I have some announcements to make before I call upon the first

speaker. I have a telegram from Mrs. G. H. Robertson of Jackson,

Tenn., and one from Anna Caroline Benning of Columbus, Ga. These

telegrams contain greetings, and also suggestions as to the next

meeting place of the Congress. We are glad to have suggestions as

to the next meeting place, but under the Constitution the Executive

Committee takes up this matter for consideration, and they have three

or four months to do it in.

JACKSON, TENN., October 2, 1912.

President National Conservation Congress, Claypool Hotel,

Indianapolis.

Mothers and teachers of Tennessee interested in conservation of

childhood beg the National Conservation Congress to hold its next

meeting in Knoxville. This will mean much to Tennessee. We hope you

will see that Knoxville is, all things considered, the place of all

others for you.

From President Congress of Mothers,

MRS. G. H. ROBERTSON.

COLUMBUS, GA., October 2, 1912.

Mr. J. B. White, President Fourth National Conservation Congress,

Indianapolis, Indiana.

Please greet the officers and members of the Fourth National

Conservation Congress for me and tell them that illness prevents my

attendance, and say for me the disappointment is great, for my heart

is in the work.

ANNA CAROLINE BENNING.

President WHITE—We also have a report from Col. M. H. Crump of

Bowling Green, Ky., which will now be read:

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON ESTABLISHMENT OF A NATIONAL PARK TO

INCLUDE MAMMOTH CAVE.

Immediately on notification of appointment by President J. B.

White, the committee (Dr. Henry S. Drinker, Hon. William P.

Borland, Mr. Gifford Pinchot and Col. M. H. Crump, with Dr. W. J.

McGee as Chairman) organized by correspondence and proceeded to

work through both individual and collective action. Largely at the

instance of Col. Crump, Hon. Robert Y. Thomas, Jr., a Representative

from Kentucky, introduced a bill (H. R. 1666) providing for the

establishment of a National Park to include Mammoth Cave, and this

was duly referred to the House Committee on Military Affairs. Before

this body your committee appeared at formal hearings on February 1,

February 5 and May 3. Early in February a similar bill was introduced

in the Senate by Hon. William O. Bradley and referred to the Senate

Committee on Public Lands; before this body also your committee

(through Col. Crump and the Chairman) appeared at a formal hearing

on February 6. Both before and after these hearings members of the

committee personally presented the matter before members of both

branches of the Federal Congress; Dr. Drinker by correspondence,

since he was out of the country until too late to attend the early

hearings.

Your committee have to report, with regret, that while the requisite

early steps looking toward the desired legislation were taken, the

bills have not yet been reported from the Congressional Committees

and probably will not be during the present session. Accordingly,

we recommend that this be considered a report of progress; that the

National Conservation Congress be requested through its Resolutions

Committee to once more urge on the Federal Congress the eminent

desirability of creating a National Park to include the Mammoth Cave,

and that an appropriate committee be created through the National

Conservation Congress of 1912 to continue action in the premises.

Respectfully submitted,

W. J. MCGEE, Chairman.

MALCOLM H. CRUMP.

President WHITE—This report will be turned over to the new President.

It is now my pleasure to introduce to this audience a gentleman from

the Pacific Coast who has long been an active worker in the cause of

Conservation, especially in the conservation of forests. He is well

known to all on the Pacific Coast and to every man in the Central and

Eastern States. He is President of the National Lumber Manufacturers’

Association, and he will treat the subject of Conservation from “The

Lumberman’s Viewpoint.” Major E. G. Griggs, of Tacoma, Washington.

(Applause.)

Major GRIGGS—Gentlemen, Members of the Convention: I want to voice

the sentiment of the lumbermen of the country particularly in

approving the action taken by this Congress in allowing us to have

our own conferences in reference to the interests in which we are

vitally concerned, together with the general meeting. I think that

has been one of the best features of this Congress.

The objects of the National Conservation Congress are so clearly

exploited in the Second Article of our Constitution that I believe

a repetition of them is clearly in order that we may keep them

uppermost in our minds:

“(1) To provide a forum for discussion of the resources of the United

States as the foundation for the prosperity of the people, (2) to

furnish definite information concerning the resources and their

utilization, and (3) to afford an agency through which the people of

the country may frame policies and principles affecting the wise and

practical development, conservation and utilization of the resources

to be put into effect by their representatives in State and Federal

government.”

I have attended all of these Congresses and have been wonderfully

impressed with the zeal and interest manifested in these proceedings.

The vital questions considered are touching the popular chord and its

effect is vibrating the length and breadth of the land.

Some are drawn here by one interest and some by another, but

all recognize the wisdom and need of arousing our people to a

consideration of the resources of our country and their proper

utilization. In the cauldron of our national development, mix a

little philanthropy, patriotism and politics and you can stir up the

most phlegmatic of our citizens.

To my mind, the great results we wish to secure in this Conservation

effort can only be realized by directing the attention of the

millions who do not attend these annual meetings to the importance

in our State and national life of the subject-matter we have under

consideration.

The vast majority of the American people wish to see general

prosperity and proper utilization of the resources of the country,

regardless of the political ambitions of any individual or party.

Conservation will only be realized when it takes such a strong hold

of the people that any man or set of men will sink to political

oblivion if they do not promote its cause.

Three years ago we were somewhat startled by the announcement, I

think from the originators of this movement, that the electric

companies had combined to control the water powers of the country.

Today I come from a State where a stupendous amalgamation of capital

has recently combined the hydro-electric plants of the Puget Sound

basin. Not that this is detrimental to our development, but that the

acquiring of these perpetual rights and control of natural resources

should be well considered by the people and subject forever to their

supervision.

The cupidity of capital will only be curbed by the assurance to the

long-time investor that the Government is behind the investment and

the people will not forever back the investment unless they are in on

the deal.

Our country is comparatively new and we need to encourage capital and

labor in every way to develop the latent resources, but we want to

make better trades than we have made in the past if we wish to hold

the respect of either.

The old saying that “Uncle Sam is rich enough to give us all a

farm” sounded siren-like to all, and was necessary to encourage the

settler, but there is a limit to even Uncle Sam’s patrimony—and

irrigation costs money. No doubt the State of Washington, which I

represent, has profited as much as any other by the liberal policy of

the Government, but there forest reserves have been declared and in

lieu of worthless timber tracts scrip has been issued to bona fide

settlers or original grantees, and for this same scrip some of the

choice timber lands of the country have been exchanged. I conclude

that “David Harum” is discounted in a trade.

The lumber manufacturers of the country have in recent years been

in the limelight of trust investigators, and to what purpose? If to

foster the political ambitions of some demagogue, I am sure it will

fail. There may be organizations back of labor and capital which

come under the ban of the law, but when such general conclusions

are drawn, as in the Missouri Ouster Case, that the National Lumber

Manufacturers’ Association is an unlawful combination in restraint of

trade, as President of that association I “deny the allegation and

defy the allegator.”

There is too much of loose talk in censuring the efforts of

associations generally. The very theories you as Conservationists are

advancing are uppermost in the minds of association workers. And the

greatest development in forest Conservation and fire protection has

its origin and support from these associations. We have something to

conserve and are not mere theorists. With rising values of timber and

utilization of lower grades of lumber, the product of the entire tree

will be saved.

This is where the shoe pinches. It is going to cost more money to

conserve. The low grades of lumber, slabs, and waste from a mill must

bring enough money when sold to pay for the labor expended in saving

them. Then, and then only, will they be saved.

Trees can only be reproduced on soil suitable for that purpose and

for no other. The timber crop is the process of years of growth, and

annual taxes, perpetual fire risk and the desire to use the land for

more frequent crops are the deterrent features of reforestation. We

only need to look abroad, where common lumber brings the price of

mahogany in this country, to realize that an article to be saved and

reproduced must have commercial value.

Your great centers of population in the East and Middle West are

today beginning to realize that happiness, health and long life of

the people will be your greatest commercial asset. The country is

becoming aroused to the needs of forest, lake, stream and fresh air

to build up American citizenship. We in the West, like the pioneers

who have worked their way across the American continent, do not

appreciate our own resources until we realize the vast sums being

appropriated in your dense centers of population to reinstate in a

measure the surroundings in which we revel.

Population, transportation and ability to pay are all determining

factors in our national development. It takes something more than

philanthropy to meet a payroll or pay the grocer, and too little heed

is given the trials and privations of our pioneer life in some of our

theories.

We lumbermen of the West Coast, where transportation charge alone

equals more than the original cost of our lumber to you, are

sometimes rebuffed in our efforts to conserve, where of necessity the

waste is large.

We are not slow in the West and South in developing the use of wooden

block paving, in establishing creosote plants to prolong the life of

our product, but in our recent attempts to get the consumer to use

odd and short lengths to prevent a waste in our mills of 2 per cent.

of our planing mill product, we are balked in our efforts and forced

to the burners with a lot of trimmings.

I have just read the following from an address delivered by Joseph

B. Knapp, assistant district forester in the United States Service,

which bears out my contention:

“Coast lumbermen a few years ago unitedly endeavored to introduce

the use of flooring, ceiling, finish and other planing mill products

in multiples of one foot from three feet upward. At this time the

United States Forest Service made an investigation of the waste due

to manufacturing planing mill products in multiples of two feet.

We found this waste to be over two per cent. of the material run

through planing mills in Oregon and Washington, or the equivalent

of the yearly growth of wood on approximately 30,000 acres of good

timberland. The consuming trade refused to accept odd lengths and

after a conscientious attempt on the part of lumber manufacturers,

it was found necessary to discontinue the manufacture of odd lengths

over ten feet. It is therefore seen that the useless waste in the

manufacture of lumber can not always be attributed to the lack of a

desire on the part of the lumber manufacturer to introduce economical

practices. It remains for the ultimate consumer of our timber

products to determine in what form these products shall be supplied

to him, and therefore conservative lumbering and close manufacture

are dependent as much upon the layman as upon the manufacturer.”

Our British Columbia neighbors are keenly alive to their timber

interests and their forest service is alive to the situation. Mr.

Benedict, assistant forester of British Columbia, in a recent address

stated that in British Columbia, on a very conservative estimate,

after eliminating waste land, rocky mountain slopes and peaks, they

had 65,000,000 acres capable of producing merchantable timber and

valueless for any other purpose.

“The productiveness of this land in timber will vary from 1,000

hard feet per acre per year in particularly favorable localities on

the coast to 25 or 50 board feet per acre per year on the mountains

of the interior,” he says, “but I am confident that the average

yield will amount to 100 board feet at least. This gives an annual

production of 6,500,000,000 feet.

“Allowing for a temporary overproduction of lumber brought on by

the desire of the holders of timber limits to realize on their

investment as quickly as possible, it will be seen that the stand of

mature timber will last from fifty to seventy-five years. At the end

of seventy-five years, when this mature timber is cut, the present

stand of second growth timber will have matured so that the annual

production can be maintained perpetually at 6,500,000,000 feet. All

this provided the present stand of mature timber is preserved from

destruction by fire and likewise that the second growth is able to

escape fire and grow to maturity.

