Current Comment

CAMPAIGN AGAINST ACCIDENTS  Recently the President of the United States issued a proclamation calling on the National Safety Council and on every citizen to engage wholeheartedly in a campaign to reduce accidents. A presentation of industrial injury statistics by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U. S. Department of Labor¹ lends particular point to this campaign. Figures covering 29,442 cooperating establishments are tabulated, employing nearly 5,000,000 wage earners, who worked 9,744 million hours. Manufacturing establishments showed a slight increase in the frequency of accident occurrence from 14.9 to 15.3 per million man hours. In three defense industries which have expanded enormously during the past year—machine tools, aircraft production and shipbuilding—the number of disabling injuries per million hours worked increased by 22 per cent. The manufacture of explosives continues to be perhaps the most dangerous occupation; a 32 per cent increase in hours worked was accompanied by a 297