One of the most successful campaigns conducted by the First
Aid Department of the American Red Cross has been that on the
Missouri-Pacific System, which was completed at Texarkana, Arkansas, on
January 4, 1913. It was begun at Omaha, Nebraska, on the September 16,
1912. A great part of the Missouri-Pacific System was covered during
the ensuing two months and a half, meetings being held at points in
nine different States. The total number of meetings was 234, the total
attendance 14,050, and the total travel 5,752 miles. The employes of this
railroad system were generally greatly interested in learning first aid.
As the direct result of this tour the entire system is to be outfitted
with first aid supplies and the instruction of men in their use is to be
continued systematically.
It is gratifying to be able to record the fact that in the course of
this campaign many public meetings have been held both in Car No. 1 and
in town halls. Several opportunities have been offered to speak on first
aid at high schools, and in one or two towns this subject will be adopted
as part of the curriculum. Many fire and police departments have been
represented at meetings as well as a good number of industries.
Dr. Mackey, in charge of Car No. 1 on his arrival at Texarkana, Texas,
on January 6, made arrangements to hold meetings at schools, factories,
etc., in that town while awaiting a new railroad schedule. The high
school and normal school attendance during this period amounted to 995
persons. The school board of Texarkana has adopted first aid to the
injured as a regular course of study in the high school. The Y. M. C. A.
has installed a complete course and the Texarkana Normal School (colored)
has decided to take up this work. On leaving Texarkana on the 17th of
January, 1913, Dr. Mackey, with Car No. 1, resumed his railroad work on
the St. Louis Southwestern Railroad of Texas. This was continued until
the end of February with a total attendance of 2,085, a total of 30
meetings, and a total travel of 1,274 miles.
The hard and continuous service of Car No. 1 during the past three
years has finally put it out of commission beyond hope of repair. It
is a pleasure to be able to record the fact that the Pullman Company
has generously offered to replace this car with a new one which will
be larger and better suited to Red Cross purposes. It is expected that
this car will be ready for service before this report goes to press.
Meanwhile, Dr. Mackey is devoting his time to the various schools and
industries in the vicinity of Texarkana, Texas.
After what Dr. Davis, in charge of Car No. 2, characterizes as a splendid
campaign over the Philadelphia & Reading System first aid work was taken
up for the Lehigh Valley Railroad. This was begun on December 13, 1912,
and continued to February 7, 1913. The more important points visited and
at which meetings were held were as follows: Jersey City, Perth Amboy,
N. J.; Easton. Pa.; Bethlehem, Pa.; Lehighton, Pa.; Hazleton, Pa.;
Delano, Pa.; Wilkes-Barre, Pa.; Pittston, Pa.; Sayre, Pa.: Auburn, N. Y.;
Manchester, N. Y.; Rochester, N. Y.; Buffalo, N. Y., and Niagara Falls,
N. Y. The total number of miles traveled was 916; 72 meetings were held,
with a total attendance of 3,105. The interest displayed on the Lehigh
Valley has been extremely gratifying.
[Illustration: DR. SHIELDS ILLUSTRATING USE OF RED CROSS TOURNIQUET. THE
COMPRESS IN THIS CASE IS A POCKET KNIFE.]
[Illustration: EMPLOYEES OF THE CHESAPEAKE & POTOMAC TELEPHONE CO.,
WASHINGTON, D. C., UNDER INSTRUCTION IN FIRST AID.]
Dr. Davis also reports that he learned from Mr. J. S. Rockwell, General
Agent, Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh Railroad, that since Car No.
2 covered that system last spring the work has been progressing very
favorably under the supervision of the company surgeons. The men and
officers are taking an active part in the movement and the results have
been strikingly successful, not only in respect to proper handling and
dressing of injuries but in a decrease in the number of accidents. A
bulletin is posted each month at the different shops making comparison as
to the number injured for each plant per number employed. Mr. Rockwell
states that it is truly remarkable the way the men from the different
shops are vying with each other in doing everything in their power to
make their particular shops come out at the end of the month with the
fewest injured.
The Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh Railroad would like very much to
have another first aid campaign over its lines with the idea of getting
road men thoroughly organized in order that as nearly as possible they
may be on a par with the men employed in the shops. The report from this
railroad is of the greatest importance as it shows the direction which
it is believed first aid should take on railroads generally; first,
the prevention of accidents, and, second, their proper care if they do
unfortunately occur.
