20 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



November 10. 1920 



What the Safety First Movement Is Doing for Us 



By C.L. Skatvold 



Edward Hines Yellow Pine Trustees, Lumberton, Miss. 



Safety First is gradually doing for us the things which we 

 expected, and to us it means better methods and a better way to 

 conduct operations. I will not take up time with generalities, just 

 stating some of the results and prospects from the application of 

 the Safety Movement as we have applied it in our operations. 



We had attempted to carry on a certain amount of Safety First 

 work for a number of years, but met with indifferent success. After 

 repeated efforts on the part of C. J. Pettibone, our general logging 

 superintendent, to interest the general manager of our operations, 

 which, by the way, was a more difScult task than it was to interest 

 the workmen after the Safety First movement had been installed, it 

 was finally decided that an organized Safety First program was 

 necessary, both from a humane and from a business standpoint, and 

 that this work should be compulsory. In order to carry out this idea, 

 however, we felt that it was necessary to enlist the interest of the 

 men themselves, so, with the help and the suggestions we received 

 from the Department of Safety and Industrial Relations of the 

 Southern Pine Association, the plan was perfected. You are no doubt 

 familiar with our plan of organization, having received a copy 

 through the Southern Pine Association. The application of this 

 plan is rapidly and steadily establishing an organization of fore- 

 men who can appreciate new conditions, and who do their part 

 in working out our problems. They are developing into modern 

 "Safety First Foremen," with the five fundamental qualities 

 necessary to leadership: self-confidence, moral power, unselfishness, 

 fairness, initiative and courage. With an understanding of these 

 fundamentals a foreman is sure to be a success, and it will naturally 

 follow that our departments will become more and more efficient. 

 There will be an increase in production, which will be brought 

 about by an actual increase in the amount of logs produced, or by a 

 reduction in the expense of production, or both, which is certain 

 to follow, and a material reduction in the number and seriousness 

 of accidents, which in our ease shows a reduction in the number 

 of accidents of 42.8 per cent, a reduction of lost time on account 

 of accidents of 53.8 per cent. Our Safety Committees are con- 

 stantly putting on "No Accident Campaigns" in an earnest 

 endeavor to eliminate accidents entirely, either from the cause of 

 defective machinery, unsafe places to work, insanitary conditions 

 at work or around the home, or by the carelessness on the part of 

 the man himself — more especially carelessness, for we find that 

 more than 90 per cent of the injuries are the direct result of care- 

 lessness. 



We are teaching our foremen and our workmen first-aid work 

 and they have become surprisingly efficient in this, having on two 

 occasions saved the life of a fellow workman. These first-aid lec- 

 tures are held every other week, and it is the duty of every fore- 

 man, the Workmen's Committee and the Weekly Overseers to attend, 

 the lecture or meeting lasting one hour, for which the workmen 

 receive pay. 



Workmen Make Safety Suggestions 



Our foremen and workmen are being encouraged along the line 

 of thinking out problems and to suggest means for the prevention 

 of accidents, to prevent breakdowns and to prevent damage to 

 property by. fire. To encourage this we have what we call a "Sug- 

 gestion Box" conveniently placed so that a workman who has an 

 idea he wishes to advance or a recommendation he wishes to make, 

 or a complaint to enter, can put it in writing and deposit it in this 

 box, which is under lock and key and is accessible only to the super- 

 intendent, who carefully considers every suggestion or complaint; 

 complaints that are well founded receive immediate attention, and 



suggestions that have merit and are practical are put in force or in 

 operation, as the case might be. Any workman who makes a sug- 

 gestion that is put in force or operation receives a money reward. 

 At the end of the quarter all suggestions are listed and a prize of 

 $25 is awarded for the best, $15 for the second prize and $10 for 

 the third prize, and in order that you may know the value of this 

 method I will say that up to July 1, 26 per cent of the suggestions 

 made by the workmen have been considered practical and have 

 been adopted. 



Foremen do not receive any prizes for suggestions, for they are, 

 as a matter of course, expected to make suggestions and to take a 

 lively interest in the Safety First work, keeping up interest among 

 their crews. We also caution every foreman to not allow himself 

 to become jealous of any of his workmen who take a lively interest 

 in Safety First work, but to encourage him, develop him if possible, 

 and if the workman has a suggestion that he wishes to make, and he 

 is troubled about, to help him perfect it, for it is to the foreman's 

 advantage to have a crew of men who are willing to think and 

 progress, to take care of their tools, and to avoid carelessness in 

 every form. 



Neatness around the camp, shops and railroad yards, in fact all 

 throughout the operation, is a direct result of the Safety First 

 Movement, for a man must have pride; without pride he would 

 scarcely measure up to the standard as understood by the men in 

 our organization. Nor do we forget sanitation; the men are 

 expected to keep their places of work in an orderly and sanitary 

 condition, and we go so far as to teach the workmen and their 

 wives the danger of insanitary conditions around the home. To 

 encourage them along this line, we place a garbage box at each 

 house and have the contents removed each week, using a liberal 

 amount of lime and black oil as a disinfectant throughout the 

 operation. 



Labor Troubles Reduced 



Dispatch is another direct result of the Safety First movement, 

 for in it we have the effect of thinking and honest effort. When 

 one uses the work effort nowadays he should use it advisedly, but 

 I can conscientiously say that most of our men are really putting 

 forth effort, for our labor turnover is now at the stage when jobs 

 are at a premium in our logging operations, and for a workman to 

 retain his job he must be honest in the performance of his work. 

 Men who have quit since the first of the present year, for one 

 reason or another, peAaps some fancied wrong, are at the present 

 time returning to us, confessing their desire to get back into the 

 organization for the reason that one of our principles is fairness 

 to our men; we pay them half time while they are unable to perform 

 their regular duties on account of an injury caused either by 

 defective machinery or by their own carelessness, and we also pay 

 the doctor bill and for the medicine. I wish to say, however, that 

 the first obstacle we had to overcome was the suspicion of the 

 workmen. When this Safety First movement was first installed 

 they were looking for money to be deducted from their pay 

 envelopes; they could not believe that they were to get all this 

 medical attention and half pay without cost to them, but after a few 

 weeks had passed and no demands had been made of them, they 



• Presented at Tenth Annual Meeting of Southern Logging Association, 

 Hew Orleans, La., Oct. 19-21. 



*The organization of the "Plant Safety Oovcrnmcnt" at the nines' 

 plant, the Jordan River Lumber Company, is as follows: '■!. Oeneral 

 Committee — Consisting of C. J. Pettihone, chairnitin. the general inspector 

 and the manager, the auditor and the .sawmill foreman of the plant. II. 

 The General Inspector. III. Foremen's Safety Committee — Coji.sistiug of 

 fire workmen. IV. Work-men's Safety Committee — Consisting of five 

 workmen. V. The Foreman of each department. VI. Weekly Safety 

 Overseer — A workman to be appointed weekly in each department by the 

 foreman." 



