Evening star., 1927-05-05

is too big a commodity to trifie with
amateurishly. Long live the Human
Asset!''
Drs. Dublin and FrankeI agree
that 2 per cent of the workers of
America are incapacitated all the
time by preventable sickness and that
sickness costs directly in lost wages,
in reduced production, as well as in
necessary care, total of two and a
quarter billion dollars a year."
That does not include the sicknesses
of the wageless woman home maker,
but we may be grateful that her state
is a bit improved by labor-saving ap-
pliances over what maintained in the
days of her grandmother, whose
epitaph is famous:
Here lies a poor woman who always
was tired;
She lived in a house where help was
not hired.
Her last words on earth were: Dear
friends, I am going
Where washing amt done, nor
sweeping nor sewing
But everything there is exact to my
wishes,
For where they don't eat, there's no
washing of dishes.
Don't mourn for me now; don't
mourn for me never;
am going to do nothing, for ever
and ever"
She died under 80. while the pres.
ent ladies wear boyish bobs be-
yond 60.
1t is col6-blooded proposition for
the insurance companies to count the
pennies when they see millions of dol
lars worth Of human assets wasted.
They are the most directly interested.
one big insurance company began,
some years ago, to try to plug up
the leak and 1t has invested 20,000,-
600 out of its own treasury in teach.
ing its risks not to be so plagued
risky The result is that in that
period the losses by death of it's in.
sured people have so lessened that
the decrease has saved to the insur-
ance company $43, 100000. What
other investment has brought 103 per
cent net profit?
A few days ago the London Times
health and hygiene special number
published table purporting to show
that the increased longevity of human
| life in the last 80 years is attributable,
not to reduced infant mortality, as
usually asserted, but to greater life
expectancy of adults, even those of
the mature years beyond twoscore.
In ancient days the average Roman
lived to the ripe age of IS years; in
the Middle Ages men. averaged %
years; in 1850 they lived to be 40
years old; now, in America, the aver
age is So. But American statisticians
take all the enthusiasm out of that
added Is years by saying that it is
not that old chaps live any longer, but
more babies survive their first decade.
The London table showed that in
1871 out of 100000 people there were
1925 infants under 5 years of age
and 1899 adults between As and 55
years, while in 1921 out of 100000
there were only 8,767 infants under
years and 1867 adults between As
and 80 years. And the conclusion
drawn was that the increased
longevity for adults rather than for
infants was proved.
(Readers will quote under their
breaths that bromide about statistics
and liars.)
Now comes our Census Bureau and
all doctors who specialize in infant
diseases, who declare that the above
conclusion Is all wrong, for 8,767 is
more than 1926, when it is noted
that in 1871 the annual birth rate
was 80 per 1000 population, and in
1921 it was only Is. So 100000 par
ents in 1S41 would produce 5000
children a year, or 10000 in the five
years prior to 1841, and the same
number of parents produced only
$4,000 children in the five years prior
to 1921. Hence. in 1S41 there were
8.8 per cent OF the children born, who
survived the aYa Of * vnarG while in
1921 there were II per cent which
so survived. Naturally the more
children there are in the total 100,-
600 the fewer "old 'uns" find place
therein.
When doctors disa gree, who shall
decide?"
DIR. Gideon Wells. gne of the most
eminent American medical author
les. denouncss medical statistics az