-fast. thirt sick all the time, twenty-five in fair health and only three really well. Mining shows a decrease from 4 76 deaths per 1,000 employees to 2; from one death per 147,000 tons mined to one death per 285,000 tons mined. Railroads show a decrease from 10,087 to 7.40; -tr-et railways from 35 per million population to 29; drownings from Q.G60 to 6 000 : practically all accidents except those occurring In the home and In public; snd those show themselves reducible re-ducible by preventive mean Industry, once the leading cause of fatalities, now takes a lower and constantly lowering ratlnr A man is now afer at his work than at home or In public Tuherculosls has decreased 40 per cent, over a short time ago. Typhoid fever has been practically practi-cally eliminated where prevention prevails. Venereal Ve-nereal diseases are reducible but a grp.v menace. In fact, disease, excepting cancer, has a down-S down-S ard tendency Now that doctors have begun to talk prevention preven-tion Instead of prescription, results are expected ex-pected The swat-the-fiy campaign a Pennsylvania Pennsyl-vania specialty, shows a decrease o' 50 per cent, in infant mortality due to fly Infection. |