El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-09-16

LDdSSu Ou tuG EuS W dlcS UlOIIdlilA
! table, only few hundred of these will
! be here when the census of 2O1O is
taken. BY 2017 the last person now
: living viii have gone 10 his reward,
and the children of the third and fourth
generations Will be the makers of the
nation
What is being accomplished in pro-
noting the longevity of the race is
shown by the statistics Of mortality in
the various countries of the globe. In
| 1908 the mortality rate in the United
States, as disclosed by the census re-
turns for the registration area, was
50 out of every 10000. In 1900 it was
lie out of every 10000 In another way
we get fine picture of what medical
science is doing for the American peo-
pie. In 1890 the average American
lived Sd years. In 1900 mis- lease on
life has increased to 35.2 years. At
that ratio of increase rhe Span of life
would be-. doubled in 100 years. In
Austria and Spain, where ignorance is
the rule among the masses, the death
rate is nearly doIo'e mt it X L., -.
United States and Denmark. In Hun
gary, another country of ignorant
masses, it IS far greater than in Eng
land or in Sweden or Norway. The
average American lives nearly twice as
long as the average inhabitant of India.
We commonly think that people in
the days of our grandfathers and
great-grandfatners lived longer than
we of tlds huSthng era, but vital sta
tistics show this suppositiOn to be the
very opposite of the facts. In the
middle of the nth century there was
only one person out of each 100 IN
London who had reached his 18th year
In the middle Of the 18th century there
Oh, Io
middle of the 18th century II out of
every 100 reached that age In a single
quarter of a century London cut its
death rate in two a11 increased he
span of the average life full so per-
cent.
Throughout the civilized world the
length OF human life has practically
doubled in $50 years And yet sani-
tarians and other students of public
health conditions declare that America
is barely starting through the open
door of opportunity. When one hears
the progressive medical man declare
that 100000 American lives could be
saved every year if the nation at large
would only heed the lessons taught by
preventive medicine, he is inclined 70
be skeptical. But if he will consider
what this science of preventive medicine
already has cone and reflect now much
more Il IS uOlIS lO0dA III
where it is best applied, he will con-
cIude that the man who seemed TO be
a visionary dreamer is after all con-
servative. According TO insurance sta
tistics the mortality rate among indus
trial policyholderS is from so to so per-
cent higher than that which obtains
among the welltodO. 1t IS mainly
difference in sanitary surroundings
Gain of the Nation.
The whole nation reaps a vast eco
nomic gain, aggrega ting billions of dol
lars for every year that is added to
the average life. Supposing that only
30,0OO,0OO of our population are bread
winners and that the net earning power
of each of them is 500 a year, that
one year of added life is worth $1,000
O0O, 900 10 the nation When We think
of adding five years TO the average
life it means a growth in economic
wealth sufficient TO replace all our
railroad investments or to substitute
all our bank deposits.
But if the nation as a whole is the
gamer in this direction, not less so are
the insurance companies. Insurance
rates are made upon the basis of the
expectation of human life. The tables
of this exectatiop ere prepared from
the experience of years gone by. Nat
urally, with the death rate constantly
and with the necessity Of !
basing insurance premiums on past ex-
perience rather than upon present con- |
ditions, the expectation rates are al |
ways higher than those in realization. |
Consequently, when the mass of insured |
persons do not die as soon as the ex- |
pectation tables say they should. the |
insurance companies reap a correspond |
ing reward.
So important is this as a factor of /
profit in the insurance world that one
OF the probabilities of the future is that |
all insurance companies viii pool their !
interests and create a big fund for the |
financing Of a nation wide campaign
in behalf Of the public health. Already
one of the big companies has estab-
lished a welfare system, and has ar
ranged for a campaign of education
its 5000 agents scattered
the country 1t distributed
in one year 4,O0O,OOO little text books
Of health, printed in 10 different Ian
guages.
Negro Pays High Insurance.
Those insurance companies which in
sure the lives of negroes feel them
selves handicapped by the fact that
thew have no experience tables of the
negro race upon which to base their
premiums Some of them are using
their best efforts to induce the negro
to live up to the sanitary standard OF
the white man, and others are trying
% create an experience table especially
for the negro. But in the meantime
the insurance companies are profiting
from the lack of such tables. In order
to be on the safe side they charge the
negro a higher rate.
While women Outrank men in the
matter of longevity, and also in the rate
AZ which their span Of life is increas-
ng. they are not as highly regarded as
risks. 1t is said that this
arises from several causes. In the first
place. for reasons of delicacy, the eX-
amina tions are not as thorough, ana
experience has shown that they are NOT
,s careful OF the truth in answering