“The stake then for which the forest protection force is working

is an annual crop of 6,500,000,000 feet of timber, worth to the

Government, say, $6,000,000, and to the community $100,000,000. To

win the stake fire must be kept out of the area of 100,000,000 acres,

or a block of forest 400 miles square. The problem, both on account

of the immense area, the variety of causes of fire, the absence of

means of transportation and communication, and the present sparseness

of population, is a most difficult one to solve. The safe harvesting

of the annual yield will require, besides the expenditure of large

sums of money, the good will of every citizen in the Province.

However, everything favors the satisfactory working out of the

problem.”

I quote the above to prove that we are not alone in our efforts to

conserve and provide for the future of our country.

Our associated efforts are being extended continually along the lines

of economy in manufacture, in the matter of standard grades and

sizes, inspection and insurance. Where is the commodity that can be

intelligently transported and marketed without a thorough knowledge

of both production and consumption? I now claim, and always have

claimed, that associated efforts to disseminate this information

and collectively endorse projects financially and otherwise to

promote the study of forestry and lumbering are the highest types of

Conservation of the Nation’s resources.

In the great State of Washington, which is now furnishing more lumber

than any other State in the Union, and where the lumber production

is the chief industry of the State, we are vitally concerned in our

legislative work, and concerning our Workman’s Compensation Act

I wish to bring to this particular Congress a special message. I

believe this act emphasizes the benefits of co-operative effort in

conserving human life and in protecting the breadwinner, upon whom

depends the life and happiness of so large a population.

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

sawmills and 800,000 employes, regardless of families dependent on

them, you will agree with me that we are all vitally interested in

workmen’s compensation.

In a recent Bulletin of the National Lumber Manufacturers’

Association, Mr. Bronson wrote as follows:

“Thirteen States have adopted workmen’s compensation acts, and all

have become effective since September 1, 1910. All but one of these

laws are optional, the exception being the Washington law, which

is compulsory, and which, according to the brief experience had,

seems to be the most satisfactory both to employers and employes,

saving the employer all expense for industrial insurance, and saving

both employer and employe all court costs and giving to the employe

the full compensation provided by the law without any deduction for

lawyers or fees.

“The thirteen States which have adopted compensation acts are

California, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New

Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Washington and

Wisconsin. In all of these States the common-law defenses are in

whole or part wiped out where the employer does not come under the

compensation act.”

The law in the State of Washington has now been in operation one

year. To those of us who have operated under it, it has already

proved what its advocates claimed the most advanced piece of

legislation enacted—and we have woman’s suffrage, too.

It is surprising what an effect it has had in clearing the court

docket of damage suits and in paying to the injured at a time when

the money is needed all the award without the intervention of a third

party. With a carefully selected commission of three, responsible

to the Governor, and non-partisan in character, we have launched a

statute that, regardless of any improvements which may be determined

or defects disclosed, has improved the industrial atmosphere both for

employe and employer.

The State appropriates a fund of $150,000 to administer the act for

two years. The risks are classified and rates assessed, and quarterly

payments called for as required.

The statistical records being made and knowledge gained by the

Commission in administering this act will be invaluable and it has

already brought to the attention of loggers, lumbermen and all

manufacturers the loss of life and limb incidental to the business,

the benefits of factory inspection as a further prevention and the

fixing of responsibility as to accidents.

I secured from the Commission the attached reports, which I shall

not read in detail, but which show detailed comparisons and some

interesting figures. (See reports, A, B and C, appended to this

paper.)

Our commissioners have been called on many times to address

conventions and congresses regarding the law, and I can best state

their views by quoting from an address of Commissioner Pratt at our

recent Logging Congress, and from a statement issued by Commissioner

Wallace. Commissioner Pratt says in part:

“The Workman’s Compensation Act has been in operation now for nine

months, and those of you who are actively in business in the State of

Washington are more or less familiar with its results.

“In the first place, it is compulsory alike on the employer and

employe. The employer has to pay into the accident fund a sum of

money based upon a percentage of his payrolls, and the employe must

accept the awards of the Commission allowed for work accidents in

lieu of his right to sue at common law, subject, of course, to a

right of appeal on the amount awarded.

“All the extra hazardous industries of the State are divided into

forty-seven classes, each class with a fund of its own, and the

accidents arising in that class shall be a drain only upon that fund.

As the payments for work accidents deplete the fund in each class it

provides for monthly assessments to be made to recoup each class. The

payments out of these funds are only for work accidents, all the cost

of the administration of the law being paid out of the general taxes

of the State. For the first twenty-two months of its operation an

appropriation of $150,000 was made.

“It is unlawful for the employer to deduct any portion of the premium

paid into the accident fund out of the wages of the employe. It

provides for penalizing any establishment which from poor or careless

management is unduly hazardous by raising its rate. If an employer,

besides employing men in extra hazardous employment, employs men in

non-hazardous employment, the premium shall be paid only the payrolls

of the extra hazardous work, but the employer and the non-hazardous

employe may elect to come under the act and both shall receive the

benefits of the act.

“As each class must pay for only such accidents arising in that

class, and as assessments are made only as the funds of that class

are depleted, there are but two things that govern the cost of this

insurance: the amount of the awards and the number and seriousness of

the accidents.

“As I have said, the classes that the loggers and lumbermen are most

interested in are seven, ten and twenty-nine.

“The rate for class seven is 5 per cent.; for classes ten, 2½ per

cent., and twenty-nine is 2½ per cent. All operations in which those

present are interested in these last two classes take the same rate.

Class ten is by far the largest class we have, and as it covers

several distinct operations it has been divided into four different

subdivisions or groups.

“10.1 covers logging and logging operations of all kinds.

“10.2 covers sawmills and lumber yards, etc.

“10.3 covers shingle mills and operations connected with a shingle

plant.

“10.4 covers mast and spar manufacture, stump pulling, land clearing,

etc.

“We have had the following table compiled of comparative risks of

wood-working industries:

Workday

Av. Number Number of Number of Lost per Number of

Class of Men Time Workdays 1,000 Dismemberment

Number. Employed. Awards. Lost. Men. Awards.

7 4,120 172 5,862 1,402 17

10.1 12,801 440 14,926 1,166 35

10.2 17,770 763 14,941 841 51

10.3 5,565 221 5,766 1,036 56

10.4 381 50 1,144 3,003 5

29 3,787 156 3,368 888 24

—————— ————— —————— ————— ———

44,424 1,802 46,007 1,035 188

Deaths

Dismemberment Number per

Class Awards per of 1,000

Number. 1,000 Men. Deaths. Men.

7 4.1 7 1.69

10.1 2.7 22 1.72

10.2 2.9 7 0.39

10.3 10.1 0 0.00

10.4 13.1 1 2.60

29 6.3 0 0.00

———— —— ————

4.2 37 0.83

“This table is not as nice a one as I should have liked to show this

Congress of Loggers. It shows where the great harm is being done

in class ten and it shows which is the greater risk and what part

of the class should be charged a higher rate than the other part.

Furthermore, not only are we keeping a strict account with each

class, and division of a class, but we are keeping a strict account

with each individual operator and in the end will publish an account

of just how many accidents each firm or corporation has had, just how

much has been paid out for them in awards or pensions, for injuries

to their workingmen.

“Now, what are we going to do to prevent this loss of life and limb?

In the first place, there has been a Labor Commission since 1905 and

the mills and factories have been subject to inspection and have been

forced to put on safeguards. The loggers have steadfastly refused to

allow any inspection laws covering logging to be put on the statute

book of the State. Logging is a hazardous life at the very best and

calls for strong, dare-devil men, and men who are willing to take

chances. Danger is always present and men become so used to it that

they get careless. This, however, is no excuse for needless loss of

life and limb.

“Once more I want to urge upon the lumbermen of all classes the

necessity of more rigid inspection; to have some one about the plant

whose sole duty is to see to it that every machine is safeguarded the

best that possibly can be, and that safeguards are kept in place.

It will be money in your pockets if you want to put it on such a

mercenary level as that.

“Also I want to urge that a movement be put on foot that our colleges

and universities establish chairs of logging and safeguarding

engineering, so that our young men, just fresh from school, shall

have a better knowledge to start with on these subjects than did

their fathers. Many and many a man-killing machine is used just

because some one has not invented a better one.

“The report of the expense of the Commission shows that the total

amount expended to July 1 out of an appropriation of $150,000 was

$87,062.14, and that the proportion of expenses to the amount of

business done is 11 per cent., a showing so much below what it costs

casualty companies merely to solicit their business as to be notable.

“The president of one of the casualty companies, while I was in New

York, showed me their experience, which showed that the cost to them

for the last year was 51 per cent. of the premium. As you see, our

cost is about 11 per cent. Of course, we do not have to solicit, nor

do we have so large a force in the field for adjustment.

“The Commission, is keeping well inside of its appropriation, as the

allowable average expenses for twenty-two months would be $6,818.18,

while the actual average has been $6,620.16.

“Other details of the financial report are as follows:

Total receipts, accident fund $699,508 72

Total expense 86,062 14

———————————

Total fund $785,570 86

Cash in fund, 36 per cent. $281,993 32

Reserve fund, 20.5 per cent. 161,154 49

Claims paid, 32.5 per cent. 256,360 91

Expense, 11 per cent. 86,062 14

———— ——————————

100 per cent. $785,570 86

“We are executing the law, backed by the State of Washington, and

there is less quibble in settlements made by our Commission than

there would be by an adjustment made by a casualty company. Neither

do we have to pay any attorney’s fees, as the Attorney-General’s

office has to attend to all this part of the work for us.

“Since the first of October, there has not been a case filed in any

court in the State for damages done to any workman who came under

this act.

“This has been a great relief to our courts, and in time will be felt

in reduced taxes. The cheapening of our court costs and the removal

of all personal liability suits should work a reduction of costs to

the general taxpayer.

“One of the features of the old common-law system was the

ambulance-chasing lawyer, whom we all know. This gentleman is

practically out of business as a result of the Workman’s Compensation

Act, but is undertaking to find some activity in the industry of

appeals. Out of over 6,000 claims passed upon, only twelve appeals

have been filed, one of them from the Imperial Powder Company, to

interpret the law, one to determine the scope of the interstate

commerce law, one filed by an insane claimant, and several that are

in the process of adjustment and dissolution.

“One appealed case has been tried in court and the court sustained

the Commissioner’s finding as far as temporary total disability

was concerned, but found the claimant entitled to compensation for

permanent partial disability, remanding the case to the Commission

for additional compensation, which was promptly awarded. Had the

Commissioner been in possession of the facts, the award for

permanent partial disability would have been made without appeal.”

Commissioner Wallace makes the following pertinent statement:

“The Washington State insurance system has succeeded beyond the

best hopes of its friends and sponsors. In this act, one of the

youngest States is giving the older commonwealths another example

of a wise and progressive law. The State’s control over public

utility corporations, giving the suffrage to women, eight-hour laws

for underground miners and women wage-earners, full crew law for

railways, and other laws enacted during the past four years in the

interest of labor deserve full praise and should not be forgotten in

the triumph of our compensation act.

