SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Within 12 months 7,478 industrial injuries occurred to employed minors under 21 years of age in three States, 38 resulting fatally, 920 in partial disability for life, and the remaining in disability lasting for more than a week (for more than 10 days in case of injuries occurring in two of the States).

Machinery the most frequent cause of injury-was responsible for over one-third (36.2 per cent) of the injuries. In Massachusetts and Wisconsin (the two States where comparable statistics were available), it caused twice as high a percentage of the accidents to minors as of the accidents to workers 21 years of age and over, notwithstanding the fact that the employments forbidden to young boys and girls are chiefly the operation of dangerous machines.

Table 54 shows the causes of industrial injuries to employed minors in Wisconsin, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. Table 55 shows the extent of their disability, by cause of injury.

TABLE 54.-Causes of industrial injuries to minors in Wisconsin, Massachusetts, and New Jersey

Most of the machines now used are power operated. In each of the three States the great majority of the power-machine accidents to minors occurred during the operation (including starting and stopping) of the machine, not while the machine was being adjusted, cleaned, or oiled. Furthermore, most of the injuries took place at the working point of the machine. Apparently the mechanical safeguards to prevent operators from being caught in gears, flywheels, set screws, and belts, together with the laws forbidding children to clean or oil machinery in motion, have been effective in reducing to a comparatively small proportion the injuries due to these causes.

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TABLE 55.-Extent of disability, by cause of injury, to minors employed in Wisconsin, Massachusetts, and New Jersey

The types of power-driven machines on which most of the injuries occurred were in each State those used in its chief industries. In Wisconsin metal-working, woodworking, and paper and paper products making, in Massachusetts textile, metal-working, and leatherworking, and in New Jersey metal-working, rubber and composition working, and textile machines were the most frequent cause of the machine injuries.

Operation of certain dangerous power-driven machines is forbidden to children under 16 years of age in all three of the States in which the study was made; and the prohibition of these occupations to minors under 18 years would materially decrease the number of injuries to young workers. There were proportionately more accidents from power-driven machinery to minors 16 and 17 years of age than to those under 16, who were more adequately protected by the law; or to those of 18 years or over, who had more experience, more nearly mature judgment, and better powers of muscular coordination. Moreover, minors 16 and 17 years old suffered proportionately more severe injuries than either the younger or the older workers. Death or permanent partial disability resulted from 13.4 per cent of all the injuries to workers 16 and 17 years of age; for workers under 16 the corresponding percentage was 10.7, and for workers of 18, 19, and 20 years it was 12.7.

The necessity of providing legal safeguards for young workers is indicated by the severity of the injuries to Wisconsin minors employed under illegal conditions. One-third of the injuries occurring to minors at work in illegal occupations, and one-half of the injuries caused by violation of safety orders (as compared with only one-tenth of the injuries to minors employed under legal conditions) resulted in death or permanent partial disability.

A comparison of the extent of disability resulting from injuries due to the different causes may best be made on the basis of the accidents occurring in Massachusetts, because, as has been previously stated, this information is available in Massachusetts for all accidents causing disability for more than the day, turn, or shift on which they occurred. The percentage of deaths, permanent total disabilities, and permanent partial disabilities resulting from these injuries was twice as high among the injuries due to machinery as among those due to any

1 Wisconsin is the only State of the three covered by the study where statistics are available on this point (see p. 8).

other cause, with the single exception of those caused by electrical shocks. Injuries received from some classes of machinery were more likely to be severe than those from others. The percentage of deaths and permanent disabilities, either total or partial, was highest among injuries caused by woodworking machines (19.1 per cent), rubber and composition working machines (18.1 per cent), printing and bookbinding machines (16 per cent), and machines used in tanneries (15.5 per cent). Among injuries due to paper and paper products making machinery the percentage of injuries causing more than temporary disability was 11.9, among metal-working machine injuries 10. The machines which caused the highest percentage of severe injuries (the same ones that caused large numbers of the accidents to minors in all three States) were wood planers (26 per cent), metal punch presses (23 per cent), circular saws, (20.8 per cent), other wood saws (19.4 per cent), wood-tenoning and molding machines (17.3 per cent), leather-cutting machines (17.3 per cent), textile dyeing, finishing, and printing machines (18 per cent), textile carding and combing machines (10.9 per cent).

