By C. M. SEAGRAVES, Safety Director 



Farm deaths lead the country's occupa- 

 tional accident toll! Along with our 

 cherished utterance that "the farm is the 

 healthiest place in the world" we must 

 accept the above statement. Occupation 

 for occupation, more farmers are killed 

 each year following their business than 

 are accounted for by fatal injuries in any 

 other line of endeavor. 



This fact, along with the knowledge 

 that safety is a highly organized and 

 publicized profession, makes it all the 

 more remarkable that last October 15 in 

 Kansas City was held the first meeting 

 of national scope to ever discuss farm 

 accident prevention. Under the auspices 

 of the National Safety Council, the fol- 

 lowing program was presented: 



Chairman, Dr. David J. Price, U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture: 



WHAT ARE THE OUTSTANDING 

 CAUSES OF AGRICULTURAL ACCI- 

 DENTS.' .... J. C. Mohler, Secretary, 

 Kansas State Board of Agriculture, To- 

 peka, Kansas. 



FARM MACHINERY ACCIDENTS 

 AND THEIR PREVENTION. ... A. 

 P. Yerkes, International Harvester Com- 

 pany, Chicago, and President Society of 

 Agricultural Engineers. 



FARM FIRES AND THEIR PRE- 

 VENTION. . . . W. D. James, President, 

 James Manufacturing Company, Fort At- 

 kinson, Wisconsin. 



A PROGRAM FOR FARM SAFETY. 

 ...CM. Seagraves. 



Because of the important part played 

 by farm machinery in farm mishaps, it 

 was greatly regretted that Mr. Yerkes 

 who was to discuss "Farm Machinery 

 Accidents and their Prevention," was not 

 present. 



The detailed attention given to all 

 other fields of accident-prevention work 

 naturally leads to some little speculation 

 as to why farming, the oldest, largest, 

 most important, and the scene of the 

 most work fatalities of any of the nation's 

 industries, is at the same time the most 

 neglected. The answer is painfully obvi- 

 ous. Farmers themselves, farm organiza- 

 tions, and groups with agricultural inter- 

 ests have concerned themselves almost en- 

 tirely with the problem of bettering the 

 economic position of the ruralist. Safety 

 promotion, like any other endeavor, takes 

 money. Available funds have been used 

 in channels far removed from safety edu- 

 cation. Whether this policy is one of 

 wisdom can be questioned. 



DECEMBER 1937 ' V/j 



For instance, due to farm accidents, in 

 the State of Kansas in one year (1934) 

 127 persons were permanently disabled, 

 112 were killed, and injured workers 

 numbered 3,016! Now for our econom- 

 ics: the 3,016 injured workers lost 132,- 

 934 days time or the equivalent of 360 

 years of lost work on Kansas farms, be- 

 sides the 249 persons who were forever 

 removed from the field of activity. In- 

 cidentally, most of these casualties were 

 men in the prime of their productive 

 years. When next speaking of farm 

 taxes, let's mull over this one a bit! 



Bringing the situation a little closer 

 home, our Illinois farm accident survey 

 for 1936 shows 156 accidental farm 

 deaths. And most of them could have 

 been prevented. Not only prevented, but 

 easily prevented. If, as has often been 

 said, man power is our principal asset a 

 more determined effort to conserve that 

 nun power would seem to be justified. 



The wide-spread and firmly rooted at- 

 titude that rural accidents, as different 

 from all other varieties, cannot be cur- 

 tailed, springs more from the purely 

 human attribute to resist change or new 

 ideas than it does from any knowledge 

 as to the causative factors entering into 

 the problem. It's more than a coincidence 

 that every industry resisted in the same 

 way the safety programs which sub- 



TBACTORS WITH SHALLOW, UNCOM- 

 iortabl* ■•ots, open apokas, unprotactad 

 wh*«la oz* iruitiul aoiucas of farm acci- 

 denta. . ^. 



sequently have become one of their 

 proudest achievements, 



It's to be hoped that the wide interest 

 aroused by the Kansas City meeting will 

 be fruitful of a healthier and more in- 

 quisitive attitude «n the subject of rural 

 safety. 



The total annual loss due to auto- 

 mobile accidents is greater than the 

 total value of new cars sold in a year. 



$18 A HXmDRED? NOT FOH THIS ONE 

 An ill-timed nap quickly converted this livestock carrier into a junk pile art the 

 same time killing and crippling many of the steers enroute to market Scene on Rt. 66 

 near Chicago. 



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