CONSERVATION OF LIFE IN THE LUMBER CAMPS 

 By Miss Mabel T. Boaedman. 



THE Red Cross Societies in all countries, though primarily organized to 

 take charge of volunteer aid to the sick and wounded in time of war, 

 have broadened the scope of their work to include the mitigating of 

 suffering after great disasters. To fulfill their duties successfully and efficiently 

 under both of these conditions necessitates the maintenance of a permanent, if 

 skeleton, organization with a trained, skilled, and experienced personnel. This 

 means not only an expenditure of considerable funds, but also the creation of 

 departments for special work. - Organized and maintained, these departments 

 have proved not only of untold value during war or disaster relief, but have 

 become capable of rendering a constant, patriotic, and humane service to the 

 country in its every-day life. 



The St. Johns and the St. Andrews Ambulance Associations of the British 

 Red Cross, the Sanitary Columns of the German Red Cross, the First Aid De- 

 partments of the Italian and other societies have all entered into a broad and 

 helpful crusade in the field of accidents, especially in the industrial world. Dr. 

 Von Esmarck once said, "The fate of a wounded man depends into whose hands 

 he first falls," and in this he voiced the belief of the men who really know, the 

 men of the medical profession. Watch a doctor handle only a slight cut. How 

 carefully his hands are washed and every instrument to be used sterilized. How 

 skillfully he applies an antiseptic gauze or pad without touching the wound. Is 

 this for nothing or because he knows that in all this caution may lie the difference 

 between complete recovery and the pathetic existence of a crippled life or even 

 the loss of life itself. 



Following the example of its sister societies, the American Red Cross has 

 established under a sub-committee of the War Relief Board a First Aid Depart- 

 ment, in charge of an Army Surgeon, Major Robert U. Patterson, detailed for 

 this duty by the Secretary of War. 



In our mines 2,450 miners are killed annually, and 6,772 injured. Our rail- 

 roads slay 3,000 victims yearly and injure 60,000 more. Facts like these present 

 to the view of the Red Cross a national calamity that calls to it for aid. To 

 that cry of a Welch miner I once heard, "Come quickly, there's a man hurted," 

 it seeks to respond. 



Some twelve or fifteen years ago Dr. M. J. Shields, of Scranton, Pennsyl- 

 vania, started this work of first aid among miners in that district. Without aid 

 or recognition from the companies, he labored for five years. Then came the 

 sudden realization of the value of his work, and he was engaged by one of the 

 companies to devote himself to the instruction of first-aid teams among their men. 

 In a few years more the fame of the work had grown, and the services of Dr. 

 Shields were loaned to various companies, anxious to undertake this work. About 



