First Aid Department
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.
DR. SHIELDS ILLUSTRATING USE OF RED CROSS TOURNIQUET. THE COMPRESS IN THIS CASE IS A POCKET KNIFE.
DR. SHIELDS ILLUSTRATING USE OF RED CROSS TOURNIQUET. THE COMPRESS IN THIS CASE IS A POCKET KNIFE.
DR. SHIELDS ILLUSTRATING USE OF RED CROSS TOURNIQUET. THE COMPRESS IN THIS CASE IS A POCKET KNIFE.
EMPLOYEES OF THE CHESAPEAKE & POTOMAC TELEPHONE CO., WASHINGTON, D. C., UNDER INSTRUCTION IN FIRST AID.
EMPLOYEES OF THE CHESAPEAKE & POTOMAC TELEPHONE CO., WASHINGTON, D. C., UNDER INSTRUCTION IN FIRST AID.
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 JanuaryRed 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 betterspread 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.
DEMONSTRATION OF FIRST AID TO BELL TELEPHONE COMPANY, PITTSBURGH, “PATIENT”: HAS FRACTURED HIP, FRACTURED LEG AND WOUNDS ON HEAD.
DEMONSTRATION OF FIRST AID TO BELL TELEPHONE COMPANY, PITTSBURGH, “PATIENT”: HAS FRACTURED HIP, FRACTURED LEG AND WOUNDS ON HEAD.
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. TheGazette-Timesof Pittsburgh, on Sunday, February 16, had a full page with excellent illustrations. The following is an extract from an editorial in theWestminster Maryland Timesof 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.”
“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.”
TheTelephone-News, January 1st, made first aid and accident prevention a leading article. TheTransmitter, 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.