Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1909-04-13
DEATH FIGHT
YALE MAN WOULD ADD THIRD TO
SPAN OF LIFE.
Or. Fisher Urges Insurance Companies
to Educate People In Hysienic
Conditions for This
Purpose.

New York.-The span Of human life
may be increased one-third by the ap-
plication Of reforms now known to
modern hygiene
:. The statement was made the other
day by DR.. Irving Fisher, professor of
political economy at Yale and presi-
dent of the committee of one hundred
on national health.
DR.. Fisher proposed the expenditure
of money by life insurance companies
in campaign of education to Inn
prove hygienic conditions throughout
the United States. He gave as his
justification for this suggestion the
fact that practical APPLICATION of all
the reforms now known to modern
hygiene would increase the average
length of life in America more than
Is years-or over one-third.
This decreased mortality, he said,
would SO lessen the cost of insurance
that the returns to policynulders
would be many times more than the
original expenditure. Then, too, there
would be vast economic gain to the
country in general by reason of the
prolongation of the lives of trained,
efficient men.
DR.. Fisher made these statements to
meeting Of the Association of Life
Insurance Presidents which was at
tended by company executives, medi
cal directors and actuaries, as well as
physicians and others prominent in the
present anti-tuberculosis crusade.
THE insurance men whom have
consulted as to whether it would pay
life insurance companies to engage in
the saving Of lives have been unani-
nous in their belief that the step
would be profitable one," said DR..
Fisher.
"A fall of tho death rate always
promptly follows sanitation. Col.
Goergas cut the death rate in Havana
in two, bringing 1t down to between
20 and "a. The New York death rate
responded at once to Col Warnings
clean streets and that of Rochester to
DIR. Goler's milk crusade. And now it
is announced that the death rate of
New York ia 1876, the lowest on rec
ord.
tuberculosis is known to be pre-.
ventable. In my table. it is entered as
rs per cent. preventable; pneumonia
as As per cent. preventable; typhoid
as IS per cent; diphtheria 70 per cent.
According to the plans which l
have in mind, the money which the
Inc or,1o
in life saving would not be in hospi.
tails or sanatoria, but in the educa.
ton of the public. and especially their
policyholders. in health matters and
the joining in every legitimate way
to improve the public health Offices
and services in the municipalities
states and the federal government.
Just as fire insurance companies
endeavor to secure In municipalities
adequate fire protection, SO life insur
ance companies might properly en-
deavor to secure adequate municipal
health protection, and they might like
wise bring their influence to bear to
secure the passage of model health
laws by our states In respect 10
slaughter houses. pure food, and other
health reforms. It is agreed by all
competent judges that there is now a
great and needless waste of human
life, and 1t is obvious that the financial
weight of this waste falls largely on
| the policyholders."
DR.. Fisher suggested the committee
of one hundred on national health as
an agency through which the educa
ton for hygtenic reforms could be
conducted. He is president of tina,
organization, which is carrying on ar
extensive movement throughout the
country to improve living conditions
DR.. Fisher has been professor of politi
cal economy at Yale since 1908.