THE OREGON SUNDAY JOURNAL, PORT LAND, SUNDAY MORNING, , MAY ;W. 1920.
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Portland
"Safety, First, " Effective
Her Own Inventions
By Earl C Brownlce
THE business, of' safeguarding:
human life and limb is an avo
cation that has enlisted the best
efforts of (Portland people and their
most studied contrivance of me
chanical aids to. longevity, j
Foremost among: the larger cities
of the nation for her work in ap
plying her original slogan, "Safety
First," Portland's results In pro- ,
tectlng the lives of her , citizens
have not only been acelaimed to
'the world, but have served as in
spiration for the efforts of other
cities, until now the direct results
from the safety campaign first
launched here nearly a score of
years ago are Inestimable.
It was approximately 1 2 years
ago that "Safety First," a catch
phrase reliably reputed to have
originated In the active mind of B.
F. Boynton of Portland, .was first
conceived and impressed upon
Portland people. Boynton is prom
inent in the local hall of fame as
the "father of the safety-first
movement." j
Those 12 years have seen the
gradual and seemingly sure elimin
ation of the accidental risk attend
ing Portland's life and with that
elimination has come the gradual
proportionate lessening of the
sometimes appaling accident tolL
Twelve years ago the greatest
concern of those who created the
safety movement was in shielding
careless or unfortunate persons
from the toll of street car, railroad
or street traffic accidents in which .
horse-drawn vehicles were involved.
Now," however, the toll of the au
tomobile is the one L ig concern that
eclipses all others and into the path
of ttat death-maker 42 Portland
people fell in 1919. J
The 1919 record was a creditable
reflection upon the work- of the
agencies designed to protect life,
yet activity in that direction is be
ing continuously intensified with a
hope that accidental death can so
certainly be averted that the anntfal
toll will be only a fraction of 42.
Portland has been i in the front
rank of safety crusaders since that
happy day when F. I. Fuller con
ceived the advantage of a glass
shielded street car and adapted his
Idea to the then open cable cars by
practically encasing the cars in
glass, that passengers and crew
might be protected from the ele
ments and from the many minor
accidents that would and did occur
' without such protection, j
From that primitive arrange
ment of glass has developed the
present street car vestibule, sep
arated from the passenger com
partment of the modern street car
the semi-private "office" of the
motorman or conductor.' I
... i
Portland was one ' of the first
cities In the United States to in
stall electric transportation devices
and was even more nearly first in
the complete electrification of ita
streetcar system, then chiefly oper
ated by the pulling power of Old
Dobin-. Therefore, the city was in
a position to originate'. I
Themodern. highly effective de
railing switch is jiot a Portland
invention, yet to the first switch
Portland people added their ideas
to other Improvements, and ; the
switch of today, almost certain as-'
surance against - one type of acci
dent, is the result. . j .
Makes Her Original Slogan,
The streetcar fender employed '
on. Portland cars, though not a
Portland invention, embodies ? the
same ideas that were conceived by
local inventors and, with some ad
ditions, serves the same purpose. ;
It and the vestibule are features
of all streetcars required by law
of city or state. ,- ';'''
. Portland's campaign toward a
safe city was launched, authorities
with good memories agree, by B.
F. Boynton, who is credited, as has
been said, with the authorship of
the now famous and universal slo
gan, "Safety First." - . ', '
The city easily perfected organ
izations to direct its safety cam
paign and upon the foundation of
such units as the public safety
commission of Portland has been
erected, here and .elsewhere, the
state industrial accident commis
sion, the National Safety council
of wide scope, and like institutions.
The workmen's compensation act
.and similar legal structures are
' resting upon much the same foun
dation. Intensive activity in safety work -developed
along about 1912 - and
1913,' when the present effective
"danger" discs generally employed 4
about Portland and, as a result, in
scores of other cities, were created'
by H. P. Coffin of the public safety
commission and A .S. Klrkpatrick,
then of the city's department of
public works. v
On these "discs, it 'is said, the.
words "Safety First" were original
ly employed with official signif i
.cance. The discs have been copied
in exact detail, even to the cofor
scheme, by many cities. -
They are today employed as traf-
fic warnings very generally in the
city, steering traffic dangers away
frpm school playgrounds, congest
ed districts, blind streets, danger
ous turns and the , like.