“The compensation act has thus ushered in an era of publicity

regarding the appalling maiming, dismembering and killing of workmen

in the mines, mills and workshops of our State. The great question

just now becomes not what we can give to pay for pain and suffering

and even death, but how can we best safeguard those who toil. This

will be real progress; compensation must ever be mere apology.

“Concerned as we have been as to how the little home flock could be

kept together when the breadwinner was stricken down in his endeavor

to make an honest living, and thinking in terms of dollars and cents

how much it will take to keep the wolf from the door during these

times of industrial disaster, we may have overlooked the fact (or was

it because we were not familiar with it?) that, according to the best

authorities who have made accident prevention a scientific study for

a number of years, 75 to 90 per cent. of the accidents that occur are

preventable.

“Our law has been widely commended and is in reality the best

compensation law in the United States today. It has been rarely

condemned, save by those who profited by the old legal system. It has

shown the great waste of human energy, manhood and womanhood—wastes

which reflect discredit upon this young and virile commonwealth—and

as these things begin to be understood by the people they will

insistently ask, what can we do, not only to preserve the mineral,

the timber, and the water-power resources of our State, but what can

we do to conserve our greatest asset—human life?”

I am confident this Congress will endorse the sentiments expressed

and I only wish to add the employer and employe, State official and

private citizen, voice the same sentiments and desire to give them

widest publicity.

REPORT A.

INDUSTRIAL INSURANCE COMMISSION OF WASHINGTON.

_Statement of Condition of Accident Fund, September 1, 1912._

================+=======================+===========+=============

| Total Amount Claims. |Estimated |

| |Reserve on | Balance

CLASS. +———————————+———————————+ Approved | in Fund.

| | | Claims. |

| Paid In. | Paid. | |

————————————————+———————————+———————————+———————————+—————————————

1 | $19,350 71| $6,400 60| | $12,950 11

2 | 17,839 53| 3,860 85| $3,481 60| 10,497 08

3 | 6,343 73| 1,653 90| | 4,689 83

4 | 1,996 85| 463 80| | 1,533 05

5 | 70,194 23| 18,207 10| 20,008 25| 31,978 88

6 | 52,990 61| 9,178 86| 2,063 95| 41,747 80

7 | 84,249 20| 28,886 99| 17,863 22| 37,498 99

8 | 30,745 73| 7,982 15| 1,180 07| 21,583 51

9 | 6,340 35| 2,173 30| | 4,167 05

10 | 266,461 72| 167,741 35| 95,777 56| 2,942 81

12 | 6,432 63| 1,642 25| | 4,790 38

13 | 16,371 87| 2,775 43| 7,574 72| 6,021 72

14 | 26,817 34| 8,120 36| 1,266 00| 19,430 98

15 | 4,275 45| 1,284 21| 754 52| 2,236 72

16 | 82,110 27| 33,794 11| 28,020 37| 20,295 79

17 | 14,800 60| 4,786 55| 2,352 55| 7,661 50

18 | 6,368 70| 4,808 75| | 1,559 95

19 | 7,098 59| 717 36| 2,903 83| 3,477 40

20 | 1,202 20| 405 00| | 797 20

21 | 8,319 89| 4,576 43| | 3,743 46

22 | 7,656 94| 2,370 60| | 5,286 34

23 | 4,152 43| 543 40| 2,805 92| 803 11

24 | 8,084 75| 5,826 45| | 2,258 30

25 | 1,489 06| 402 65| | 1,086 41

29 | 27,134 69| 16,760 72| | 10,373 97

30 | 789 83| | | 789 83

31 | 7,051 68| 1,580 73| 842 08| 4,628 87

33 | 11,289 16| 1,536 30| | 9,752 86

34 | 28,349 76| 15,404 90| 3,156 32| 9,788 54

35 | 6,216 34| 1,395 05| | 4,821 29

37 | 9,857 48| 1,828 73| 3,295 17| 4,733 58

38 | 3,812 52| 1,114 95| | 2,697 57

39 | 2,627 55| 415 49| | 2,212 06

40 | 2,149 77| 203 55| | 1,946 22

41 | 6,516 49| 1,297 80| | 5,218 69

42 | 9,885 96| 5,485 86| 3,888 34| 511 76

43 | 4,584 50| 2,494 25| | 2,090 25

44 | 1,412 96| 680 25| | 732 71

45 | 445 14| | | 445 14

46 | 463 27| 1,908 95| | 1,445 68

47 | 632.44| 39 75| | 592 69

48 | 1,000 16| 83 95| | 916 21

+———————————+———————————+———————————+—————————————

|$875,913 08|$368,833 68|$197,234 47|$309,844 93

================+===========+===========+===========+=============

================+=================+===============================

| Deaths |

| Requiring. |

CLASS. +————————+————————+ Occupation.

| | No |

|Pension.|Pension.|

————————————————+————————+————————+———————————————————————————————

1 | | 6 | Sewers.

2 | 1 | | Bridge and tower.

3 | | | Pile driving.

4 | | | House wrecking.

5 | 6 | 2 | General construction.

6 | 3 | 5 | Power line installation.

7 | 8 | 4 | Railroads.

8 | 1 | 2 | Street grading.

9 | | | Ship building.

10 | 33 | 29 | Lumbering, milling, etc.

12 | | | Dredging.

13 | 4 | | Electric systems.

14 | 1 | 1 | Street railway.

15 | 1 | | Telephone and telegraph.

16 | 11 | 6 | Coal mining.

17 | 1 | 3 | Quarries.

18 | | | Smelters.

19 | 1 | | Gas works.

20 | | | Steam boats.

21 | | | Grain elevators.

22 | | | Laundries.

23 | 2 | | Water works.

24 | | 1 | Paper mills.

25 | | | Garbage works.

29 | | | Wood working.

30 | | | Asphalt manufacturing.

31 | 1 | 1 | Cement manufacturing.

33 | | | Fish canneries.

34 | 1 | | Steel manufacturing, foundries.

35 | | 1 | Brick manufacturing.

37 | 1 | 1 | Breweries.

38 | | | Textile manufacturing.

39 | | | Food stuffs.

40 | | | Creameries.

41 | | | Printing.

42 | 1 | | Longshoring.

43 | | | Packing houses.

44 | | | Ice manufacturing.

45 | | | Theatre stage employes.

46 | 7 | 1 | Powder works.

47 | | | Creosoting works.

48 | | | Non-hazardous elective.

+————————+————————+

| 84 | 63 |

================+========+========+===============================

F. W. HINSDALE, Chief Auditor.

REPORT B.

INDUSTRIAL INSURANCE COMMISSION OF WASHINGTON.

_Statement of Expense Account for the Month of August, 1912._

Mileage—

Commissioners $50 00

Auditors 98 23

Railroad Fare—

Commissioners 20 35

Auditors 195 88

Hotel—

Commissioners 97 10

Auditors 447 90

Incidental Expenses—

Auditors 9 15

Salaries—

Commissioners 900 00

Auditors 2,260 29

Physicians 406 50

Office 2,067 06

Miscellaneous—

Stationery 256 81

Postage 322 61

Telephone 66 30

Telegraph 8 24

Office supplies 208 97

General expense 60 20

Rent 110 00

—————————

Total $7,585 59

F. W. HINSDALE, Chief Auditor.

REPORT C.

Olympia, Washington, August 31, 1912.

Industrial Insurance Commission, Olympia, Washington.

Gentlemen—Herewith statement of claims handled by this Department

during the month of August, 1912. Also, the number handled during

the period from October 1, 1911 to August 31, 1912.

_Claims Received._

Month of August. Total to Date.

Accidents reported 1,374 10,586

Files incomplete 1,471

————— —————— 9,115

Files complete 1,455

Monthly payments continued 262 1,972

Claims reopened 8 129

————— —————— 2,101

1,725 ——————

11,216

_Claims Disposed of._

Month of August. Total to Date.

Finals 1,097 5,255

Monthly 262 1,972

Fatal 36 214

Total permanent disability 2

Rejections 78 324

Suspensions 46 281

No. claims 198 1,420

Total disposed of ————— ————— 9,468

1,717

Claims in the work 1,748

——————

Total 11,216

Respectfully submitted,

J. F. GILLIES (Signed),

Claim Agent.

President WHITE—This is certainly a very important paper. I want to

say here that tomorrow, in Kansas City, Mo., a committee from the

organized labor interests, and a committee from the manufacturers

will meet to discuss a proposition to prepare a bill for presentation

to the next Missouri Legislature that shall be fair alike to employer

and employe, in regard to compensation for injuries. It has worked

well in Washington, it is humane, and it does shut off the dishonest,

shyster lawyer who means to get three-fourths or more of the award

for the injury, and gives it all to the person who is injured,

without any attorney’s fees. (Applause.)

I will take just a moment at this time to appoint the Nominating

Committee:

George E. Condra, Chairman; E. T. Allen, H. A. Barker, Mrs. Marion A.

Crocker, E. G. Griggs, Mrs. Elmer E. Kendall, Henry Wallace, and N.

P. Wheeler.

This committee has the duty of considering and nominating the

officers for the next Congress. They will have a couple of days for

the work.

At the first day’s session, there was a report on the program from

the National Congress of Mothers, which was to have been presented

by Mrs. Orville T. Bright, of Chicago. Through an unfortunate

misunderstanding, which was not the fault of Mrs. Bright, she was not

here on the first day. We are glad to have the report at this time. I

now take great pleasure in introducing Mrs. Bright. (Applause.)

Mrs. BRIGHT—The one object for the conservation of all the material

resources of a Nation is for the use, comfort and benefit of the

homes of the people.

It would be of little importance what became of forests, lands,

waters, minerals or food were there no men, women and children to use

and enjoy them.

Therefore, at the very heart of this Conservation work should be the

two departments covering homes and child life.

It has been a source of encouragement to see that men who are leaders

in many great developments of our land, have given definite place to

the study of the conservation of the home.

There is need for it if America is to be the greatest of all the

nations, for with its wonderful natural resources it can only be as

great as the quality and character of its people.

Great minds are needed to think and plan with wisdom and

unselfishness for the America that is to be, for the protection of

homes that are to shelter and nurture the men and women who a few

years hence will take our places.

The United States has its Departments of State and War and Navy. It

has not yet seen that the greatest questions it has to meet are the

protection and care of the American people and American homes.

The U. S. Department of Agriculture is educating the farmer to make

the most out of his land. It gives him information concerning the

soils, the rotation of crops, the protection against the many enemies

of plant life, the care and feeding of stock and poultry. It protects

the forests and the fisheries. All these things for the service of

man have received the guardianship of the Government.

Homes are just as important as farms, and there is just as great need

of proper consideration for their elevation and protection as there

is that of farms and stock and forests.

The protection of infant life is of more value, even in a pecuniary

way, than the protection of the cotton crop, yet three hundred

thousand babies die annually whose lives might be saved if the

United States gave the same careful, intelligent information to the

mothers as it does to the farmers.

