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Show Let Us Save the Kiddies "There are in the United States today 200 happy children, chil-dren, toddlers and older maybe one of them is in your home who will be mourned by grief-stricken parents on July 5, unless their parents take greater interest in and exercise more care over the way they celebrate the 'Fourth' than did the parents of 195 little Americans last July," says the American Museum of Safety in a statement issued by its president, Arthur Williams. And in addition to these living sacrifices to the spirit of the Fourth of July season, there will be more than 3,000 other victims of the 'Fourth' suffering varying degrees of agony, some of them condemned to go through life more or less maimed, even blind. These tragic figures are based on cold statistic. They are the fore-knowledge gained by the American Museum of Safety through its annual surveys of Fourth of July accidents acci-dents and its efforts to keep these tragedies down to a minimum. mini-mum. Yet, in spite of the annual warnings issued by the American Amer-ican Museum of Safety and other organizations, and the broadcasting of warnings by newspapers and magazines through pictures and the printed word and warnings issued to employes by many industries, each year sees an increasing danger to the innocent celebrants of the 'Fourth.' In the last three years the number of deaths has nearly doubled and the number of injuries has increased three-fold. . In 1925 there were 111 deaths and 1030 injuries; in 1926, the deaths were 161 and the injuries 2205, and last year 195 lives were lost and the injuries ran up to 3179. Mr. Williams, who is vice-president, in charge of commercial com-mercial relations, of The New York Edison Company, is a pioneer in organized safety work. He was one of the founders foun-ders 'of the American Museum of Safety and has been its president since its incorporation in 1911. He expressed the belief that the annual toll of deaths and injuries would have been much greater but for these warnings. "Yet, there is little excuse for this condition," Mr. Williams Wil-liams said. "Why should there be 200 or more happy children with us today who will not be living after the Fourth of July season, and more than 3,000 others who will be more or less severely injured, some of them blind? :We cannot, for the most part, blame these deaths and injuries on the victims, because so many of them are so young. The blame attaches partly to parents and guardians, partly to conditions that permit explosive and inflammable material coming into the hands of children without proper supervision, and partly to the long-drawn-out celebration of the Fourth of July. "Already, in June, in some communities, dealers have been arrested for the sale of fireworks to children. These are usually the smaller communities. In the larger cities the restrictions of the fire departments and police depart-f-iifeS-are most stringent. "No doiibt, the annual toll of fireworks victims would be greatly reduced if the sale of fireworks were limited to the short period from July 1 to July 4. Also there is no doubt that there would be a great reduction in these accidents if parents exercised more care over their children." In 1927, -the statistics show, there were 21 pre-Fourth deaths, 168 occurred on the Fourth, and six after the Fourth. Twenty-six of the victims were under five years of age, " some of them only two, the cause of the deaths of these infants in-fants being phosphorous poisoning from eating torpedoes and other fireworks. The injured ran in about the same proportion, pro-portion, 124 of the victims being five years old and younger. The greater number of victims were between the ages of six and 20, and the great majority were boys. |