“The good citizen thinks of Safety First as a patriotic duty.”

I am more powerful than the combined armies of the world.

I have destroyed more men than all the wars of the nations.

I am more deadly than bullets and I have wrecked more homes than the mightiest of siege guns.

I steal in the United States alone over $300,000,000 each year.

I massacre thousands upon thousands of wage-earners a year.

I lurk in unseen places and do most of my work silently.

You are warned against me, but you do not always heed.

I am relentless.

I am everywhere—in the house, on the streets, in the factory, at the railroad crossings, and on the sea.

I bring sickness, degradation and death, yet few people seek to avoid me.

I destroy, crush, or maim; I give nothing, but take all.

I am your worst enemy.

I spare no one, and I find my victims among the rich and poor alike, the young and old, the strong and weak. Widows and orphans know me.

I cast my shadow over every field of activity, from the turning of the grindstone to the moving of a railroad train, from the rocking of a boat to the spinning of a top.

Do you know who I am?

Are you anxious to be a friend of mine?

You will have to think hard not to help me, for I am CARELESSNESS.

It is only Thoughtfulness or Safety First that keeps me from doing more.

I started the great fire that swept away the greater part of the city of Chicago. You see Thoughtfulness or Safety First wasn’t working, so I let the woman who was milking a cow set a lantern too near the cow’s heels.

If Thoughtfulness or Safety First had been on board the Titanic, the Captain would have listened when the wireless warned him of icebergs ahead.

I was there! You remember what happened.

I help in every accident. If Thoughtfulness or Safety First were “on the job,” almost every accident would be avoided. I don’t like SAFETY FIRST. Do you? I wonder why?

—Selected.

SAFETY FIRST

Safety First is a policeman guarding our bodies from accidents.

Do you know that the word accident grew out of Latin words which mean to fall? When anything happens suddenly and unexpectedly, we say it happened accidentally or fell upon us.

Safety First means preventing accidents. Almost all accidents happen from the carelessness of somebody. Safety First means Thoughtfulness.

Safety First is your friend.

Did you ever stop to think how many brave men are employed to look after our safety and protect us from danger?

Soldiers and sailors are safety-first men who look out for the safety of all the people of the nation. Can you tell how?

The policemen are safety-first men, as all children know. Can you tell something about some safety-first work that they do?

The railroad engineer thinks only of the safety of his passengers. He knows safety first through and through.

The crossing watchman’s motto is safety first for the careless people who drive and walk across the tracks where he stands guard.

The building watchman walks from room to room of the great store or manufacturing plant all night long. If fire breaks out or thieves break in, he knows just what to do. The track-walker is the special guardian of the railroad tracks. His watchword, like the engineer’s, is safety first.

These are only a few of the brave men who believe in safety first and who often risk their lives in serving us. Can you name others?

Patrick W. Mulligan, a crossing watchman of Norristown, Pennsylvania, has been awarded a medal of honor by the President of the United States for risking his own life to save the life of a little child.

With the medal of honor there came a letter from President Wilson to Mr. Mulligan, telling of the President’s appreciation of his bravery.

August 19, 1914, Mr. Mulligan was on duty at the Mill Street crossing in Norristown. He had lowered the gates for an oncoming train when a little Italian child, about two and a half years old, ran under the gates out on the tracks.

The train was only a short distance away, but Mr. Mulligan jumped and caught the little one just in time to save her from going under the wheels. Both were struck by the engine.

When the train had passed, people ran to the spot. They found the brave watchman unconscious from a deep wound in his head, and from many bruises. The little girl’s foot was injured, but her life was saved.

That is why the medal and letter were sent to Mr. Mulligan.

A number of such medals have been given by the United States Congress to persons “who, by daring, endanger their own lives in saving, or endeavoring to save, the lives of others; or in preventing accidents upon any railroad.”

QUESTIONS

The little girl was not very much to blame. Why?

If you had attempted to cross and been hurt you would have been to blame. Why?

QUESTIONS

Do you think that the doing of these things would be of help to the street cleaners of your own city?

How does a clean city mean safety first?

Name some of the things which should be done in your neighborhood.

Fire-Prevention Day and the Fire Drill mean Safety First.

October 9th has been set aside as Fire-Prevention Day.

Fire-Prevention Day is really a safety-first day. Can you tell why?

Fire-Prevention Day means a cleaner city. How will that mean safety first to all the children?

The fire drills in school are safety-first drills.

One of the greatest dangers from fire is that people will crowd together in the doors in trying to escape from a burning building, and will be injured or killed.

Many little children have lost their lives in this way.

Children who have been accustomed to fire drills are not frightened when the bell rings to form in line for the drill; and they move onward in an orderly way until all are out of the building.

If the building were on fire, there would be no better way of helping all the children to safety.

In helping anyone whose clothing has caught on fire, smother the flames with rugs and heavy wraps.