This analysis supports the evidence from other sources that a high proportion of injuries to minors is due to machinery, that some of the machines which minors under 16 years of age are forbidden to operate are causing not only frequent but also severe injuries to workers of 16 and 17 years (for whom they are not prohibited), that most of the machine injuries occur while the worker is operating the machine, and that most of them take place at the working point of the machine.

Handling objects was the second most frequent cause of injury in all three of the States covered by the study. The most serious results of handling heavy objects are strains, the number of which could be reduced by prohibiting young workers from doing work which involves heavy lifting. This is especially necessary in view of the large number of cases of hernia (122) resulting from strains. The percentage of hernia cases among all the injuries to minors was 1.5 in Wisconsin, 2.3 in Massachusetts, 0.7 in New Jersey. Another class of objects handled-namely, sharp or rough objects-was the cause of many injuries. Probably many of these injuries were slight in themselves, but infection developed in a large proportion of them. In New Jersey, for example, infection developed in one-half of the compensable injuries caused by handling rough or sharp objects.

Infection is an important factor in increasing the disability resulting from slight injuries. In Wisconsin infection occurred in 10 per cent of the injuries to minors from all causes (being responsible for permanent partial disability in 10 cases); in Massachusetts it was present in 16.6 per cent of all the cases, and in New Jersey in 8.3 per cent of them. It is still necessary to lay stress upon the desirability of maintaining first-aid stations, and of educating the workers in regard to the importance of prompt treatment for even slight injuries. The need of such education for the protection of especially the younger workers is to be seen in the fact that in Massachusetts the

'Annual Report of the Massachusetts Department of Industrial Accidents, 1922, Table X, p. 74.

The question whether any given case of hernia is compensable under the law is difficult of determination. New Jersey is the only State of the three covered by the study in which there is specific statutory provision on this point (see New Jersey, Laws of 1911, ch. 95, paragraph 11, as amended by Laws of 1919, ch. 93, sec. 1). Massachusetts is the only one of the three States covered by the study in which comparable figures on this point were available. See p. 29.

percentage of the injuries to minors followed by infection was twice as high as the corresponding percentage of the injuries to all workers. Among all the causes of industrial injuries to minors, falls of persons ranked third in the number of injuries caused. Seven deaths were due to falls, but the percentage of permanent partial disability from this cause was comparatively low. Most of the injured fell on level surfaces because of slipping and stumbling over objects. The falls from elevations were mostly from stairs.

A noteworthy fact about injuries caused by vehicles was the large number due to cranking the engines of automobiles. So many of these caused fractures that the duration of the consequent disability was long. The proportion of deaths and permanent partial disability resulting from injuries caused by vehicles was higher than for any other cause except machinery and electrical shock.

Injuries from hand tools were due chiefly to the glancing or slipping of the worker's tool. No deaths resulted from these injuries; the proportion of permanent partial disability was 6.8 per cent, as compared with 12.3 per cent of the injuries from all causes.

Stepping on or striking against objects did not usually cause severe injuries. Sharp objects, protruding nails, and wires caused many of these injuries, and most of the wounds gave little trouble if treated promptly.

Objects falling from machines and work benches caused the largest number of injuries due to falling objects. Three deaths were caused by falling objects, and one-twentieth of the injuries caused permanent partial disability.

The handicap placed by these accidents on young workers was disclosed by personal interviews with minors who suffered permanent partial disablement before they were 18 years of age. Although some have been able to follow the same occupation or a more promising one, in the three to six years that have elapsed, others have been forced by their injuries out of chosen occupations into work with smaller industrial opportunities, and some have been unable to find any kind of employment. Many of these young people, now in their early twenties, are sensitive over their deformities, discouraged by their prolonged economic dependence upon their families, and hopeless over the future.

Industrial risks for minors as well as for adults can be reduced by requiring more adequately guarded machinery and safer work places, but the findings of this study indicate that for young workers special dangers exist. One is indicated by the high proportion of injuries in which infection developed. If this proportion is to be decreased the natural carelessness of youth must be overcome. Although this would not reduce the number of injuries, it would prevent many of them from disabling the young worker. Another danger is seen in the high proportion of the injuries to minors due to machinery. The analysis which this report presents of accidents to minors in three States shows not only the large number of machine injuries but their severity. It shows also the great need of further protection for boys and girls 16 and 17 years of age whose employment particularly in the operation of dangerous machines-is far less safeguarded than is the employment of younger workers.