The New York herald., 1921-03-13

r IFE'S span is growing longer and IN
that happy result the Life Exten-
- sion Institute is doing well its part,
for It has turned the corner and made the
dream Of its founder come true.
That one should by taking thought turn
the whole course of insurance practice and
give to the healing art a new angle was
hardly to be considered when this semi
philanthropic enterprise of human conser-
vation came into being Now that it justi-
Ges its existence. as the recently published
report for 1920 shows, there are many per-
sons who wonder now why they ever doubted
that the vision of a Massachusetts con-
tractor should not be realized. More than
two hundred thousand persons have already
been examined as to their physical condition
by the Life Extension Institute and obtained
the benefit of its counsel.
1t may be said that the all-wise Chinese
who discovered everything which the West
err World knows and often forgot 1t or failed
TO apply it to the last analogy, devised the
principle on which Life Extension was based
The men of old Cathay always said that the
physician should be paid only as long as he
kept his patients in good health, and so
they stopped the pay of their medical ad-
visers when illness came. Modern science
says that the physician belongs to a self
eliminating profession, for the trend is
toward preventive medicine and the era
when the physician will be charged with the
mission of keeping the human race fit
Founder of Life Extension
Tells How He Got the idea
The genesis of Life Extension harks back
TO Springfield, Mass, in 1913, when there was
confusion on the face of the world of vital
statistics and many of the ideas of actuaries
were without form and void.
Harold A. Ley as long ago as 1903 had an
experience with an insurance company
which started him thinking along the lines
which have since developed in so many
directions At that time he had agreed to
take out some more insurance on his life
although he already had policies aggregat-
ing $50, 900. The agent in presenting the APP
pication for Mr.. Ley to fill out said that II
a physical examination showed that the APP
plcant was i'm good condition the company
would pay for the test, but if not the appli-
cant would have to pay the fee.
"As / happened to have $4,000 insurance
in his company" said Mr.. Ley recently in
reviewing the history Of the Institute, ut
seemed to me that they ought to be willing
to spend $5 to find out If all right or
not and I wondered what | was worth to
them alive. / figured that if this examina-
ton would preserve my life one year they
would not only save the interest on $4,000,
which at five per cent. would be S2750 but
that they would also get an additional pre-
MUM out of me of a couple Of thousand dol
lars which would give a saving of $4,750 for
a So investment. This looked to me like
good business.
IT had spent eight years of my life in the
actuarial department of an insurance COM
pany, so l was somewhat familiar with the
insurance business. The more | thought Il
over the more was / convinced that the in
surance companies were losing an opportu-
nifty, and as 1 was thinking over 1t one day
IL occurred to me that the same examination
7 had from one company would be just as
valuable for all the other companies in which
I held insurance. IT also occurred to me that
if this work were to be done 1t ought to be
done by one organization for all the insur-
ance companies"
With this germ of an idea Mr.. Ley called
on Prof Irving Fisher Of the department of
political economy of Yale University, who
told him he could spare five minutes and
ended by taking whole afternoon to discuss
The matter. Through Prof Fisher William
Howard Taft, former President of the United
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