The annual sacrifice of three hundred thousand American citizens

from preventable causes is a waste far too great not to receive

governmental consideration. Time need not be wasted on compiling

statistics. There is need for prompt and decisive action to prevent

this needless sacrifice; it means that each year the possibility

for at least one hundred thousand homes of American citizens is cut

off. That means a serious loss to this Nation and one for which

immigration can not compensate.

The wonderful advance in agriculture can be paralleled in human

culture if the same methods are used. The trains that go through the

country for agricultural demonstrations should carry instruction to

both men and women on home-making and child nurture. The list of

valuable educational pamphlets published and sent free of postage

should include instruction in child hygiene and sanitation.

There is today a need for a Home Department in the National and State

Governments that is equipped to study the home problems of America

and meet them as only can be done by thorough study and knowledge of

conditions, their causes and remedies. The sacrifice of infant life

is a small part of the waste that undermines the homes.

Juvenile crime, its causes and treatment are of more vital moment

than the boll weevil or the chestnut blight, for the possible good

citizen transformed into one who is a menace and expense to society

is a great waste.

There are countless organizations which give material and charitable

relief. There are few which give the help that will enable the

average home properly to guide and train the boys and girls who

are wayward, or will help parents to learn efficient methods of

child nurture. The home has the greatest power over human life and

human character. Too long has it been left to chance and ignorant

experiment to make it efficient in its work, stable and permanent.

The home is founded by the marriage of a man and a woman. It is a

matter of grave concern to the Nation when divorce breaks up one in

every twelve homes, and leaves the children bereft, not only of a

normal home but deprived of a true conception of what marriage and

parenthood should be. The conservation of the home requires that

serious study and work be done to change this condition in America.

It can not be done by legislation alone, though one of the greatest

needs today for the protection of the home is Federal law governing

marriage, divorce and polygamy.

It is a serious menace to the home when forty-four States may make

as many different laws as they choose on a subject which is the

foundation of the Nation’s future.

That a man may be legally married in one State, and that such

marriage is illegal in a State adjoining, that divorce is easy in

some States and difficult in others, that polygamy is permitted

to continue in some States, and that freedom to spread the cult

is allowed, have all been undermining influences in the God-given

standards of marriage, home and parenthood.

The Government has found it necessary to assume jurisdiction over

interstate commerce, railroads and express companies. It is of even

more vital importance that it should have jurisdiction over marriage,

divorce and their violations. In addition to this, there is need for

definite plain teaching of youth in regard to the true high ideal

of marriage, of parenthood, and the making of a home. This would

prevent a large proportion of the divorces. A standard should be set

in regard to the home, and boys and girls should get that as part of

their education.

Ignorance of hygiene is responsible for the drawbacks and failures

of many homes. It is inexcusable that any boy or girl should be

permitted to reach manhood and womanhood without a clear knowledge

of personal hygiene, sanitation, and food values. This knowledge is

essential to good home-making and good parenthood, and is equally

necessary for men and women.

Congestion in cities should not be permitted. In the seaport cities

many immigrants from other lands have not the means to go farther,

and if they had the means, do not know enough about the country to

place themselves where their qualifications would fit best. The cry

against immigration is one with which I can not sympathize. The

Americanizing of the immigrant should be placed in other hands than

the politician’s, who uses him en masse for a manipulated vote.

The special education of immigrant men and women would be an

important service to good home-making and the ability to train the

children to be useful citizens.

The proper distribution of immigrants by careful information as to

opportunities for work and the earning of a home is greatly needed.

The proper assimilation of our immigrant population is still in

its infancy, but is of vital moment, for they also are the future

citizens of America.

The city home of the American citizen should not be left to the

will of builders whose only thought is to build houses for sale.

Many apartments are built today without the amount of light, sun or

ventilation necessary to health. Some cities and towns are realizing

the need for regulating this.

The Conservation of the home demands that every State should have

requirements as to building homes. The problem of a comfortable home

for the family with a moderate income is a serious one today. Few

cities or towns are giving the thought necessary to make a city of

good homes for the average family at prices possible for them to pay.

The country home is equally in need of study and help. The

opportunities for social life and educational advantages equal to

those given to the city home should be supplied. That means larger

appropriations for schools, the employment of the best teachers, the

consolidated school, the use of the schools and churches as centers

of educational and social life, the making of good roads between home

and school and church and market place.

The Government Department of the Home should take all these things

into consideration. It should bring to the overworked farmer’s wife

better household facilities and more help. The greatest drawback to

country life today is the overworked wife, who can not get needed

help and who goes beyond her strength in cooking and doing housework

for farm help as well as her own family.

No one who knows of the terrible results of hook worm in the South

resulting from the unsanitary, poverty-stricken hovels, where

physical weakness had for years sapped the vitality and energy of

men, women and children, can gainsay the fact that Government study

of the causes and the remedy has done a service of inestimable value

to thousands of homes. Seven years’ life among those people proved

that many of them were in quality equal to the best American stock,

but that disease had brought upon them the unjust stigma of laziness

with resulting poverty.

The Government could study and publish the results of its

investigation, but Dr. Stiles had to get contributions from

individuals to do the educational and medical work necessary to

uproot this disease. That is not as it should be. The power to help

should go with the power to investigate, for the condition was of

much wider interest than to the individuals directly affected.

The National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations have

made the subject of the home, of parental education and of child

welfare its special study and work for seventeen years. It has worked

steadily to build up a united system of parent-teacher associations

in connection with every school, to bring about the co-operation of

home and school in child nurture.

It has required that these associations should be for child study

so that parents might have guidance and help in their problems. It

has instituted study courses and provided educational material for

the parents. It has headquarters in Washington and has valuable

co-operation from Government departments. It should be the Homes

Department of the National Conservation Congress because its work is

well established, covering every State and reaching to other Nations.

It is the only national organization whose membership is composed

of parents and teachers and whose educational leaders include the

greatest specialists in child nurture and child welfare in home,

school, church and state.

I would suggest to the National Conservation Congress that it make

the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations the

Homes Department, because in that way it will have consecutive work

of high standard, and will bring a strength which could be secured in

no other way. Co-operation without duplication brings results.

The National Congress of Mothers offers its co-operation in every

phase of conservation for which the Conservation Congress was

organized. It also asks co-operation of the Conservation Congress in

its international work for home, parenthood and child nurture.

It invites this Congress to be always represented at its annual

conferences and at the Third International Congress on Child Welfare

in Washington, D. C., in May, 1914.

Life, health, character, all depend on the home and its efficiency.

To equip every home for efficiency in its special work is the

greatest need in Conservation.

President WHITE—That is surely a fine paper, in a holy cause.

The topic of the next section of the program is “Conservation of

Human Life.” The subject, “Saving Miners’ Lives,” will be discussed

by Dr. Joseph A. Holmes, of Washington, D. C., Director of the

National Bureau of Mines. (Applause.)

Dr. HOLMES—Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: Those of you who

have endeavored, even in part, during the past month to attend the

Congresses in session in the United States, have found the time all

too short to make that possible for you to do. These Congresses have

covered all subjects. There is a feeling of unrest, a feeling that

we have not done in the past the things which we ought to have done,

and that it is high time we were trying to find out what are the best

things to do. For some two hundred years in the development of this

country we have allowed the individual very largely to take care of

himself. We started out with the government theory that each man is

entitled to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” and the

individual was left to himself to accomplish the purpose he had in

view. The country developed rapidly through that system, and we built

up a great Nation, but we have in the meantime neglected the public

welfare. We are in a state of unrest today in regard to the future,

feeling that it is time we were doing what we are trying to do—look

after the question of the public welfare.

We have had, furthermore, a period of most rapid progress. When you,

Mr. President, and others of us here, go back today to the schools

where we went years ago, we hardly know the place. Buildings have

changed, new ones have been built, and the teachers of today are

different from those we were accustomed to. We see the great system

of transportation built by the railroad men of today; we see the

means of communication, some fifteen million miles of telegraph and

telephone lines, enabling the people to talk with one another. Yet

even that is not speedy enough, so we are using the wireless. And so

along all lines of industry, we have developed at a tremendous rate.

But it has been a one-sided development, and now we have come to look

particularly at the other side—the public welfare, and we are trying

to find out what is best, from the experience of all countries, so

that the American people may do the best that can be done for the

welfare of this country.

It has therefore come about, in connection with this one-sided

development, that we have lost sight of that great subject which we

have for consideration today—the conservation of human life. We have

been too busy to think about it. We have jumped on and off street

cars and railway trains; we have slipped on our waxed floors; we have

met with all sorts of serious accidents in our fast automobiles and

flying machines; yet we ask, “Why are these miners so careless as to

kill themselves, and these railroad employes?” And we are just as bad

as they are. So let us not talk about careless railway employes, or

careless miners, but stop to think what we can do to help the entire

situation. Let us ask ourselves the question, “Am I my brother’s

keeper?” and there is but one answer, and that is in the affirmative.

I want to call attention to the fact that we have in this country

two great foundations of industry. We have always considered

agriculture as the great foundation industry of the country, but

we have another—mining. The savage did not need any mines. He only

wants a limited amount of material for clothing, and a large amount

of material in the way of something to eat. He does not need the

great modern appliances which we have today. When we drew up the

Constitution of this country we did not think the mining industry

of much importance, and it was not possible to anticipate the great

complex social fabric which we have in the United States today. A man

said to me the other day that he thought if Thomas Jefferson could

see the things that we are asking of this great Federal Government,

he would not know what to do. My own judgment is that he would

advocate the doing by this Federal Government of all the things that

this great American people demand that it do today. (Applause.) The

trouble is that while we were making this tremendous progress, all of

the people were not keeping pace, and perhaps it is well that this

is true, because if there was nobody to hold back we would not only

progress too rapidly, but progress in too many one-sided ways.

We recognize, furthermore, that while agriculture has made tremendous

strides, and in large measure because of the investigations conducted

under the Federal Government, other branches of industry have made

rapid strides, but they have been forced to one-sided development in

order to keep pace. It needs, then, the great co-operating influence

of some great force like the Federal Government to help keep the

industries from becoming one-sided.

The mining industry touches us on every hand, and today in a great

hall like this, where you can find materials from every part of the

world, you will find they came from the mine, or were manufactured

through the agency of the products of the mine. We can not do

anything on a large scale today without the aid of this great mining

industry. During last March, the English people awakened to a

realization of that fact. They did not consider mining as one of the

great fundamental industries, but the stopping of the coal mines for

four weeks stopped all the industries of the British, and they came

to the conclusion that the very life of the nation was in danger by

the cessation of coal mining.

Mining and Conservation should be linked very closely together. Men

realize the fact that with agriculture, the resources increase year

by year. We increase the fertility of the soil by taking the nitrogen

from the air, and from that we get the crops, so that the wealth of

the country based on agriculture is easily predicated. The mining

industry is just the reverse. We started in this country with greater

mineral resources than we will ever have again. Furthermore, in

agriculture we have the healthiest vocation known, while mining is

the most dangerous industry in the world.