Remember this

QUESTIONS

Do you know that in some states a certain day in the year is set aside as Rat-Prevention Day?

What can people do to keep rats away?

Why is Rat-Prevention Day really a fire prevention?

How does Rat-Prevention Day mean safety first?

How do Fire-Prevention Day and Rat-Prevention Day help give us a clean city?

Cleanup Day keeps rats and mice away. How?

Why are they dangerous to health?

Do you keep a cat or dog policeman?

Sickness and death are traced directly to the fly. The story is disgusting, but it is true. It lies within your power to guard your family and yourself from this known carrier of disease. Will you not protect yourself and help in fighting this menace to health?

First, destroy the breeding places of flies. The fly cannot develop from the egg, which must have undisturbed filth to grow in, in less than eight days; therefore if all filth is cleaned up or destroyed at least once a week, the eggs will not have time to develop and there will be no flies.

Screen windows and doors. Wire screens are the best, but cotton mosquito netting can be used. Keep flies away from the sick, especially those ill with typhoid fever or consumption. Kill every fly that enters the sick-room. Kill the flies as fast as they appear in the spring. The early flies will multiply into millions in a season.

When you see flies gathering on anything in your house or yard remove it. The most flies are always found wherever there is most filth and dirt. A bad odor will attract flies, and a clean odor, such as the fragrance of flowers, will drive them away. Keep everything clean, and starve at least some of them to death.

Don’ts

Don’t tolerate flies.

Don’t allow them in your house.

Don’t allow them on your premises.

Don’t allow garbage, rubbish, or manure to collect on your lot or near it.

Don’t allow dirt in your house. Look in the corners, behind the doors and furniture, under stairs and beds. In brief, keep the house clean.

Don’t allow flies near food, especially milk.

Don’t buy food of any kind where flies are allowed.

Don’t buy milk where flies are on the cans or bottles.

Don’t eat where flies are found.

Don’t forget the screens.

Don’t forget to write to the Bureau of Health if there are any breeding places for flies in your neighborhood.

Don’t Forget—No Dirt—No Flies.

“If you don’t kill me, I may kill you,” said the fly.

QUESTIONS

Why are flies among our worst enemies?

How does fighting flies mean safety first?

If you have mosquitoes in your own home you may be sure that there is a mosquito breeding place very near you. Perhaps it is in your own house or yard, or at least within your own block. Such places are overlooked because people do not know that any puddle of water, no matter how small, makes a fine breeding place for these midget murderers.

Mosquitoes must have still water to breed in. Therefore if there is no standing water there will be no mosquitoes.

Any water left standing in clogged sinks, toilet fixtures, water pitchers in the guest room, buckets, tubs, aquariums without fish, or in anything which will hold a few teaspoonfuls of water may be used by the mosquito as the place to deposit eggs. If you are neglecting such things, the chances are that you are raising your own crop of mosquitoes.

How to Get Rid of Mosquitoes

Kill every mosquito you see about your house. Every mosquito killed in winter or spring will lessen the number of mosquitoes in the summer by thousands. Why?

Where it is necessary to have water standing in tanks, barrels, or other such vessels, keep them closely covered with fine wire screens, or with a piece of cheese-cloth.

Where it is impossible to drain or screen, you should cover the surface of all standing water with a film of kerosene oil. By putting oil on the water you cut off the air supply of the “wrigglers” and “tumblers.” After leaving the eggs the young mosquitoes must have air in order to live. A film of oil prevents them from getting the air, and they choke to death.

Two tablespoonfuls of oil are sufficient to cover fifteen square feet of water. Fresh oil should be put on the water once a week during the summer season.

Remember

No Standing Water—No Breeding Places;
No Breeding Places—No Mosquitoes.

Mosquitoes generally settle on the ceiling above reach. If one climbs up and kills them it soils the paper or plaster. A simple trap can be made with which you can destroy them without defacing the ceiling.

Materials needed: the shallow cover of a tin can about five inches in diameter. A broomstick about four feet long.

Nail the cover through the center to the broomstick.

To use: Pour a little kerosene oil into the cover. Raise it gently under the mosquito and press it against the ceiling.

The mosquito will try to fly away and will fall into the oil. The kerosene fumes will fill its “breathers,” and it will be suffocated.

QUESTIONS

How does the fighting of mosquitoes and flies help make a clean city?

How does it mean safety-first?

Do you think that all good citizens should take part in such fighting? Why?

Why would you prefer to live in a city which does such fighting than in one which pays no heed to flies and mosquitoes?

Should everyone value the good health of everyone else? Why?

QUESTIONS

Why is good health your most valuable possession?

Why is your good health valuable to your country?

How does your caring for your health show your love for your flag?

Why does the good American try to gain and keep perfect health?

Name some of the things which you should do every day in order to keep well.