The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-07-05

I where the Individual is virtually com
handed to safeguard himself in ways
that in this country might seem trivial
and an insult to ones intelligence
| The American Museum of Safety re-
vices is organized for the express pur-
pose of assembling and demonstrating
the best methods and devices for pro-
tecting the workers in mining, trans
portation, textiles, building trades,
agriculture, chemical and varied indus
tries. 1t aims only to exhibit the &C
vices for safeguarding the lives and
limbs of workmen and preventing ac-
cIdents under the ordinary conditions
to which the general public is exposed,
and no other.
But short time ago, James T. Nor
gan of the Bureau of Statistics of New
Jersey paid a visit to the museum. His
attention was arrested by the view Of
a circular saw in the shops of the
Brown & Sharp Manufacturing Com
pany, where rubber mat with cor
rugated surface is placed in front of
the table. "'That is a brand new idea
to me- said Mr.. Morgan, so simple
and SO cheap that no employer can af-
ford to object to it on the score of
expense / can not help thinking, -
he continued, "of a particularly dis
tressing accident, where a poor fellow
slipped and fell against the saw, which
cut right through his chest into his
ribs. If rubber mat had been placed
in front of the machine, very likely
the workman would not have slipped. -
This is only typical instance. Each
day brings its stock of horror in the
tales of death and casualties from
causes which the engineering and tech
meal profession know are preventable.
Many of the victims are breadwin-
ners, whose families thus become a
charge on charity, the city or the
state. Only recently in a mining dis
aster, $250,000 was asked for the care
of the orphans of the men who perish
ed. The United States leads the world
in this form of casualty. For every
thousand miners employed in England,
the average killed is 1.5S; in Italy,
100; in Germany, 1.SS; in France, IS;
Belgium, 1.62, and in the United
States, 2.36.
The Old World has pointed the way
to better protect life and labor by the
establishment of museums of safety.
similar to which the present movement
cities of Europe have them. Such mu-
seums are to be found in Berlin, Paris,
Vienna, Milan, Budapest. Stockholm,
Zurich, Moscow and Munich. Those in
Germany are supported entirely by the
government, which says: "We -egaTd
the saving of life of paramount i'm
portance Every life saved is a ma
tional asset Not long ago, the di-
rector of the Berlin Museum requested
5000 marks for the enlargement of
the building already overcrowded. The
request was instantly granted, it being
at the time that he could
have all the money he needed, as the
government was only too glad to main
tain this life-saving station at its high
est point of efficiency. The museum in
Amsterdam was opened ten years ago.
The city furnished the building. while
the national government appropriated
an annual sum and the Association for
the Development of Manual Training
and Handwork in Holland added to it
for an endowment. The museum has
expanded several times its original
size.
Even "Darkest Russia is careful
that its workmen in the factories are
protected. Tn France the Association
Of the Industrialists for the Prevention