atesmanship-and of that of Prince Bülow, the ablest f his lieutenants—is that, while inheriting the hostility France, he simultaneously antagonised Russia by ompeting for the hegemony of the Near East and ienated the British Empire by the rapid construction a gigantic fleet. If he desired to trump Russia's card Turkey, he should have retained the good will of ngland; and, if he decided to challenge Great Britain's minion of the sea, he should have guarded his flank friendship with Russia. Trusting in his army and ivy, however, he failed to measure the magnitude of e risks that his policy involved; and, when the almost devitable crash came, he discovered that even the gantic strength of a drilled and disciplined nation, cked by subservient allies, was insufficent to overcome world in arms. The foreign policy of Germany since the fall of smarck is described by Mr Dawson in the last four Capters of his second volume with a fullness and fairAss which no other British writer has approached. He far too well informed to accept the ridiculous legend at Europe on the eve of the war was divided into two rts, the one peaceful and contented with its lot, the her stealthily preparing ever since 1870 to spring at e throat of its inoffensive and unsuspecting neighbours. the six Great Powers of Europe England alone was ee from all desire for territorial aggrandisement. St tersburg was as greedy and unscrupulous as Berlin, enna and Budapest. After twenty years of subternean diplomatic preparation, Italy had swooped down Tripoli. France made no secret of her unbending termination to recover the Rhine provinces whenever e felt strong enough to do so; and her resolve to tain Morocco for herself was carried out, as Mr awson proves in one of his most illuminating chapters, th little regard for international compacts or for the paty rights of Germany. Europe was honeycombed th intrigue and racked with suspicion. The diplomatic history of the opening years of the th century will not become fully intelligible, and it ll be impossible to pronounce how much justification isted for the bitter German complaint of Einkreisung, 1 the whole story of Russian Chauvinism is available. 8.-INDUST AND PRE randa Nor can we at present pronounce with certainty whethe the Kaiser desired a world-war-and, if so, when began to work for it-or blundered into a conflict whi he had made no real effort to avert. Mr Dawson lieves the latter hypothesis to be the more probabl8511 ar and condemns the successors of Bismarck as incurabker. Ise bunglers rather than conscious war-makers. Committee nual Re Trkshope Sport of E actories ationery 'To acquit them of deliberate design to disturb the tr quillity of Europe,' he writes in words of studied moderation 'is not to condone the policy which had that effect. German was eager for power and prestige abroad, yet troubled litt to consider how these might be most wisely obtained. Sh sought empire, and in seeking it gave the impression that sort of expected to enrich herself at the expense of other nation poin In both of these quests her ruler and statesmen were wantin Sidly, as much in discrimination as in patience.' Harpers, The passing of empires has been the familiar the freque of the moralist in all ages; and the downfall of German ch following the collapse of Austria and Russia, supplies. T warnings for the States which have survived the epries struggle. The victorious Allies will do well to imitat port if they can, the energy and thoroughness of the ea defeated foe. But the supreme lesson which the fabse of the German Empire teaches, and which other empire for will neglect at their peril, is that arms and wealth&& after all but feeble bulwarks, and that it shall profiter nation nothing if it gain the whole world and lose the t. 8.-INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS: THEIR CAUSATION AND PREVENTION. - Memoranda Nos. 1 to 21, Interim and Final Reports Cd. 8511 and 9065], and The Health of the Munition Worker. Issued by the 'Health of Munition Workers Committee.' H.M. Stationery Office, 1916-18. Annual Reports of the Chief Inspector of Factories and Workshops. Report of the Departmental Committee on Lighting in Report of Committee on Fatigue from the Economic Harpers, 1913. E frequency with which industrial accidents occur is ry much greater than published statistics would ggest. The annual reports of the Chief Inspector of ctories and Workshops record all the accidents which reported to them under the Notification of Accidents 1t, i.e. accidents which are sufficiently serious to necessihe absence from work for seven days or, in certain es, for one day. The records show that in this country er a thousand workers are killed every year and tween one and two hundred thousand are injured; Et these latter numbers are admittedly too small, owing defective notification. It will be seen from the table low that, between 1907 and 1912, the number of accints increased considerably. Doubtless they increased ich more rapidly during the war, but the statistics → not included in the abbreviated reports now issued. These figures, however, tell one nothing as to the actual number of accidents occurring. In my own experience, which is limited to munition factories, minor and unreported accidents occur about thirty times more frequently than the notified and compensated accidents; and, though it is probable that in most industries the ratio of minor to major accidents is not so great as this, it would be safe to say that the total number of accidents is at least ten times greater than the figures quoted in the table. It is true that many of the minor accidents are quite trivial, and involve the loss of only the few minutes required for their dressing and re-dressing; but a considerable number of them mean the loss of several days' work, and others cause such pain or discomfort during work as materially to reduce the efficiency of the worker. Especially is this the case in the smaller workshops and factories, where not only is there no properly appointed ambulance room, but no surgical requisites of any kind are available. In consequence, small cuts and other wounds frequently become septic, and may lead to serious blood poisoning. The Home Office Inspectors * point out again and again the frequency with which septic poisoning follows on trivial accidents; and one of them states that 'not many months pass without an inquest on some workman who has died from blood poisoning following on a slight wound which, under proper care and immediate treatment, would probably have healed.' To guard against septic cases, the inspectors continue to urge the provision of antiseptic dressings, so that injuries can be attended to without delay; and it is very desirable that such provision should be made compulsory, for the compulsion would be as much in the interests of the employers as of the employed. Thus an inspector reports that 'the manager of an engineering firm informed me that the number of days of absence from work by injured men had decreased, on an average, by about 70 per cent. since the provision of "first aid" (ie. a first-aid outfit).' A Home Office order issued in 1916 requires that in blast furnaces, copper mills, iron mills, * Annual Report of the Chief Inspector of Factories and Workshops for 1912, p. 6. [Cd. 6852.] CCIDE foundries and metal works first-aid boxes should be provided in the proportion of at least one to every 150 persons, and an ambulance room where 500 or more persons are employed. It would evidently be a simple abmatter to extend this order to other industries. Fortunately the importance of the adequate provision of first aid is becoming better recognised every day, and has received a special impetus during the war from the Ministry of Munitions, which initiated a special Welfare Department, and appointed the 'Health of Munition Workers Committee.' This Committee has issued twentyone Memoranda and two Reports dealing with questions of industrial fatigue and hours of labour, and also a convenient handbook, The Health of the Munition Worker,' which summarises their conclusions, and deals at some length with the prevention of sickness and accidents. The development of welfare work in the munitions industry has induced rapid progress on similar lines in other industries, so that there can be no doubt that provision for the treatment of accidents is greatly improving all over the country. The question of the treatment of industrial accidents is a simple and straightforward one, but that of their prevention is a very different matter. It is true that in a small proportion of accidents their causation is quite clear, and the remedy no less obvious. Accidents arising from defective or insufficiently fenced machinery ought to be wholly avoided; and rapid progress towards this ideal has been made of recent years. Under the Factory Acts the inspectors are entitled to prosecute employers who offend in these respects, and they do not hesitate to take action when necessary. In 1912 agreements for the adequate fencing of machinery and the prevention of injury were made between representatives of employers, operatives and factory inspectors in regard to cottonspinning, cotton-weaving, woollen and worsted mills.t If similar provisions are extended to other industries, so far as they admit of it, and if they are rigidly adhered to, a substantial reduction of accidents will be effected. * Cf. Annual Report of Chief Inspector of Factories and Workshops for 1916, p. 10. [Cd. 8570.] † Annual Report for 1912, pp. 75 and 94. |