SAFETY SERVICES Cross, and I am writing to tell you how deeply grate¬ful I am. Five years ago, I took a Red Cross first aid course . . . and it was this training which enabled me to save my baby's life," wrote a young mother. While she had been out of the room a few minutes, her baby had tried to slide out of his high chair and had strangled. She immediately gave him artificial respiration. Seven minutes later, the apparently lifeless child was breathing. There are many such letters in Red Cross Safety Service files—letters from deeply grateful mothers and fathers and from vic¬tims whose lives had been saved because some¬one had been in the right place, at the right moment, with the right first aid knowledge. Policemen, college students, teachers, fore¬men, skiers, servicemen, industrial workers, firemen, telephone linemen, doctors, house¬wives, and many others comprise the 30,230 Red Cross instructors who carry the major load of the vast Red Cross first aid program. Lastyearthey trained almost400,000persons. Recent surveys in industry show a sharp decrease in accidents after workers have re¬ceived first aid training. In one company before the introduction of the first aid train¬ing program, accidents cost the company 331,903. Nine years after the first aid pro¬gram had been in effect, the cost of accidents 16 SAFETY SERVICES was down to 31,942. "We firmly believe that the teaching of first aid was the foremost factor in bringing about these reductions," said the company safety engineer. Trained volunteers operating the more than 2,000 highway first aid stations at strategic sites throughout the nation gave skillful first aid care to hundreds of accident victims who might otherwise have bled to death or have been permanently crippled by injurious handling and transportation. During last year there was a 10 percent increase in the number of police cars, pri¬vately operated vehicles, and commercial trucks designated as Red Cross mobile first aid units after drivers had taken advanced first aid training and agreed to carry emer¬gency first aid equipment. There are nearly 11,000 such rolling emergency units on the highways today. In schools throughout the country more than 2,000,000 children received special safety training through the Red Cross safety instruction guides prepared for teachers. WATER SAFETY Once again the Red Cross broke its own annual record for training men, women, and children in water safety. Almost 680,000 met the qualifica¬tions for certificates. Mil¬lions of others benefited by public demonstrations, movies, and lectures on 17