coal trade bulletin - Clpdigital.org

52 THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN.
INDUSTRIAL SAFETY*
By Herbert M. Wilson, Engineer n Charge. Bureau of Mines, Pittsburgh, Pa.
I feel some diffidence in addressing you on a
subject so trite to the members of this association
as is that of safety in mining. Nevertheless, the
movement for safety has taken on such marvelous
impetus in every branch of the industrial life of
America in the last 12 months that I could not
decline the opportunity offered by President Fohl
to briefly review the progress of this movement,
its meaning and its relation to the particular industry
in which you are concerned.
The mining industry may point with pride to
the fact that long before thought of safety was
considered in other industrial occupations, state
legislation had been enacted in the infancy of
the industry making provision for mine inspection,
and much has been done in the succeeding
years to safeguard the workers, not only through
the various state mine departments, but also
through the private inspection maintained by the
operators.
A conviction had been reached, up to a few years
ago, when the too oft-recurring mine explosions,
with the long list of dead and injured, and the
reports of the daily accidents from minor causes,
was accepted as inevitable to the industry. It.
was at this period that the impetus furnished by
the First Conservation congress and a series of
coincident mine explosions awakened the United
States Congress to the necessity of investigating
these disasters. The propaganda which led to
the creation of the Federal Bureau of Mines, and
the publicity created by its method of operation
has in the interval aroused the mining community
to a realization of the
LACK OF SAFETY
and has given a quickened impulse for better conditions
in every other industrial occupation.
It is a fact worthy of just pride, therefore, that
not only has this industry led in state and in
individual concern for the safety of its employes,
but also it is the first—unless transportation be
called an industry—to receive federal aid and encouragement,
and it should be a matter of still
greater pride that the activity for safety in the
niining industry has pointed the need ancl the way
for the guidance of the other industries.
Due perhaps in some measure to these causes,
and in larger measure to the agitation I'or the enactment
of workmen's compensation laws, with
the corresponding responsibility devolving upon
industry to protect its resources by reducing the
*Address at the Coal Mining Institute Banquet. Pittsburgh,
Pa.. December 4. 1913.
occasion for compensation; and also due in large
measure to the activity everywhere evidenced for
greater consideration of our fellow-beings, as
voiced in Christ's commandment "Love thy neighbor
as thyself," the last year has witnessed the
organization of at least two national societies concerned
in furthering the safety movement. First
among these is the American Mine Safety association,
conceived in this city and now entering
upon its first year. Its membership includes mine
operators, mine inspectors, mine workers and physicians,
and it aims to secure as members every
man concerned in mining coal or ore. The good
results from this organization are already evidenced
in the more frequent field meets of miners,
both for contests in and for instruction regarding
safety, encouraged through the donation of medals
and the
ESTABLISHMENT OF LOCAL BRANCHES
of the association, a national mine rescue corps,
and a national first-aid corps.
At almost the same time there was conceived
in Cnicago the National Council for Industrial
Safety, numbering in its membership the leaders
in every industrial branch—railroads, manufactures,
iron and steel, etc. This council will
strive to co-ordinate the efforts of kindred organizations
as a medium for exchange of information
relative to those safety measures which may be
applicable to the several industries.
You know of the wave of safety meetings held
throughout the breadth of the land by the various
railway companies, to which movement recent
wrecks on interstate lines have given an impetus.
In Pittsburgh the Pennsylvania railroad held two
such meetings at which the attendance numbered
into the thousands, as did also the B. & O. railroad.
The steel industry has perhaps pushed farther
within a few years the introduction of safety appliances
and safeguards around its machinery,
the organization of safety committees, and the
awarding of prizes, than any other of the industries,
and the manufacturing corporations—the
National Cash Register Co., our own "57 Varieties"
and their fellows—are spending hundreds
of thousands of dollars in advancing the safety
and welfare of their employee
The American Museum of ^ _ty in New York
held in the month of October its first annual exhibition
of safety appliances in the Grand Central
Palace, and the exhibition was worthy of a long
journey if only as an object lesson to the