Western news and the Libby times. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1920-1933, 1930-09-04
What Other Editors Think
OLD AGE BEST TIME OF LIFE.
Great Falls Tribune.)

tGreat Falls Iribune.)
Old age should be looked forward
to and desired as a time of fulfillment
and rare happiness, not feared as the
winter and decay of life. This is the
contention of James ]. Davis, secretary
of labor.
He says that, in a physical sense, old
age may indeed be called the winter
of life But man, though creature OF
nature, and amenable to her laws, can
and does rise above the limitations and
restrictions of mere physical existence.
Man is spirit And by understanding
the spiritual nature of man, one can
change the winter of old age into sea-
sons of planting, growth and harvest.
If man has prepared for old age,
made physical, mental and spiritual
preparation therefor. and if he so wills,
then old age to him may become, as
it should, season of rare beauty, hap
piness and productivity
Granted that old age has its handi-
CAPS, youth has its own handicaps
from which a man who has reached
the winter of life is free He is freed
from follies, rashness and inexperience
of youth, the harsher forms of competi-
ton, the temptation to follow strange
gods, and the tendency to distort, exag-
gerate or color the everyday happen
ings of life. Not one of these handi-
caps plaques the man of mature years.
Furthermore, old age has its posi-
tive assets-that is, in the case of any
man of foresight and courage. To him
it may become a season of charm and
beauty through the companionship of
friends-old, tried and true-of chill
dren who rise up and call him blessed,
of tested faiths, realized hopes, and
that one hope in particular-for bright
er and better days on earth for him
Open the book of history--almost at
any page--and find thereon the names
of men and women who have done
mighty deeds in the field of politics,
science, invention, business or industry.
and who were unknown or considered
failures at As or more
For example, there was Samuel Fin
ley Breese Morse, the inventor of the
telegraph, who, if he had stopped work
at d6, would never have been known
Had Henry Bessemer decided on his
45th birthday that he was too old to
amount to anything, he would never
have invented the steel converter, or
become known as the father of the
steel age.
But you say, their successes can
hardly inspire the man of average abil-
ity and intelligence. To such critics we
again say: Look around In almost
every block you will find some man
who has made good in his own home
town, but who never would have been
known If he- had lacked the will to
do, the courage to believe, and the
spirit to carry on when the first chill
breath indicated the approach of the
winter of life
If this is so-and it surely is--at what
age may one be classed as "old?" To-
day, surely ore would Insult d man Of
SO with the suggestion that it was time
for him to retire 1t would be reck-
less man, indeed, who would face
Thomas A. Edison--82 years young
with such a proposal, or Elihu Root
age 84-or Justice Oliver Wendell
Holmes-age 88.
There is hardly plant or a shop in
this broad land without some en-
ployes long past the meridian of life who
are performing each day, acceptably
and well, the tasks which they are en-
ployed to do. Ask these valued work
ers to retire? They wouldn't listen to,
you, and neither would their employee
nf~a