Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-05-21

deyising means OF collecting. tabuidt-
ing and annotating information. But
at the very beginning of the actual
process Of training and instruction safe
| ty first crews it was found necessary
to introduce the element of sport. 1t
had to be made a game. Competitions
| were were introduced and a system OF
rewards for proficiency established. A
| monthly magazine called THE ABODE"
is published as a further means Of en-
HANGING and maintaining interest and,
in addition, 1900 feet Of spectacular
movie films were made and exhibited
at intervals.
A scheme of mine contest was at
first i~naugurated, but this was aban-
doned in 1918 in favor of what is now
known as miners safety first field
day. Thirty-six rescue teams partici-
pated in the first field day during the
summer of 1918, and their work in
competition was witnessed by q crowd
Of $1,000. In 1919 an assemblages of
25,OOO witnessed the demonstration
and there was an attendance Of $1,000
in 1920, after the mines had partially
closed down. This field day has be-
come an annual affair and preparations
are under way for another, or a larger
scale than ever before.
At Panama-Paclfic.
Butte's first aid men have long been
nationally known. In 1915 the Ana
conda company sent a first aid team
to represent Montana in the national
contest at the Panama-Pacific exposi-
ton in San Francisco. In 1919, togeth-
er with other Butte operators, 1t sent
a first aid team to the national first
aid contest at Pittsburg and to the
annual meeting of the national safety
council in Cleveland. This team sur
prised the first aid men of the entire
country by winning second place in the
national contest. In 1920 a team vas
sent to the national contest at Denver,
where it won fourth place.
The demonstrations included not only
such work as was taught in the first
aid and rescue classes, but mining.
mucking. and drilling. One mucker. in
one of the field day competitions, filled
a mine car in 131 seconds. or at the
rate of more than ten pounds per sec
ond.
Value of Training
At the outset, the safety rules is
sued by the Anaconda bureau of safety
comprised a small folder of four pages,
but as the work expanded and sugges-
tons, based on experience, came in in
creasing volume from bosses and men.
the list of rules grew to fill a pamph-
let comprising eight pages, covering
every phase Of copper mining both
above and below the surface.
When the shutdown came a year ago
the value of safety training became ap-
parent to each individual man perhaps
for the first time. Those accustomed
to the handling of the oxygen helmets
and other safety apparatus were given
preference for places in the skeleton
crews maintained at the various prop
critics, and the effect of that expert
ence was reflected in the eagerness
with which the men embraced the oppor-
tunity to join classes upon the reopen
ing shortly after the first of the year.
The course, comprising the rudiments
OF safety and rescue work, occupies
usually one week. During the first few
weeks more than 500 men graduated.
In an address TO the first group of
graduates. w. FL. Carrick. engineer in
charge of the rescue car. emphasized
the statement that it was better to be
safe than sorry, and that knowledge
and practice of a few simple rules of
safety minimized the need for first aid.
ForgetfuIness Fatal
Forgetfulness. he said, was the chief
cause of accidents, followed next in or
der by carelessness and negligence. But
the statement that made the deepest
impression a that in one of the larg-
est smelling plants in the country
safety work OF the part of the en-
ployes had, at the period of largest
production. reduced accidents from "a
to 4 per cent of the total number en-
ployed.
According 10 government experts.
f~orgetfulness and carelessness result
ing from ignorance or thoughtlessness
are usually corrected with comparative
ease, but negligence is a character de-
feet exceedingly difficult to ~rectify. In
an effort to minimize the deleterious
effects Of all three, the Anaconda safe
ty bureau, shortly after its organiza-
ton, began a campaign of ocular dem
onStrations designed so to impress the
employees that they would find it i'm
possible TO forget or overlook the or
binary precautions of safety.
Danger Always Present
Men were given opportunity TO see
for themselves the frequent disastrous
results attributing a lack of fore
thought in situations presenting only
ordinary. everyday hazards. They were
impressed over and over again with
the fact that danger is an ever-present
element wherever human begins con
gregate. They were shown, for in
stance. the folly of aiming a stream
from Il hose, Intentionally or otherwise.
at a highly charged electric wire. of
horseplay at the mouths of deep mine
CONTINUED on Pace Kivb