Show THE VALUE OF HUMAN LIFE Human life Is priceless and yet Its value commercially and legally is measured meas-ured Various statutes in the State have undertaken to fix maximum valuations valu-ations upon It that juries in the award of damages In cases of loss of life must not overpass Juries In damage cases vary so much that their verdicts afford no standard without careful elimination elimina-tion of special influences A wrier some years ago undertook to figure out a standard of valuation by i taking the cost of the war for the preservation preserva-tion of tho Union and dividing that sum by the lives lost in the war by the North arrive at n quotient which would express the value of the Individual Individ-ual llfo But that system evidently lacked an essential element It left out tho patriotic sentiment Involved The men slain would not have offered thou lives on n commercial proposition and accordingly tho ratio of worth ascertained ascer-tained mathematically waa too low for mathematically the lives Clcnlr les were not availablo on that scale A writer In the June Popular Science Monthly Marshall 0 LeIghton undertakes under-takes to reckon the commercial value of human life as determined by suits at law for wrongful death considering as far as mny lc ail tho facts that enter Into the problem the legal formula for-mula being In general that The jury may give such damages a they shall deem a Call and Just compensation compen-sation with reference to the pecuniary pecuni-ary Injury resulting from the death exemplary or punitive damages not being permitted Although some Stales by express enactment permit juries to assess punitive damages Mr Leighton leaves out that clement In the compilation of his averages for the pecuniary pe-cuniary worth cf n human life and he finds that as a general proposition t human life Is worth at 5 years abou 1200 at 10 aboiM 2200 at 15 about S2800 at 20 about 2700 at 2fl about S15CO at no about 7iOD at 35 about GOO at 40 about 7000 at 55 about 3000 at 50 about JISCO at 55 about 4MO at GO about 1300 at 0 i about S2COO at 70 about JOOO at 73 abou 500 at SO nothing His conclusions rro that the pecuniary value of life Is subject sub-ject to the same economic lawn as mme applied to the more vulgar commodities that in courts of law the measure of un Individuals productiveness which is time measure of his value receives the moat careful scrutiny and therefore the de cislons of such court whore existing statutes permit are trustworthy in de torminlng an individuals value to his family that the pecuniary value of 0 life to Us relatives represents Its pe Je cunlavy value b society that damage given Ol wrongful death arc such that they can hp lcpleH ute by an average in diiTorcnt ngi groups with only mini rnw limits of probable error an stated above that the relation of these ago group values oneto the other in supported sup-ported b l comm n observation and ata tlxtlcal reasoning From these figures anyone cun reckon from lu average n danmg verdicts what his life Is worth com mcrciully But It is safe to say tha no man would consider himself in the average orth more class he thinks that he Is I I i |