Safety First - Ralph C. Richards

RALPH C. RICHARDS

From the pages of Erie Railroad Magazine:
The late Ralph C. Richards was the father of "Safety First" on American railroads. Recently, in Chicago, a bronze tablet was erected to the memory of this great-hearted pioneer by the Steam Railroad section of the National Safety Council. At the fitting ceremonies which marked the unveiling of this tablet, the presentation was made by Robert W. Campbell, first president of National Safety Council, and accepted by President Fred W. Sargent of the Chicago and North Western Railway. Mr. Richards had been connected with the C. & N.W. for fifty-four years. Mr. Richards started as an errand boy at the age of 15 years. By studying law in the evenings, he fitted himself in that profession and was admitted to the Illinois bar. By various promotions he reached the rank of general solicitor of his company and then general claim agent.

But he did not stop here.

Let us quote from the feeling address of President Campbell of the National Safety Council:

"But in his work for the Claims department of his railroad he had found a new interest and a new ambition that were to shape all the remaining years of his career.

"This work had made him familiar with the growing numbers of injuries and fatal accidents occurring on American railroads every year. He was constantly associated with the misery and heart-breaking details of such accidents upon his own railroad system. It was commonly believed at the time, both by the workers and by railroad management, that such accidents were largely unavoidable. But the great heart of Ralph C. Richards rebelled at such a conclusion, and he sought some way in which the rising tide of mutilated and dying men might be stemmed, so that human life might be conserved for higher ends."

Mr. Richards was president of the National Safety Council in 1919-1920, a just and fitting recognition of his great work. It was in 1910 that he first aroused railroad men to the need and possibilities of accident prevention. It was a wonderful address. From its inspiration has come that lessened toll of human suffering which concerns us all�as human beings, as family men, and as associates of our fellow workers."


(Ralph Richards died in Geneva, IL on Jan. 3, 1925)

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