What Fool Thing Do You Do D What does your wife do-or your husband-or your children? the cures. O YOU know that about eighty thousand men, women, and children are going to be killed in the United States this year? About fourteen millions, according to one insurance company's estimate, are going to be injured. What do you suppose will be responsible for nine tenths of this appalling total? The answer can be given in one word: Carelessness. Ninety per cent of the accidents which are going to kill, cripple, or otherwise injure these millions of human beings-accidents which threaten you and your family every day. -are preventable. You may think that most of these accidents occur to workers in mills, factories, and industrial plants. You are wrong. There are more accidents outside of industry than in it. And, in many towns, more than half of these outside accidents occur right in the home. The Nearest I Ever Came to Death Prize Contest Announcement THIS article will bring back to you the closest call you ever had to meeting death. Write us about the experience emphasizing the lesson that you learned. from it. Maybe your story will save the lives of some of the rest of us. For the best letter of not more than 500 words we offer these prizes: $20, first prize; $10, second prize; $5, third prize. Competition closes July 15th. Winning letters will appear in the October number. Address Contest Editor, THE AMERICAN MAGAZINE, 381 Fourth Avenue, New York City. Manu Contributions to these contests will not be returned In 1917, about 80,000 deaths were due to accidents. Only 22,000, less than one third of them, were in industry. Of 3,000 accidental fatalities in Chicago, during 1919, 1,090 occurred in homes; 1,142 on streets and roads. Of 510 people killed in Saint Louis in 1917, 400 were killed outside of industry and one half of these fatalities were in the home. Fifteen thousand children will be killed in this country this year, if we don't do something to stop it. Do you know what other nations call us: "Careless America!" And we deserve the title. One of our most popular methods of getting into the grave is to fall into it. I mean precisely that. More people are killed every year by slipping, tripping, and falling, than by any other known form of one year. They included everything from falling off buildings, porches, wagons, boats, and cars, to falling off chairs and out of bed! Ten were killed by falling down-stairs; and six met death simply by falling on the floor. In ninety per cent of these cases the reason for the accident was that somebody was careless. It is all right for us to have fought to make the world safe for democracy; but it is about time we tried to make this country safe for life and limb. Before I go into what we can do to ac 508447 11,000 of them probably will be killed in motor accidents, the machine itself will not be responsible in one case out of a hundred. It is the careless, reckless driver and the careless, reckless pedestrian that will be responsible. The automobile has brought added health and pleasure to millions of hunan beings. It is a crime against society that some people have turned this instrument of pleasure into an engine of destruction. But that is exactly what they have done. It is estimated that before the end of this year there will be about 9,500,000 automobiles and motor trucks in the United States. That will be one to every eleven or twelve persons. In 1910 there were only 400,000 autos in this country; and about one person in every 50,000 of our population was killed in motor accidents. By 1917, one person in every 11,000 was meeting death through this cause. Last year there were 7,500,000 autos and about 10,000 deaths. So you can see that I am probably not short of the truth when I predict that this year, with 9,500,000 motors, we will have 11,000 deaths through absolutely unnecessary auto accidents. What are we going to do about it? Probably there isn't one person in a hun 13 |