FIFTH NATIONAL CONSERVATION CONGRESS 387 



ten killed, forty-three permanently partially disabled, and three hundred and 

 sixty-six temporarily totally disabled in one month. 



I note in his address last year Major E. T. Griggs said that 800,000 are em- 

 ployed in the lumber industry, one-sixteeth of that number being employed in the 

 State of Washington. We have no reason that I know of to assume that lum- 

 bering is a more hazardous occupation in that State than in any other. There- 

 fore, I think we are justified in multiplying the above figures by sixteen for one 

 month, then multiplying this by twelve to obtain a rough estimate for accident 

 statistics in the entire lumber industry. This will give us 1,930 killed, 8,256 

 permanently partially disabled, and 70,372 temporarily totally disabled, annually ; 

 or about 5 killed, 22 permanently partially disabled, and 182 temporarily totally 

 disabled a day. This is, of course, an estimate based on the Washington statistics, 

 and may not be accurate as to the rest of the country. 



Major Griggs in his address said: 



"With an industry affecting throughout the United States over 45,000 saw- 

 mills and 800,000 employees, regardless of families dependent on them, you will 

 agree with me that we are all vitally interested in workmen's compensation." 



If we are vitally interested in compensation 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 applica- 

 tion of first aid to the injured for the lessening of fatal, serious or prolonged 

 results of accidents when they do occur, interested not only for the sake of 800,000 

 men employed but for the families 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 result 

 in death in a brief space of time. Physicians have signed many a death certifi- 

 cate of men who bled to death from slight injuries and whose lives might easily 

 have been saved by some knowledge of first aid. The application of cobwebs or 

 some other traditional remedy to an open wound 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 rotten 

 heart or high wind makes the direction 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 skidway and the loading 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 dynamite in the colder camps. Nitroglycerine may 

 be absorbed through the hands, causing severe headaches to the men who use it. 



Those who have never seen a lumber camp have yet had vividly impressed 

 upon them by graphic stories the hardships to which the log drivers are exposed, 

 the great personal danger to the river drivers in the excitement of freeing jammed 



