CONSERVATION OF LIFE IN THE LUMBER CAMPS 



53 



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AN ILLUSTRATION OF FIRST-AID WORK BY TRAINED CREWS OF MINE WORKERS IN THE 

 NATIONAL MINE SAFETY DEMONSTRATION, HELD AT FORBES FIELD, PITTSBURG, 

 NOV. 1, 1911. 



agree with me that we are all vitally 

 interested in workmen's compensation." 



If we are vitally interested in com- 

 pensation laws, should we not be still 

 more vitally interested in the prevention 

 of the need of such compensation ; that 

 is, in the instructions for the prevention 

 of accidents and in the practical appli- 

 cation of first aid to the injured for the 

 lessening of fatal, serious or prolonged 

 results of accidents when they do oc- 

 cur, interested not only for the sake of 

 800,000 men employed but for the fam- 

 ilies dependent on them ? 



There is almost no labor utilized in 

 the lumber industries that has not some 

 danger involved in it. The sharp edge 

 of the axe or the jagged teeth of the 

 saw in a moment may cause an injury 

 where unchecked hemorrhage will re- 

 sult in death in a brief space of time. 

 Physicians have signed many a death 

 certificate of men who bled to death 

 from slight injuries and whose lives 

 might easily have been saved bv some 

 knowledge of first aid. The applica- 



tion of cobwebs or some other tradi- 

 tional remedy to an open w^ound or the 

 use of soiled rags in binding it up often 

 produce an infection with crippling or 

 fatal results. 



There is danger to the sawyer from 

 the falling tree, especially when a rot- 

 ten heart or high wind makes the di- 

 rection of the fall uncertain ; or on 

 steep slopes if the tree shoots suddenly 

 downward, or if a badly strained tree 

 breaks with great force. The handling 

 of the logs at the skid way and the load- 

 ing onto the trains require skill and 

 agility on the part of the loaders to 

 avoid being caught and crushed by these 

 great pieces of lumber. 



The temporary nature of most of the 

 railroads provide their share of acci- 

 dents, and danger lurks even in their 

 construction, in the blasting of stumps 

 and rocks, and the thawing out of dyna- 

 mite in the colder camps. Nitroglycerin 

 may be absorbed through the hands, 

 causing severe headaches to the men 

 who use it. 



