388 REPORT OP THE FORESTRY COMMITTEE 



logs, when a single slip may mean the crushing out of life between the heavy 

 logs or drowning in the water below them. Nor does the danger end with the 

 logging, for the saw mills, with their powerful and sharp-edged machinery, add 

 their quota to the number of yearly accidents. 



Recognizing, as we must, the hazards, dangers, and accidents in the lumber 

 industry, our desire is naturally aroused to do something in the way of prevention 

 and in extending to the lumbermen the knowledge of first aid. 



I note in the Washington law for workmen's compensation, which is a sort 

 of State insurance, the employers of labor paying the premium, that if statistics 

 show an udue number of accidents among the employees of any given company, 

 because of poor or careless management, the rate charged that company is in- 

 creased. It seems to me this law should also be made to work the other way, so 

 that any company making a good showing in the way of fewer accidents than 

 may be taken for the normal number should have its rates correspondingly 

 reduced. Even if this is not done, the less that has to be paid out in compen- 

 sation by the State will have a tendency to reduce the general rates paid by the 

 companies. 



The Red Cross will gladly co-operate with the Bureau of Forestry and the 

 lumber companies in arranging for first-aid instructions. Conditions in lumber 

 camps differ greatly from those in mines, railroads, and other industrial plants. 

 There can rarely be physicians resident in such close proximity to lumber camps 

 that their services for instruction can be easily made available. For this reason, 

 it would be advisable to secure the entire time of a certain number of doctors for 

 this purpose. To make an experiment — and we learn best by experience — the 

 Red Cross makes this proposal : towards a fund of $3,000 it will contribute $500, 

 if a number of lumber companies in a given locality will club together to raise 

 the additional $2,500, each contributing according to the number of their respect- 

 ive camps and employees. This fund will provide for the salary and expenses 

 of a physician specially trained by the Red Cross for instruction to men engaged 

 in the lumber industry both for the prevention of accidents and first aid to the 

 injured. In connection with logging camps, there should be added certain 

 simple but important instructions in camp sanitation for the benefit of the general 

 health of all the men. 



Such a doctor devoting his entire time to this work would trav.el from camp 

 to camp. In cases of remote camps, he would stay long enough to give the men 

 daily instruction for a short time. In cases where a number of camps could 

 be reached more easily from one place, he would arrange to give one or two 

 lessons a week at each camp. The classes are formed from volunteers who are 

 given practical training. The men soon realize the importance of such knowledge 

 and are anxious to learn. Even those who gather about as spectators pick up not 

 a little useful information. Each camp should be supplied with first aid outfits 

 suitable to the needs of logging accidents, and these the men taught how to use. 

 This is aturally but a tentative plan, with many details to be worked out; but 

 may I commend it to the consideration of those interested in the lumber industry 



