The New River Company was a leader in the safety-first movement that spread through the state's mining communities during the 1920s and 1930s. It established first aid teams at each of its operations, and every year those teams competed for the Director's Cup from 1920 until 1942. In some communities, the company organized all-female first aid teams. Its Mine Rescue team, formed around 1920, won the International Competition in St. Louis in 1921 and came to the aid of trapped miners throughout the state's coalfields on several occasions. The company was also one of the first in the state to offer safety awards to miners to emphasize safety and reduce accidents, and in 1925 it became the first industrial organization to have one hundred percent of its workers participating in safety programs after providing all miners with first aid training. New River also carried its safety message into the broader community, sometimes making safety a theme in company floats in Fourth of July parades in Mt. Hope. These programs continued through the difficult 1930s until the World War II period. Even with these efforts, accidents and fatalities continued because coal mines were, and are, inherently dangerous places to work. Maintaining air, light, and roof support was itself difficult, and the work of extracting coal by pick and shovel or by modern machinery added further hazards. Mechanization in the twentieth century did not make mining safer; instead, it introduced dangers such as cutting machines and continuous miners that produced more coal dust and sparks, electrical machinery with trailing cables that could arc if cut, and large equipment moved into place by operators who could see only a few feet ahead, risking run-over and crushing accidents.