Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-13
Urges Attempt to Add
| To Lies Expectancy
no the EDITOR of The star.

| ~ EulLOL OI Inc Star.
An interesting scheme of a French
savant for combating the ineyitabiIitv
OF death" was outlined in recent issue
| OF your paper; One might as well try
70 GompaG tne inevitability Of the
W Iv1 or any other natural force.
Wnen we see that every plant. every
animal, all that has organic life
| opeyS the same laws of birth. growth
ana death, We should understand why
deatn Will come to us, as to every crea-
| lure, ana should realize that to attempt
10 combat that condition is to flv in
the lace OF changeless and unchange-
ap!e 1act. Inc tiny microbe that lives
pu1 lew minutes passes, and it is said
IilaC III tne vast lnterstellar spaces dark
stars are wandering, suns that have
burned out and died, and that orr world
ana our own sun will meet the same
iate IN the course of time. The best
| that We humans can do is to try in
every reasonable way to prolong this life
10 some extent, make it more worth the
living, ana prepare for the inevitable
cnange. Ihose who wish to live here
forever should read the passage in "Gul-
MYERS travels" which tells of race of
InoTIaS among whom occasionally a
CHIC was porn with the mark of inmor-
tally upon it. These "struldbrugs, as
swift called them, wished for death
Wnen, IN extreme old age, most Of their
Irlenus were gone, along with their
teeth, eyesight and hearing, and all that
| made life worth living.
AS life is now constituted, it is nee
! essary that the old make way for the
young. II there had been no deaths on
earth since the days of the Neanderthal
man, Tor example. and the stork had
plled MS trade as usual, there would not
be standing room for the trillions of hu-
man pelngs that would infest the planet,
let alone substance to feed and clothe
them. All the humans now on earth
could nnd room at the rate of about 10
to the acre on the 100000 square miles
OF Texas soil, but when the scientists
tell us that man has been on earth for
upward OF a million years, or at least
something like him, the statement once
mace that every handful of earth on
the surface has once been human flesh
does not sound so unreasonable.
A more practical proposition than try
ing to combat the inevitability of death
is TO try to increase life expectancy. It
said that in the earlier years of life to-
day much progress has been made in
that direction, but that fater one
reaches the age of so the expectancy
remains about 81 years as it has been
for century. Life extension Institutes
are at work attempting to lengthen the
lives OF those who have the means to
pay for it. Certain diseases, such as tu-
berculosis and smallpox and many of
the other contagious ailments, are yield
ing to science, but affections of the
heart, kidneys and nervous system are
taking greater toll every year, and
physicians know but little more about
cancer, which now causes about 10 per
cent CT deaths, than they did 1000 years
ago. Automobiles, airplanes, abuse of
narcotics such as tobacco, alcohol and
habit-forming drugs, oVereating, over
excitement, and things to come through
new discoveries, bid fair to keep down
an excess of population for some time
to come, added to the lowering birth
rate here and in parts of Europe. It has
even been predicted that noxious insects
will cause humanity to starve by de-
stroying the food crops. 1t is well known
that whole races Of animals that once
roamed the earth have become extinct.
Why not man? Is he any better in fact
than the dinosaur and megatherium?
The writer once heard a Holy Roller"
preacher in the OzarkS shouting to his
trembling congregation that hell was
about to open at their feet because of
their sins of dancing, etc. He declared:
The president of the Patent Office at
washington LAS OOIlc IHIOWeO up Ills
hands and said the patents was a.
comm in so fast he couldn't count 'em.
Mans a-gettin' smarter'n the God that
made i'm, and he is a-goin' to put man
out of business" At that time the air.
plane, the radio, the talISies and tele-
vision were undreamed of.
Yes, death is the surest thing there
IS, and no set of scientists or dreamers
can, or should, set it aside. We can only
hope, with Tennyson:
''Thou wilt not leave us in the dust:
Thou madest man, he knows not
why,
He thinks he was not made to die:
And Thou hast made him! Thou art
just"
LINDSAY s. PERKINS.