Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 246, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 November 1917 — This Is an Age of Young Men But They Are Still Young If on Sunny Side of Seventy [ARTICLE]

This Is an Age of Young Men But They Are Still Young If on Sunny Side of Seventy

A generation ago it was customary to talk of those who had reached forty as of mature age. A man of those years is now considered young, and at sixty or seventy can have a brilliant future .still ahead. That our forefathers had no such conception of relative youthfulness can easily be shown, says Thomas F. Zagon in Leslie’s Weekly. The Constitution provided that no one should be eligible for election to the senate at an earlier age than thirty-five, the reasons advanced being that such a restriction was necessary in order to keep the senate made up of grave and reverend seigniors—elder statesmen, who would not be blown about with every veering wind of political doctrine. Today there is not a senator who is just barely beyond the age limit, and the great majority do not come into senatorial honors short of fifty and fifty-five. _ Alexander 'Hamilton was a sedate secretary of the treasury at thirty-two. The younger Pitt became prime minister, first lord of the treasury, and chancellor of the exchequer of England at twenty-four. Washington spoke of retirement from active life to well-earned rest and leisure for his remaining years when still but forty-six. In recent times we have had no presidents young in years by the former standards, unless Roosevelt be classed as an exception in connection with his first term of service. Even the popular novelists have sensed the change, now making their successful business men of forty or thereabouts attractive to the heart of the female reader. This is admittedly an age of young men, as has been claimed, but they are still young anywhere on the sunny side of seventy, and many of the most efficient have passed the three score mark. p