Now, this mining industry has increased so rapidly that we have not

been able to take care of many of the difficulties that have arisen,

nor do we have a realization of how rapid that increase has been.

We have increased in forty years from less than a ton to every man,

woman and child, to, in the last year, six tons. Forty years ago a

pound of iron, as compared with thirteen today for every man, woman

and child. And so it has been with the great industries—they are

increasing so much more rapidly than the population that it is hard

to tell what has become of this increase, and one of the questions

is, can this increase continue? Some of our great statesmen in

Washington who have been fighting this Conservation movement, say

it can not continue. The fact that the mining industry has nearly

doubled every ten years, they say can not continue. But no man today

would say that this country will not continue to grow, and as it

grows this great mining industry will increase also. We are just

entering upon our development. We are just beginning to export the

products of our mines, so when we ask the question whether this great

Nation will continue to grow, and this industry will increase, there

is but one answer, and that is in the affirmative. We ask another

question—are these resources inexhaustible? And there is but one

answer, and that is in the negative, because we are now beginning

to see the end of some of these resources. Shall we curtail the

development of an industry like this and not supply the needs of

the people? Our politicians ask this and expect us to answer in the

affirmative, but no conservationist answers it that way. We say, no,

the needs increase and we must meet the needs.

What can we do to perpetuate the welfare of the country? There are

but two things we can do, and they are fairly easy to do. Use more

and more efficiently all the resources, and prevent unnecessary

waste. Now, in connection with this wasteful use of our resources,

you say, after all, is there any great waste? What can we do to stop

it? Only a few years ago the State of Indiana thought its natural

gas was gone, so it passed laws forbidding the waste of natural gas;

the Supreme Court of the United States confirmed such an act in

regard to coal—after the coal was gone. One of the Supreme Judges

said that a man who owns a coal mine had a legal right to destroy it

if he wished to. But in the State of New York one of the associate

justices overruled the Supreme Justice, and in every case the Supreme

Court of the United States, as well as the Supreme Court of the

several States, have shown a desire to keep pace with the progress of

this country in interpreting the Constitution of the United States

for the permanent future welfare of the people of this country.

(Applause.) There are a good many signs of improvement, not only in

what the Federal and State Governments are doing, but in what private

individuals are doing.

Only yesterday, I went through the great plant at Gary, and I found

the United States Steel Corporation was using two million horse-power

developed from gases from its own operations, which only a few years

ago was allowed to go to waste, and that power is not only operating

all the machinery of that company, but is supplying the power for

other industries in the immediate vicinity. I found that the slag

coming from the furnaces, which in many great manufacturing sections

of the country we see piled up in great, unsightly masses, is all

being converted into cement, and that cement is being used by the

people of this country. And so we find an interesting situation—that

the steel being manufactured by that plant is likely soon to be a

by-product, and not the main product for which the plant is operated.

And so it is when we watch the great industries of this country.

Under this great spirit of Conservation individuals are meeting the

Federal Government and State more than half way, and they are finding

what is the greatest basis of permanent success—that it pays to

conserve our resources. And when that great company does any mining

for ore in the lake country, instead of burying the materials which

they cannot use today, they are laying that material to one side,

so that just as soon as it becomes useful it will be immediately

available for preparation for that purpose.

Out of five hundred million tons of coal mined last year, we wasted,

by leaving it underground, no less than two hundred million tons.

Meanwhile, if we could have exported that coal to Central or South

America and brought back from these countries raw materials which we

could use in manufacture, it would be something worth doing; but to

waste it entirely is nothing more than a discredit to this nation.

But what are we going to do about it? The coal operator cannot change

the situation, because he is doing the best he can at the price he

gets; the miner cannot change the situation, because he is doing the

best he can at the price he is paid. It is not simply a question

for chemists and engineers—it is a problem for statesmen, and the

statesman is the man who must remedy the economic conditions.

To come to the main subject of the Conservation of life, the greatest

loss of life we have in mines is in the coal mining industry. I want

to say in connection with this, that a careful study of the situation

for the past several years has led me to believe that the coal

operator in the United States is just as humane and just as anxious

to conserve the life of his men as the coal operator in any other

known country. (Applause.) Furthermore, that while it is true that

of the miners, less than half read the English language and 75 per

cent. are non-English speaking and know little or nothing about the

laws regulating the principles and purposes of a great country like

this, yet they are no more careless in mining because of that fact

than are the miners from England and Wales who come here after long

experience in mining and knowing perfectly our language and customs.

These men are up against a condition that they cannot remedy, and

while I do not say that they are doing the best they can under the

circumstances, I think they are more and more coming to do the best

they can, and I believe we will have more and more effort on the part

of both miners and operators to do what is right. We have developed

so rapidly in the past hundred years that we have not stopped to

think of human life, and we cannot expect these reforms to take place

without any effort on our part. There is recognition on the part of

both miners and operators, that I am my brother’s keeper, and it is a

most encouraging sign.

There are these two great reforms in connection with the mines of

this country—safeguarding the lives of miners and improvement of

conditions under which they labor, and the stopping of waste of our

essential resources. The Federal Government is trying to get at the

actual information, they are trying to conduct investigations in an

impartial manner, and they want to bring about a condition acceptable

to both miner and operator. We have suspicion on the part of the

operator of the miner; and suspicion on the part of the miner of the

operator; and suspicion on the part of other parties in reference to

both. What we want to do is to have a condition in this country so

that the miner and operator, co-operating with each other, can work

together and bring about these great reforms that are needed.

This general welfare clause of the Constitution, which was regarded

as an agreement with the devil, is today our great saving clause

for getting things done by the Federal Government. The Federal

Government, Mr. President, has waked up long ago to what it ought

to do for agriculture, and in the next few years it will conduct

investigations far more extensive than today—it will submit remedies

brought together from the experience of all mining countries of

the world, and it will lead in this great movement for a general

improvement of conditions. But after all, what may be done by the

Federal Government will depend upon what is done by the Federal

Congress. There is where we must do our work, to make them appreciate

the difficulties of a great industry like this, and the correctness

of this clause.

I want to say a word in behalf of these miners. As I said before,

more than half of them cannot read the English language. Under the

rules and regulations we have permitted these men to come into the

United States, and when they come it is interesting to see how they

appreciate becoming an American citizen. I talked to a Lithuanian who

had only been in this country a few months, and I said, “Are you not

very lonely?” and he said, “Yes, but I am an American.” (Applause.)

These men are here, and we have done mighty little for them. We

cannot wonder that they segregate in their rooms at night, after

working in the mines all day, and read Socialistic literature which

comes from their country. We do mighty little to encourage them to

learn the English language; we do mighty little to encourage them to

enter into the spirit of true America; we have neglected them all

too long—and then we complain that they are not American citizens. I

appeal to you as citizens of the United States and of the State of

Indiana, to see that everything that is possible is done to make good

citizens of these men. Get legislation under which they can work, and

the safety problem will take care of itself. (Continued applause.)

President WHITE—The next subject for consideration is “The Prevention

of Railroad Accidents,” by Mr. Thomas H. Johnson, consulting engineer

of the Pennsylvania Lines, West. I take pleasure in introducing Mr.

Johnson. (Applause.)

Mr. JOHNSON—In approaching this subject it will be well to get

our viewpoint adjusted to a true perspective and just proportion.

Accidents on railways which result in death or injury to persons,

are all reported to State and National officials, and when the

statistics for the year are compiled and published the total figures

are startling, and suggest that the transportation business of the

country is conducted at a fearful sacrifice of life and limb. It

should be remembered, however, that in no other line of the Nation’s

activities are similar complete statistics available.

The only data at hand to show the relation between the numbers

killed and injured on railways, and those occurring in other lines

of action, are found in a pamphlet issued by the city of Chicago,

entitled “Report of the General Superintendent of Police,” from which

the following table is taken:

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

_Accidents Reported by the Police Department, Year 1911._

Fatal. Non-fatal. Total.

Steam Railway Accidents 187 554 741

Street and Elevated Railway Accidents 106 3,646 3,752

Accidents Caused by Teams and Vehicles 135 2,812 2,947

Accidents Caused by Falling from Windows,

Scaffolds, Porches, etc. 149 2,680 2,829

Bitten by Dogs 4 1,281 1,285

Injuries by Personal Violence 177 2,729 2,906

Overcome by Gas, Smoke or Heat 189 653 842

Scalded or Burned 81 216 297

Various Other Causes 193 1,945 2,138

————— —————— ——————

Total 1,221 16,516 17,737

From this it will be noted that of 1,221 fatal accidents in 1911,

only 187 occurred on steam railways, and of 16,516 nonfatal, only

554 are charged against them. Comparing the total accidents, it will

be seen that five times as many persons were killed and injured on

street railways as on steam railways, four times as many by teams and

vehicles, four times as many by falls from windows, scaffolds, etc.,

and again four times as many by personal violence. Even the dogs come

in for having done 73 per cent. more damage than the steam railways.

Taking the last two items together, it appears that Chicago’s vicious

dogs and more vicious men are nearly six times as destructive of life

and limb as are the railways.

While the foregoing figures are for the city of Chicago only, they

are indicative of the fact that throughout the country the number

of accidents on railways is a mere fraction of those occurring

elsewhere, and this fact has been recognized by the accident

insurance companies when they issue policies calling for double

compensation if the accident occurs while traveling in steam or

trolley cars.

If the grand total of accidents on railways appears so startling when

presented in concrete figures, what would it be if equally complete

figures could be had for the other types of accidents classified in

the Chicago report?

And now having cleared the atmosphere in that respect, we will

proceed to consider the railway accidents on their own merits.

The Interstate Commerce Commission issues a series of quarterly

bulletins of railway accidents. They also issue an annual report of

general railway statistics, in which a summary of statistics of

railway accidents was included prior to 1910, but which has since

been admitted as an unnecessary duplication. The statistics of the

annual report have been compiled on a somewhat different basis from

those of the bulletins, and the two sets of figures cannot always

be reconciled. In compiling the following tables the annual reports

prior to 1910 have been followed as being the final word of the

Commission.

It should be noted that the statistics of railway accidents are

divided into two general classes:

First. Accidents due to the movement of trains, engines or cars,

which may properly be called “transportation accidents.”

Second. Accidents not connected with train or car movements, such as

happen to shopmen, warehousemen, trackmen handling material, etc.,

such as are equally occurring in other industries, and which are more

properly classed as “industrial accidents.”

This discussion will be chiefly devoted to the first class, as being

distinctively “railway accidents.”

PROGRESS IN THE PAST.

The loss of life from railway accidents began with the day of the

opening of the first railway in England, in September, 1830, on which

occasion a prominent citizen, a member of Parliament, was knocked

down and fatally injured, sending a thrill of horror not only through

the great throng of spectators, but also throughout the civilized

world. That unfortunate accident was not due to any defect in track

or equipment, nor to any fault in the operation of the train. It was

due to the victim’s failure to appreciate the danger attending the

then new and novel mode of transportation, and inadvertently putting

himself in a position of danger. It was the forerunner and prototype

of many thousands of others which have since occurred through

carelessness and sheer recklessness of the victims, and which the

railway companies are powerless to prevent.

