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

N the mining OF coal or met
j ais, men run a certain num-
Der of individual risks when
they go down deep within the
earth to dig therefrom it's buri-
ed treasures.
Yet, in the copper mines of
the Butte district at least, the
application of safety rules and
practices, supplemented by me-
chanical appliances and safe
guards, has so reduced the acct
dent rate that if Methusaleh
were 60 today and taking his
shift regularly with the dinner
bucket brigade, he would have
to chance sudden death only
three times during his remain
ing allotment of 900 years, and
needn't fear the breakage of a
leg or any other serious injury
oftener than once every II
years during the interim.
This somewhat astonishing
statement is based on the au-
thority of an entirely unsensa-
tional bulletin prepared recently
for the American institute of
mining and metallurgical eng
ineers by G.. w. Goodale, chair
man of the bureau of safety of
the Anaconda Copper Mining
company, and his assistant,
John l.. Boardman, safety engi-
neer, once a miner in the Penn
sylvania coal fields, who was
transferred some years ago
from the United States bureau
of mines to the service OF the
mining corporation.
Spends Millions For Safety
Tables submitted with the bulletin
by Mr.. Goodale, who was awarded the
Institutes DISTINGUISHED service medal,
last year. showed that during the safe
ty bureaus first six years OF operation
there were zoos accidents, 200 of which
were fatal. During the same period
16, AGO, 167 shifts were worked in the
A. G. NJ. Co.'S. properties. within the
Butte district. This is the equivalent
of one days work by an army approx
imately four times as numerous as the
forces raised by the United States for
service on land and sea during the war.
The accident rate was IL pei l0,-
900 shifts, the fatalities OLE per TO-
600. and from these figures Mr.. Board
man demonstrated later that the chanc-
es of death were only one for each 2I2
years of work, and that a man might
remain employed 26 years steadily in
the slopes, drifts and crosscuts with
the law Of averages assuring HIM that
he would escape material injury
throughout the entire period.
In achieving these results, the Ana
conda company has spent in fig
ures, S1.0OO.0OO. which, according to
of equally large expenditures for the
welfare Of its underground and surface
forces. This outlay, averaging con-
siderably more than 100000 a year
for the last eight years, represents the
cost of safety apparatus, such as oxy-
gen helmets, the building of two rescue
stations, provision of first-aid hospital
and ambulance appurtenances. and the
education of thousands of men in first
aid. rescue and accident prevention
work. The latter is regarded as by
far the most important, the well es-
tablished theory being that no system
of life and health conservation can be
successful unless 1t is founded primarily
on the training of average human in
telligence.
Every Possible Hazard Blocked
The 81 900, 900 charged to safety
does not by any means cover more than
a minor fraction of such expenditures.
The cost of improved machinery, auto
matte mechanical safeguards and de-
vices underground is not included.
Otherwise the aggregate would be in
creased by four or five million. But
since the establishment of the safety
bureau in 1914 virtually every element