Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-09-11

the facts. In the middle OF the seven
teenth century there was only one person
out OF each hundred in London who haC
reached his seventy-sixth year In the
middle OF the eighteenth century there
were four out of each hundred, and In the
middle of the nineteenth century clever
out or every hundred reached that age
In single quarter of century Londor
cut Its death rate in two and Increased
the span OF the average life full 30 pei
cent.
4
Throughout the civilized world the
length of human life has practically dou.
bled in $50 years. And
Doubles in yet sanitarians and other
o~o students of public health
America is barely starting through the
open door of opportunity. When one hear:
the progressive medical man declare thai
a half-miliion American lives could bt
saved every year IL the nation at large
would only heed the lessons taught by
preventive medicine. he is inclined to bt
skeptical. But IL he will consider what
this science of preventive medicine al
ready has done and reflect how mucf
more 1t is doing today in communities
where 1t is best applied, he will conclude
that the man who seemed TO be vision
airy dreamer is. after all, conservative
According to insurance statistics the NOR
tally rate among industrial policy hold
ers is from 80 to so per cent higher thar
that which obtains among the well-to-do
1t is mainly a difference in sanitary sur
roundings.
The whole nation reaps a vast economic
gain, aggregating billions of dollars fol
every year that is added to the average
life. Surprising that only 3O.OOO,OOO of oul
a hrp1dwlnnprS.
the net earning power of each of then
is 500 year, that one year of added life
is worth $3.OO0,OOO,OOO to the nation
When we think of adding five years t.
economic wealth sufficient to replace al
our railroad investments or to substitute
all our bank deposits.
AA
But if the nation as a whole is the
gamer In this direction, not less so are
the insurance com
Tables Rased panies. Insurance
rates are made upon
on Experience. the basis of the ex-
pectation of human life. The tables OF
this expectation are prepared from the
experience Of years gone by. Naturally,
with the death rate constantly diminish
ing, and with the necessity of basing in
surance premiums on past experience
rather than upon present conditions, the
expectation rates are always higher
than those in realization. Consequently.
when the mass of insured persons do
not die as soon as the expectation tables
say they should, the insurance companies
reap corresponding reward.
So important is this a factor or profit
in the insurance world that one of the
probabilities of the future is that all in
surance companies will pool their inter-
ests and create big fund for the financ-
ing of nationwide campaign in behalf
of the public health. Already one of the
big companies has established a welfare
system, and has arranged for a cam
paign of education through its $4,000
agents scattered throughout the country.
1t distributed in one year four million
little textbooks of health, printed in ten
different languages.
Those insurance companies which in
sure the lives of negroes feel themselves
handicapped by the
No Standard for fact that they have
no experience tables
Negro Race. of the negro race
upon which to base their premiums. Some
OF them are using their best efforts tt
induce the negro to live up to the SAM
tary standard of the white man. and
others are trying to create an experience