Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 58, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 March 1920 — Fifteen Years May Be Added to the Average American Term of Life. [ARTICLE]

Fifteen Years May Be Added to the Average American Term of Life.

.American College of Surgeons.

By DR. W. J. MAYO

Fifteen years has been added to the average length of human life in the United States of America since the Civil war. In the work of the medical profession lies the best hope for the future. With our present knowledge and under present conditions fifteen years more might be added to the life of man in this country within the next twenty years. It is certain that ten years will be added at the most productive age from the standpoint of industry and will greatly aid in maintaining our position as the most productive nation. \ When I was a boy it was difficult for a man of 40 to find a new job, and for a man of 80 it was practically impossible. Today the older men are great assets to the country. In the prolongation of their lives their skill and experience in their particular work counts for much. They are less inflammable; they have family ties and responsibilities; they have something to lose; so that they are less under the influence of the violent agitator. If, as a nation, we advance the time of production for each person ten years we can well afford to shorten hours of work and improve living conditions. We shall be able to compete with those countries in which long hours and poor living conditions shorten human life and eventually decrease production and increase social unrest