Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-10-26
BY HOWARD WHITMAN

rs is DaQ Tor the human system, II
Z fact. there is growing evidence
that the bodily mechanism, Xix,
the track on a railroad, remain!
bright and glistening when in USE
but quickly rusts in idleness.
Good. sound. rewarding worl
is what the human system wa'
made for. And when we say {
man died Of overwork perhap,
what we really mean is that hi
died working in the wrong direc.
ticn.
If work is aimed toward rea
and satisfying goals it is neither
frantic nor exhausting: rather
: it is pursued in a spirit of joyous
activity, with ample and timely
nauses for rest and recuperation
1t is when work is aimed in false
directions that it becomes ten.
sion-ridden and what the psy.
chiatrists call "compulsive."
We call people who work this
way hard drivers" We should
call them the "hard-driven." Fol
they are enslaved by a distorted
sense of values and they are moi
the masters of their work but
rather they are mastered by it.
Drive for Symbols
Some of them are driven to.
ward the goal of fame, some to.
ward power. and some towarC
money All these are success sym.
bols: they are not the essence Of
success but merely some of the
easily recognized trappings of it
To those who are small in hear
these trappings are necessary II
order to have sufficient self-es
TEEN to carry on.
Such individuals are like the
alcoholic who needs a shot o.
drug in his system in order tt
initiate a sagging ego, but in theil
case money must be admin.
stored.
These success "addicts" most
certainly can kill themselves BY
working. When l was a boy
remember my fathers saying Of
a friend Of his who was just
such a hard-driven worker. "He
wants to be the richest man il
the cemetary."
In l949 the Benjamin Frank.
lin Clinic of the Pennsylvania
Hospital in Philadelphia made &
study of two thousand "tirec
businessmen" who had come =
the clinic with aches and all
mentS during the preceding year
The outstanding troubles with
these men the clinic reported
were: % coming home at night
with a brief case full of worries
to pore over all evening: %
talking business instead of eating
at lunch time; 80 being unable
to take real vacations because
they think they are indispensable
TO their respective businesses.
Don't Be a Slave
The one piece OF advice given
to these men most frequently at
the clinic was, BE the boss OF
your job--not the slave of it,"
Whether a man can follow such
advice marks the difference be-
tween healthy individual and
the one spelling for nervous or
physical breakdown.
In the space of two generations
we Americans have radically
changed our life pattern. At the
turn of the century. the greatest
perils to life were infant mortal.
ity and contagious diseases, ane
II you skirted between this Scylls
and Charybdis you had a gooc
chance of navigating safely int
old age.
Today the rock and the whirl.
pool are found not in earl,
childhood nor in old age. but il
= the very prime Of life. Our death
tolls are at their greatest in the
4Os and SOS, when men shoulc
be enjoying the smoothest sail,
ing of all.
We often hear of the great in.
crease in life expectancy" anc
we think this means that mar
is living so much longer thar
he ever has before. We learr
that in julius Caesars day life
expectancy at birth was about
70 and as late as 1900 life ex.
pectancy at birth was only As
years. Today life expectancy al
birth is 81 years. and so we lear
10 the conclusion that life ha,
been prolonged some 35 per cent
The figures are true, but They
are deceiving. Since we have
PERFORMED such medical miracle,
OF infant care and the elimina.
ton Of death through epidemic
we have greatly cut down the toll
IN the early years Of life, anc
hence life expectancy is so much
greater on the average.
But the truth OF the matter i,
concealed in the life-expectancy
ngures once a man has reached
middle age. When a man is Sc
years old today, with all on,
medical miracles we can Offer
him only two more years of life
expectancy than we could have
in 1900.
Rayage Of Middle Age
The reason is that our scien.
tific boons are so heavily counter.
balanced by the new ravage Of
middle age: heart disease. Heart
disease was our No. 4 killer In
1900, 1t is our No. / killer to-
DAY. The annual toll is close
to 100000. more than the tota'
deaths from cancer. tuberculosis,
and accidents all put together.
Two physicians. Drs. George
Schwartz and Joseph Harvey
made a study in l941 OF the cor.
relation between heart attack.
on Wall Street and the activity
Of the stock ticker. They founc
that the incidence Of coronary
thrombosis varied with the &C.
tiyity Of the market: when the
market went on a rampage
hearts went on rampage, anc
when the market quoted dowr
hearts were likewise at ease. The