UNITED STATES CASUALTY COMPANY.

The Inspection Department of the United States Casualty Company has a staff of forty-five trained men devoting their time and attention to inspections.

During the past year we have made 35,758 inspections and we have reported to our assured 18,436 defects and suggestions along safety and sanitary lines. All of these suggestions have been followed up and have been remedied by our assured and we have found that the employers of labor are ready and willing to go to considerable expense when the necessity for particular safeguards or changes in the plant to prevent accidents are properly demonstrated to them.

All liability and compensation risks are inspected at least once and in some cases as many as three or four times a year. Elevators are inspected at least three times a year and steam boilers are inspected at least twice a year.

We are maintaining at the home office a museum of safety appliances for the education of our inspectors and our assured. This museum during the year has been greatly augmented and in addition to this we have arranged so that our attention is immediately called to any new safeguard or device so that we may immediately call the attention of our entire staff to the same.

THE ZURICH GENERAL ACCIDENT AND LIABILITY INSURANCE

COMPANY, LTD.

The Zurich has been operating in the United States since Jan. 1, 1913, and in the State of Massachusetts since April, 1913. In that time 38,265 inspections have been made throughout the United States, and 2,890 inspections have been made in the State of Massachusetts, A total of 26,885 recommendations were submitted to assured throughout the United States, and a total of 565 recommendations were submitted to assured in Massachusetts.

We have to admit that most of our recommendations were complied with by the assured, who seem to realize more and more that efforts to reduce the number of industrial accidents are undertaken by the companies as much in the assured's interest as in the interest of the companies.

As a usual thing, the inspectors of a casualty company have permission to visit plants and to discover physical defects which must be reported to the office to which the inspector is attached, and in turn the matter is taken up by the office with the agent, by the agent with the broker, and by the broker with the assured.

It is the plan of the Zurich to train its inspectors so as to make them real experts in their line, with the fullest possible grasp of the require

ments of the company, so as to permit them, while at the plant, to discuss with some person in authority the actual carrying out of the recommendations, and in case of need to demonstrate how this can be done.

In this age, when economy is one of the watchwords of the casualty business, it is essential that best results shall be obtained in the inspection department at the least possible cost, and this can be done only by the employment of competent men who can decide right on the spot just exactly what is required to be done.

If it should happen that some problem out of the ordinary should arise, the Zurich inspectors and engineers have instructions to furnish details of same to the home office, where the men in charge of the department are willing to undertake to submit plans for the solving of such problem.

The Zurich, contrary to precedent, has commenced to instruct its inspectors as to the rating of risks, as it considers that it is an important part of the education of an inspector that he should know something about the relative accident cost in different industries.

It is our opinion that eventually the inspection department should become the rate-making body of a casualty company, as no one should be better qualified to make rates than the man who has actually seen in operation the plant to be underwritten.

APPENDIX.

TABLE I.

INDEX TO STATISTICAL TABLES.

PAGE

Non-fatal accidents. Insured, not insured, common-law rights,. 369

TABLE II.

TABLE III.

TABLE IV.
TABLE V.

- Fatal accidents. Insured, not insured, common-law rights, 371
Non-fatal accidents, classified by industries and by causes,
Fatal accidents, classified by industries and by causes,

372

420

.

Percentage of accidents reported to number of employees in the principal industries of the State,

432

TABLE VI.

Occurrence of non-fatal accidents by hours of the day and by

days of the week,

433

.

TABLE VII.

Occurrence of fatal accidents by hours of the day and by days

of the week, TABLE VIII.

Occurrence of non-fatal accidents by months of the year, TABLE IX. · Occurrence of fatal accidents by months and days of the month,

TABLE X.- Distribution of non-fatal accidents by sex, age and basis of wage payments,

TABLE XI. - Distribution of fatal accidents by sex, age and basis of wage

payments,

449

TABLE XII. Distribution of non-fatal accidents by wage groups,
TABLE XIII. - Distribution of fatal accidents by wage groups,
TABLE XIV. - Duration of total disability in non-fatal accident cases, .
Specific injury cases,

Distribution of non-fatal accidents by degree of disability,
Conjugal condition and dependency in fatal accident cases,
Insurance company transactions under the act,

TABLE XX. - Personal injuries by diseases of occupation,

479

464

468

470

472