Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-12-05
Of Stars, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Field, Laboratory
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.

By Thomas r. Henry.
Small cities Of elderly men and women
scattered through the South, where folks
with relatively small savings can pass
the last years of their lives free OF
worry and in congenial company. are
proposed by Lawrence K. Frank OF the
Joseph Macy, Jr., Foundation, sociolo-
gist on the Advisory Committee on Prob
lens of Old Age of the National In
stitute Of Health.
These cities would be built to order
for persons over IS. They might be
financed profitably, Mr. Frank believes,
by the large insurance companies whose
present funds have come largely from
the persons such communities would
benefit. Each of the new towns would
consist of small, sturdily built houses
or multiple family dwellings. With no
body else to worry about, the architects
and town planners could concentrate on
conveniences for retired individuals.
There probably would be no schools
because the towns would be essentially
communities without children The
houses would be heated either from a
central heating plant or by electricity
so that heat could be regulated by push
ing a button. All food would be cooked
in central kitchen and delivered from
house to house in thermos containers.
The towns would be planned especially,
Mr.. Frank says, for the elderly women
who have kept house all their lives and
hova rnIIch RIGHT IN npqcpfIll ratirn.
ment from this humdrum occupation as
their husbands have from business.
There would be plenty of golf links.
movie theaters and libraries. Accord
ing to plans to be worked out later,
doctors and nurses either could be sub
sldized or encouraged to enter private
practice in such communities. The
tempo Of the towns would be slow and
sedate.
Each community of this sort, as en-
vlsioned by Mr. Frank, would be sur
rounded by a wide farm area to keep
it supplied with fresh milk and vege-
tables The only persons in the prime
of life on the streets would be the
physicians and nurses, the cooks in the
central kitchens and other personnel
necessary for the harder work of a
municipality. These probably would
have a few children to keep the old
folks from getting too lonesome. There
would be no efforts to regulate the life
of the old people, Mr. Frank said, and
they might be surrounded by their own
grandchildren.
This plan is now feasible for the first
time, Mr.. Frank has told the Public
Health Service Committee, because Of
social security money. Every person
over IS henceforth will have enough
money to retire to such community
and live more comfortably than would
elderly, he believes, would be entirely
self supporting and the income level
might be fairly high compared to
American communities in general
THE plan not only would pay divi-
dends TO the investors" Mr.. Frank said,
but it would mean millions of dollars
to the South, where the towns neces-
sarily would be located.
1.-The problem of the aged Is bound
to become more and more serious. A
few generations ago picture of the age
distribution of the American population
looked like pyramid with a broad
base of millions of children and taper
ing slowly of to point at the top. Now
! it looks like barrel with about as many
old people as children and bulge in the
middle for those in the productive years
of life. A few years hence and it will
look like q candle.
I'VE have an absolutely unique popu-
lation. Nothing like it ever has been
known in history before and there are
no precedents for the solution Of its
problems. The day is not far distant
when there will be exactly the same
number of persons in every age group
from year to TO- Then, of course, it
will taper off sharply like the point of
q candle"
The cities of the aged. Mr.. Frank be-
lieves, will prolong the lives of the old
people. Dietitians in the central kitch-
ems will prepare meals rich in minerals
and vitamins especially adapted to the
last few decades of life. OF more i'm
portance, he believes, will be the fact
that they will be relatively free from
worry. They will be far away from the
cares of business life and from the
quarrels of their own children, now
adults and struggling to make living.
Psychologists are aware, Mr.. Frank
said. that antagonisms from childhood
against the parents carry over into adult
life and the lot of old people living
in the homes of their grownup offspring
often is bitter, even when they are en-
tirely self-supporting. Even where there
is intense devotion their ways do not
fit with those of the younger folks and
they became critical and fussy This
leads to conflicts which definitely shorten
their lives. 1t was not so bad when
there were few of them, but even then
grandmas life was not so peaceful as
artists liked to picture it. With seven
or eight parents and grandparents