Portland closely followed the
larger cities of the East in the use
of , the street intersection traffic
semaphores and in the designation
of a detachment of police as .a traf
fic department.
The measure of its success is un
told. It came with the increase
of the traffic problem through the
addition of thousands of automo
biles to that problem, at an oppor
tune time, and is as familiar to
the motorist as even the mechan
: ism of his -car.
Beyond present consideration is
that mass of safety devices applied
in industrial plants throughout the
city and in whose conception is an
important story of Portland's gen
ius at work. ' During the war, es
pecially, scores of anti-accident in
ventions were recorded by Portland
inventors and that the toll of death
through accident during the city's
period of concentrated industry
was not greater is a tribute to that
genius and the form of its expres
sion. "
All the policemen In the city
could - not control ' street traffic
when the gaudy, racing fire ap
paratus is clanging its response to
the call of duty as does the fire
' semaphore, a dozen of which adorn
street corners. That semaphore is
distinctly a Portland adaptation
- and has been; so well received and
effective that not only other munic
ipalities but manufacturers - have
With
squght the secrets of its operation
that its benefits might be universal.
The fire semaphore responds to
the fire alarm. A 'great red .arm
drops in warning as a bell of slg- i
niflcant tone lustily raps jts mes
sage. Traffic halts on the spot. J
The steaming fire engine, its speed
Increased fourfold under the im-'
pulse of
strong c motors, charges
down
the street- unimpeded.- Its
track has been cleared, by the fire
, semaphore warning. '
This device is an adaptation of
. the railroad semiphore, whose orig
in, while sometimes attributed to a
Portland .inventor, is in doubt. A
few much used railroad block sig
nals were obtained by the fire de
partment and with some mechani
cal changes and general adaptation
to the new use, the fire signal ap
peared. : ; - - ' -. 1 -
Scientific journals have com
mented considerably upon this par
ticular one of Portland's ideas for
the protection- of life.. It is em-
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ployed in many other cities as -a '
result of its successful use here.
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Encouraged by its : success . in
. adapting mechanical ideas to the ,
' control of the destinies of her citi
zens, Portland has gone even fur- "
ther and was among the first to '
grasp eagerly the suggestion of Its
originator in marking its street in
tersections to guide careless pedes- -trians.
.Recognizing the fact that :
vehicular traffic is : not . alone ' re-
sponsible for, street accidents, the '
city set about guiding the footsteps .
of pedestrians into , safe and - sane J;
pathways. The "Jaywalker" cru-
; sade was an Important movement
in this direction. ,
In., 1919 there were 9004 traffic
accidents in Portland. In that list
are 1195 accidents in which per-
eons were injured by automobiles
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The results of Industrial accidents
add greatly to this total.-; j . -
An ' analysis -of .traffic1 accidents
for April 'of this year shows, first,
a total of 910, in which three per
sons were, killed. Of the total
number, 349 accidents were caused
by sheer carelessness of automobile
driver, or pedestrian. ' That .is-the
cause for a majority- of traffic " ac
cidents and is one of the three" pri
mary causes found' by safety, first,
workers. Lack, of control of ; the
automobile' Is the next most serious
cause' of traffic accidents; failure
to yield right of way, which. In re
ality, is a form of carelessness, is
the third Important factor.
This human equasion cannot be
eliminated from accidents, authori
ties agree, and, therefore, accidents
cannot be eliminated. " ': .
.. ' . -ill.
It Is a fact,-authorities say, .that
where. there is the least element of
risk people will .take the greatest
chances. And where there is the
least element of risk is Just where
most serious, accidents .occur.,
i"
' -It would be almost futile; to at
tempt a concrete estimate-' of the
number of lives - that - have - been
saved by the' several devices here -. -mentioned
or pictured.;" Suffice it
to say that the toll would have been ,
vastly greater without their intelli
gent employment in the business of r
warning a rushing, of ttimes heed
less public, of the dangers that lie
in their daily. paths. . -
And the story Is . not all , told.
Portland, long in the vanguard,"
comparatively rushing . toward the
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goal of safety, still labors with its
ingenious ideas for preventing the
waste of human life, due to the
carelessness and the . thoughtless
ness of her citizens. '-She is build
Is sty'
r?, ''ft'
i
ing notalone for herself, but for all
the world. In evidence is the fact
that - the particularly good ideas
.'originated in Portland are in use
throughout the world today. r