The Washington times., 1931-09-05
True to Type
A. B. G. RAYS OF RADIUM
GIVE ETERNAL LIFE
COD FORBID!
-By GILBERT SELDES-

by GILBERT SELDES|
Bohemian scientist has Investigated the properties
of certain rays of radium and has to the concu
sion that there why the human body should
not be made practically indestructibe" Under these
scientific terms, hardly recognize the ancient prom
ise of Immortality but that what Dr. Jules Stoklasa
with precautions and reservations to be offering
to Or, at the least he suggests that science
the worst of all diseases-old age
Theoretical Eternity
1t appears that old age is Simply state in which
the tissues of the body have become deoxdzed and the
state of complete deoxidzaton is DEATH" One of the
emanatons of radum check the process two others
re-oxidze cell tissues, giving them life Cautious,
perhaps inmidated by his discovery, Dr. Stoklasa
that theoretically" there to be why
the tissues which have been worn out should not be
perpetualy reinvigorated.
The doctor is the head of station for the extraction
of radum he therefore stops short with his professional
statement Most of will consider that the subject
hasn't been properly plumbed until gives us
good why the renewal of tissues should be de-
srabe; most of will want to know what conditions
of life science promise to those whose lives it has
prolonged. No who has read "Gulliver's Travels"
with mature mind forget the ghastly picture of
his immortas: The gaunt, shrunken fOrgetfu OF
everything they had experienced feeling nothing they
reappear in Shaw's Back to Methuselah philoso-
piers, the incarnation of pure thought, nobe-but
dreadful.
Immortality? Perhaps
1 wonder whether humanity would actually accept
endless life-or, the doubling or trebing of the
present span. We have always assumed because the
whole thing impossible but we never have had to
think much about it. Immortality probably means to
us the repetition of specific day month year in
our lives, when in the early twenties and for
brief moment everything just exactly right, when
we'll and prosperous and active and admired and
loved. The strangely human Greek gods grew from
childhood into such state of perfection then stopped
all change and growth but kept quarreing and maxi
ing love and getting drunk and interfering with the
Greeks iS a
what science promises today
Do You Tamper?
should like to be around when the official announce
ment is made The insurance companies which have been
going in for annues lately would be the first to protest.
if their actuarial figures give life expectancy OF 65
years. would upset them considerably to have the figure
lifted to $4,000 years during each of which they would
be expected to pay $4,000 If even now, head of
an insurance company 1 would write clause in every
policy agreement the part of the insured that ne
will not tamper with the processes nature
know them instead of worrying about hazardous occupa
tions, they should worry about glands and radum
No Deaths No Births
The next upheaval would be economic We do not admit
to ourselves that our system based the expectation
that parents will die; utterly dependent on
weakening the mind hardening of the arteries and the
relaxation of energy which call old Presently we
should have two political parties: One in favor OF I'M
mortality one against it. and the first would perforce be
the party of birth control, with slogan: mo Deaths;
No Births" Between these radicals and conservatives
would lie the liberals earnestly pointing out that the
aren't after ALL peculiarly fit to become immortal; they
would suggest that the next generation should be trained
in the thought of eternity and be the first to undergo
it's pleasures. ,
And as footnote would like to know at what the
process of oxdization begns in other words is it time
for us to rush the Alpha at once? The of 81 is
legally the beginning of manhood by common consent @
time of ripe maturity But these figures are too vague
The problem is too important to be left in the air &c.
also the problem of discovering whom we would care
at this moment endow with another 100 yearsout OF
all our brilliant leaders, statesmen industrasts
our poets, and clowns.
Passionless Age
have just finished reading beautiful book in which
none of the principal characters is less than eighty years
old 1t is called CAN Passion Spent. Lady Sane, at
lightweight is last widowed of her distinguished vice
regal and duca husband she rds herself of her dull and
graspng children and isoates herself in suburb OF
london Her familiars there house agent, who
believes that the end of the world is presently to come;
a carpenter and recuse who met her in India,
exchanged glance and OWNED her secret that she was
unhappy the glare of the official life from which she
could not escape.