As mentioned in the January RED CROSS MAGAZINE, Dr. M. J. Shields. Field
Agent of the First Aid Department of the American Red Cross, has been
carrying on a very successful first aid campaign for the Bell Telephone
Company, spending from December 3, 1912, to February 12, 1913, with the
Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania and from February 14 to March
10, covering the Chesapeake and Potomac Company’s plant. Lectures were
given in Philadelphia and vicinity, Chester, Westchester, West Grove,
Jenkintown, Doylestown, Norristown, Pottstown, and Lancaster in eastern
Pennsylvania: Camden, Atlantic City, Burlington, Bridgetown, and Trenton
in New Jersey, and at Wilmington and Dover in Delaware.
The following offices of the Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania were
also visited during January and February: Reading, Allentown, Harrisburg,
Altoona, Lewistown, Bellefonte, Williamsport, Sunbury, Wilkes-Barre,
Scranton, Easton, Pittsburgh, Washington, Uniontown, Greensburg,
Johnstown, New Kensington, Rochester, New Castle, Greenville, Erie,
Warren, Oil City, Bradford, Du Bois, and Butler in Pennsylvania; in West
Virginia, Wheeling, Fairmont, Clarksburg and Parkersburg; and in Ohio,
Marietta, Urieville, Steubenville, and East Liverpool.
In Chesapeake and Potomac territory, Washington, D. C., Baltimore,
Westminister, Frederick, Hagerstown, Queenstown, Salisbury, all in
Maryland were reached as well as Norfolk, Richmond, and Lynchburg in
Virginia and Thurmond, Charleston, Huntington, and Martinsburg in West
Virginia. In all, the number of meetings held was 142, miles traveled
7,500, and attendance 7,950.
Those in attendance at the meetings were principally from the plant
department, the men who build and maintain the telephone lines, put up
ærial and underground cables, and install ’phones, but at nearly every
meeting numbers from the commercial and traffic departments attended.
Special talks were given in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and
Washington, D. C., to the chief operators (women) and matrons on what
to do in sudden illness and emergencies, on how to keep well, and on
personal hygiene. Dr. Shields reports that these lectures were well
received. He also reports that the subject of accident prevention was
taken up and emphasized at each lecture.
Invitations to attend these lectures were extended to the officials and
employes of the various electric light, power and street car companies.
Also to the Western Union, Postal and American Telegraph and Telephoto
companies, with the idea of encouraging a cooperative movement already
started of making a safer arrangement of cross-arms and a better spread
and less dangerous arrangement of high tension wires on poles jointly
used and in underground conduits, thereby cutting down to the minimum the
most distressing of accidents—fatal shock on a pole 30 feet in the air or
in an 8-foot man hole.
[Illustration: DEMONSTRATION OF FIRST AID TO BELL TELEPHONE COMPANY,
PITTSBURGH, “PATIENT”: HAS FRACTURED HIP, FRACTURED LEG AND WOUNDS ON
HEAD.]
The press in the towns and cities visited gave the work good publicity
both in their news columns and editorials. The _Gazette-Times_ of
Pittsburgh, on Sunday, February 16, had a full page with excellent
illustrations. The following is an extract from an editorial in the
_Westminster Maryland Times_ of February 21:
“Too much cannot be said in praise of the work now being done
by the Red Cross in educating people to care for themselves and
others in time of accidents. That such work has great economic,
as well as sentimental value, is proved by the way the Bell
Telephone Companies and other large corporations are spending
money to carry on campaigns, with the help of the Red Cross
surgeons, that will show their men what they can and should do
in the way of giving first aid to the injured, before a doctor
can arrive.”
The _Telephone-News_, January 1st, made first aid and accident prevention
a leading article. The _Transmitter_, published by the Chesapeake &
Potomac Company, in the issue of March 1st had an illustrated article on
the first aid Campaign.
Throughout all this work every assistance was given by the officials and
men and the work was much appreciated by them. No doubt the interest
created will be the means of doing a great deal of good not only among
telephone men but with the public generally, as no business comes into
closer contact with the public than that of the telephone company.