The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1909-12-29

NO.
sta Far Ahead Of Us In the Matter
OF Conserving Life.
Human life is increasing in length
at a very rapid rate. but the span will
have to go on increasing for a long
time before it becomes even normal.
for the human being ought to live to
about $50 years if he did himself JUS
tee. says Professor Irving Fisher Of
Yale in a remarkable study which has
just been issued by the national con-
servation commission. The commits
sion believes that the greatest asset Of
society is human life.
Professor Fisher in a book of 100
pages says that after most careful
study Of vitality and health statistics
he concludes that about $50 years ago
the average span Of life began to in
crease. and it has been gaining ever
since. At the end of the seventeenth
century the average life was about
four years longer than at its begin
ming. At the end Of the eighteenth
another four years had been added to
the average. Then came the nine
teenth with it's great strides in science
in all departments. In the first three
quarters of that century the average
length of life increased at the rate of
about nine years to the century.
Prussia Far Ahead Of Us.
But in the last generation the in
crease has been faster than ever be-
fore. In Massachusetts the average
length of human life is now increasing
at the rate Of about fourteen years
per century. Yet Massachusetts is not
making 50 good a record as is present.
ed for Europe, as a whole. where the
present increase is at the rate of sew
enteen years in a century. Prussia. the
land OF greatest advance in medical.
surgical and hygienic science, is i'll
creasing its average longevity at the
rate of twenty-seven years per cen
fury.
Professor Fisher quotes the result of
Metchnikoff's Investigations to sustain
the contention that a normal age for
men should be about $50 years. Metch-
nikoff found that mammals generally
lived about five times the period de-
voted to growing. The one exception
Is a The growing period Of MAI is
about thirty years. Therefore if he
should lengthen his life up to the aver
age Of other mammals it would be
about $50 years. Professor Fisher does
not think that $50 years will be by any
means an impossible attainment when
the u%nexplored possibilities of science.
sanitation and social betterment are
developed.
Century and Half Not Impossible.
The present average age at which
people die of old age after having been
enough to dodge automo-
biles, diphtheria. tuberculosis, hunger
and the other uses of death is stat
ed as eighty-three years.
The economic value of human life
and the advantage to the social whole
In increasing its length are discussed
most entertainsngly by Professor Fish
er. He points out that the sustaining
Of youth and old age is a tremendous
onus on the producing capacity of So
ciety. AS civilization becomes more
complex a longer period must be CIV
en- to preparation for the real work.
consequently there is need for a CON-
pensating length of the period within
which the individual. having thus been
prepared at the social expense, may
work for society in order to repay its
in him.
Professor Fisher summarizes the va
rious statistical estimates that have
been made OF the economic value Of a
human life. The American nation is
credited with the ownership of $1O7,-
)O0,000,000 worth of property, but Pro-
lessor Fisher reaches the conclusion
hat the human beings are economical.
y worth somewhat more than $780,.
100000 more in addition to this.
How q Life Grows In Value.
In the first year Of existence the
economic value of a life is only 500,
because the infant life involves the
:reat burden of the long preparation
or a period of producing usefulness.
from this year on the average value !
# a life increases until it reaches its
maximum at thirty years. when it is
4,2OO for the average American life.
1t that age the period Of preparation
past the time of greatest producing
apacity is fairly being entered. and
expectation Of life is large. 4.
Every immigrant coming into this
ountry is worth $875. says Professor !
fisher. That is the minimum figure. {
the labor value. The ar. !
ival of 100000 immigrants adds to
he wealth Of the nation 1915. 600. 600.
vAkAe CMA~~LA e AA-.