PSYCHOLOGY IN INDUSTRY 



for example, where the writer personally has had oppor- 

 tunity during the past three years to cooperate with the 

 management, study the problem in detail, and observe 

 the benefits to employees and public that have followed 

 the use of the procedures recommended. Here, continuing 

 studies have been carried forward, and practical procedures 

 developed and installed. Collision accidents have been 

 reduced more than 35 per cent. Men and management are 

 proud of their fine accomplishment; and public good will 

 toward the road has been increased among the car riders 

 and pedestrians of the metropolitan district which it 

 serves. The financial saving effected through reduction in 

 deaths, personal injuries, and property damages has 

 exceeded $300,000. Industrial psychology has its economic 

 as well as its humanitarian values. 



An Investigation in the Interest of Safe Transportation. How 

 have these results been brought about? In what ways have 

 the methods and results of psychological investigation 

 helped in solving this practical problem of conserving life 

 and limb? 



The task has not been a simple one. The motormen and 

 bus operators, about 2,500 in number, of necessity do most 

 of their work without immediate supervision. The hazards 

 of the city traffic in which they operate are varied and have 

 been continuously increasing. Collisions, both trivial and 

 serious, between street cars or busses, and automobiles, 

 other vehicles, or persons, number several thousand each 

 year, and cost the company upwards of $1,000,000 annually. 

 This cost has tended to increase since the war, owing not 

 so much to increase in number of accidents as to the greater 

 cost of settlements. Juries have been giving larger and 

 larger verdicts for damages. Before our cooperation with 

 the company began, they had been able to keep down the 

 number of accidents by using the commonly approved 

 methods of prevention, such as mass education, safety 



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