But as railways multiplied other accidents occurred, which were due

to defects of one kind or another in track and equipment, or to

inadequate rules governing train movements, and the duties of the

several employes. Each accident has been carefully studied as to its

cause, and, so far as possible, remedies have been applied. Thus

the immense system of transportation as it exists today has been

a gradual development from crude beginnings. The light iron rails

inadequately secured at the joints have been replaced with heavy

steel rails with effective joint fastenings. Train movements have

been safeguarded by a well-digested system of rules, uniform on all

railroads; by standard forms of train orders with all ambiguities

of language eliminated, and by block signals, interlocking and

automatic couplers, air brakes and other safety devices. Stoves and

oil lamps, with their menace of fire, have given way to steam heating

and electric lighting. The inflammable wooden cars are being replaced

with steel equipment. In fact, there has been a steady progress from

the beginning in the effort to reduce the danger to life and limb.

But accidents continue to happen, partly because the rapid growth of

traffic and the demand for greater speed are creating new conditions,

partly because materials have hidden defects and the human machine

is not infallible, and partly because discipline has been largely

subverted through the attitude of the brotherhoods of employes.

In order to show in a general way what has been accomplished,

the average figures for the five-year period from 1889 to 1893,

inclusive, have been compared with the corresponding figures for the

years 1907 to 1911, inclusive, with the following results:

Ratio of passengers carried to one killed has increased 35.5 per cent.

Ratio of employes to one killed has increased 54.7 per cent.

This shows a very decided gain in the twenty-two years covered by the

record.

The number injured cannot be compared in the same way, for the reason

that in the later years the reports include large numbers of minor

injuries of a more or less trivial nature, which were not included

in the earlier reports, but which the Interstate Commerce Commission

now requires to be reported, thus swelling the number injured out of

all proportion to the earlier reports. Under the present rules, if

a passenger lets a window sash bruise his finger, and it is brought

to the attention of any of the train crew, it must be reported, and

enters into the final statistics with as much weight as the loss of

an arm or a leg.

CAUSE AND PREVENTION.

In the Accident Bulletin for June, 1910, pages 10 and 11, there are

given detailed statistics of twenty-six “prominent train accidents”

with the causes of each. They embrace thirteen collisions and

thirteen derailments, resulting in sixty-two killed, 306 injured, and

a property loss of $261,584. The causes assigned may be grouped under

fifteen heads, as follows:

Excessive speed, 5; ran by meeting point, 2; failed to flag, 5;

disobeying orders, 1; misunderstanding orders, 1; failure to receive

orders, 1; conflicting orders, 1; signal light out and engineman

failed to stop, 1; broken rail, 2; explosion of boiler, 1; spreading

of rails, 1; washout, 1; trestle failed, 1; insufficient ballast, 1;

defective temporary junction of new and old rails, 1. Total, 26.

These fifteen assigned causes may be summarized thus:

Failure of persons, 18; failure of boiler, 1; failure of track and

structures, 7. Total, 26.

Of the seven failures of track and structures, the two cases of

“broken rails” and one “washout” may be considered unavoidable. The

remaining four cases in that group, viz., “spreading of rails,”

“trestle failed,” “insufficient ballast” and “defective temporary

junction of old and new rails” were preventable, and could have

occurred only from neglect of those charged with their care and

maintenance.

The one case of “explosion of boiler” may have been due to defective

material, or to negligence of the engineman.

We find, therefore, that in this group of accidents, twenty-two were

preventable, three unavoidable and one doubtful.

Of the unavoidable, the “washout” may be dismissed as being beyond

the control of human agencies, but the “broken rail” calls for

further consideration.

Rail failures are generally due to chemical or physical defects, not

entirely under control of the manufacturer, and not discoverable by

inspection of the finished rails. Under the present practice the

manufacture of rails is watched at the mill by the railway company’s

inspectors. Specimens from each heat or melt are tested under a

weight of 2,000 pounds falling fifteen feet to twenty feet. If the

test piece breaks the steel is regarded as too brittle, and the rails

from that heat are rejected. If it does not break, but the deflection

exceeds the prescribed limit, the steel is too soft, and those rails

are accepted as seconds, to be used only in yards and side tracks.

All test pieces which do not break under the foregoing drop test are

then broken and examined for internal defects. If defects are found,

further tests are made, and the heat rejected in whole or in part, on

the extent of unsoundness disclosed.

But herein lies a difficulty. Internal defects can only be found

by breaking the rail. A rail broken is past usefulness. Hence that

form of inspection cannot be applied to every rail; and as we can

only test a limited portion of each heat, some defective rails must

inevitably be passed and get into track. Complete statistics of all

rail failures on a large proportion of the railways of the United

States have been collected by the American Railway Engineering

Association for several years past. These reports have been collected

and classified as to the several causes, the results being printed in

the publications of the Association. They show that the rails which

fail annually are less than one eighth of one per cent. of the rails

laid. This indicates fairly successful inspection, and would be quite

satisfactory were it not that a single failure may result in such

horrible consequences.

Five years ago (1907) as the result of several conferences between

a committee of the American Railway Association and the rail

manufacturers, a systematic study of the subject was undertaken, with

a view to ascertaining the cause, and if possible, the prevention

of rail failures. This research work was placed in charge of the

Rail Committee of the American Railway Engineering Association,

who engaged the services of a competent expert, who devotes his

whole time to the work, furnishing freely of their materials and

facilities at the mills. The line of investigation includes studies

of the effects of variations in composition; in time in the bath;

in time in the ladle; in manner and rate of pouring; in size of

ingot; in rate of reduction at each pass; in temperature of the metal

when rolled; in the effect of different alloys, etc. The field of

investigation is broad and complicated. Much progress has been made,

but much remains to be done. It is hoped, however, that success will

ultimately be reached, and the rail failures in service be reduced to

the lowest possible minimum. Certainly the railway engineers and the

manufacturers are making every effort to accomplish that result.

Of late the adoption of some form of automatic stop has been

suggested, and more or less urgently advocated. But let us consider:

Referring again to the list of causes of the twenty-six accidents,

such a device would have been called into play only in one case, that

of running by a signal when the light was out. It could have had no

influence on any one of the other twenty-five cases. Furthermore,

it has been the experience the world over that emergency devices,

resting in “innocuous desuetude” for long intervals of time, usually

fail to work when the emergency arises. It may be said that it should

be some one’s duty to see that the apparatus is kept in working

order. Very true. But therein is a reversion to ultimate dependence

on the human factor with its attendant weakness and frailties.

The foregoing list of accidents embrace only a few of the more

prominent “collisions” and “derailments.” But there are other forms

of accident, as shown in the following statistical tables copied from

the Interstate Commerce Commission Annual Report for 1909:

ACCIDENTS RESULTING FROM THE MOVEMENT OF TRAINS, LOCOMOTIVES, OR CARS.

_Interstate Commerce Commission Annual Report, 1909._

=========================+====================================

| Employes.

+————————————————+———————————————————

| | Switch Tenders,

KIND OF ACCIDENT. | Trainmen. | Crossing Tenders

| | and Watchmen.

+———————+————————+—————————+—————————

|Killed.|Injured.| Killed. | Injured.

—————————————————————————+———————+————————+—————————+—————————

Coupling or uncoupling | 137 | 2,271 | 4 | 35

Collision | 205 | 1,973 | 1 | 10

Derailments | 184 | 1,186 | | 10

Parting of trains | 7 | 233 | | 2

Locomotives or cars | | | |

breaking down | 9 | 159 | | 2

Falling from trains, | 295 | 4,433 | 1 | 56

locomotives, or cars | | | |

Jumping on or off trains,| 84 | 4,135 | 6 | 64

locomotives or cars | | | |

Struck by trains, | 243 | 577 | 72 | 79

locomotives or cars | | | |

Overhead obstructions | 47 | 775 | | 6

Other causes | 133 | 13,376 | 9 | 243

+———————+————————+—————————+—————————

Total | 1,344 | 29,118 | 93 | 507

—————————————————————————+———————+————————+—————————+—————————

=========================+====================================

| Employes (Continued).

+————————————————+———————————————————

| |

KIND OF ACCIDENT. | Station Men. | Shopmen.

| |

+———————+————————+—————————+—————————

|Killed.|Injured.| Killed. | Injured.

—————————————————————————+———————+————————+—————————+—————————

Coupling or uncoupling | 2 | 2 | 1 | 17

Collision | | 1 | 1 | 23

Derailments | | 2 | 1 | 6

Parting of trains | | 1 | |

Locomotives or cars | | | |

breaking down | | | | 6

Falling from trains, | | | |

locomotives, or cars | | 30 | 2 | 65

Jumping on or off trains,| | | |

locomotives or cars | | 24 | 4 | 59

Struck by trains, | | | |

locomotives or cars | 21 | 25 | 41 | 89

Overhead obstructions | | | | 4

Other causes | 2 | 121 | 14 | 465

+———————+————————+—————————+—————————

Total | 25 | 206 | 64 | 734

—————————————————————————+———————+————————+—————————+—————————

—————————————————————————+————————————————————————————————————

| Employes (Continued).

+————————————————+———————————————————

KIND OF ACCIDENT. | Trackmen. | Telegraph

| | Employes.

+———————+————————+—————————+—————————

|Killed.|Injured.| Killed. | Injured.

—————————————————————————+———————+————————+—————————+—————————

Coupling or uncoupling | | 7 | |

Collisions | 18 | 132 | | 7

Derailments | 13 | 64 | |

Parting of trains | 1 | 2 | |

Locomotives or cars | | | |

breaking down | 2 | 10 | |

Falling from trains, | | | |

locomotives, or cars | 13 | 159 | | 7

Jumping on or off trains,| | | |

locomotives or cars | 16 | 130 | | 13

Struck by trains, | | | |

locomotives or cars | 353 | 412 | 8 | 12

Overhead obstructions | | 4 | |

Other causes | 25 | 882 | | 34

+———————+————————+—————————+—————————

Total | 441 | 1,802 | 8 | 73

—————————————————————————+———————+————————+—————————+—————————

—————————————————————————+————————————————————————————————————

| Employes (Continued).

+————————————————+———————————————————

KIND OF ACCIDENT. | Other | Total.

| Employes. |

+———————+————————+—————————+—————————

|Killed.|Injured.| Killed. | Injured.

