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98 men. The little forge plant was eclipsed by the. more elaborate iron mill. The modest coal mine, sup- plying a neighborhood, expanded into a large operation. The individual employer thus was beginning to disappear and his place to be taken by the. manager or man- agers of corporations employing thousands of men. This_ change brought with it more complex rela- tions and the individual employe came more and more to be a part of a vast industrial machine, with the result that personal interest could no long- er be maintained as before between the employer and employe. Aiter a. time as a. result:of this decreasing personal misun- contact, Definite Results Eight years ago the Lake Car- riers’ Association began tts welfare work and the results obtained have been most gratifying. While allhas not been achteved and there yet re- mains the need of continual and substantial effort to firmly .entrench the things that have been accom- plished as well as to widen the scope of the work. The safety first campaign has produced very real and tangible re- sults during the past two years. Taking the seasons 1913 and 1915 as the best comparisons, because these two seasons were approxi- mately the same in operating con- ditions, we find that the number of accidents has beén reduced from 312 to 220, a reduction of 92 acci- dents. But what ts most significant 4s the fact that accidents due to carelessness during these two years were reduced from 247 to 134, a re- duction of 113 accidents. derstandings began to develop. Then came a period when there were many conflicts between employers and em- ployes, with great. losses to_ both. These conflicts still occur, but they are growing less in number, for both the employer and employe have awak- ened to the fact that in the great expansion of industrial life something fine was being lost in the lessening close relations between the two, and each made the discovery that both were losing the proper measure of the full rights of the other. It was natural that the employer should take the initiative and seek measures to correct this fault in in- dustrial relations, and now for nearly two decades the intelligent employer has been studying and working to the end that new means shall be pro- vided, under the new conditions, to take the place of the personal inter- est no longer possible, as it was un- der the simple life of earlier days. It is not necessary for my purpose to more than refer to the great work THE MARINE REVIEW that is being done by thousands of corporations and individual employers in this country, in providing better sanitary conditions in factories, mines and shops, and in proper houses and surroundings of homes, as well as the hundreds of activities in which they are engaged in bettering the moral, educational and physical con- ditions of the men whom they em- ploy, and their families. I need not recount the growth of the vast business in which you are engaged —the transportation of freight on the Great Lakes, for it has passed through the same conditions that have prevailed in every other branch of industrial ef- fort in this country. It was first in- dividual, then greatly amplified, until the day came when it was borne in upon the men who were conducting the business that a comprehensive plan should be devised to provide for better © working, physical and educational ad- vantages for the men who are employed on the ships of the Lake Carriers’ As- sociation. The figures covering accidents are very illuminating, for the elimination of 113 accidents due to carelessness, means, that the men have become more observing, more thoughtful, and have had in mind generally danger- ous places and practices. Moreover, itis obvious that the officers of the ships, particularly the mates, have been more alert, and have taught the men, both by precept and example, to be more careful. Carelessness, however, still contin- ues. to be the leading factor in all accidents. The really unavoidable ac- cidents are, few. With another year of‘ the present work along safety lines we ought to reduce the accidents due to carelessness to a minimum. We must. not overlook the fact that our sanitation campaign has had great weight in the general work going for- ward in this country in this particular. The supply dealer is but a link in this chain, but he has made long strides forward in his manner of keeping and distributing his goods. No longer is the handling of food supplies in a haphazard and careless manner accepted by the ship’s officer and steward. Improvement in Stewards’ Methods The men in the steward’s depart- ment, too, have learned much in the way of stowing and caring for the supplies once they are on board. There is much yet to be. done by both, and it is the duty of every Owner to personally see that further improvement is insisted’ upon on the part of the dealer as well as on the part of the people he himself employs. The assembly rooms have proved splen- March, 1916 did avenues for improvement and : recreation and hundreds of men haye availed themselves of their facilities. During the past season Mr. Harri- son, traveling commissioner, took many views of familiar marine scenes, depicting lake life; also many illus. trating how accidents happen, show- ing the wrong way and the right way of performing an act. These haye been transferred to lantern slides, and he has but recently commenced talks, lasting about an hour, illustrated by these slides. The men have invariably taken to these lectures like ducks. to water, because the pictures deal with scenes ‘with which they are familiar, and which human nature never tires of seeing. Scenes in plays that are most Commissioners Busy The work of the commissioners is worthy of special mention. While comparative quietness existed during the earlier months of navigation, | the fall months were very active, and the comnussioners worked might and day to fill out crew lists and in nearly every case were successful. The new seaman’s act, taking effect the first days of November, caused much confusion, as many men quit the service because of some of the provisions of the act. The extent | of this can be realized when it ts known that although changes in crews are more frequent in the last months of navigation than in any of the other months, 23 per cent of the men shipped during the season were shipped . during November. This wmposed a tremendous burden upon the commissioners, but none of them flinched, and all bore their labors cheerfully. popular with New Yorkers are the familiar scenes about town, such as Herald Square, the Battery, Central Park, etc., and this observation is equally true of the lakes. The scenes that most appeal to the men are those they meet with in every day practice. These lectures are being amplified in further directions: for instance, slides are now being made of scenes in the assembly rooms, showing the night class at work, the seamanship class in session, and the navigation and marine engineering classes work- ing. In other words, following along, step by step, the various courses of education, and giving a pictorial view of the possibilities open to the young man who engages himself in the lake trade. In going over the work of the as- sembly rooms themselves I have been impressed with their general helpful- ness and efficiency. They have come to be real harbors of refuge to the seamen, for they not only afford a place of shelter, and a place for en-