SAFETY IN MINING IN ' 1932 817

mines. In the past 5 years more than 450,000 persons in the mining and allied
industries have been given the full Bureau of Mines course in first aid to
the injured, and it is estimated that at least 200 lives are saved every
year and probably several thousand ' accidents prevented through the various
influences of this work. Since 1929 more than 3,000 persons in the mining
and allied industries have qualified to act as instructors in first aid,
and their influence in the prevention of accidents is by no means negligible.
More than 3,000 officials of coal mines in the United States have taken the
new accident-prevention course of the Bureau of Mines since 1930, and its
influence is being ' shown in the much better accident records which mines
almost invariably have afterwards. Numerous mining institutes have been organized
in the .past 5 or 6 years, and in many of the institutes safety
is the principal subject of discussion. There are numerous other 3 manifestations
of an increase in educational work in safety in mining
during the past few years, such as the forming and functioning of mine-safety
organizations, the establishment of mining-community safety organizations
such as the Holmes safety chapters, the dissemination of good safety records
by the Joseph A. Holmes Safety Association, the establishment of safety competitions
of various kinds, etc. ' 3
 A fourth influence which has forwarded safety in mining in recent '  years
is the recognition by many State mine inspectors and mining
officials that* the State mming laws establish only minimum safety requirements
(many if not most of them being decidedly inadequate even as to these minimum
requirements) and that real safety in mining demands taking far more precautions
than the strict letter of the law requires.
 Ten years a~o the operating officials of relatively few plants in the mining
and allied industries thought of accidents other than in terms of fatalities
or partial or total disabilities, although numerous more or less serious
accidents occurred every week or month; the mining company or mine which
escaped without at least one ~fatal accident in any calendar year was considered
fortunate, and few mines were found in the "lucky" class. In the last few
years hundreds of progressive mining companies have abandoned the idea of
expecting serious accidents and not only have taken measures to prevent fatalities
or partial or total disabiit~r accidents (temporary or permanent) but also
have tried to operate without any lost-time accidents. Where this effort
has been made with inteffigence, determination, and persistence, mines and
mining plants have been worked for unbelievably long periods and have produced
large tonnages without accidents. So many instances of long-time operation
of mines or mining plants without accidents are now known that unquestionably
mining can be done with little if any less safety than in many if not most
major industries.
 Coal-mining companies, metal-mining companies, nonmetaffic mineral-mining
operations, cement plants, quarries, and petroleum plants during the past
5 or 6 years have given numerous instances of long-time operation without
fatalities, without accidents of a serious nature, and even without any lost-time
accident. Although it is difficult to believe, each of the above divisions
of the mining Wand allied industries has achieved within~ the past' few years
numerous instances of operation of an entire mine or plant for a full year
or more without even one lost-time accident and with a relatively large