—————————————————————————+———————+————————+—————————+—————————

Coupling or uncoupling | 11 | 50 | 155 | 2,382

Collisions | 27 | 163 | 252 | 2,309

Derailments | 10 | 117 | 208 | 1,385

Parting of trains | 1 | 12 | 9 | 250

Locomotives or cars | | | |

breaking down | 1 | 1 | 12 | 178

Falling from trains, | | | |

locomotives, or cars | 36 | 234 | 347 | 4,983

Jumping on or off trains,| | | |

locomotives or cars | 22 | 261 | 132 | 4,686

Struck by trains, | | | |

locomotives or cars | 187 | 345 | 925 | 1,539

Overhead obstructions | 5 | 20 | 52 | 809

Other causes | 83 | 1,340 | 266 | 16,461

+———————+————————+—————————+—————————

Total | 383 | 2,542 | 2,358 | 34,982

—————————————————————————+———————+————————+—————————+—————————

—————————————————————————+————————————————+———————————————————

| | Other Persons.

| Passengers. +———————————————————

KIND OF ACCIDENT. | | Trespassing.

+————————————————+———————————————————

|Killed.|Injured.| Killed. | Injured.

—————————————————————————+———————+————————+—————————+—————————

Collisions | 69 | 2,379 | 13 | 49

Derailments | 17 | 2,426 | 32 | 69

Parting of trains | | 47 | 3 | 3

Locomotives or cars | | | |

breaking down | | 2 | | 1

Falling from trains, | | | |

locomotives or cars | 37 | 425 | 413 | 732

Jumping on or off trains | | | |

locomotives or cars | 81 | 1,503 | 445 | 1,688

Struck by trains, | | | |

locomotives or cars; | | | |

At highway crossings | 2 | 3 | 112 | 211

At stations | 30 | 67 | 365 | 334

At other points along | | | |

track | 1 | 12 | 3,371 | 2,037

Other causes | 12 | 2,715 | 190 | 635

+———————+————————+—————————+—————————

Total | 249 | 9,579 | 4,944 | 5,759

=========================+=======+========+=========+=========

—————————————————————————+————————————————+———————————————————

| Other Persons.

|————————————————+———————————————————

KIND OF ACCIDENT. |Not Trespassing.| Total.

+————————————————+———————————————————

|Killed.|Injured.| Killed. | Injured.

—————————————————————————+———————+————————+—————————+—————————

Collisions | 25 | 447 | 38 | 496

Derailments | 6 | 287 | 38 | 356

Parting of trains | | 13 | 3 | 16

Locomotives or cars | | | |

breaking down | 1 | 4 | 1 | 5

Falling from trains, | | | |

locomotives or cars | 13 | 72 | 426 | 804

Jumping on or off trains | | | |

locomotives or cars | 11 | 120 | 456 | 1,808

Struck by trains, | | | |

locomotives or cars; | | | |

At highway crossings | 621 | 1,619 | 733 | 1,830

At stations | 66 | 183 | 431 | 517

At other points along | | | |

track | 79 | 143 | 3,450 | 2,180

Other causes | 47 | 1,030 | 237 | 1,665

+———————+————————+—————————+—————————

Total | 869 | 3,918 | 5,813 | 9,677

=========================+=======+========+=========+=========

Referring to the column of totals under the head of “Employes” you

will note the large number of killed and injured in coupling or

uncoupling cars; this in spite of the fact that all the equipment

is fitted with automatic couplers, intended to prevent just those

accidents.

The next two items, “Collisions” and “Derailments,” are also large,

both as to employes, passengers and others, and we have already

seen that in the former list eighteen out of twenty-six were due

to “failure of persons.” Referring again to that list it will be

further seen that sixteen of the eighteen were due to failure of the

persons in charge of the trains, which justifies us in assuming that

a similarly large proportion of these totals are due to like causes.

Please note also the large numbers, running through all these classes

of persons, opposite the items “Falling from trains, locomotives or

cars” and “Jumping on or off trains, locomotives or cars.” These may

all be charged to the carelessness of the victims.

So, also, those “Struck by trains, locomotives or cars” nearly all of

these are chargeable to the fault of the parties themselves.

“Other causes” are also prolific in casualties, but the data at

hand does not disclose the extent to which they are chargeable to

carelessness of victims or others, to preventable or to unavoidable

causes.

Your attention is also directed to the very large numbers of killed

and injured while “trespassing” on the railway property. Some of

these belong to the great army of tramps infesting the country, but

the largest part are people of the communities along the lines, who

persist in using the tracks as a public thoroughfare. In most of the

States there are laws on the statute books which are adequate to

prevent this if duly enforced, but it seems impossible to get such

enforcement. On the lines with which the writer is connected, efforts

have been made in the past to break up this practice, but without

success. Parties arrested by the railway company’s police and taken

before the local magistrate have been released without punishment or

only assessed a nominal sum to secure to the magistrate his fees. A

rigid enforcement of these laws, and similar action as to jumping on

or off locomotives and cars in motion (as is done in Europe) would

eliminate approximately one-half the total killed and one-fourth the

injured.

Here is a field in which the railways alone are helpless, but where

much can be accomplished by legal enforcement, supported by strong

popular approval. Without the latter, little aid can be expected from

the average country justice or city magistrate.

INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS.

The first man to publicly call attention to the need of organized

effort in this direction was Mr. R. C. Richards of the Chicago and

Northwestern Railway, in his booklet “Railway Accidents, Their Cause

and Prevention,” published in 1906. The seed thus sown has taken deep

root, for at the present time nearly every leading railway in the

country has an organized safety committee, whose duty it is to make

regular periodic inspections to see that work places and tools are in

safe condition; that yards, tracks, stations, buildings and grounds

are clean and properly lighted; that shop machinery is protected by

safeguards over gearing and other exposed moving parts, and that men

are taking proper precautions for the protection of themselves and

others. They report upon conditions which they feel can be improved,

investigate accidents with a view to preventing repetition, and

recommend improved methods of work to reduce risk of accident.

The Northwestern, after the first sixteen months, showed a decrease

of 23.7 per cent. in deaths, and 29.8 per cent. in injuries, compared

with the previous period of the same length. On the Pennsylvania

Railroad the result of the first eleven months was a decrease of 63

per cent. in the combined number of deaths and serious injuries.

These results are most gratifying, and demonstrate the usefulness of

such close inspection and watchfulness.

IN CONCLUSION.

Accidents due to washouts, and to hidden defects in material are in

the main unavoidable, though the former may sometimes be avoided

by increased care and watchfulness during and after storms, and

it is hoped that the latter may be materially reduced through the

investigations now in progress in steel making.

Accidents due to imperfectly maintained track can be avoided

by better maintenance, or by reducing speed to correspond to

the conditions of the track. Speed and track conditions are

inter-dependent factors.

Accidents due to jumping on or off trains in motion, and to

trespassing, can be and should be eliminated by a rigid enforcement

of existing laws, or the passage of new ones, if those on the statute

books are found to be inadequate. As already stated, this would save

one-half the annual deaths and a large proportion of the injured.

Substantially all of the casualties in coupling and uncoupling cars

are due to carelessness of the men themselves, and the same may be

said of most of those due to falling from or being struck by trains,

locomotives or cars. It is difficult to suggest a remedy for this, or

to formulate a course of procedure to reform the men in this respect.

Recent and prospective legislation affecting the employers’ liability

will not be conducive to increased carefulness, but will rather tend

to foster carelessness.

Train accidents due to error, negligence or incompetence should be

corrected by proper discipline. But the administration of discipline

is restrained and obstructed by the brotherhoods, whose officers

claim the right to be present at all investigations, and the

discipline ordered must meet their approval. They contest suspension

and dismissals by appeals to higher officers who have no personal

knowledge of the men, and use every means at their command, even to

threatening a strike, to prevent the order from being carried out,

often with success, all of which is subversive of discipline.

It is not a comforting thought that, when you, here assembled,

disperse to your homes, some of you may place your lives in the hands

of a man who is retained in the service through intimidation, rather

than fitness and merit.

There can be no remedy for this while unprincipled demagogues

and politicians, catering for votes, continue to appeal to class

prejudice, and while the sympathies of the people, public officials

and arbitrators seem to be arrayed against the railways.

President WHITE—We have now something else very interesting, and the

next speaker will only keep you fifteen minutes. I now take pleasure

in introducing Mr. A. B. Farquhar, of York, Pa., who will speak on

“Vital Statistics and the Conservation of Human Life a National

Concern.” He knows his subject; he knows it by experience; he has

been through it; and he has met the classes, met the conditions he

speaks of. He has a message to give you that is well worth hearing.

Mr. FARQUHAR—Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: Yes, I have

been interested in this subject for perhaps seventy years of the

seventy-five years of my life. I am very much interested in the work

done in Pennsylvania. I shall refer to that, as is proper in a man

sent as a delegate to this Congress by the Governor, and I believe it

is a good example to other communities.

Vital statistics are usually assumed to cover only the number of

births and deaths occurring in a given territory within a given time,

a subject not attractive to the general reader, but this address

will be devoted more particularly to the objects for which and the

agencies by which such statistics are assembled, which is far more

important and interesting, especially as it includes the social

questions they resolve for us. “It is sometimes said figures rule the

world; but this at least is true, that they show how it is ruled.”

To this saying of a wise man may be added that they also show how

it might be or should be ruled; they best illustrate “philosophy

teaching by example,” because most precise and definite in form of

presentation. They are of most use when applied to the most important

interests of mankind, and have no higher function than in bearing

their part in safeguarding the nation’s health.

For its vital statistics the Federal Census Bureau has always

had to depend on data collected by local agencies, and of the

imperfection of those agencies, and especially the large territory

for which there were none—no attempt to keep the official record

of births and deaths, it has loudly complained. Notwithstanding

the commendable efforts that have been made throughout the country

to supply deficiencies by State legislation, so much remains yet

to be done that a census report, as late as 1907, showed less than

half the population of the country, and only a third of the States

in number, within the registration area. But the movement has been

forward, and it is gratifying to note that the most significant

step in advance was made by Pennsylvania, in a law creating a state

department of health and fixing its duties in 1905. Until then that

commonwealth was said to have “the poorest registration of any of

the Eastern States,” though its first law for the purpose had been

passed fifty-four years earlier; but “it had in 1906, the first year

of the operation of the new law, an effective registration of births

and deaths practically as complete as that of any registration State

in the country, and far superior to the majority.” The best point

about the law of 1905, and its most significant difference from that

of 1851, is that it is executed. Obedience is no longer optional,

but compulsory. Authority under it is centralized in the hands of

the Governor, Attorney-General and Commissioner of Health, and

practically for most purposes in those of the Commissioner.

The total appropriations for work under this department since 1905

have been $9,286,080. The number employed by its various divisions is

3,625. Of this number there are 1,170, nearly one-third of the total

force, who are local registrars in the vital statistics service.

With what is so large a force to occupy itself? The 1,170 registrars

receive all birth and death certificates and issue all burial permits

(to which registration is a prerequisite), and the bureau has also

charge of marriage certificates, filed with it by the clerks of

county courts. The medical inspection division establish quarantine

under direction of the county inspectors, see to placarding houses

and disinfecting them after cases of communicable disease, guard

against the sale of milk from premises where any such diseases are

found, and represent the department in co-operation with local

health boards. Supervision of the medical inspection of schools

forms also an important part of the duty of these officers, some

300,000 children having been examined during the past school year.

