The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1909-02-17
.,..n Lie Can be Heightened by
oo..rhird-That is More Than
Fifteen Years, Says
Or. Fisher.
EIGHT ruBERoUL osIs
r,.her Urged Insurance Presidents
= Take an Active Part In the
Crusade Against Pre-
ventabIe Diseases.
rc,ec,a, to The Gate city.]

remedial to The Gate City.]
NEW NV YORK, Feb. 17.-Declaring
mai human life in America could be
, i by one-third-that Is more
shan sfteen vears--by the adoption OF
s ss,e lc reforms already X wn. DR..
,.v;ne Fisher of Yale University re-
,ently in an address before the
.ssociation of L''e Insurance Presi-
donts urged the advisability insur-
snns companies taking an active part
T. Tho crusade against tuberculosis
and other preventable diseases. He
contended that any money expended
n EDUCATING the public along the lines
n modern hygiene would be returned
many times over policyholders,
- saw nothing of the enormous econ
cmic gains to the country at large.
Or Fisher, who has been professor
II nolitical economy of Yale since
1908 is president of the a committee
~ One Hundred on National Health,
which is ,arryilg on an extensive
moyement throughout the country to
improve living conditions. His ad-
dress was delivered to practical In
surance men, companv presidents,
medical directors and a-tuaries, while
Included in the audience were also
musicians and others prominent In
the present anti-tuberculosis move
ment.
SHOULD life insurance companies
seriously take up the work of length
enng human life, they would make, |
believe, the greatest step forward ever
taken in the prolongation of life,
said DR.. Fisher. 1.-The, nearest ana
lcgy is perhaps to be found in the
work Of fire insurance companies in
reducing the number of fires. But it
IS / believe, a general truth that tie
best success of any movement, is
found only when. In a sense, Il reach
es the commercial stage-in other
words, when 1t is made to pay in some
tangible way"
IF we take the life tables for diff
ierent periods for England, France,
Prussia, Denmark, Sweden, and Mass
achusetts we find that human life
heightened during the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries at the rate
of about ,ars per century; that
during the first three-quarters of the
nineteenth century 1t heightened at
the rate Of 8 years per century; that
at the present it Is heightened in
Europe generally at the rate of II
years pc. century. and in Prussia
(which is perhaps the home of IRE
ventiye medicine) at the e of q
years per century. For this country
the rate can only be judged from the
oh, VIII oh
show that life is frightening by about
Il years per century, or approximate
" half Of the Prussian --te.
A fall OF the death rate always
promptly follows sanitation. Colonel
Gorgas cut the death rate In Havana
In two bringing 1t down to between
70 and "a. The New York death rate
responded at once to Colonel War.
lngs clean streets, and that of Roch-
ester to Dr.. Goler's milk crusade
And now It is announced that the
death rate of New York is 10.5, the
lowest on record--a result, in all hui.
man probability, to the hygienic
work Of DR.. Darlington, the efficient
health officer, Mr.. Nathan straus, the
MIR reformer, and the public agitation
ior health prosecuted by the New
10TH Times, the Journal and other
media, allied with the health work OF
.ae committee of One Hundred on
National Health, the tuberculosis
association, and committees and other
Examinations.
Ihese and other facts and the mass
u detailed figures which they repre-
ssht show conclusivelv that human
ale is long or short precisely accord
,ag 70 the hygienic conditions under
Snich It Is lived; that human life can
pe prolonged as these hygienic condi
u ..,m are Improved, and that there is
sun enormous room for improvement
A report which l have recently
u,mpiled for the conservation commits
AWE based on data contributed from
ssssAnowledged American authorities
SHOWS that human life in America