The Carbon County news. [volume] (Red Lodge, Mont.) 1924-1931, 1929-06-27

many deaths occurring after July as a direct
result of fireworks accidents or drownngs and
deaths from accidents to motor cars
From 1903 to 1915 the American Medical as
ISOLATION compiled statistics of independence day
fireworks casualties and found 1862 deaths and
42,0S9 injuries were attributable definitely to fire.
works. 1t was an average of 143 deaths and 3,237
injuries each year. In the celebration in 1909
of the GLORIOUS Fourth" 215 persons were killed
and 5000 injured. The fire loss that lay was
$1,OOO000.
Last year the National Museum of Safety or
dered newspaper reports of fireworks casualties
from all parts of the country for June and July.
The result:
hlled lol
injured .......................
Included in the list of dead were so chiden
less than five years DID, "a persons burned to
death te fireworks or bOnfres % children burned
to death by harmless sparkers, and q children
died from eating fireworks "Unoaded guns" or
stray bullets injured 80 persons last year; 80
persons lost one or both eyes, and 300 persons
suffered injuries to their eyes.
Recently the country was mortified at the cas-
ualty list of 1875 in an explosion in hospital
in Cleveland, Ohio. It has also been Mortified
from time to time when fire in school, tor
nado or flood snuffs out from 100 to $50 lives
Yet it seems strangely unconcerned that every
year more tnan 100 persons die and more than
5000 are seriously injured in celebrating the
GLORIOUS Fourth" Fireworks are generally held
responsible for the appalling death list while as
a matter of fact, firecrackers, salutes, pinwheels
bombs and skyrockets account for not more than
5 per cent of the Independence Day casualties.
Nor have all of the deaths been due to the ex-
plosions of these fireworks. Many of them re-
suit when sufficient care is not taken to keep fire
works from the smaller children. Many children
have died from eating poisonous powder pellets,
such are used in dynamite canes. Even the
socalled safety" sparkers have proved fatal to
youngsters who have eaten them, believing that
they were candy.
But aside from the dangers of celebrating the
Fourth there are other reasons why this is an
occasion for high mortality rate. The Fourth
of July is the one national holiday in the year
when the entire population drops all its work
aday cares to swarm to the beaches, the noun
tains and other places of recreation. The result
is an appalling number of drownings and deaths
in automobile accidents which far exceeds the
number recorded on any other day in the year.
SO it is apparent that although a great deal
of good has been accomplished by those organiza-
lions which have sponsored this safe and sane
Fourth" idea and which calls upon every Amer
ican to assume the responsibility of being a
safety engineer on July d. there is still much
to be done in making the celebration of this day
more in keeping with the spirit of the occasion
One hopeful sign lies in the fact that recreation
is displacng fireworks to a certain extent. For
the character of Fourth of July celebrations is
changing and for the better, according to sur
vey recently made by the Playground and Rec
reation Association of America Without losing
sight of the small boy and his zest for "a good
show" on this holiday the association has sent out
suggestions for what it calls constructive com
munity programs which have been tried and ap
proved by various cities and towns during recent
years.
Substantial progress has been shown, accord
ing to this survey, in changing the former fam
boyant independence Day demonstration into oc
casions that, in some degree at least, interpret