At the free tuberculosis dispensaries, with which the department

has provided the large centers of population, the indigent receive

free medical advice and necessary supplies. The commissioner has

supervision, by the act creating the health department, of all

systems of public water supply and of public or private sewage

disposal. Detailed plans must be filed with the department, and no

new construction can be done until the Governor, the Attorney-General

and the Commissioner have approved the plans. The biological products

division distributes, through 656 stations in all parts of the

commonwealth, free antitoxin to the poor. The stations are located as

impartially as practicable.

What has been accomplished by all this equipment, discharging all

these functions, cannot be completely told; a few figures may be

given, with a result here and there, and the rest left to estimate

of probability. For example, the statement that 6,724 patients were

admitted to the Mont Alto Sanatorium in the four years 1907–1911

certainly indicates the magnitude of the problem, and the importance

of giving it the best attention we can. It is perhaps a little

more significant that 58,004 patients have been treated in the

department’s tuberculosis dispensaries since they were organized. The

activity of the sanitary engineering division is clearly shown in

its recorded count that up to June, 1912, 40,447 private sources of

stream pollution had been abated on notice from the department. One

hundred and eleven modern sewage-disposal plants have been built or

are in process of building, 306 municipal and private sewer systems

are under construction in accordance with plans approved by the

health department. Ninety-seven modern water filtration plants have

been or soon will be constructed under State approval. It is worth

while to connect with this fact another even more gratifying: the

death rate from typhoid fever in Pennsylvania, which was, in 1906,

565 per million inhabitants, had fallen to 206 per million in 1911.

As a final instance, the death rate from diphtheria, a little over

42 per cent. in untreated cases, has been reduced in the average of

the 35,111 cases treated with antitoxin between 1905 and December,

1911, to 8.07 per cent., or less than one-fifth. Further, a certain

district having been set apart for the trial of 5,000 units, instead

of the usual 3,000, as an initial dose of diphtheria antitoxin, the

death rate in that district has now shown a reduction to 4.22 per

cent.

This story is not told for the mere satisfaction of praising

our Keystone State or its faithful and capable public officers,

though for that, too, it affords opportunity. Its function is to

point a moral, to indicate a course of treatment of the subjects

of vital statistics and public health, which, as Pennsylvania’s

experience leads me to believe, may well be applied to a wider field

than Pennsylvania. It is not by accident that the association of

statistics of births and deaths and marriages, with a State office

for the promotion of public health, has come into favor at the

same time in so many parts of the country. The force of example is

something, to be sure, as is also the circumstance that a physician

is usually at hand, when a birth or death occurs, that he is apt to

know what there is to tell about the occurrence, that he is apt to

know how to report, and that the State health office is one to which

a physician might naturally address himself. But more important than

these considerations is the value of birth and death records in the

conservation of the people’s health. From the greater or lesser

number they show the favorable or adverse effects of accompanying

conditions can be judged, and a conclusion reached as to how such

conditions should be regulated. Nor could any condition be more

important to regulate than those affecting health. The people’s

health is its most precious asset. Dr. Wiley says he “would rather be

a strong, vigorous man without a dollar than a sickly millionaire,”

and thus indicates the pecuniary value of health to an individual.

Multiplying that value by the number of the population, the amount

becomes fairly appalling.

We have a department of agriculture expending vast sums—nearly

fifty millions in the last decade—in improving the soil, improving

the growth of vegetation, improving the health of animals, and

no department to do anything to improve human health. We spend

$700,000,000 a year for past and imagined future wars, and pay no

attention to the 700,000 calculated above—a larger number dying

every year, unnecessarily from disease, than bullets have slain

since the continent was discovered. As we are reminded by Dr. Dixon,

our Pennsylvania health commissioner, we are spending millions a

year for the protection of our forests and water supply and other

natural resources, but it is no credit to our intelligence that while

guarding these material interests we allow man himself, without whom

all else is worthless, to remain unguarded.

Yet it is a mistake to say that we do and have done nothing; what

has been done is greatly to the credit of mankind, only it has not

been enough. Jenner’s discovery and his application of it has left

no excuse for smallpox anywhere. The president of the board of

health in Mexico assured me that compulsory vaccination had freed

his city of smallpox; and the Japanese health authorities, since

their enforcement of compulsory vaccination, have ceased altogether

to look upon the presence of smallpox as a source of danger. It

is no longer a scourge in the Philippines and Cuba. Similar to

the work of Lister in antiseptic surgery is that of Pasteur and

Koch in various germ-diseases, of King and Carroll and Lazier in

mosquito-transmission of infection. With the elimination of the

Stegomyia mosquito, yellow fever is no longer dreaded; Havana and

the gulf ports are as safe as anywhere; and the construction of the

Panama Canal has become possible—as, but for the discoveries by

Carroll and Lazier (or their rediscovery of Dr. King’s discovery) it

never could have been.

From the brilliant successes attained in the directions just

indicated, we seem to see that the most important thing for us is

to know; we are to find our safety in knowledge. When we know that

malaria is inoculated by the bite of the mosquito Anopheles, and

yellow fever by the mosquito Stegomyia, that typhoid fever is fed to

us, in a large proportion of cases, from the feet of the house-fly,

that the fearful bubonic plague is inoculated by the bite of a flea

infesting the rat, we have already traveled more than half way to

deliverance. We can drive off the mosquito, or, by oiling the

puddles, prevent her from hatching; we can “swat the fly,” or abate

the manure-heaps and other filth from which it draws its unblest

being; and, if we can not catch the flea, we can make war upon its

host, the rat. If, as is computed, within the last 2,000 years

2,000,000,000 people have fallen victims to the bubonic plague, it is

enough to justify wholesale enlistments in a grand rat-hunt.

Half a century ago people were afraid of night air, and closed their

windows at night. It is hard to guess how many lives might have been

saved by opening those windows. We are told that the average duration

of human life has doubled in the last 200 years. Whatever gain there

has been is due, more than anything else, to more knowledge.

The case of pure air as against contaminated air is but one way of

putting the general case of cleanness against foulness. Bad air has

the same vices that attach to dirt in other forms; one of the uses

of more knowledge is to be able to detect dirt in all forms, however

concealed or disguised; and another is to discover the best means of

sweeping it away. Our ancestors used to drink water from pools and

wells that were sinks of organic filth, to worship in churches built

over an array of corpses in all stages of putrefaction, to wear the

same suit of leather clothes, day and night, till they fell apart or

the wearer outgrew them—all because they knew no better. They had no

conception of the disgust with which such habits were to be regarded

by a more educated posterity. Now the golden rule of health is “Wash

you—make you clean!” It is not enough to make, or even to keep, the

children’s faces clean; we must look no less to the cleanness of the

lung passages, of the alimentary canal—yes, of mind and heart also.

Morally and esthetically, there is nothing in relation to which the

duty to be clean is more stringent than the reproductive function.

The source of the greatest work in all God’s creation, the human

race, ought more than all else to be pure; and the necessary

condition of our endowing the earth in coming ages with a better

human race than it now has, or has ever had, is that we provide that

coming race with the best kind of parentage. The quality of the next

generation is determined by the quality of this generation; it will

be in most respects as we make it, clean if brought forth in purity,

foul if engendered in foulness. And the truth so strikingly evident

in the moral and esthetical view is even more clear in the view we

are here taking, that of the race’s health. To sexual impurity, by

the testimony of the best physicians—the illustrious Dr. Osler for

instance—more physical degeneration is due than to any other one

cause. Dr. Prince A. Morrow, president of the Society of Sanitary and

Moral Prophylaxis, estimates the number constantly ill from syphilis

in this country—although that number has of late been considerably

reduced—as still no less than 2,000,000. The syphilitic poison is

communicated by inoculation—a contagion that has no danger for us

so long as held at a respectful distance; and the essential point

in guarding against it is to preserve that distance. Like the venom

of the rattlesnake it is best known in a knowledge of its lurking

places. It was first recognized in Europe, some time in the fifteenth

century; and it came from the Orient, not of its own initiative,

but because Europeans went after it and fetched it. Similarly now,

a man does not have it unless he goes after it. There is nothing

in the whole range of human disorders that shows more emphatically

than this, the feebleness and inadequacy of the best possible cure

as compared with prevention. Knowledge seems all that is needed for

complete prevention; any young man, having more than the resolution

and self-control of an infant or an idiot, ought to require nothing

more than an elementary acquaintance with a few facts that should be

at the command of every instructor of youth, to insure his leaving

the syphilis and gonorrhea factory permanently alone. If their

baleful function were made clearly known to those who most need to

know it, the entrance door to every such temple of moral and physical

ruin would carry to the eyes the sign that greeted those of Dante:

“All hope abandon, ye who enter here”—a prospect whose unrelieved

blackness looks even darker when contrasted with the brilliant glory

of the hope relinquished. It is a law of our human constitution that

the richest, deepest, keenest joys that life has for us are those

that come from the contrast of two sexes. Even when that contrast

is hostile, there seems to be some pleasure in it; but immeasurably

more when it is an incident of ardent attraction. Byron in one of his

earlier poems thus puts it:

“Devotion wafts the mind above,

But Heaven itself descends in love;

A feeling from the Godhead caught,

To wean from self each sordid thought;

A ray of Him who formed the whole;

A glory circling ’round the soul!”

It is too well known that the poet’s own loves, in after years,

were not always of this ideal quality; but no one ever better set

forth the exalted possibilities of the sex sentiment, to which

the continuance of life on earth is due. But the worst, we are

often reminded, is the corruption of the best, and it is another

possibility of the same sentiment that it may urge a man to blast

his whole future by incurring an incurable disease, and sadder

yet—too often to involve others, tender and innocent lives, in his

own condemnation. If more knowledge can ward off such a grisly fate,

it is surely inhuman cruelty not to supply that knowledge, however

disagreeable the duty may appear. When clearly seen as a duty it will

be no longer disagreeable.

While making this call for more knowledge of vital truths primarily

on account of the young men, since it is in the vast majority of

cases the man who tempts, the man to whom the outcast woman owes her

fall, it would be the wildest folly to stop with one-half of the

rising generation. The future of the race is too dependent on its

mothers to excuse or permit the neglect of any preparation of them

for motherhood, which health in its fullest sense may demand.

Most of the great questions of health in its widest sense, of

health as a public concern, resolve themselves into resisting the

entrance of this or that species of bacterial germs into the body.

The essential distinction between Mother Earth, that bringeth forth

flowers and fruits, and grass for our herds, and dirt or filth, the

especial opprobrium of the hygienist, is that the latter carries

germs of bacteria. Cleanness, in the hygienic sense, is freedom

from pathogenic germs; and when the doctors tell us that the marked

improvement in health conditions recently observable in Germany and

Switzerland, and pre-eminently in Sweden, is due to their exceptional

attention to cleanliness, they use the term with particular reference

to the provoking causes of preventable sickness. Not only is the

death rate from the acute diseases in those lands rapidly falling

off, but diseases of the chronic class are beginning to yield to the

inculcation of better habits among the people.