“Every railroad has trouble with boys who ‘hop’ and ‘flip’ trains and play with the turntables,” said he. “I am glad to be able to report that the Frisco road has solved the problem with success, so far as we are concerned. We awarded ‘Safety’ buttons to those who swore off on these juvenile pastimes, and when that failed, we installed swimming pools near the roundhouses, under railroad supervision.
“The swimming pool never has failed to work. All that is necessary to steer a boy away from dangerous pastimes is to provide a sane outlet for his excess energy.”
The 500 members of the council, representing more than 1,000,000 workingmen throughout the United States and covering almost every line of industrial endeavor, unanimously adopted resolutions against the use of alcohol, in part as follows:
“It is recognized that the use of alcoholic stimulants is productive of most industrial accidents and works against the safety and efficiency of workmen.
“Therefore, be it resolved, That it is the sense of this congress that the members pledge themselves to the elimination of the use of alcoholic stimulants among the employes of their plants and factories.”
M. A. Dow, general safety agent of the New York Central lines, thought “the public must be educated to believe that a railroad’s safety rules are for their benefit, rather than to save the company damage suits.” As evidence of the progress of the “safety first” propaganda, he cited figures of his company showing that for the year ending June 30, 1914, there had been 109 fewer deaths from accidents and 132 fewer injuries.
The inculcation of accident prevention should start in the kindergarten and continue through high school and college, in the opinion of Martin J. Insull, vice president of the Middle West Utilities Company, Chicago.
“The public’s extravagant disregard for the value of its safety is shown during the automobile season, when our papers constantly report terrible accidents invariably caused by suicidal carelessness,” said he.
Melville W. Mix, president of the Dodge Manufacturing Company, Mishawaka, Ind., and head of the manufacturers’ bureau of that state, placed the blame for 75 per cent of factory accidents on the disinterested and indifferent attitude of the employer toward his employe.
