"Huh!" grunted Howell.

"And that's not all," said Dr. Frank. "Do you know that Germany's death rate from sickness and all other causes is higher than that of the United States? In 1913, nearly 16 persons died per thousand of the population in the German Empire. In the United States, the number is slightly over 14 per thousand."

"Speaking of Germany," said the Parson, "reminds me of another thing. Are not a large number of accidents in American industry due to the fact that many of our workers do not understand our language?"

"Yes, I think so," responded the Doctor. "Pennsylvania's experience is that workmen who cannot speak English are hurt twice as often as those who can. Of course, Germany has a great advantage in this respect, because nearly all of its work people know the language, practically the only exceptions in the past being Italians who do construction work, and who work in large groups and hear nothing but their own language where they are employed. Nevertheless our industrial accident rate is lower than Germany's."

"Whether the rate is lower or not," pleaded the Parson, "is there no way to curb this extravagant waste of life and the suffering it brings? Surely some way can be found! It must be found!"

"The cure is already working, Mr. Hathaway," replied True. "I will give you a few facts I just copied from a remarkable address by Frederick L. Hoffman of the Prudential Life Insurance Company. His figures are always based on very careful investigation. In the first place, it is estimated that there were 7,000 less accidental deaths in 1916 than in the previous year."

"That's a tremendous saving," remarked the Doctor.

"I think some of Dr. Hoffman's figures will give you an idea where some of the saving comes in," continued Tom. "Fatalities to passengers on steam railroads decreased from a unit of 17 in the period 1905-1909 to 7 in 1915. And here's a remark

able fact: Not one passenger lost his life in a train accident on any line of the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1914 and 1915 and the first six months of this year. And in this time more than 450,000,000 passengers were carried on more than 3,000,000 trains!"

"Good for the Pennsylvania, I should say," ejaculated Mr. Hathaway.

"There are other railroads with splendid records too," said Tom. "And the street car fatal accidents in the United States decreased from 37 per million population in 1900, to 31 in 1915. In Manhattan Borough, as the result of an active campaign against sidewalk hazards, sidewalk fatalities were reduced from 68 in the year 1914 to 35 in 1915.

"Are manufacturers doing much work in this direction?" asked the Doctor.

"Yes, sir. Much money is spent in making shops as safe as can be. But that doesn't prevent accidents to any great extent. Everyone is waking up to the fact that the root of accidents is deeply grounded in the men's own carelessness. It's the very devil, as you have said, sir! One employer told me that he would have less accidents with a thousand careful men in an old rattle-trap risk of a shop than if he had 500 careless fellows in the safest and most modern plant that could be built. But some employers are very backward, sir, and are doing nothing about it; and so are millions of employees for that matter. And the progress is much slower than it should be."

"That's only a general statement," said Miss Grump. "Why don't you tell us something specific, for once?"

"All right, Miss Grump. Here is something specific, but taken at random from quite a bunch of reports published during the last year or so: The Bethlehem Steel Company accomplished a reduction of one-third in its accidents of every kind. The United States Steel Corporation, nearly one-half. The Eastman Kodak Company reduced the number of fatalities in its factories one-half, its non-fatal accidents four-fifths. The Baldwin Locomotive Works reduced the death hazard at its

plants considerably more than half. The New Jersey Zinc Company effected a reduction of three-fifths of its fatal accidents, three-fourths of its non-fatal accidents. The present fatal accident rate of the Commonwealth Edison Company is nineteentwentieths of what it was in 1913. The General Electric Company, on top of the continuous reduction of its accidental injuries during the past ten years, further reduced them 23 per cent. in 1914 and another 15 per cent. in 1915!"

"It's most remarkable progress," cried the Parson.

"These are only a few instances, sir. There are thousands of other cases, though the reduction is not always so great. The best results are secured by specific educational effort among the workmen. But, as I said before, many employers are backward about tackling the problem."

"The 'Safe and Sane' Fourth of July movement is a striking example of what a specific educational effort can accomplish," said Dr. Frank. "The American Medical Association has kept a record of Independence Day casualties for a number of years. The killed of the Glorious Fourth of 1909 numbered 215, and the injured 5,100. Results of the broad agitation for a safe Fourth began to be felt in 1910, when Fourth of July deaths fell to 131 and the injured to 2,800. The celebration became safer and safer until in 1916 the killed numbered but 30 and the injured 1,800!"

"And we don't have so many sick headaches from the abominable noise," grunted Miss Grump.

"As has been said this evening," stated the Doctor, "nothing can be so effective an agent in curbing loss of life and limb as caution. I never realized the fact so completely. Most of us are heedless about ourselves and heedless about others. We simply do not stop to think.”

"We must remember, though," said the Parson, "there will always be some risk in any worth-while work. We would be cowardly shirkers if we didn't brave it. The mariner risks his life to bring us the things we need from lands across the

sea; the locomotive engineer to carry us across the country and save our time; the miner to give us coal and iron and other minerals that civilization requires; the farmer to give us food to eat; the factory worker, in lesser degree, to give us shoes and clothing, and other necessaries. Dr. Frank has braved death a thousand times in homes and hospitals where contagious diseases were rampant. Every mother enters the Valley of the Shadow to bring life to her unborn babe. Polly here has nursed a hundred of my people, fearing not even diphtheria or scarlet fever. Mrs. Friend works sixteen hours a day to give us good things to eat, to keep our rooms fresh and clean, and at the same time to give the children a good education."

Parson: "There will always be some risk in any worthwhile work. We would be miserable shirkers if we didn't brave it"

"And," said Dr. Frank, "I know how long the Parson works. I bump into him at all hours of the night and. morning when he is trying to help the kiddies and their parents to do the square thing and be happy. But, Mr. 'Hathaway, you had better look out! You can't stand this sort of thing forever. Nature didn't build you that way."

"Never mind, Doctor. It's a case of being careful, that's all. And you know that I am careful, don't you? And that reminds me, Doctor, it's a case of being careful, all around, isn't it? You'd have died of smallpox or blood-poisoning years ago if you hadn't been careful in your hospital work."

* * *

"Mr. True," said the Parson, as he rose to depart, "you have in your possession figures of vast interest and importance. Write them down and send them to me, will you? I want to put them in a sermon."

"If Polly will help me. Will you, Polly?"

"Yes, to please Mr. Hathaway," replied the girl, blushing. "Bosh!" said Howell Calamity.

In bounced Johnnie Friend.

"What was the accident, Johnnie?" asked his mother.

"Oh," he laughed, "a drunken sailor tried to cut across the bow of an automobile. Knocked the stuffin' out of him. But say, Mother, where's the iodine?"

"What's happened now, Johnnie?”

"Oh, just scraped my shin on the back steps of the ambulance when I jumped off, that's all!"

"There he goes again. Why, Mr. Hathaway, that blessed boy has had to use that iodine exactly eleven times since the Doctor told me to buy it. Eleven times in three months Johnnie has hurt himself with his capers. Is that as often as folks hurt themselves in the industries?"

"No, Mrs. Friend," answered Tom True instead. "Not by any means. The report only shows 95,000 accidents among about 1,000,000 people in industry in our State (600,000 in factories, 400,000 elsewhere) last year. If they all got hurt as often as Johnnie does, that would be-let's see-eleven times in three months-that's 44 times a year-multiplied by a million workers-Gee Whitaker, that would be 44,000,000 accidents in the State in a year. Whoopee! What would Howell Calamity think of that-44,000,000."

"I know the universal remedy," spoke up Betty Friend, the landlady's little daughter. Quiet all the evening, she was just aching to say her part, and could restrain herself no longer.