Daily Arizona silver belt., 1909-05-13
THE DURATION or LIFE

I06 OOAAxlON VT A1k 6
 John K. Gore, president of the Actu- arial Society of America, presented some facts, at a recent meeting, tending to disprove the belief which obtains in some quarters that the length Of human life is increasing by reason of better sanitary conditions and the exercise of greater intelligence in dieting. What has increased is the mean duration of Ifs, which is very different tiing, and of ttis increase the major portion is due to the diminution of mortality among children under i've years of age. with all tlis increase in the total number of years lived by persons born into the world" said Mr. Gor,, "there is no proof of any lergthening of the extreme span of life.'' What has hap pened is that millions of years of pro- ductive life have been given to the pso- pic, and ttis fact is of large economic signifc snce. Men and women dc not live longer, but moro of them attain to lives of hsalthfulness and useful ness. MT. Gore he'd out no hope that any means would be found of prolong. ing life, for those who live longest are tho select of their generation, and as most of these die of old age, or die really natural death, 1t appears certain that Nature herself has fixed an age limit beyond wtich man cannot go. Mir. Gore declared that no one had ever in- disputably attained the age of no.
 But the casa for sanitation and bet ter living is strong enough without ref erence to the extreme span of life. There has been a decrease in the death rate of One-half since the sixteenth century. In the United States tie death rate in our largest cities has fallsn since 1851 from twenty eight to twenty. one per thousand. "A larger and larger percen. tage of persons live up to ard through the reproductive and productiv per ioes of hfe," MT. Gore observed. "Dis- regarding, if we will, the sentimental and humanitarian side of the question, we must, nevertheless, appreciate the tremendous economic val-s of this great addition to the producing years of community life. Nor, apparently, has the end yet bsen reached. Tho-s. ands upon thousands of preventable deatfs still occur evsry year. Since 1871 the deaths from typhoid have de- creased from five per 10000 to three. This cause of death sho@ld eventually be almost eliminated
 The other side of this picture shows that there has been heavy increase in the death rate from a number of dis. eases incidental to the strain of mod ern civilization, but this increase is, of course, mora than cornteracted by the general decline in death rates. There is abundant promise that the human contest with disease will be even more amply rewarded in tha future. Orr governments are more active than ever in safeguarding the public health, the science of sanitation and of preventive medicine makes continual progress and tte people show more general interest in tho laws of health. Concurrently with the spread of knowledge as to the right ways of living goes the movement for better housing conditions and for improved buildings and surroundings for factory workers and office employees. The fresh air and exercise cult makes for health and longevity, and in general sanitary living and sanitary environ ment operate to ratss the level of phys ical efficiency, ard so to increase the sum of human happiness and value, even though tho number of our days may not be heightened.