Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-01
BY ALVA JOHNSTON.

One of the problems which President
Hoover has placed before q commission
is that of dependent old age, which Is
threatening, according to some authori-
ties, to develop also into the problem OF
dependent middle age.
The ugly paradox about this problem
Is that 1t has been greatly aggravated
by humane efforts to solve it. Early
In the present century big employers
began to develop a keener sense of the
human relationship. They adopted PEN
sion systems and programs of welfare
work for their employees. About 10
years ago there was keen rivalry be-
tween many great corporations as to
whichc had the most advanced social
programs. That rivalry exists to some
extent today.
Seamy Side to System.
Gradually it has appeared that there
Is Seamy side to the pension system.
The rule has generally been established
that all new employees must be young
and sound in constitution, so that
many years of good service Is virtually
assured before their pension time ar
rives. Reluctance to employ older men
and women, reluctance to employ the
middle aged Is the result.
At the same time the tendency OF
highly induStrialiZed civilization has
been to discard from active life those
in the upper age claSSificationS. EN-
ployeS below middle age are usually
preferred in high-speed operations in
big plants. They can keep up with the
machines better and they are more
adaptable to change as new processes
of manufacture come in.
Span Of Life Increased.
There is an ironical and pessimistic
side even to the most beneflcent medi-
cal discoveries and the greatest strides
of civilization. Through better diet,
betted sanitation, better living condi-
tions in general. the average span OF
life has been increased many years.
The middle aged and aged form stead
lily increasing proportion OF the popu-
lation, and the busy world has appar-
emily less and less place for them.
There are other factors. In the cpl
demic of paternalism and benevolence
which swept over American industrial
ism, hundreds of corporations APP
preached too close to the millennium for
safety. Many of them Ight-heartedly
adopted pension systems without real
izing the burden they were imposing on
themselves. Some of them could not
carry the burden and had to revise or
discard them. There are the inevi-
table charges that some companies Sys-
tematically pick quaTrels with their
older employees in order to discharge
them for alleged INSTRUMENTATION. On
the other hand, 1t is undoubtedly true
sometimes resorted to trickery in order
to get disability pensions to which they
were not entitled.
Limit Lowered in All Lines.
The demand for youth is said to
have spread even to the churches. Mid
dle-aged or aged clergymen who seek
new pulpitS find the chances against
them. It was asserted at a conference
on the subject in Brooklyn q few days
ago that the veStrymen of one of the
wealthiest parishes in the country had
decided that the new rector must be a
man under IS. The dead line" or age
at which an employe ceases to be ac-
ceptable, is reported by labor officials
to be lowering rapidly in all of the
trades.
Many factors have played part in
the development of the Hoover COM
missions. Even without presidential
action there has been a tendency to
nationalize the attack on great prob
lens. An instance of this Is the CO.
operative study of tuberculosis, in which
81 great medical laboratories are taking
part at the request of DR.. william
Charles White of the United States
Public Health Service. Three important
new discoveries have been made in the
last year as a result.
Another factor is the training and
temperament of the President. He has
always been a believer In the doctrine
that q subject can best be handled
when the men who know most about 1t
sit around q table and thrash 1t out.
He has devoted most Of his life to or
ganizing studies of this kind.
Problems Piling Up.
Another thing Is that the country Is
in arrears in solving its problems. For
is years the attention Of the country
has been concentrated, first on the war,
then on the struggle back to normalcy.
Other issues have had to wait and
there Is now an accumulation. Fur
ther than that, highly industrialized
age has brought with it many serious
questions which vitality affect the future
of the country
The development Of modern science
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