Intelligence never exposes itself to undue or unnecessary physical risks, stupidity exposes itself—and pays the price. That, I think, is a brief summation of the reason back of safety education.

It is the part of intelligence to inculcate and foster a wholesome, reasoned, and controlled fear. Appreciation of risk and avoidance of exposure to risk are the part of the intelligent man. Time may have been when absolute fearlessness and blindness to danger were necessary. That must have been when man met blind and unknown dangers.

In this mechanical day such intrepidity is the part of stupidity. Hazards are largely predictable in the case of machine workers. The intelligent worker will, then, face the hazards, give them the thought, the caution, the fear that they merit and set his intelligence to the task of avoiding every possible risk. He will foster in every way his own training for safety, the safety of himself and of others.

Mechanical devices have been invented always with the idea of giving advantages to the intelligent—the intelligent, not the heedlessly brave.