Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 167, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 July 1916 — WAS IDEA OF CHICAGO MAN [ARTICLE]

WAS IDEA OF CHICAGO MAN

Northwestern Official Is Given Credit as the Originator of the “SafetyFirst” Slogan. “The safety-first movement has taken root all over the world,” said Ralph Evans, a railroad man of Chicago. “R. G. Richards, general claim agent of the Chicago Northwestern railroad, was the originator of the idea. He former the first railroad ‘safety-first organization five years ago and now 90 other railroads in the United States and Canada, with a mileage of more than 205,000, have adopted safety-first plans. It is almost impossible to estimate the decrease in the loss of life and injuries that has followed. In spite of increases in mileage of road operated and in the amount of freight and number of passengers carried, the number of lives lost because of accidents has steadily decreased from 107 in 1910 to 30 in 1915, and the number of persons injured from 8,629 in 1910 to 5,203 in 1915. “This is a remarkable record and shows what a little caution can do. Railroads are only partially to blame for accidents. In hundreds of cases the people themselves could avoid injury if they took the care -to follow the ordinary rules of ‘safety first.’ ”