22 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



Septenilier 10, 19:;: 



Selling Safety to Woodworkers 



*By J. M. Hatch, 



Foreman, The American Seating Company, Grand Rapids, Mich. 



To get the best results from safety measures requires first of all 

 salesmauship, and the best results will be obtained only by salesmen 

 who can get the viewpoint of the workers. Workers do not take 

 kindly to one who does not know as much about their machines 

 as they do themselves. So, in order to get the workers interested, 

 let them make the suggestions as to how to guard the machines by 

 just leading them up to the point. Guards made from their own 

 suggestions will be the ones you will get results from. Do not make 

 the men use your guards before allowing them to make suggestions, 

 for what you have may work all right on some jobs and hindei- 

 production on others. The men should be the ones from which to 

 get the real facts. 



It is just as important to use different methods with men, as to 

 use different guards on the different machines, so one that is a 

 good judge of human nature will get the best results — will prove 

 the best safety salesman. 



A guard should not be used as an ornament. Unless it is practical 

 you had best throw it away, for if the men think it is there just 

 to give a shop a well guarded appearance rather than to get real 

 results — the interest and value are lost. 



At the American Seating Company we have employe representa- 

 tion and are thus able to give the men a voice in the matter of 

 safety. We have a safety committee from the House of Bepresenta- 

 tives and one from the Senate that go through the factory each 

 month and investigate and get suggestions from the men. Then 

 only do the committees take action by submitting reports at the 

 next meetings of their bodies. Tags with numbers are left on the 

 parts of machines found dangerous by the committees and are not 

 removed until they are corrected by the safety engineer who turns 

 in the tag. By this method the committees can keep up with con- 

 ditions in all departments. 



But to return to the specific question of salesmanship, selling 

 safety to operators of woodworking machines. To accomplish this 

 various methods may be employed but we have found the First Aid, 

 contests between departments and the employes' magazine as the 

 biggest contributing factors. 



Take the First Aid, which was established in 1921, and let 's 

 make some comparisons. 



In 1920 the total number of days lost due to accident was 1,346. 



In 1921, with the First Aid in operation, this figure was reduced 

 to 377. 



I might be able with a little figuring to tell you what this has 

 meant ii) dollars and cents to the company and in dollars and cents 

 to the workers, but suffice it to say that the compensation paid out 

 in 1920 was $6,914.41, while in 1921 it was but $1,317.28, a saving of 

 $5,597.13 here. 



First Aid Reduces Inspections 



Again, that bugbear — infection — was made the subject of a vig- 

 orous campaign to have minor injuries treated in the First Aid and 

 our records show that the lost time due to infection was reduced 

 from 349 days in 1920 to 13 days in 1921. 



In one department in our plant the accidents were reduced from 

 an average of 52 a month to none at all for the twelve consecutive 

 months ending March 31 last. 



Needless to say, safety devices alone did not accomplish all this. 

 It required the co-operation of every man in the department and 

 this in turn meant that every man in the department was first 

 "sold" on the value and importance of safety — a feat which could 

 not have been engineered had not the niaiiagemcnt been more than 

 passively interested in the subject. 



H. M. Taliaferro, our manager, was one of the handful of men 

 who early came to a realization that industry had become a slaugh 

 ter house and set about to make a study of safety on the theory 

 that accidents were not unavoidable. He was one of the organizers 

 of the Safety Council in Grand Eapids, just as he was among the 

 first to see that in industry the human element had been over- 

 looked in the mad rush for mechanical development. 



And as Mr. Taliaferro said to us in the beginning: "Strange as 

 it may seem, the hardest thing will be to get the man on the job 

 to see the point." He insisted a man's dependents had a right to 

 expect to see him return whole to them after his day's work and 

 that we must "sell" him first of all on the importance of self- 

 protection. 



So the industrial relations department started its wheels in mo- 

 tion, always keeping this objective in mind and in the case of the 

 department cited the same committees, co-operating with the men 

 and the safety engineer, adopted safety devices, many of them in- 

 vented by the men, while a contest between departments was 

 started on the basis of time lost monthly. 



But this was not all. The First Aid was at work, in which the 

 full-time nurse played an important part in obtaining the co-opera- 

 tion of the men while "The Seater," our plant paper, was getting 

 the message across through news stories, illustrations and editorials, 

 and at the same time building up goodwill in the organization, 

 which makes that valuable asset — the goodwill of the customer — 

 possible. 



And before closing, here's another big little point: See that 

 the foreman is thoroughly sold on safety before spending money and 

 effort on a safety campaign. He is the one closest to the men. 



*Addrcs.f delivered before ll'oftd-working Sectiou, lileventh Annual National 

 Safely Congress. Detroit. Micl'., .■■Uipust j8 to Sept. i, 1922. 



Sawing Hardwoods in the Arizona Desert 



One of the most interesting hardwood lumber operations in the 

 country is that of the Roy & Titcomb Company (Inc.) at Nogales, 

 Arizona. The charm and romance of novelty attach to this great 

 nuilti-milliondoUar hardwood institution, situated on the southern 

 verge of the Great American Desert, on the border line between 

 the United States and Mexico, an arid region so little associated 

 with trees and lumbering. Recently the newspapers of Arizona 

 have devoted a good deal of space to the operations of this large 

 concern, showing its importance in the industry of Arizona. But 

 tlic company is not only important in its desert home state, but 

 throughout the country, where its products enter nearly all lumber 

 markets. 



The company goes into the hills and lowlands of western Mexico 

 to get its raw materials and manufactures this timber not only 

 into lumber, but into veneers, plywood, interior finish and many other 

 products. The hardwoods used are Mexican mahogany, Spanish cedar, 

 Mexican walnut, huanacaste, Mexican oak and amap. To get these 

 woods logging crews are sent into the Mexican states of Sinaloa and 

 Narayait, where all the dangers and hardships of a primitive, un- 

 tamed and torrid country must be endured. The operations are often 

 carried out miles from railroads. Many varieties used grow on the 

 coastal plains and in the jungles, in a region where the summer rain 

 fall is so heavy that it is impossible to operate between July and 

 November. Not only does the rainy season limit logging to six or 

 seven months a year, but flies and other insects are so disagreeable 

 after the first of June it is hard to get men to work in the lowlands. 



Tlie company has to meet this situation by getting out enough 

 logs during its six or .seven inoutlis logging season to keep the mill 

 at Nogales running all year. 



The Spanish cedar grows in the lowlands, averaging from 16 to 30 

 iiiihcs ill di:iiiietor and ficun .'SK to 40 feet high. The huanacaste, 



